The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

Dizzy_Ditzy

Grow your own dinner season really has begun- In the last two days I have come home with potatoes, leeks, onions, garlic, broad beans, rhubarb, and of course, eggs

This feeling is what makes it all so worthwhile

unrecordings

Here we have Sorrel, Fennel (leaf), Chicory (leaf), Mazur Lettuce, Japanese Spinach, Rocket and a two inch Courgette (around half of which will be brown inside - i knocked the flower off a few days ago) - not sure what i'm turning it into yet, but I'm afraid it involves chicken

In weeding the slow coach carrots, I found a bunch of other interesting things including several Borage and a couple of Greek Oregano seedlings

Ken68

Yes agree Queen, good exercise too. Free food, rain, sun and seeds for next year. Self sustainable.

Happygreen

I just cut them (leeks, sorry , meant to insert the quote but the new forum functions have not sunk in yet )) in half and remove the thick flowering stem then use the rest. Obviously you want to eat them as early as possible once the middle thickens because the rest will go tougher, too.

zafiro1984

Lovely to see so many positive postings over the last few days.

On a positive note from me - I am so glad I nemaslugged the plot earlier as, none of my early potatoes have been slugged. I must get some more for the tunnel as the little 'dears' are starting on the lettuces. I need a toad!

Just been through my seed box and realise I need to go to the garden centre for some beetroot seeds, plus some more compost to go in the buckets for the remaining tomatoes. I'll try not to come back with anything else.

Jazee

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Just been through my seed box and realise I need to go to the garden centre for some beetroot seeds, plus some more compost to go in the buckets for the remaining tomatoes. I'll try not to come back with anything else.

Zafiro, if you want to PM me your address I can pop beetroot seeds in the post to you today, I have more than I need.

Am fuming this morning as I planted up some pots outside the front with flowers and the bl**dy neighbourhood cats have dug them up and done their business. Sorted now and stakes put in to try to stop them making themselves comfortable.

Have a squash plant (yes just the one) that needs putting in my paddling pool veg plot later.

zafiro1984

Jazee wrote: »

Zafiro, if you want to PM me your address I can pop beetroot seeds in the post to you today, I have more than I need.

Jazee:- Many thanks for your offer but as soon as I had posted the message above I went to the garden centre. Now I wish I had waited until after lunch - but that's life.

Bought the beetroot seeds, and compost plus reduced lemon balm (used in icecream) and dill (used in gravalax) All came to under £4 and I also get 10% off for being a member, so I don't feel too guilty.

unrecordings

Another lovely day here in Sunny Sheffield. In reverse order:

Vegetable stew with lovage and broccoli leaves from the garden
Gave everything a good watering
Went crazy and sowed broccoli for next year, brussels sprouts and kohl rabi - all in propagators in the greenhouse. Sowed some short rows of radishes in between my oca. Mowed the lawns. Rescued some borage seedlings. Gave some courgette plants to my neighbour (only 5 plants left to get rid of). Fixed the parasol that blew across the garden yesterday. Stripped down my disc sander, put a fresh disc on it (oh hang on, wrong forum)

Tea last night - I ate most of the green stuff while figuring what to make. After realising I can probably make an interesting drink out of fennel leaves & vodka, also realised I had the 'three sisters' of Tuscan cuisine - fennel, sage & rosemary - so Tuscan chicken it was !

Scottish_Mike

We built our greenhouse yesterday (finally - only took 4 months!). The instructions were terrible - so badly put together, missing out important points and very few diagrams. But we got there; it's glazed, just need to fix it down.

We dumped 1 dahlia into it last night so there was something in it, but today I need to get my staging up, get my toms and peppers in, then start tidying the garden. Looking forward to actually being able to sort out my plants - the GH took 2 solid days of building and everything in the garden had to make do with a quick water.

Need to dig up a space for munchkin pumpkins, wash a bin for potimarron squash, dig up a path and replace it with brassicas (need to give that some thought!) excavate a grapevine from a load of raspberries, and construct a couple of vertical palette planters. It's going to be a busy day!

Happygreen

Hello all,

I hardly believe how well they lasted but we are still eating last autumn planted lettuces from a living salads tray! I treat them as pick-and-come-agains which has proven really productive. They are about to bolt but I will definitely do that again if I have the space in autumn.
Tonight we'll have the last about to bolt- leeks in a quiche.
Peas, beans, potatoes and radishes coming up nicely.
Everything else is quite wild as I didn't have much time to weed or dig new plots.....