The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

Living_proof

Happygreen wrote: »

I just bought the living salads for winter planting. When the rain stops I'll tidy up a bit, not too much

Where do you plant them Hg? I am thinking of trying them in a large polystyrene planter with cloche protection.

Happygreen

I plant some of them in the polytunnel and in the greenhouse, some outdoors, then cover with fleece. Not all of them will make it but there must be 100 plants in the tray! I was surprised how many pulled through and gave us really early salads.

I still have to tidy up the polytunnel, the potatoes I planted last autumn as a trial are still in there I noticed, they seem to have been spared of the blight the outdoors tatties had.

Dizzy_Ditzy

I've been such a bad allotmenteer. I've been to plot 1 twice since we got back from our hols, never made it there last weekend so haven't been there for a good couple of weeks

I'm going there tomorrow to make a start on prep for "operation greek-ify" . All that's involved at this stage is measuring up for my pergola but much simpler type frame for my grapevine. I'll check everything else out while I'm there too and have a general tidy up. Bonfire season is fast approaching so we need to work out what we are going to burn and where. Everything else can go to the tip.

I was at a garden centre last weekend and they had pea plug plants! I bought some beetroot too so I need to get those all sorted pretty soon. Onion sets are ready to go in and garlic is in the freezer. I'm convinced that this years garlic was so crap because we had a mild winter so my way of thinking is make the garlic think it's winter already by freezing it and see what happens. Might work, might not. I can but try

Happygreen

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

I've been such a bad allotmenteer.

you haven't seen my plot, qoc, it would make you feel better, I bet! There's that permaculture premise that finding your food is so much more interesting than having neat rows - I AM THE MASTER OF THIS ONE :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

peaceandfreedom

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

I'm convinced that this years garlic was so crap because we had a mild winter so my way of thinking is make the garlic think it's winter already by freezing it and see what happens. Might work, might not. I can but try

I think that freezing garlic destroys the structure of it and they are mushy when defrosted.

While garlic does need a period of cold, you generally want them to have already grown to a reasonable size before the really cold weather sets in. Hence the advice to plant around end October / early November so they are good-ish size before temperatures drop. Even the coldest snap is unlikely to reach the depths of temperature in a freezer, so I suspect your garlic will not grow .

I planted mine quite late last year (mid-December) and I still had a good crop of nice-sized bulbs - I live in the West Country so relatively mild.

Dizzy_Ditzy

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

I think that freezing garlic destroys the structure of it and they are mushy when defrosted.

While garlic does need a period of cold, you generally want them to have already grown to a reasonable size before the really cold weather sets in. Hence the advice to plant around end October / early November so they are good-ish size before temperatures drop. Even the coldest snap is unlikely to reach the depths of temperature in a freezer, so I suspect your garlic will not grow .

I planted mine quite late last year (mid-December) and I still had a good crop of nice-sized bulbs - I live in the West Country so relatively mild.

I'm West Country too :cool:

I did wonder the other day if I was doing the right thing by freezing it now and that was the conclusion I came to

unrecordings

Make sure you plant some of the frozen ones and let us know next year. Meanwhile in this neck of the woods I've picked the dozen remaining apples - the one at the very top of the tree, untouched by paw or beak tasted superb, the rest all had holes in...

I've cleared down one greenhouse (the sunnier, drier, warmer one) but the old leaky wooden greenhouse is still going strong - the Ailsa Craig tomatoes in there are still looking healthy, though I'm getting to the end of my crop of San Marzano. Outside the Oca is getting bigger and bigger and still flowering, and I have one small bed of potatoes still okay. Rhubarb dying down as is the Lovage. Not sure what the Fennel is doing (I'm growing it for leaf), it still looks okay

peaceandfreedom

unrecordings wrote: »

Make sure you plant some of the frozen ones and let us know next year.

Indeed, Queen of Cheap, do plant them - you may have discovered a reliable new method of planting garlic.

unrecordings wrote: »

I've cleared down one greenhouse (the sunnier, drier, warmer one) but the old leaky wooden greenhouse is still going strong - the Ailsa Craig tomatoes in there are still looking healthy, though I'm getting to the end of my crop of San Marzano.

My tomatoes are gone now, the last were turned into some chutney. But I still have some cucumbers and some Inca Berries growing in the greenhouse and some tubs of marigolds, so I am putting off the clearing-down of the greenhouse for another while. I know Monty did his the other day on Gardeners' World but it has to be one of my least favourite jobs of the entire gardening calendar .

Jazee

Morning all.

I planted some broad bean and peas in pots in the greenhouse last week. Will probably leave the garlic until next week.

Do you remember that I entered the garden into the veg section of a gardening comp? Well I've been invited to the annual awards ceremony in a couple of weeks. I don't know if that means I've won something but I haven't been invited before, just had the garden featured in their magazine article.

I don't think it was at its best when they came to view. I wasn't here, the peas, kohl rabi, broad beans and strawberries had all finished and nothing else was doing much.

Will just have to wait and see.

peaceandfreedom

Jazee wrote: »

Do you remember that I entered the garden into the veg section of a gardening comp? Well I've been invited to the annual awards ceremony in a couple of weeks. I don't know if that means I've won something but I haven't been invited before, just had the garden featured in their magazine article.

I don't think it was at its best when they came to view. I wasn't here, the peas, kohl rabi, broad beans and strawberries had all finished and nothing else was doing much.

Will just have to wait and see.

How exciting! It looks promising :T.