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

Fruittea

Morning Everyone. I'm back in Gloucestershire today. It's so hot outside. I'm bracing myself for 2 hours gardening work this afternoon - it's paid work so I have to do it but I'm not looking forward to it in this heat.
Outside in pots I can see plenty of ripe tomatoes which is great. so they are now off my shopping list no. It's just avocado and mushrooms now. I won't do a update until Friday but I see Zafiro is doing well on the Veg plot challenge. It was a family get together this weekend - I took a selection of mange toit, peas, beans and spinach and strawberries and rhubarb for dessert. Everyone was very impressed with the spread and it saved a fortune.
I've started stringing the red and white onions so I'll try to take a picture when they're done. My allotment neighbour has been watering the greenhouse for me. So hopefully things will be fine when I get down there later.
I love the sound of Queen's wine but whenever I've tried to make some it always seems to taste of pear drop. I would love to have a reliable recipe an- any chance Queen?
I'm going to start to save fruit juice cartons and bottles now - as I want to be ready to start freezing apple juice. I had to buy some over the weekend ad it was 2 bottles for £3.20. Well I usually get through 2 a week so that'll be another saving as my neighbours have early apples and I have late ones. So free juice all Summer.
Zafiro your place sounds like a wonderland with all the animals - rabbits and deer. I understand how irritating it must be when they each your produce but it must be lovely to live there - so close to nature. Are you quite remote? It sounds as though you are.
Jazee would there be time to put a few more cucumber seeds in - I'm sure they would spring up pretty rapidly - why not give it a try?

Jazee

Fruittea - I'll give the cucumber seeds a last try as soon as I pop out to get some more compost.

Garlic is now drying. Bulbs are small but separated which I almost didn't expect given the warm winter. I have also planted out some more leeks so hopefully will get a plentiful supply for ages.

Strawberries seem to be finished now.

I have harvested watercress, broadbeans, courgette and kale today.

Think I might spend 30 minutes making the edges look neat now.

moneyistooshorttomention

Just about at the last of the strawberries now. Now the rhubarb is in glut and (some of) the plums are being picked (huh? wasnt expecting them till autumn....).

Wondering about the lemon balm plant I have and it's rather a lot bigger than last year. Having just read something saying it's in the mint family - then I'm wondering if it's going to go wild and stage a takeover bid. Anyone know how deep lemon balm roots go? Am half-contemplating putting in a root barrier around it - but dont know if that would be deep enough to contain it.

My comfrey plants are starting to grow on.

Right now - it's too hot to do anything in the garden - so its wilting a bit and so am I.

Jazee

I have lemon balm planted in my border. It does spread itself along during the summer, smells lovely. I trim it back a little all the time and in the autumn cut it right back into about a foot square size. Seems to control it so I don't think the roots are spreading that much.

zafiro1984

Fruittea:- Are you almost self sufficient in fruit and veg? That is one of my aims combined with staying away from the supermarkets. You always seem to have an amazing array of veg at any one time. I feel I lack the knowledge to always have something ready to harvest particularly in the Spring and Winter. I would like to aim to be able to have a choice of what I can pick as it's usually beans and carrots which can get a bit boring.

Regarding living with the wild 'animals' yes it can be good as well as frustrating. I don't mind them if they are in reasonable numbers. The problem this year is because the winter was so mild, practically no frost here, the numbers have mushroomed to such an extent that they have become a pest. Think of all the time wasted - eg, you sow (say) kohl rabi in modules under cover, plant them out 4 wks later only to find the next day they have been eaten - or, you forget to put the barriers across the polytunnel for a couple of hours while you are weeding the plot but then see that all the beans have had their growing points eaten off and you were only a matter of 30yds away. Frustrating is too mild a word. Moan over, I've got to accept that I have to net and erect barriers around everything and hope for a very hard winter.

Jazee, I take your point about courgettes, I'm afraid I have about 12 plants outside and three inside, oops but at least the chickens get a treat nearly every day. However, I think I need to assess how much I grow of each vegetable and when it will be ready to harvest and adjust what I grow next year.

Queenie:- If you have a foolproof method of producing wine/cider I'd be interested in knowing what you do. My cider seems to go to a sludge and the wine I have made - well, it makes good drain cleaner!!!

