The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

unrecordings

I've been a little quiet. Discovered the joys of drilling lumps of sandstone to make a small trough for the (cheap) fountain for the pond. Sowed my 'second choice' tomatoes now i've got my other seedlings under way on various windowsills. Garden was sodden so I've postponed a lot of planting till Easter. Got some Blackthorn on order. A little worried that my Lovage isn't going to return (only a year old and no sign of life yet). Was amazed that the French Tarragon returned to the pot with twigs in it. I'm still a little new to all this...

zafiro1984

Very windy and wet here, harvested the remainder of last years carrots before they turn woody and some more leeks, just have one more bed of leeks to harvest, I'll probably do that quite soon and freeze them.

trying to go round the fruit with any wood ash I have, plus trying to put muck on them as well. I don't grow blackberries as we have loads of brambles here, in fact I'm going around with the weedkiller trying to get rid of most.

Noticed the blackcurrents, blueberries, and red and white currents are starting to show leaf - Spring is not that far away.
If anybody has blackcurrents the new leaves make fabulous tasty icecream. I always make some - usually not enough.

unrecordings

Very windy around here (Sheffield) too - got a couple of shrubs uprooted and a big piece of Eucalyptus sitting on the picnic bench. So far both greenhouses look largely intact, but we've another 18 hours of this forecast

Bee70

unrecordings wrote: »

Very windy around here (Sheffield) too - got a couple of shrubs uprooted and a big piece of Eucalyptus sitting on the picnic bench. So far both greenhouses look largely intact, but we've another 18 hours of this forecast

Oh don't tell me that! We are away this week so anything uprooted will have to sit there for ages

mardatha

Wind was bad last night, wee bit easier today but we have horizontal snow.

unrecordings

Bee70 wrote: »

Oh don't tell me that! We are away this week so anything uprooted will have to sit there for ages

To be fair, the Eucalyptus was damaged in the snow in January so this might be connected - the branch is broken mid bough. Need to get a tree surgeon out to tidy it up. The other large shrub/bush/whatever (i never figured out what it was) looked like it was dying and there's darkening of the wood around where the trunk & root parted company

The silver lining is that i've some space for another fruit tree now, and very satisfactory bonfire & chipper sessions on the horizon

Back to the thread. If the greenhouses survive to the weekend then i've got 24 tomato seedlings to pot up, 24 courgettes (yikes) and possibly some yard long beans. The cat can then have the windowsill back. This weekend I'll be harvesting the last of the kale and hopefully some PSB for Sunday Dinner (though it's not purple and seemingly not sprouting yet either)

unrecordings

zafiro1984 wrote: »

If anybody has blackcurrents the new leaves make fabulous tasty icecream. I always make some - usually not enough.

I might try that. We've a large beech hedge so i made noyau last year, I assume I could do the same with blackcurrant

Here's the recipe I think i followed last year
http://www.reallywildfestival.co.uk/really-wild-living/wild-drinks.aspx

Debtfreefreedom

Good afternoon all, is there room for one more, please!.


I`m a bit of a novice to be honest and did have a little success with tomatoes, courgettes etc. Last year, I had too much going on and just couldn`t get into the growing mood, but hoping to start up again. I`ve just found my seed box, so will be having a sort out later tonight to see what seeds I`ve got.

zafiro1984

Busy afternoon on the plot.

Split my three rhubarbs into several pieces, wonderful OH dug a trench for me, only took him 15mins - well if the truth be known he did it with the mini digger - it's about 2ft deep, all I have to do is put muck at the bottom and then make several layers with that and soil before replanting the rhubarb - I love rhubarb. Just wondering if the back will withstand the work as I seem to be taking Ibrufen several times a week.

Potted up some raspberries as the fruit cage is not quite weed free at the moment - the weeds seem to be growing faster than I can deal with them, potted up some blueberries as well.

Went to the garden centre the other day - the reason being a magnolia tree for my OH birthday and they had them on special offer - but I just can't come out with only one thing!!, bought some Sarpo Mira potatoes, I think I'll have a go at a non digging method I've read about - may save the back.

Dizzy_Ditzy

I've spent loads of time at the plot this week but done not a lot- it's mostly been spent watching the chickens. They are so funny! Hopefully they'll stop freeloading and start producing done eggs soon

4 of them eat out of my hand now, so just the one left to crack

Need to look at when I'm getting my maincroppers in, this weekend is already shaping up to be a busy one