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

LoveKnittingSocks

Thank you for the welcome.

I came home tonight and found my little mini greenhouse on its side along with my two tomato plants. I've rescued the tomatoes, re-potted them and propped them up with chopsticks in the hope they will recover. I've brought all my other seedlings indoors to try to protect them from tonight's predicted frost - I couldn't lift the potato bags so they'll just have to take their chances.

I'm not sure if I should put them back out tomorrow or keep them inside for a couple of days until the cold spell passes?

We have a medium sized garden but its not accessible at the moment so everything is growing in pots. I've been amazed from watching videos online at the volume of produce that can be grown in everyday containers. No container is safe around here now!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I'd possibly leave it for a couple of days if they haven't grown out there in the first place.


My feet are cold. Wish I had somebody who loved knitting socks here!

CAFCGirl

Fruittea wrote: »

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.

I love that idea! I'm definitely going to make that happen. Thankyou for the suggestion

As for the bindweed and how it grows. it basically just sprouts up everywhere. Theres no real area where a lot of it comes through. There is plenty coming up along the already installed raised beds from the previous tenant as he lined and filled his so they just look for the nearest available spot to come up through.
I must admit I am not a fan of chemicals in general and we try to live in a more organic way/holistic and that was my goal for the allotment too.

CAFCGirl

LoveKnittingSocks wrote: »

Thank you for the welcome.

I came home tonight and found my little mini greenhouse on its side along with my two tomato plants. I've rescued the tomatoes, re-potted them and propped them up with chopsticks in the hope they will recover. I've brought all my other seedlings indoors to try to protect them from tonight's predicted frost - I couldn't lift the potato bags so they'll just have to take their chances.

I'm not sure if I should put them back out tomorrow or keep them inside for a couple of days until the cold spell passes?

We have a medium sized garden but its not accessible at the moment so everything is growing in pots. I've been amazed from watching videos online at the volume of produce that can be grown in everyday containers. No container is safe around here now!

As it should be;)
I re-use the plastic tray containers our dog's food comes in. They are only shallow (about 3cm deep) but I hate paying money for stuff, and even though it gets sent for 'recycling' - I'm never convinced so I'd rather get 10-20 uses from it and then send it off
Yoghurt pots, loo rolls, old buckets, drain pipe, guttering even the heavy duty reusable plastic shoppers if they wear out in places can all be put to great use. There's a certain satisfaction from it too I find.

Minigreenhouse seedlings all look to be doing ok. The tomatoes could do with potting on but I've decided to hold off until this cold snap is over. Hopefully by the weekend temps will be back to normal and I am making plans for a weekend at the plot ALONE :rotfl:

It's also payday on friday (YAY) so will be heading up to the alloment stores to buy some compost and possibly some weed suppressant. I'd like to get a couple of my pallet collars set up as true raised beds and not just 'markers'. They do 75l for £4.20. I dont have any working compost pile/composter on site - just a mound of rubbish - which I also need to get on top of as its encroaching onto the pathway and I'll get in trouble. So a true weekend of graft for me basically.... just to get through the week first :cool:

unrecordings

determined_new_ms wrote: »

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

Thanks for the tip. Smattering of snow here in Sheffield overnight and greenhouse went down to 0.1ºC. My potatoes are just poking through but I just went out and gave them a little water to be on the safe side

Fruittea

Morning Everyone
A lovely bright day here in Gloucestershire and up to 9 degrees today. Temperatures around here will be fluctuating until Friday - so beware with those young plants and seedlings. Bubble wrap is good for wrapping around potatoes in pots - it's just a little extra protection but it will keep them safe - I just throw it over the top of the tops.
Lovely to see new posters - very welcome. I wonder Love knitting Socks if you really can knit socks. As a diversion from the thread I would love to know how to knit the old fashioned kind of walking socks as I wear them around the house.
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes. I'll keep going as well as I can. I had to order some different food from Ocada (easy to cook stuff) and I'll be getting a lift down to the allotment and playing an advisory role.
A neighbour I cat sit for has offered to dig my my bean trench for me - so that's cool - I took bags of half composted compost down to the allotment a while ago. So that will line the trench and then I'll use sheep wool over that and then soil. It should be a great base for the beans.
I'm growing Tenderstar (red flowers) and white lady (white flowers) runners -I'll plant them in a succession of red and white so they look nice. I'm growing them in root trainers and will plant 2 upright rows across the 4.40m space. I'll leave just enough space between the rows to walk through. That way I can easily walk through and pick both sides of the beans - as it makes it easy to pick and not miss any beans. If you miss them and they get to big and tough I'm told it shortens the life of the plant and who wants tough beans.
CAFCGirl glad you liked the cress idea - plant the cress quite densely for the best effect.
About the bindweed. I can understand not wanting to use Roundup etc.
An organic solution that sounds a bit mad but it you can bare it and have a few spare canes and can spare the space works well.
Make a tight wigwam and encourage the bindweed to grow up it - it will want to. You will find the bindweed will shot up the canes and it will leave anything below it to grow on. As it sets flower it is at its most vulnerable (that will be summer time). You can then keel the wigwam over in a thick lump and expose the roots very easily. Pull out the canes and dump the (huge) lump of bindweed in a water trough and let it rot down. The bindweed roots will be weakened (or easy to dig out) and you can use the rotted down juice as a great fertilizer.
I've seen it done to great effect.

