help in feeding family of 5

Cally_Smart

Autumn is a good time for planting rhubarb, the soil has warmed up and is moist so plant can get established before Winter. They do say not to pick it much in the first season to let it get its strength up ! Spring is the next best time for planting it. We use rhubarb for crumbles but at the moment I'm picking free blackberries & even found a 'wild' apple tree near to the blackberries for crumbles!Dont worry- I haven't quite resorted to 'scrumping' from peoples gardens yet!

seeking_happines

great will try and get some rhubarb crowns,
i can get some horse manure but its mixed in with lots of straw would this be any good in the garden or should i just put it on the compost heap ?
will try and take a few pictures today .
have found that under the top layer of soil there are lots and lots of stones bricks and concreat blocks......i think our garden was once a dumping ground that or a carpark:rotfl:so making it into a veg garden will be ....!

my middle son wants to grow and sell flowers by the gate (we live in the country but our road is on of the rat runs for local comuters so lots of passing traffic)we now have 10 kg of bulbs to plant all on spacial offer at our local QD .
when do you plant gladioli have looked and cant find any at the moment

oh yes have also been picking blackberrys

Cally_Smart

Lucky that you live in the country,I bet you've got a generous sized garden as opposed to us on housing estates.Gladioli need to go in in Spring after frosts so no good now but an idea for the future.Tulips could go in now but not sure they last well as cut flowers to sell -could be a bit expensive to buy the bulbs especially for this.
On your soil condition -with bricks & stones etc -you could try making some raised beds with scaffolding planks and fill with some better soil,it will drain well built over the rubble etc.
If you get a book on taking cuttings it's a good time to do this now, and you could have a collection of herbs say,like rosemary,thyme,sage, to sell in good time. I bought some from a house in Cornwall when we were visiting there and they had an 'honesty box'to leave the money ! Very trusting !In the spring you could grow tomato plants to sell you get hundreds in a packet & they nearly all come up !Sweet that your son wants to help!
Looking forward to seeing the pics.

seeking_happines

love the idea for the herbs will get on to it straight away,
yes our garden is quite big but as it used to be the general dummping ground for the farm it used to belong to .....what thing we find under the ground is well definutly not pure soil !

will look to glads in the spring , we have put a few tulips in for variety but mainly dafs and narsisi, we put some in last year so should have a good showing next year to sell.

am trying to find a little cash every few weeks to put some fruit trees in, last week i found a nut tree reduced so have put that in , we already have a few apples , pear and crabapple that where put in 2-3 yrs ago befor money got so tight, they are now starting to produce some fruit but not enough to sell the surplus...yet
will go and do photos sooooon,

Cally_Smart

Horse manure needs to be very well rotted or it can 'burn' young plants I've heard,it's too strong, if you can see the straw in it it probably needs longer! Your rhubarb will love it when it's ready!Our local garden centre had some apple trees for £10 they even had a few apples on them.I would have loved one but resisted the temptation !I'm potting up the runners from my strawberry plants they seem to be going mad,must be all the rain.