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

Fruittea

Hi Everyone
Still in bed here in Gloucestershire! And we had a little rain in the night.
Thanks for the kind wishes - I'm taking it easy until the bruises come out fully and then on the gentle exercise. The neighbours have been calling - how kind some people are. 3 magazines, some flowers and chocolate brownies - can't be bad.
CAFCGirl one of my allotment gave his son his own raised bed - he didn't say it was his but he sowed his name (LUKE) in cress. Luke was thrilled to see his name coming through the soil. Might be something you could do for DS - to get his interest.
On the bindweed question - I am a bit of a fan of Roundup. I know this is controversial but in some circumstances it could be really useful and it becomes inactive in the soil very quickly.
Can you say how yours grows. Is it in clumps or around certain plants or through the grass - let me know as they are different ways to tackle it.
All the best everyone and watch out for very low temperatures until Thursday - cover your seedlings and young plants with some membrane. If you don't have the fancy stuff and old sheet will help.

zafiro1984

Fruittea:- I completely missed your posting about your accident - so sorry to read you have been grounded particularly at this time of year (well any time of year to be honest).

Keep posting - your knowledge is invaluable and very helpful. Keep us informed of your progress. At least it's good news about your pelvis not being involved, could have been a whole lot worse.

Jazee

Morning all. Rain and hail here in North Yorkshire today. DH has been out and got me some more compost and I've had a delivery of more strawberry plants.

smeeinnit

Hi all

Hope you are soon on the mend Fruittea

Quiet day yesterday as I was visiting my parents, watered everything thoroughly though yesterday evening.

One small success - the sweet peppers I had given up on had finally germinated! Well..one did so that little seedling will be cherished!

Still nothing from the carrots, if no show by the time it reaches 30 days from sowing I will sow another batch, it will be warmer by then anyway.

Have a good week all - frosts due tonight and for most of the week of the forecast is correct

Niv

Little update from me:


Weekend of 8th:
Planted seeds of; pak choi, broccoli, chard, carrot, radish,


Planted out some onion sets


Planted remaining seed potato's in bags


Weekend of 22nd:
re-potted chilli's


hacked down some large shrubs / trees that have been overhanging my garden - still some more to do but I found a birds nest with eggs in so am leaving it until the chicks leave (although that's quite annoying as it will slow me down quite a bit)


Still need to do:
Dig bed for French beans and peas
Plant out French beans
start some more French beans (to stagger crop)
Plant pea seeds
plant out squash and courgette
pot on tomato's / basil / kale
plant out tomato's / basil / kale


I also recently planted a cacti garden in my greenhouse - hoping to see some flowers next year!

LoveKnittingSocks

Hello everyone. Much to the amusement of my family, I've really caught the gardening bug this year. I've never been very good at growing things but this year I'm determined to wipe the smiles off their faces and feed them something I've grown myself even if its just a lettuce. I've been lurking on this thread for weeks now and really enjoy reading about what everyone is planting so I've just decided to be brave and take the plunge and ask please can I join in? I've already planted a few things in containers but am a complete novice who is apologising in advance for any daft questions.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Hope healing is uncomplicated and fast, Fruittea.

Haven't really done a great deal over the last few days - I bunged the peas in their loo rolls in with a big bit of rose bush that got chopped ages ago as something to cling to.

And wondered what on earth to do with the thick rows of radishes sprouting up. It just seems so wrong to pull them out, but I haven't anywhere else to put them. I didn't expect anywhere near as many to actually work, and I tried to make the sowing as thin as possible.

The actual beds are still looking pretty bare, other than the goosegrass, which I'm getting heartily bored with. There are seeds in there that I actually wanted, as I tried to go for the anticompetition approach, but I didn't really want to do much in the way of physical work (it's not my forte), including crawling around on hands and knees or buying a hoe. Once the sacrificial nasturtiums grow (there are three small plants about 4 inches high), it should be almost solved, though - and at least that'll help keep some moisture in.


The broad beans, however, are stocky little things which I'm feeling quite hopeful about at present.


Not looking forward to this cold snap that's supposed to be coming today - only just put the courgettes in a tub under a thick sheet of glass (recovered from a defunct oven), as they were getting too leggy and starting to yellow. Hopefully, the ant nest in there will keep them a bit warmer, too.


OH has decided to start another compost heap. The last one composted itself and is now the woodland part - he was last seen with a tub of peelings trying to get behind the cotoneaster and return unscathed. But I'm limited in sympathy, as the reason it's got so awkward was that he chopped the top off last year when I specifically wanted it to grow taller than the shed, not wider. I tried to prop up one of the sideshoots that was too thick to chop but still slightly bendy, just to encourage it up. We'll see what happens. I was waiting for him to need to be rescued, but (unfortunately ) he emerged from behind it saying it should be fine all chucked behind the shed. Well, it's a seven inch gap between the shed wall and the brick wall that's completely unusable as it's concreted, so I do see his point of view - it'll provide a bit more wildlife cover, too.


On a positive note, the local birdlife seem to be assisting with pest control, as there's been a few instances of passerine poo around the salad things and I haven't found an errant slug or snail once.


Going to limp out there in a minute (I'm really achey today) and have a poke about.

zafiro1984

Welcome LoveKnittingSocks - of course you can join in and don't worry about 'daft questions' there' loads of help on this thread.

Just come in from doing a bit more sowing, - spring onions and turnips both free with kitchen garden magazine. There was also kale but I prefer the Nero de...... to the freebie and seeing as I already have some seeds from last year I'll be sowing those later.

Definitely colder today but hopefully this far south we should miss the frost, however I think I'll fleece the seeds and potatoes just in case.
Just finished my coffee so I'm going back out there to finish weeding another bed. I'll leave the dog indoors as he's become obsessed with some rabbits under the wood pile - but what else can I expect from a 13yr old JRT that was bred by the hunt kennels.

determined_new_ms

welcome LoveKnittingSocks . No silly questions at all! I am only into my 2nd year and this thread was such a source of knowledge & motivation last year

Had a super productive day, despite lending my car to oh so had to walk to the lottie, with canes and brassicas!

Planted 5 calabrese and 2 sprouts, fitted them with my home made collars and put up a makeshift mesh using canes and little plant pots did the rest of the weeding of beds with things in. Dug over the same bit left to do of one bed and wow was it harder now! The season is moving on!

One of my neighbours who is a newb also expressed a bit of admiration (and a smidge of jealousy over how much I have in now it's a weird thing cos you do feel chuffed for your neighbours but also a little gutted when they pull ahead of you! Little and often is paying dividends! I now have broadbeans, raddishes, beetroot, carrots (although I don't think they have germinated - hard to tell), sprouts, calabrese, potatoes, tons of strawberries, raspberries, red currants, blackcurrants & gooseberries

planted 2 small rows of radishes where I had a bit of space from the a row of broadbeans. Came home and have potted on 9 tomatoes & 1 of 3 comfrey plants.

I was given a composter darlik by one of my neighbours at the lottie. The compost heap that is there has rotted away and while there is good compost in there the frame is breaking down. It's also set on a flat surface so I want to get rid of it and make a sitting area there for madam so she can come with me in the summer

Good to know that there may be frosts, I will cover the potatoes that are in the bed in the garden. They're too big to earth up now! I was told a trick by an old hand today that if the potatoes get frost then water them first thing before the sun comes out and it'll save them. Apparently it's the sun heating the frosted leaves that causes the problem

Ok going to quickly tidy up before the family get in!

tibawo

Undecided as to whether to bring in the seedlings in from the back yard as it has been snowing nearby!