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

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Well, it's a beautiful morning, considering I haven't slept (again), so I wandered out into the garden with my bucket of black coffee and glanced at the salads -

and shot straight back inside, swearing profusely whilst making up a warm water, sugar and yeast confection.

I now have nuclear rated slug traps. And a lot of rather disappointed inch long ginger slugs who thought they were going to get a free beer. Five already in ten minutes, not counting the salad crop interlopers who were quite unhappy to be removed and unceremoniously pinged straight into a pot of rock salt.


Where are my beautiful, wonderful, cannibalistic Leopard Slugs when they're needed?

:mad:

CAFCGirl

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Where are my beautiful, wonderful, cannibalistic Leopard Slugs when they're needed?

:mad:

Maybe you should go into business farming them? I know I'd happily buy some in :cool:

As a side thought, we were discussing this at the plot on Sunday, does anyone interplant their crops with 'sacrificial offerings'?
I was debating whether growing lettuces inbetween my cabbages would 'redirect' the slimy shenanigans to the sacrifices and offer some level of protection?

I'm trying to grow organically and don't mind a few nibbles, gives it that 'lived in look' :rotfl:

Suffolk_lass

I regularly cook disks of leeks then add to steamed cauliflower in an oven-proof dish and make a cheese sauce to pour over them and bake/grill it for a mid-week supper for under £2 and that's buying both lots of veg from the SM. I share your frustration re slimy things. There is clearly a little slimy thing in my greenhouse who thinks it's some kind of gourmet pantry. Lots of tiny green shoots that looked really perky suddenly turned into slime-shiny stumps. They are all outside now so Mr Blackbird and Mr Robin can help us out.

We've discovered a bumble-bee nest in the pea bed. Love bees so it can stay but no idea how big (not very - nothing like a ground wasp-nest). Happy to share on that one.

I brought my melon seeds and cucumbers in-doors at the weekend. They have been in the greenhouse for almost a month with no activity but now, on top of the bug-zapper, with gentle bottom-heat, they are bursting through. Two more yesterday - a cucumber and a water melon - with little green tips. They just need to get a bit of a wiggle on and grow a bit faster now as they are almost a month later than planned!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Maybe you should go into business farming them? I know I'd happily buy some in :cool:

As a side thought, we were discussing this at the plot on Sunday, does anyone interplant their crops with 'sacrificial offerings'?
I was debating whether growing lettuces inbetween my cabbages would 'redirect' the slimy shenanigans to the sacrifices and offer some level of protection?

I'm trying to grow organically and don't mind a few nibbles, gives it that 'lived in look' :rotfl:

As I also seem to hold the Regional Convention for Cabbage Whites of All Sizes and Their Friends of Colour every summer and can't guarantee my neighbours will tolerate a wasps' nest every year (it's most convenient when they do), that's what the rather healthy looking Nasturtiums poking up out of the beds are for. Sometimes we even get to eat some of the flowers.

By the looks of it, I'd suggest radishes sown shallowly along with the lettuce would be the perfect mix of sacrificial mollusc chow. And a yeast/stale beer chaser every three foot to make certain.


My courgette seedlings that were planted indoors and shot up just keeled over and died, despite being under glass and in good sunlight/warmth when put out. I think that I might have a couple of outdoor sown seedlings coming out, but I can't guarantee that, so I bunged a load more in a few days ago - as the scrubby bare earth that most people would refuse to call a lawn is now what looks like a flourishing woodland glade, and Himself's sunflowers are poking their heads out of the Pot Noodle pot, I think if they're going to germinate and grow, now's the time to do it.


The strongest seedlings, however (apart from the Dock, Alkane and White and Giant Red Clover in the 'lawn', plus the Dicentra Alba by the permanently shady fence, which is now roughly four foot round), are the Broad Beans (about five inches high and already starting to bud) and the Borage. Not quite certain how they've appeared, I'm guessing Himself being directed to 'the bed with the herbs in, stick the seeds in something resembling a line about six inches behind the sage and camomile plants, roughly where the beetroot seedlings are beginning to show' was interpreted as 'chuck 'em any old where in the other beds instead'.



The peas seem to be quite stocky and happy as well, only about five inches too, but a lot happier looking than the Sweet Peas which were planted at exactly the same time and sprouted earlier. They might eventually condescend to curl their tendrils through the massive Rose bush prunings I lost blood acquiring and placing upside down for them. I think the best thing I did was to be lazy and not quite sink the loo rolls they were planted in quite deep enough, so they stuck out of the ground by about 3/4 of an inch.



Just been back to check on my fiendish traps. Oh dear. They have a head of foam on them like I've been to Oktoberfest. Just proves how fresh the yeast was, I suppose. Maybe I should make some fresh bread?

**********************************


Oh, there was something else I've been meaning to mention. I get 'eco' cat litter for the Idiot Animal. It's made from bran husks, I think - it certain looks like All Bran when I chuck it in the tray. Anyhow, I had a very large sack of it that had been torn and allowed to get wet before delivery, so I got it free, but couldn't very well use it for His Idiotness. I chucked it out under the Pyracantha when all was bare and then slung a light dusting of top soil over it, and I've pointed the hosepipe at it a couple of times for about three minutes.

I've now got a five foot fern (most likely Bracken, I know it's not very healthy to have in large quantities, but it's only one plant and I'm not going to be spending much time on the OH's childhood Moors this year, sadly) that never grew past two and a half foot before, buttercups that are eighteen inches high and flowering madly, and the entire heap has primroses, cowslips and about a million other seedlings appearing on it.


