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

sazzlebgood?

Hi determined. Sounds like you've been busy, having a new allotment is exciting but can be really hard work, We found that from a motivation point if we dug facing what we had already done then you feel you've accomplished something. If you dig facing what you've still got to do it can seem as if your not getting anywhere. I agree with fruittea when you've dug abit try and get something in this hopefully encourages you to keep going up. Good luck and we're here for support.
My chilli plants are really coming on ,but think this damp cold weather may slow it down. Hope i remember not to rub my eyes this year after handling them. My daughter last year found me wearing swimming googles full of milk (neutralises the burn) and thought I'd finally lost it ,as i wear them when cutting onions also.

Fruittea

Hi Everyone
The suns just come out here in Gloucestershire!
Determined sorry to hear things are a little tight at the mo. But growing your own dinner will help with that.
Just a thought but you can get an awful lot of things for free. Why not try Freegle. I got my shed and my greenhouse for free.
As for raised beds - you could start with secondhand wood 6' x 3' and just 6" high - so you don't need much to get started. You can also use tiles or bricks at a push - just to give you the shape. Here how to layer a no dig bed:


No dig beds


The layers are carbon (brown) layer and a green nitrogen (green) layer.

• Cardboard three layers soaked well (vitallly important it's very wet) it will supress any weeds
• Layer of compost (manure)
• Nettles with NO ROOTS .
• Layer of Compost (manure)
• Grass cuttings – fine layer – DONT add a thick layer of grass cuttings
• Nettles
• Layer of Compost grown bag of sieved leaf mould
  You can use are Seaweed if you are near the coast. Used coffee grounds which are high in nitrogen and are a green layer. Shredded paper as a brown layer, not shiny or from magazines.

You might find that other allotmenters will also help out with their surplus plants once they see you making a start. It's certainly like that on my allotment. Also try putting a sign up on the gate of the allotment asking for things.

determined_new_ms

yay one of the lettuce seeds and spring onions I planted last Tuesday have germinated :j which leads me to believe the technique I used is a success :j

Planted out lettuce in the bed yesterday, and harvested onions, harvested a garlic and will do some more later

Last night I sowed some carrots. Will do some more later now the pots the onions were in are free

Tonight will have salad and potatoes from the garden with dinner :money:

Just drinking a coffee and then off to the lottie for a big day of cutting everything back and building a fire

It's so darn exciting!

Kantankrus_Mare

Its ages since I have grown garlic but I put some in November last year.

Stalks are yellowing and I was always under the impression that it was ready August. Could it be ready now?

Fruittea

Morning Everyone
That's great news Determined. Cover over the carrots with a fine mesh (maybe an old net curtain) as carrot fly is around at the moment and could lay eggs around tops of the carrots. When they start to show make sure you have some soil over the top so the actual carrot top doesn't show.
Don't work to hard - you'll have the allotment for a long time.

Fruittea

Hi Kantankrus our posts must have crossed. About garlic. Mine look ready now about 3" of brown at the top. I pulled one last week and it's a little small so I thought I'd give them one more week to swell. The saying goes that I'll be ready on the Summer Soltice which was yesterday. I'm going to pull mine even though they are a bit small - the risk is leaving them so long that they split and the they won't keep. Why not pull one up and see.
I'm desperate to get them out as I need the space. Similar with onions all my overwintered are laid over now ready for curing.

Kantankrus_Mare

Fruittea wrote: »

Hi Kantankrus our posts must have crossed. About garlic. Mine look ready now about 3" of brown at the top. I pulled one last week and it's a little small so I thought I'd give them one more week to swell. The saying goes that I'll be ready on the Summer Soltice which was yesterday. I'm going to pull mine even though they are a bit small - the risk is leaving them so long that they split and the they won't keep. Why not pull one up and see.
I'm desperate to get them out as I need the space. Similar with onions all my overwintered are laid over now ready for curing.

Oh right will have a look tomorrow. Cant get today as at work from 12 - 8ish. My over wintering onions went in at the same time. Look good but dont usually lift mine till the stalks bend over. Really could do with some onions though so hoping can lift some soon.

Dizzy_Ditzy

Howdy folks :hello:

Been a while I made the mistake of a May holiday. Only a mistake in terms of going right at the peak of planting season, but thankfully I've pretty much caught up now

First lot of gooseberries have been picked and cooked

Been picking strawberries for a couple of weeks now. Sunday I came home with about 5lb of them and another 1.5-2 lbs today :j :j

Rhubarb doing very well

Raspberries at plot A doing fantastically. Raspberries at plot B doing dismally so they'll be going just as soon as I get chance. We inherited them and last year they were crap but him who knows better said they'd be better this year :mad:

First lot of potatoes consumed at the weekend I have spuds at both plots and plot A always seems to yield better results than B.

Garlic at both sites has rust :mad: I've pulled up and/or cut the affected leaves off at B but still need to do it at A. Onions looking fab though

We totally missed the boat on peas this year we have a few in but not enough to yield the amount we wanted

Had to thin the carrots out at the weekend, and they taste great! Some good sizes came out, so now they've been thinned out, the rest can develop to their best potential



Think that's about it from me - I'm sure I'll have forgotten something. It's guaranteed that I will have done! :rotfl:

Hope all are doing well

determined_new_ms

how do you thin out courgettes QoC? I have a plant that I've started harvesting. It's a round courgette plant. 3 fruits developed 2 grew to be a bit bigger than tennis balls which I harvested but one stopped at a golf ball size. 3 more are growing now and are bigger than the golf ball one. Am wondering whether to pick it or leave it?

zafiro1984

Hi all
Queen of Cheap:- I have missed your postings, however, I wish I had your energy for two lotties, I struggle to cope with what I have.

I'm having trouble this year with snails and slugs, I Nemasluged everywhere last month but I still had holes in things, I couldn't decide whether it was slugs, rabbits, pigeons, squirrels or deer, so I netted and covered things, (even runner beans and leeks were being attacked). Last weekend I went out and bought some ordinary slug bait, hopefully it has done the trick as there were loads of dead slugs in the morning under the covers. I'll wait until the bait has been washed into the soil before I uncover things even though the beds are so well netted and covered it would be hard for any other bird or rabbit to get in.

Tomatoes are starting to colour, I'll be really pleased when I don't have to buy any from the supermarket.
I need more space at the moment so I've decided to pot up the strawberries that have finished producing to give me more room. The hay that was around them will do just fine for my main potatoes as I need to put another layer of hay and then manure on them. I use the no dig method, it's so much easier on the back and I get a very respectable crop.

Today's jobs are to pot up more strawberries, water things undercover, have a look at what seeds I have and what else I can sow in modules for planting out later, check the tomatoes, and put more manure on the courgettes as some have a tinge of yellow on their leaves. (the soil isn't that good where they are as it's a new bed).

It's 10am - best do the chickens and then get started.

Just updated signature, large and in bold - really pleased, Thanks Fruittea for the idea, I'd no idea it would amount to this much already