Grow your own dinner 2014

Dizzy_Ditzy

Jazee wrote: »

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.

Until this year, I'd never tasted sweetcorn so sweet and lovely

zafiro1984

Hi All,
Queen of Cheap:- I believe Scotch Bonnets are incredibly hot - not for me I'm afraid but the ones I've seen in the supermarkets are a dark red. I'd hang on in there if you can. I've also read that when you take the pepper plants out leave the fruits on the plants but hang the plants up somewhere frost free and the fruits will continue to mature. I've never tried it though.

Jazee:- which magazine has that offer? I like the idea of 10 free packets of seeds.

Happygreen:- I've taken a leaf (sorry about the pun) out of your 'living salad' idea. sainsbury had a pk of living salad for £1 so I thought I'd give it a go. There were enough lettuces to fill 3 containers (I'd just uprooted 6 tomato plants in the greenhouse) I planted them in the compost that the toms had been in - didn't even top up with any new compost - they're looking good and hopefully enough to last us well into November.

French beans are now relegated to the compost heap, runner beans will go this weekend.
Really pleased with my leek bed.
Waiting for the carrots to get a bit bigger - we keep eating them as baby ones - seems a bit extravagant so must wait for them to put on a bit more weight.
Sweetcorn seems slow to mature, it's taking me a lot of self control not to harvest them too soon.
I'm well behind with potting up the strawberry runners, digging out the nettles from the fruit cage (chickens don't eat nettles - not as stupid as I thought) and spreading muck/compost on the empty beds. I really must focus more.

sad note - one of the Christmas turkeys was put down yesterday - septic arthritis - touch wood the others are ok - you would think they are tough birds but they are more fragile than chickens and I'm trying to raise them as organically as possible.

Happygreen

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Happygreen:- I've taken a leaf (sorry about the pun) out of your 'living salad' idea. sainsbury had a pk of living salad for £1 so I thought I'd give it a go. There were enough lettuces to fill 3 containers (I'd just uprooted 6 tomato plants in the greenhouse) I planted them in the compost that the toms had been in - didn't even top up with any new compost - they're looking good and hopefully enough to last us well into November.

French beans are now relegated to the compost heap, runner beans will go this weekend.
Really pleased with my leek bed.
Waiting for the carrots to get a bit bigger - we keep eating them as baby ones - seems a bit extravagant so must wait for them to put on a bit more weight.
Sweetcorn seems slow to mature, it's taking me a lot of self control not to harvest them too soon.
I'm well behind with potting up the strawberry runners, digging out the nettles from the fruit cage (chickens don't eat nettles - not as stupid as I thought) and spreading muck/compost on the empty beds. I really must focus more.

sad note - one of the Christmas turkeys was put down yesterday - septic arthritis - touch wood the others are ok - you would think they are tough birds but they are more fragile than chickens and I'm trying to raise them as organically as possible.

zafiro1984 , I'm about to plant the last lettuces into the tunnel. The only trouble is remembering to water in there over the winter . I also have some sprouted organic potatoes I'll chuck in the ground now, they'll come back in spring and my rogues are always doing so much better than the ones I've planted :rotfl:.
I have a lot of young nettles where I ripped them out earlier and will look on the foraging thread and sites if there's something nice to be made from them. I heard about wine but that's going a bit far for me :eek:
Bad weather has sprung on me this morning - I must get the last beans in and another giant beetroot! I'm grateful for a bit of rain though, it was weird to water outddors at this time of the year!
Sad to hear about your turkey. We also have an unwell (but elderly) duck who might go any day. I just can't get myself to eat my own birds, I'm a real sissy....they are for eggs and the love of keeping them .

zafiro1984

Happygreen:- Giant beetroot - great pictures in my head as it reminds me of the children's story about a 'giant turnip':)

Happygreen

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Happygreen:- Giant beetroot - great pictures in my head as it reminds me of the children's story about a 'giant turnip':)

Your post in turn made me think of Wallace and Gromit's WereRabbit :rotfl:

Dizzy_Ditzy

Quite a pleasant and productive afternoon up the plot today

Fruit cage is now marked out, which will need going over with the azada and manuring before planting the fruits out.

The last of the peas have been picked, a few carrots, including one that grew to about six inches sideways!

I've taken the nursery net from the broccoli and changed it for debris netting.

It does look like my second cropping potatoes have early blight so I'll go up after work tomorrow and remove the infected leaves. If I could have got a decent 3G signal on site I'd have googled it there and then so that I could have done the work straightaway instead of having to google it at home and go back the next day :rotfl:

I bottled up my plum wine yesterday :j it's not bad, even at this early stage so what it'll be like in a few months is anyone's guess

Onions and garlic are in modules in the greenhouse ready to get planted out at the end of the month. I'm getting some broad bean beans too

tootallulah

I have four remaining ripe tomatoes which I will take for lunch today. There are a few bunches of green toms which I will leave on this week and see where the weather forecast is next week-end, they are still too green to ripen off the vine however it is enough for one jar of chutney if all else fails! There is a real nip in the air this morning, what a wonderful summer it has been. A few months now with just the seed catalogue to dream over!

zafiro1984

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

Onions and garlic are in modules in the greenhouse ready to get planted out at the end of the month. I'm getting some broad bean beans too

Queen of Cheap:- Do you find any difference in planting autumn onions and garlic over the spring planted ones? I'd be interested to know if you harvest them earlier. It could be useful because I could use the beds for kale/broccoli afterwards. How much of the crop do you lose and do you protect them? Thanks.

What are people sowing/planting at the moment particularly in the greenhouse or polytunnel?
My greenhouse is in a mess, my OH has used it as a storage place for the last 3 yrs. I have only grown 6 tomato plants in it this year and that was a struggle to find space for that - apart from tidying it out, it needs several panes of glass replacing - my winter project!!!
The better news is my solar tunnel is due to arrive before the end of this month - new beds - new soil - so excited (even at my age). I really want to get going with it, so it brings me back to the original question - What are people sowing/planting at the moment?

Dizzy_Ditzy

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Queen of Cheap:- Do you find any difference in planting autumn onions and garlic over the spring planted ones? I'd be interested to know if you harvest them earlier. It could be useful because I could use the beds for kale/broccoli afterwards. How much of the crop do you lose and do you protect them? Thanks.

What are people sowing/planting at the moment particularly in the greenhouse or polytunnel?
My greenhouse is in a mess, my OH has used it as a storage place for the last 3 yrs. I have only grown 6 tomato plants in it this year and that was a struggle to find space for that - apart from tidying it out, it needs several panes of glass replacing - my winter project!!!
The better news is my solar tunnel is due to arrive before the end of this month - new beds - new soil - so excited (even at my age). I really want to get going with it, so it brings me back to the original question - What are people sowing/planting at the moment?

I'm still quite new at this. This years garlic was planted on Halloween last year, and the onions were planted in the spring.


I never lost any garlic but my onions were neither here nor there. Garlic apparently needs a good winter to seperate properly.


I've just planted dwarf beans in my greenhouse- some direct and some in a pot just to see which fare better. They're going great guns at the moment :j


I've got some spinach and little gem lettuce i need to get planted up too

Solar tunnel sounds exciting

Jazee

Zafiro1984 - the magazine is kitchen garden
http://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/offer/kg508/source/kg00049

I already received the seeds and yesterday planted rocket, red basil and parsley in the greenhouse.