CAFCGirl

my whole plot will be covered in wigwams LOL

LoveKnittingSocks

Good morning - snow on the mountains in Wales today and I'm so glad I listened to the experts and brought what I could indoors. Drove to work through a shower of hailstones this morning, the weather's gone mad!

Its coffee break time now and I already have my eye on the almost empty milk bottle in the fridge - I'm sure I can find a use for it.

Fruittea - I hope you feel better soon. Yes I can knit socks. I rediscovered knitting when my mum went into a nursing home, it gives us something to do together and keeps her mind busy. You wouldn't think so but once you get the hang of it socks are quite easy �� Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year!

DH is off today and under instructions to put my mini greenhouse in a safer place out of the wind. I'm thinking of planting a few more seed potatoes in bags this weekend and have a few other things in mind.

Work beckons - hope everyone has a good day.

Fosterdog

I must be lucky in my part of Wales today, glorious sunshine all morning and looking up the valley to the views of Pen-Y-Fan and there's no signs of snow but the rain is due to come in within the hour and stay for the day.

I've had a very busy non gardening weekend and I'm now full of a cold and feeling rotten so it's been nice to get outside a bit this morning to check on everything and get some fresh air.

Outdoors most of the fruit trees doing well and blooming nicely, buds starting on the raspberries, radishes are germinating, peas are getting strong and a few inches tall now, I really need to sort out a support frame around their bamboo wigwam before it's too late, first row of lettuce looking good, potatoes have been earthed up, strawberries seem to be growing well but no signs if flowers yet, and all weeded and watered.

Indoors my calabrese are growing well although I'm down to two after OH managed to break the rest trying to move them and carrying too many at once resulting in the whole lot being dropped, bell peppers finally germinated and are now shooting up, sweetcorn and melons also germinated and doing well. Nothing new planted since last weekend and nothing planned until next weekend.

Garden clearing is going well and I'm starting to see the potential.

One thing I've found annoying this year is the blood fish and bone I bought, I use it every year on pretty much everything I plant and always shop around for offers. Previous years no matter what brand or where it was bought it always looks the same and always works well. My first box this year was no exception from Asda own brand. The next two boxes I bought were from Home Bargains and the texture was quite different to the others, I didn't think much of it at the time. A few weeks into using it I started noticing some mouldy patches in with my potatoes, thinking it was a problem with the spuds I just cleared the mouldy spots and have kept a close eye on them. Now I've noticed the same mouldy patches are popping up in everything I have used the Home Bargains BFB in, really not happy, I obviously can't dig everything up and replant so just have to try and manage it and hope it doesn't affect my crops. So if anyone else uses BFB avoid the Home Bargains one at all costs, it was only about 10p cheaper than the Asda one so not worth the saving if it is that bad.

CAFCGirl

LoveKnittingSocks wrote: »

DH is off today and under instructions to put my mini greenhouse in a safer place out of the wind. I'm thinking of planting a few more seed potatoes in bags this weekend and have a few other things in mind.

I have one of these and even down a side alley next to the house, the wind could take it.
Best advice with having one of these I've found is:

Stand each each (or the entire thing if possibly in a shallow container filled with sharp sand, crushed egg shells, small gravel etc to deter the slugs an snails. Once one gets in it has a ruddy field day with your juicy tender seedlings and can wipe out a whole shelf overnight and then they go off and hide, only to repeat the same the next night :mad:

I would also kiss the bottom shelf goodbye and use this as your weight area. Plastic bottles filled with water and laid on their side provide excellent weights to give the greenhouse some force downward when the winds come.
Alternatively a window planter filled with gravel has the same effect. Mine is held down by a planter filled with small terracotta pots (of which I seem to have eleventy billion), and two milk cartons filled with water.