The great, good and not so good bits about growing your own dinner 2017

Fruittea

Glad to hear you're feeling better Niv. Was thinking you might not get the garlic to separate this late in the season - as you need a frost to help it but the onions will be fine. One tip for next season plant garlic in late October and only separate the cloves when you are ready to actually plant it. It won't dry out and it will start growing roots right away.
Determined the link doesn't seem to work for me.
Just back from the allotment and everything is growing really well except for a tray of onions which I've had the seed for about 10 years - so not much of a loss there.
Did I mention I've gone over to root trainers this year. I tried some last and they were very successful - so I got a lot more for Christmas presents. Anything with a long root is going in and I'll use them in succession. So the broad beans and peas are ready to go into the ground and as soon as I've done that I'll sow the runners and more peas. One advantage apart from the lovely long roots is they stack away really tidily in the shed and take up so little space. So I'll be getting rid of some of the old pots.
I try to sow a few seeds every day and then take the trays down to the allotment in the car when I have a few done. It's a bit messy as I do it in the kitchen on a tray but find this works and I don't need to set aside too much time.
Brought back the last of the kale and rhubarb today - will sell some of the rhubarb at the gate tomorrow - or hopefully will.
Happy growing.

determined_new_ms

ah that's a shame! well this is what I made - although mine look slightly different

http://www.apieceofrainbow.com/diy-strawberry-tower/

unrecordings

I weeded and fed (most of) the gooseberries today, and on a whim decided to rotate the poorly sited cold frame 90 degrees to get a little more light. OH cleaned the greenhouses, and tomorrow is sulphur candle day. Once that's out of the way I can repot my tomatoes, and get going

CAFCGirl

Sounds like everyone is moving along nicely.

16 pallet collars in total painted yesterday. My mum did most of them as I had to head home at lunchtime after doing 5 LOL My son was entertained with it for about 2 collars.... not that grand activity I had envisioned but never mind. They are now all stacked and ready for positioning.
I have one rotten bed board to move and dig the grass out that sprouted around that and then there will be a huge area ready to go. I will cover that once I've dug it, and wait for my seedlings to move on a bit and then uncover and position my collars and then plant. I need to dig in some nutrients there too but funds at the moment aren't allowing for much to be purchased nor do I have a working compost bin thats generating anything for me to use

I also need some to get some seeds started!

Today will be helping my son plant his strawberry plants that he wanted for the garden but Im hoping the weather improves as its currently grey, overcast and drizzly - a real difference to the past few days!

determined_new_ms

my bare root raspberry collection has arrived only problem is I don't think I'll have a chance to get there today, I might try but it looks unlikely. I also might be able to get there tomorrow but if I can't do it today or tomorrow I won't have a chance until Friday! Will they be ok???

tibawo

So happy ... We got the allotment .. Paperwork coming this week!

Fosterdog

determined_new_ms wrote: »

my bare root raspberry collection has arrived only problem is I don't think I'll have a chance to get there today, I might try but it looks unlikely. I also might be able to get there tomorrow but if I can't do it today or tomorrow I won't have a chance until Friday! Will they be ok???

They should be ok, if you can get them into a bit of compost or at least water it will be better for them, I've always bought the supermarket ones that can spend several weeks in the shop before they are bought and put into ground and I've not had a failed crop yet. In fact I bought 4 canes 6-7 years ago, another 4 the year after so 5-6 years ago and I still have their descendants growing each year, I have to cut some back and only allow around 20 to grow each year because I have nowhere to put them all.

I'm back to work tomorrow after two weeks off and typically had an email today that my strawberry plants will be arriving by the end of the week when I have barely any time to plant them. I've prepped what I can for them but would still rather they arrived while I was off. I'm also worried that the courier won't leave them with a neighbour as requested and it's yodel who have previously just dumped packages in easy to see places, not good when I'm on the main road.

Today I have finally started my new compost heap, it is a bit far away from where I'd ideally want it but we have had issues with rats around them previously so would rather it not be too close to the house nor shed where they can make a home.

I've cleared more of the area I want to plant in, not completely but started digging down and cutting back the overgrowth, I've discovered some nice ornamental bits of slate, a crow bar, and old iron washing line pole rusted into the ground and some steps that I didn't know were there. This overgrown garden is a bit of a treasure trove and rubbish dump all rolled into one. Annoyingly old owners had laid some sheets of the anti weed material but it was put down so long ago that it is under the overgrowth and all the nettles, grasses and brambles have rooted into it, I've dug around four to six inches down until I've hit it but it all needs to come up and is buried well so not an easy job when I don't know how big an area it covers. It's going to a big job and take quite a bit of time, more than I was expecting. I can see under the worst of the 7-8 ft high wall of brambles what looks to be the remains of a child's wooden climbing frame rotting away and possibly the frame of a metal swing set. More stuff that I have to take to the skip.

On the plus side either my broccoli or bell peppers have started to come through overnight, they are both in the same propagator and OH stupidly removed the labels so I'm not sure which ones they are until they grow a bit more and I can tell by the leaves, but eaither way it is the first of this years crop starting. Oh and my older pear tree and one of my plum trees are in full bloom with the other plum, all of my apples and all cherries not too far behind. Raspberries also doing well considering the complete lack of care they had last year and nothing more than a handful of blood fish and bone and a bit of thinning out this year.

Apart from emergency planting of strawberries I probably won't be getting much more done this week as I deal with the backlog in work. I don't know why I even take time off because I have to do so much overtime to catch up when I get back.

Fosterdog

tibawo wrote: »

So happy ... We got the allotment .. Paperwork coming this week!

Missed this just now. Excellent news :T , good luck and enjoy it

Kantankrus_Mare

tibawo wrote: »

So happy ... We got the allotment .. Paperwork coming this week!

Yayy :j:j Thats great news!! How exciting.....bet you're itching to get started!!

CAFCGirl

tibawo wrote: »

So happy ... We got the allotment .. Paperwork coming this week!

HUZZAH! :j