Grow your own dinner 2014

Dizzy_Ditzy

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Where has everyone gone, it's not winter yet?

Rain here today, beans are giving up the ghost, sweetcorn is swelling and the leeks are getting fatter.

Looked at the new 'potato patch' realised how big it is and I think I may develop a pseudo bad back and hope OH offers to help - some hope

I've been "decorating" the garden. What started out as paint protecting a few bits of timber under the new greenhouse rapidly turned into painting all the fences and the shed :eek:

It's already taken me a week and I'm not even half way

Can blame bloody ronseal and their stupid "one coat" paint for that. One coat my eye - so far none of my fences have been less than THREE coats, a couple needing five :mad::mad:

Happygreen

Still harvesting and tidying

Have planted out cheater's lettuce plants. They are quite hardy so no harm done and a bed cleared if they failed.

I meant to ask - I know we are all doing it for the fun of it but - did anyone do any calculations of you might have paid on top on something like plants or seeds - (definitely not counting working time there).
E.g. I had bought pepper plants and each of them had exactly 1 fruit, so definitely not worth buying. Compared to buying potatoes at this time of the year (12.5 kg for £ 2) I have paid more for my seed potatoes without much output.....What are your not-so-successful-stories money wise?

Kantankrus_Mare

Ive got one day to do at work and then 12 days off :j So will be attempting to get the plot tidy before the cold weather sets in. Bought three over wintering onion sets (red and white) and will get them in as well. Normally do two sets. This year though, my overwintering onions were far better than the spring ones so thought I would do more.

Wouldn't bother with baby sweetcorn again.....nothing came of them so will be growing normal sweetcorn again next year.

Still loads of pickings to come from salad leaves and tomatoes.

Not sure what went wrong with my beetroot which I planted at same time as salad leaves? Loads of foliage and I thought there would be a lovely beet under ground but there was nothing there? lol

Never did get on top of my couch grass problem and have decided to cover it till next year with lots of cardboard that I can get free from work then hopefully, maybe this time next year it will be wekened enough to get on top of it. Will look tidier in the mean time anyway.

Have potted lots of strawberry runners on and will get them into pots to keep in greenhouse over winter as I haven't a spare bed for them to go in at the moment. (Need OH to help me out at some point but it won't be anytime soon as he is having a knee op.)

I put lots of flower bulbs in one bed about springtime but nothing shown this year so hoping they will show some life next year.

I would love to grow enough flowers for there to be something to pick all through the summer but flowers arent what I normally grow so will be a learning curve.

Had courgette risotto for tea with last pickings of courgettes. Think I might get one more picking off them.

Had the best bramble crumble last night and have two demi johns of bramble and elderberry wine bubbling in the cupboard. Got enough in the freezer to maybe do another three demi johns.

What does everyone do with their bare beds when weeds have been cleared? Mine just get left and need weeding again. Debating whether to cover these with cardboard again to try and cut down on the dreaded weeding which seems to take over from everything else.

mutley_muppet

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

I've been "decorating" the garden. What started out as paint protecting a few bits of timber under the new greenhouse rapidly turned into painting all the fences and the shed :eek:

It's already taken me a week and I'm not even half way

Can blame bloody ronseal and their stupid "one coat" paint for that. One coat my eye - so far none of my fences have been less than THREE coats, a couple needing five :mad::mad:

I recently moved into a house that needed all the fence panels painting. I used Cuprinol Ducksback and it did a lovely job. I got it while it was on 3 for 2 at B&Q, though it was still expensive, it was worth it!
Some of the panels needed two coats as they were very "weathered" but I would definately recommend the Ducksback for the future x

Kantankrus_Mare

Happygreen wrote: »

Still harvesting and tidying

Have planted out cheater's lettuce plants. They are quite hardy so no harm done and a bed cleared if they failed.

I meant to ask - I know we are all doing it for the fun of it but - did anyone do any calculations of you might have paid on top on something like plants or seeds - (definitely not counting working time there).
E.g. I had bought pepper plants and each of them had exactly 1 fruit, so definitely not worth buying. Compared to buying potatoes at this time of the year (12.5 kg for £ 2) I have paid more for my seed potatoes without much output.....What are your not-so-successful-stories money wise?

Just reminded me!! I rescued 5 pepper plants from the garden centre mid season but not had one pepper off them. Thing is they are just starting to get lots of flowers on them and I wondered if I would be able to keep them over winter or do they need to be grown fresh each year?

