The ups and downs of growing your own dinner 2016...

smallholding_antics

Lovely pics, as soon as we can get some on here I'll post ours.


I can't wait for this lovely weekend ahead, it's supposed to be a corker!! All of Saturday will be spent in theveg plot and green house. I've got loads of seeds to sow and going to put some more tomatoes in as I love them - I reckon they will soon catch up. Got some spuds to put in but their bed hasn't been started yet so going to enlist help for that.


Something's attacking the edges of my dwarf bean leaves putting pretty shapes in them!! Blighters!!! Also the geese got to the caulis and have eaten their leaves just leaving the stalk - any idea if they will recover? I'm gutted!


Radish and beetroot planted last week along with the lettuces to fill in the gaps. Asparagus is looking amazing! Some will be harvested this weekend along with rhubarb.


I'm seriously excited about what I can get done. I should have a day to myself with no need to go anywhere all being well, the sun on my back and a cold drink or 3 in hand. Enjoy fellow growers!

smallholding_antics

Fruittea wrote: »

Hi Smallholding_antics it is a bit late but I bet if you throw in a few seeds they'll catch up and you will still have the toms later on. I did buy an extra 4 last week - when that hard frost caught me off guard. But still couldn't resist planning a few more.
All the best

Thanks for this - We're in the North East and behind most of the country (not Scotland of course which is behind us again) so I'm going to pop some in this weekend and see what happens. Then I will know for next year at least. It's been unseasonably cold here so I'm hoping in the heat we're due (and are now having) that they will do well and last later than the others. I will keep some seeds until next year as they have a good expiry date on them.
I think it was you who put the Mr Fotxxx's hint on here? Thank you if so, I ordered all sorts for £1, even their £6 collections were £1 and can be kept until next year too. Brilliant stuff.

Fruittea

Hi Everyone
Lovely day again. Good to read about all your planting activities. Great carrot trick from Ken - I'll be doing that. Thanks.
I've started to harden off the plants now. I left the toms out in the sun yesterday - for a bit too long and they have suffered a bit of fade. I'm sure they'll recover though.
Hi Smallholding_Antics yes it was me with the Mr F tip. I spent £25 and I seem to how seeds everywhere. They look really lovely. I also got a tomato collection for £1. So, all in all about £75 pounds worth of seed. And sorted for next year.
I've also just ordered some blueberry plants on a Groupon. It sounded good value - so I'll report back on that when they arrive.
Everything is really taking off. Looking forward to the weekend.

sazzlebgood?

Hi been and sown 2 rows of peas and in order to out fox the fox we put wire netting over the top, so unless he's fantastic mr fox they should be safe. Lots of hoeing done again and more cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli planted and netted. Lots of water needed in the greenhouse where the temp has varied over just over the course of a single day. At its highest 45C and its lowest 2C, amazing the difference.

thriftylass

Hello,

I think DH is conspiring with the slugs. They have eating most leaves of my 4 brussel sprout plants now. Not sure if they'll recover.

Will start cutting a small tree down tonight. Not sure what it is but it's neither pretty nor useful so we'll replace it with another fruit tree. Maybe pear of plum, have to research which would do better up here.

smallholding_antics

We have a lovely weekend of weeding, planting, watering and generally enjoying life in the veg plot.


We had a bed that was riddled with weeds, well actually we have a lot (moved in January and previous owner didn't do much last year). One bed has currant bushed and rhubarb in (the one I made the cake with, yum) and nothing else, so there's a lot of wasted soil space. So I have done the lasagne method with the spare space. Anyone seen it?
We put newspaper down over the weeds (didn't bother to pull them out, will soon know if that is a bad idea) and then lots of our lovely horse manure over the top. This will compact and rot over the coming weeks when I will add another layer of newspaper and manure and in a few months time we will dig the bed over in the hope for good soil and no weeds Or we'll have some cracking weeds that thrived on the manure when the newspaper did nothing LOL!
It's an experiment and saved my back doing that bed.


Next up is a bed that is terrible full of weeds and not much soil. Ideally it needs a ton of soil adding but we can't afford that, so I will weed it (it will take ages, believe me) and dig in some of the more rotted manure and plant plug plants in there opposed to seeds. I haven't covered up my cauli's or broccolis yet - based on what people have said, I will definitely cover them up asap and hope it's not too late.


Also we harvested our first asparagus and had it with one of our ducks eggs. It was divine!

Fruittea

Sounds as though you've been busy Smallholding! Great idea about the bed - I have a bit of a bad back and I think I might do more of that. Don't forget to put some green stuff in there - you want layers of carbon and nitrogen. Grass clipping or new weeds - just don't add anything that's gone to seed and for the next layer - rip up the paper. Then I would just leave it - don't bother to dig it over - it's a no dig bed.
Rain here today (Gloucestershire) so I'm staying indoors but all the plants are out having a good drink.
I should mention I found 22 slugs on the lawn when I went out this morning - I think it's going to be a great year for slugs.
Reading back I notice Sazzlebegood mentions the fox and the peas. Well I never knew they were interested in them - how strange - and thanks for the info.

smallholding_antics

Another bed started tonight by my lovely Dad. He knows I don't have much time during the week with working full time so he popped through and did an hour for me. I now have 1/3 of a big bed dug over and rotted manure in, plus brassicas popped in for good luck. Thanks Dad!

smallholding_antics

How many tomato plants would sustain an average family (2 adults, 2 kids is my average) through the growing season in your opinions?


I'm going for 8. No right or wrong answer, just my very humble and uneducated opinion

smallholding_antics

smallholding_antics wrote: »

Thanks for this - We're in the North East and behind most of the country (not Scotland of course which is behind us again) so I'm going to pop some in this weekend and see what happens. Then I will know for next year at least. It's been unseasonably cold here so I'm hoping in the heat we're due (and are now having) that they will do well and last later than the others. I will keep some seeds until next year as they have a good expiry date on them.
I think it was you who put the Mr Fotxxx's hint on here? Thank you if so, I ordered all sorts for £1, even their £6 collections were £1 and can be kept until next year too. Brilliant stuff.

Mega byte duly planted at the weekend.