THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Doveling

We like raspberries but they are horrendously expensive so I put in a couple of raspberry canes from Aldi.

Initially, they grew a little bit. With a couple of leaves on
Are they meant to still look like two sticks or are they like rhubarb and something may happen next year?

Or have I successfully grown two long well, errm..... sticks? :rotfl:

GreyQueen

Doveling wrote: »

We like raspberries but they are horrendously expensive so I put in a couple of raspberry canes from Aldi.

Initially, they grew a little bit. With a couple of leaves on
Are they meant to still look like two sticks or are they like rhubarb and something may happen next year?

Or have I successfully grown two long well, errm..... sticks? :rotfl:

I think raspberries fruit on the second year cane. So, each year, the new canes don't fruit, last year's cane produces, and you cut back the old cane to the ground once it's finished.

Hopefully, your sticks will do their stuff in 2017.

I was having a squint at the blackcurrant bushes which I grew from cut off branches I pruned off the parent plant and shoved into the soil in Dec 2014. Last year they were small but did flower and fruit, as in about a dozen blackcurrants each. This year, they have grown fabulously, but I'm not at all sure they have fruited. That part of the lottie is a bit of a jungle and I haven't scoured them with a finetoothed comb.

Trouble is, small green berries hiding among the leaves are hard to see until the start changing colour. Even then, a blackcurrant bush hides its bounty well. Which could be advantageous to those who grow fruit in public or semi-public areas and don't want to have it nicked.

boultdj

GreyQueen wrote: »

Are you pulling my leg?

Nope, I didn't even think about eating the darned things. Putting one on Mum's wood lathe and turning it into a bowl is probably more plausible, given the texture.

I've slung the on a heap at the top of the plot. I'm drying some things out with a view to exercising my deep and abiding love of pyromania, come October when the burn-ban is lifted. Plants like the potash and I like playing with fire.

I'm getting worried about you GQ! How you fixed for bonfire night? Do you fancy a trip to London?:D evil grin

[Deleted User]

And it's raining again.

maryb

Ooh thanks for the tip about the potash. I put the ash from the woodburner round the flowering plants, didn't think to use it for tubers.

I have four plots on the allotment, one given over to the soft fruit and the other three on a rotation. Although I haven't planted one of the plots this year because of my back, it's lying fallow under black plastic, and so I've just got potatoes in one plot and runner beans and two courgette plants in the other plot. I've had to drastically simplify this season but those are the summer veggies I like best anyway

GreyQueen

boultdj wrote: »

I'm getting worried about you GQ! How you fixed for bonfire night? Do you fancy a trip to London?:D evil grin

:eek: I couldn't possibly burn down a listed building! :eek:


Mind you, since that bunch of barstewards have enacted another bit of nastiness called the Housing and Planning Act 2016, anyone who rents from a council (or hopes to do so) is going to be in Interesting Times shortly.

Project Hurt the Poor and Vulnerable cracks on apace.:(

boultdj

The ratbag's! So devide & concer is still on target for idiots in charge then, are you sure your not game? I'v got plenty of oil..............

Spendless

We actually have a plan for a zombie apocolypse coutesy of my 16yo son. So long as it happens after his Dad gets his next hybrid car, then the plan is as follows.

Dismantle the solar panels off the outbuilding that backs on to our garden and take them with us in DH's car. Drive round the corner to my parents as my Dad goes clay pigeon shooting and insist he hands over his gun and ammunition (unfortunately DS cannot guarantee my parents surivival in this bit. :eek::(). Drive into town and go to the courts as they have sloped 'walls' surrounding them, that zombies will find difficult to climb and hang out there.

The plan for what DS intends doing in September for college should he not get his required grades hasn't been thought out yet, obviously too busy planning the zombie attack survival guide to think of anything else. :think:

However, I have sent the fee off this afternoon for his travel costs for preferred college and dotted the i's and crossed the t's on travel arrangements for getting DD to various summer activities.

ariarnia

GreyQueen wrote: »

Are you pulling my leg?

http://www.botanical-online.com/english/chardproperties.htm

From the 2nd yr onwards chard roots are eatable. I guess the older they are the less tender, but who doesnt need more fibre in their diet?

Might be worth considering if youre shifting any baby chard - first year roots are nice in a stir fry like carrots.

GreyQueen

Thanks for that. I have a ruby chard which has self-sown in a potato baulk and which I'll have to disturb when I lift the spuds, so I think I'll try the root as well as the stems and the leaves.

Chard is extremely useful; nutritious, looks after itself, hardy, self-seeds, can be eaten cooked or raw.