Kantankrus_Mare

Just a brief visit to the allotment. Too hot and humid to do anything. I hate this weather.

Harvested half a dozen tomatoes, a lettuce, a few radishes and three courgettes.

It amazes me how quickly courgettes grow!! Only a couple of days since my last visit and about four have grown too big to be of use.

Am off for three days after tomorrow though so will try to pick them each day.

Fruittea

Zafiro - I feel for you - the wild life can be a problem.
I'm not quite self sufficient but I do grow a lot of different varieties of things and stagger the growing times - sometimes taking a bit of a chance in the margins of the year.
I also bottle and freeze quite a bit. I usually have plenty of kales, broccoli, chard and spinach growing over the lean months. In February to April I usually get a veg box delivered from Abel & Co as they let you swap out the veggies you don't want. So I'll put in three types of runner beans etc. through the months and usually get a good crop from early until late. I also recommend growing lots of squashes and pumpkin which take me right through the year.
I grow a variety of tomato that comes very early - Sub Artic Plenty which produces earlier than others and then two batches of other toms which take me through to about December. I also sow some winter lettuce and mizumi which do well in the cold. A few early potatoes go in pots for warmth in February and are kept indoors until it warms up a bit and then I have them in May.
I only grow for two but we are vegetarian and eat an awful lot of veg.
I've just got the onion crop in - it looks ok but I have a bit of rot on some - I'll process them and anything usable will be frozen - all the good stuff will be plaited or strung and hung up to store.

determined_new_ms

Hi guys looks like all been busy & productive over the last few weeks!

Allotment has been hard, slow progress! I've now dug over a patch which is 3m x 2.5ms. And I've planted out 3 squash plants and some runner beans.

Courgettes went crazy for the last month and I've had kilos of them! so far have made:

steamed courgettes with most meals
big batch of ratatouille some frozen
courgette chocolate cake
fried in garlic butter, served with pasta and cheese
fried in garlic butter and eaten as a side dish
stuffed with sausage meat (tonight's offering)
courgette & broad bean pilaf (tomorrow's meal)
Need to do some more searching for recipe ideas as these will be continuing for some time I think

I decided in the end to plant my courgette plant that was in a tub in the bed. Jury is out on whether it will survive. But I figured it wasn't going to survive in the pot so not really a loss if it doesn't make it. I also took fruittea's suggestion and sowed 2 extra seeds which are growing nicely!

Also have had enough of a supply of lettuce & radishes (not huge fan of salad). Mangetout did well for the 16 seeds I sowed but are coming to the end of their life.

runner beans and dwarf french beans doing well. As are tomotoes which are starting to ripen.

Not so sure on the aubergines, worried none of the flowers are actually going to to turn into fruits... we'll see. Peppers, chillis, basil, beetroot doing well. 4 kale plants, planted last week so we will see.

Have kept a total and have had about £44 worth of veg over the last month or so

Dizzy_Ditzy

Grrr, I had a reply all typed up and I lost it :mad:

I don't really have a fail safe method or recipe for wine - I kinda just wing it really

I quite like http://www.thebrewshop.com for recipes. I usually just spend ages googling and then just pick a recipe I can work with it always needs loads of sugar. I don't bother with brewing sugar, I just use normal granulated stuff.

Chuck your fruit and sugar into a sterilised bucket with a lid. Add boiling water, usually about 4 pints, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add your yeast, out the lid back on and leave for a week. Stir twice a day - i can't be bothered with opening and closing it all the time so I just give it a good shake.

Siphon into a sterilised demijohn and squeeze out the juice from the fruit. I use j-cloths as a filter to keep the skins and pips out. Fit with an airlock and leave alone until the airlock stops bubbling. This can take up to six months. Siphon into another sterilised demijohn.

Always take care to not disturb the sediment at the bottle. Once the liquid in the demijohn is clear, it's probably ready for bottling. Get your siphon tube out and have fun!

I've never tried making cider so I can't help with any recipes, sorry

Jazee

I'm going shopping tomorrow for two raised beds - the V shaped ones on legs - and I'm very excited. I plan to use them for winter cabbages and cauliflowers.