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

moneyistooshorttomention

I think I could do with one of these:

https://farmbot.io/

Fruittea

Hi Everyone Another hot day today and I did some paid gardening. No visit to the allotment today but I did a bit yesterday and dug up some potato plants that looked a bit dodgy around about 4 kilo - the spuds looked fine.
Vegetable this week include all the usual suspects and 6 artichokes lots of lovely fine beans and plenty of tomatoes. After adding everything up the shopping bill would have come to around £41 on the veg plot challenge - and no supermarket shopping this week. Not even mushrooms and avocados as I have far too much from the allotment.
It sounds as thought everyone's doing very well. And well done Determined sounds as thought you're doing really well. I'll check out the brewing site from Queen for some recipes on the brewing side of things. I won't get that started until my decorator is finished as I don't have any room.
The weeds are everywhere at the mo but it's too hot to do too much - I was delighted to see two quite large crown prince pumpkins under the foliage (about the size of a large grapefruit). I lost out last year as I tried to plant my squashes in planting pockets but the manure was a bit too fresh so it burnt them. So it's great to see them doing so well.
Good luck this weekend everyone.

moneyistooshorttomention

Latest purchase en route - ie an aronia bush.

I gather some of the modern varieties of it have berries that are sweet enough to eat raw - rather than having to cook them.

Fingers crossed and let's see whats what with it. It will be replacing a whitecurrant bush that I've had a mere handful of berries from last year and precisely zilch berries this year.

moneyistooshorttomention

Actually - I'm also wondering about two other plants I bought - due to lack of productivity.

The whitecurrant was an easy decision - as it looks awful as well as being unproductive.

I've got two other plants though that I'm wondering about just from the productivity viewpoint. One is a honeyberry (don't know what type - as the darn nursery didnt put that on the label) and it's a healthy, attractive plant growing at a decent rate - but no berries at all and I've read varying accounts on the Internet (as one or two other people were complaining about not having any berries on theirs).

The other one is an ornamental quince - that was rather tiny when bought and has grown visibly since I planted it and is looking healthy. However, it's still only about 12-18" tall at present and I omitted to notice the bit in the description of it taking at least 10 years to maturity:eek:. With me being in my 60s - I don't want to wait more than 1-2 years for plants to start "producing" and I've got visions of maybe having to wait till my 70s before I start getting some fruit from it. Has anyone else got an ornamental quince and how long did it take before it started being productive?

Fruittea

Hi Money
About the quince - I thought they started to crop after 5 years. So how old is the plant now - maybe you won't have to wait to long.
My fruit bushes are lousy this year to. And feeling quite disappointed I took a look around the allotment today and noticed everyone's look just as bad as mine. So don't be too hard on yourself. It might just have been the wet May and June.
I'd never heard of Aronia berries - so just googled it. They sound lovely. Can you say where you got it from and how much. I'm always keen to try new fruit.
I brought back some beetroot and cucumber today Did quite a bit of weeding and despite thinking I was keeping an eye on the courgettes - I found a huge one under the leaves. So I'll look back to Determine's post for some inspiration.

moneyistooshorttomention

The aronia plant is from Amazon. About £12 each.

My quince plant must be a year old - so fingers crossed even for 4 more years of "nowt from it" - rather than 9 or more years.

My chuckleberry plant has been turning them out very well. My blackcurrant plants havent been too bad I guess. Jostaberry plant just went in this year and is looking healthy/showing some growth - so is still small and so I'm hoping that will start producing next year.

zafiro1984

Just back from a few days in Gloucestershire, it was a bit hectic to say the least.

Fruittea:- thanks for your reply regarding self sufficiency, very interesting and informative. The bit I'll use is the little and often and trying to push the margins of the year. We are further south than you but you seem to be further ahead in cropping than me, so it is probably your pushing the boundaries that have made the difference.

Spent the morning watering and checking on things - rabbits again - so this afternoon I've ordered enough butterfly netting and cane connectors to cover a large bed, 5ft x 30ft. I've already got enough bamboo canes and ground pegs so I'll build myself a vegetable cage for the winter brassicas - just hope it works.

Harvested 8 cucumbers, loads of sungold tomatoes, basil, dill, courgettes and their flowers, enough of my 2nd early pots to last the week. salad leaves, radishes, kohl rabi, and carrots. Good job the daughter arrived (she had been looking after the dogs) as she took home most of the stuff plus some eggs.

Looks like I'll soon have a bumper crop of blackcurrants, blackberries and rose hips.

Have updated the signature.

Jazee

Just back from hols. Think there must have been rain as the garden is looking good, and I've french beans to pick now. In the greenhouse, the tomatoes looked a little sad but not too bad. All watered now.

zafiro1984

Not that I mind as I find it quite funny but I seem to be giving away everything that is harvestable at the moment.

Riley 4yrs old owned (sorry should say son of Jane who works for us) picked all the tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes last Saturday whilst we were away - I didn't mind that one bit.

Our daughter who had been looking after the dogs did the same on Monday and today a friend came and went home with shallots - harvested yesterday - cucumbers, courgettes and a few runner beans.

I'm afraid it's frozen peas and sweetcorn tonight with tea.

Have I got the balance right!!! :rotfl:

Fruittea

Zafiro that made me laugh. And I know what you mean I always find myself giving the prettiest veg away to friends and eating the dodgy ones myself. I had artichokes for a starter last night but the first lot are coming to an end now - hopefully will have more. There are now plenty of beans but I'm going to sow a few dwarf beans for a very late harvest. Also got a packet of charlottes to grow for Christmas. I grow them in tubs and get them in by 1 August. When it gets a bit cold pop them in the greenhouse to keep the frost off. It's nice having some new potatoes in December. I would be interested in hearing how people are using there surpluses - preserving of freezing - when the time comes that is.
All the best