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

Kantankrus_Mare

I am so jealous of your strawberries Queen of cheep!!

At my old allotment I was always in your shoes with more strawberries than I knew what to do with. Have had enough for maybe two portions this year!! Bed is definitely in the wrong place as we rushed to plant one up last september. Sits in the shade for a good portion of the day so need to sort this for next year.

Going to have an excellent crop of tomatoes though and courgettes.

Today I picked a mini cucumber, a bunch of sweet peas, more rhubarb and some flat leaf parsley to go in the stroganoff we had for tea.

Fruittea

Hi Everyone
Good to hear about your growing Queen and the early berries - that's great. I'm afraid the birds usually get my cherries.
I think I have cucumbers to but I haven't been down to the allotment for a few days. It's been a busy week.
I had a repeat order from Ocado which arrives automatically (unless I cancel it) and would you believe they delivered 4 kilos of onions. So that went back!
I decided to keep the rest - so bought broccoli, cavolo nero, courgettes, spinach, beanshoots and tomatoes which cost £7.29. Homegrown included herbs, salads, strawberries, potatoes and rhubarb which would have cost 10.00 - so I'll raise my total to £82.02.
I've been growing sweetcorn in pots - so I hope to get those in sometimes this weekend and some leeks. I decided as the front garden is such a mess (with builders) I'm just going to put in some of the spare pumpkins and hope for the best. It's strange but where the chickens used to be there seems to be whole lot of sprouting things that look like pumpkins or courgettes coming up. So I think they must be from the bird seed. Oh well that won't be sorted until next year.
Let's hope for a bit of sunshine this weekend.

zafiro1984

Hi All.
Queen of Cheap Not a very large crop of strawberries in total but very healthy plants, maybe they had too much muck and produced leaf instead of fruit. They are now going in pots as I need the space for winter things.
Ate the first couple of raspberries (growers perks), I'm telling no one that they are starting to colour as they seem to disappear and not reach the kitchen.

Planted kohl rabi. beetroot, more lettuce, fennel, last of the cucumbers, potted on the Brussels and leeks - just waiting for space before they go out. Sweetcorn and more peas due to go in today - weather permitting
Harvested early pots, carrots, courgettes, salad leaves, last of one set of strawberries, dwarf beans.

Has anyone had experience with buying a fruit cage? Who to use, aluminium v steel, layout inside to get the best use? I've decided to splash out and buy one as the current one was made from left over fencing and has started to rot due to the ground being acid sand, also the ground had been levelled and I think the top soil was removed as it has never been productive and there is a 'pan' about 10" down which is very hard to get through.
I'm re-positioning it, to a level, flat, and mainly weed free place - I'm growing my main potatoes and squash there at the moment so I aim to plan now and buy in a couple of months, just in time for autumn planting. it will be smaller than the original but hopefully more productive.

Fruittea

Hi Zafiro
Good to see all the things you're growing. Doesn't look as though you'll be buying much shortly.
I had a fruit cage some years ago from Two Wests and Elliots but I made the mistake of getting something that was too small and without a door. So I had to untie the mesh every time I went in. It's good to know you'll be replanting after the cage is up as well - as I tried to retro fit mine around existing fruit and it really didn't work out for me. Another point is to completing tie the mesh in any where you can - as I got a few birds in which got trapped or caught. Strangely enough no one else has got one on the allotment but a neighbour of mine has a very good steel one which has a good door and plenty of room to walk around in and that seems to work well.
One last point - I wondered if it's at home where you can keep an eye on it, or will it be down at a allotment. I house-sit occasionally and one place I stayed had a cage. It snowed really heavily and the weight of the snow on the mesh brought the whole thing down. I don't know where in the country you are but it might be an issue. Sorry to mention snow at this time of year and unlikely I know but I thought I'd mention it.
Just seen that Harrod Horticultural have a 10% of cages at the mo.

SweetnSavvy

I wondered if anyone can help with rust on broad beans please. Should I be getting rid of the plants altogether and NOT composting.

If the beans themselves look alright is it ok to eat them ?

Many thanks
SnS

Fruittea

Hi SweetnSavvy
Yes you can eat the beans. But don't compost the stalks.
To hold it back a bit you can spray the fungus with a 1 part milk to 10 parts water mix which also works on powdery mildew.
Another organic fungicide is a Bicarbonate of soda based mixture. Make up 2 litres of water add a few drops of vegetable oil (any type will do), a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid, and four teaspoons of bicarb. Mix it up well and spray the leaves. The bicarb soda makes the leaves alkaline which inhibits the rust.

SweetnSavvy

Fruittea wrote: »

Hi SweetnSavvy
Yes you can eat the beans. But don't compost the stalks.
To hold it back a bit you can spray the fungus with a 1 part milk to 10 parts water mix which also works on powdery mildew.
Another organic fungicide is a Bicarbonate of soda based mixture. Make up 2 litres of water add a few drops of vegetable oil (any type will do), a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid, and four teaspoons of bicarb. Mix it up well and spray the leaves. The bicarb soda makes the leaves alkaline which inhibits the rust.

Thanks Fruittea,

I'll harvest what I can today and then decide if it's worth trying to hold it back. If so, I might give the bicarbonate of soda a try. I'm a bit worried about it spreading to runner beans and peas though.:(
SnS

zafiro1984

Bought some pansy seeds to put in the pots after the summer bedding has finished, price 50% off.:)
Rain just now, it was glorious this morning but I was too busy with the animals to get anything done on the veg plot.

Fruittea:- Thanks for your thoughts on fruit cages, much appreciated. The veg plot and fruit cage are at home but about 1/2 km from the house. I go past it several times a day so it's no problem keeping an eye on things. I've also seen that Harrods have 10% off, so I'll look seriously at them when I have a minute.

Loads of beans ready, toms starting to colour, cougettes galore, carrots starting to come online, planted out more basil and fennel, must sort out where the swedes are going, must net the peas, last of the sweetcorn planted.

tootallulah

At last some raspberries have ripened, enough for a bowl for pudding with lots more coming. My red currants are nearly there, I will pick them at the week-end, very few strawberries this year I think it is to to grub them up and do something more interesting in their place, Gooseberries are looking good too

Fruittea

Morning Everyone
Good to hear all the growing stories. Yesterday I strung the garlic. I have 19 bulbs in all and as I use about one a week it should last me through until the end of November. They say it should keep for around 6 months if cured well. So I could have planted more - so it lasts through until January. Organic garlic is about 70p per bulb so that lot would have cost £13.30. It's pretty trouble free - I grew Cristo - but I would like a bit of larger bulb so it any has a garlic recommendation I would love to hear it.
The onions are just curing now and the red ones are looking pretty good. I'll report back when I've plaited them,
Good to hear about the red currants tootallulah what do you do with them? Last year I made a kind of chilli jam but I'd love to hear more recommendations if anyone has them.
No allotment today as I'm hopefully picking up four new chickens - my three won't be happy.