Dizzy_Ditzy

mutley_muppet wrote: »

I recently moved into a house that needed all the fence panels painting. I used Cuprinol Ducksback and it did a lovely job. I got it while it was on 3 for 2 at B&Q, though it was still expensive, it was worth it!
Some of the panels needed two coats as they were very "weathered" but I would definately recommend the Ducksback for the future x

Cheers M M, I won't be bothering with ronseal again. The only reason I'm sticking with it is cos I bought 12 litres of the stuff

zafiro1984

Some ramblings

It's getting cold at night here. I don't think the beans will survive for much longer, however, I have frozen six large bags so that should be enough for the rest of this year.

My 4 tomato plants are feeling a bit chilly, I didn't grow enough so none frozen - must grow more next year.

Sweetcorn is not quite ready - still hopeful on that front
The leeks are putting on weight

I bought some young plants from Marshalls, cabbages, broccoli, kale. I planted them out in a 'holding' bed but now need to give them more space. The carrots have nearly finished so may use that space and the parsnips were a disaster so could also use that bed - must sort them out in the next few days.
The next carrot bed is looking good - variety called Eskimo - sold as being able to withstand some frost - I'll see what happens on that front.

Must pot up some strawberry runners as I haven't enough plants for next year.

The hens have made a good job of clearing the weeds from the fruit cage, just need to get in and turn the soil over and then I can put my blueberries in there and I'm waiting for some raspberries to arrive.

Still loads to do mainly in preparation for next year, I only started growing in June this year, after 3 yrs of doing nothing due to being unable to walk. Still need an op on one knee, husband is looking for me to have it done next March/April I'm looking at this time next year because March/April will interfere with next yrs growing season.

Some great news OH wants me to have a polytunnel after years of wanting one. I rather fancy a Solar Tunnel - it's got nothing to do with solar panels it's just the name. I'm back enjoying life :j:j

Happygreen

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Some ramblings

It's getting cold at night here. I don't think the beans will survive for much longer, however, I have frozen six large bags so that should be enough for the rest of this year.

My 4 tomato plants are feeling a bit chilly, I didn't grow enough so none frozen - must grow more next year.

Sweetcorn is not quite ready - still hopeful on that front
The leeks are putting on weight

I bought some young plants from Marshalls, cabbages, broccoli, kale. I planted them out in a 'holding' bed but now need to give them more space. The carrots have nearly finished so may use that space and the parsnips were a disaster so could also use that bed - must sort them out in the next few days.
The next carrot bed is looking good - variety called Eskimo - sold as being able to withstand some frost - I'll see what happens on that front.

Must pot up some strawberry runners as I haven't enough plants for next year.

The hens have made a good job of clearing the weeds from the fruit cage, just need to get in and turn the soil over and then I can put my blueberries in there and I'm waiting for some raspberries to arrive.

Still loads to do mainly in preparation for next year, I only started growing in June this year, after 3 yrs of doing nothing due to being unable to walk. Still need an op on one knee, husband is looking for me to have it done next March/April I'm looking at this time next year because March/April will interfere with next yrs growing season.

Some great news OH wants me to have a polytunnel after years of wanting one. I rather fancy a Solar Tunnel - it's got nothing to do with solar panels it's just the name. I'm back enjoying life :j:j

What an inspiring post, thank you!
You could have your knee fixed in October or November . OH had both joints replaced and although it's very invasive surgery :eek: it didn't take him too long to recover, a couple of months maybe? But he's not the gardener here, you might need a bit longer to get back down on your knee!

Dizzy_Ditzy

I nipped up the allotmemt earlier just to have a look at what I was doing tomorrow. I came back with the last of the sweetcorn, peas and carrots :j

I've more sweetcorn in my garden that'll be ready in the next week or so

Have any of you grown scotch bonnets? I have tons but they're either green or orange and not moving last that at all. Is that normal? Do they take so long to go red normally? I've had orange ones for about 3 or 4 weeks

Jazee

Hello, it's lovely to read what you've all been up to. I've been working away for a couple of weeks, but I moved the tomatoes that were big but still green into the greenhouse before I went, and they've now ripened. The rest of the tomato plants got damaged by the wind on Thursday so I now need to do the same with them.

My strawberry runners are now in the greenhouse, and the winter lettuce I planted germinated within a week and are coming along nicely.

My one surviving leek is doing well, I am still getting cucumbers and the carrots and spring onions are doing ok too.

I have chucked some flower seeds into the bed that was used for potatoes this year and will just wait and see what comes up in the spring as the ground won't be any use for anything else. Which reminds me, we ate the last of the potatoes last night.

I'm going to subscribe to a magazine about growing and cooking your own. The opening offer is 3 issues for £3 and 10 free packets of seeds.

After reading your posts, I am going to try to grow sweetcorn next year.