I'm thinking that maybe it's acting as a sponge to hold moisture in? It might be worth somebody else trying it.


It's the complete opposite story out the front, where everything grows in full sun, gets heated day and night from the bricks and makes do with what goodness can be obtained from builders' sand, a bit of gravel from where they pebbledashed the wall before I moved in (why? what was wrong with an old brick wall?) and a couple of handfuls of compost covering the entire three inch wide gap alongside the house and the first row of bricks.

I have about four lavender plants, the oldest of which is about four years old, was a whole three inches high when I got it and is now about 3 foot wide by 4 foot long - all I do is cut off the stalks and use them for kindling, and stick a couple of cuttings into the gap along the edge of the paving in the summer. An equally small rosemary was bunged in a month ago in a gap and is now eight inches high. And the three year old Honeysuckle is actually capable of reaching my bedroom window. If it wasn't happily spreading along the [completely useless as they never connected it up to a drainpipe] guttering on the bay window below. That should be appealing to some sort of butterfly - and the scent on a summers' night is amazing. The blooms are fat, long red and yellow now, so won't be long before opening.


I don't think OH has even thought to water the sand plants, he's just about managed to chuck three watering cans full into the windowbox a couple of times after prompting over two days at a time.



Considering it's 9am, the Blackbird and Wren still haven't shut up since before dawn. As Idiot Cat is snoring now, hopefully they're actually in the garden again.

I think another bucket of coffee is needed. I refuse to go to sleep during the day, as I'll only find it impossible to sleep again tonight. So I'm back to the back door step for a while. I like it there.

Fruittea

Morning Everyone
If anyone is interested in buying seed Thompson and Morgan have got some of their veg seed marked down to 99p and if you buy five you get one free. Postage is only £1.95. I've ordered some really interesting stuff for next year.
My you have all been busy. I'm in between on quite a few things now. My pumpkins have had to be potted into bigger pots and are still filling up the greenhouse - it's a bit too windy to let them out yet.
Cucumbers are the same way.
All the tomatoes are in the right places and looking very strong - I have about 18.
Neighbours who OH gardens for are asking for me courgettes - so I'll sow a few more as they'll gallop again at this time of year.
Practically all the space on my allotment plot is full - just the pumpkin beds to go. The next space will be from the first earlies but I was a little late getting them in so I won't have any until around the third week in June.
Salad is everywhere and I'm giving plenty away to neighbours and to new allotmenteers. The rest is being inter-cropped as sacrifices to the slugs.
I kept chickens in the front gardens for about 8 years (now they only have half of it) so I don't really have problems with slugs there.
I meant to mention that I'm trying out growing onions from seed for the first time. I over wintered sets which are coming along fine as well - just in case. The seed seems to be coming along very well. I thinned them out yesterday and they looked very good. If all goes well I should have them just right at the end of the season and good for storing over winter.
So I've bought more seed from T&M which looking interesting and cost very little. Let's see how they go.
Just a bit of weeding for me today.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I regularly cook disks of leeks then add to steamed cauliflower in an oven-proof dish and make a cheese sauce to pour over them and bake/grill it for a mid-week supper for under £2 and that's buying both lots of veg from the SM. I share your frustration re slimy things. There is clearly a little slimy thing in my greenhouse who thinks it's some kind of gourmet pantry. Lots of tiny green shoots that looked really perky suddenly turned into slime-shiny stumps. They are all outside now so Mr Blackbird and Mr Robin can help us out.

We've discovered a bumble-bee nest in the pea bed. Love bees so it can stay but no idea how big (not very - nothing like a ground wasp-nest). Happy to share on that one.

I brought my melon seeds and cucumbers in-doors at the weekend. They have been in the greenhouse for almost a month with no activity but now, on top of the bug-zapper, with gentle bottom-heat, they are bursting through. Two more yesterday - a cucumber and a water melon - with little green tips. They just need to get a bit of a wiggle on and grow a bit faster now as they are almost a month later than planned!

Depending upon which bees precisely, between 20 and 200 at peak capacity, their teeny honeypot being from thimble to small eggcup sized. They won't care about you being round the nest, either, as they don't depend on it to survive the winter (only a new Queen will survive and hibernate). Compare to Honeybees, who go up to about 50,000+ and get very miffed if you disturb them, as their honeystore is their winter lifeline.

[I did a stint of Bumblebee PR at a flower show a few years back. Spent hours answering the same questions from a constant stream of expensively dressed, silver haired ladies in Pashminas, all called Bunny or Bunty by their Panama hat-wearing husbands - if there's a nest in a tree, they're Tree Bees. Leave them alone and it'll be fine. If there's a nest in a bird box, they'll be Tree Bees, leave them alone and they'll be fine. If they've got a white tail, they're probably White Tailed Bumblebees (or Buff Tailed, just to be awkward), leave them alone and they'll be fine, if they're in a compost heap, leave them alone, if they've got a red bum, they're probably red tailed Bumblebees, leave them alone, if they're carrying leaves, they're Leafcutter bees, not bumbles, leave them alone, if they're nesting in the mortar, they're Mason bees, not bumbles, leave them alone, if they're going under the shed, they're probably Bumblebees nesting in an old mouse nest, leave them alone....... I was quite tired by the end of doing that. And I'm pretty sure that if OH asks 'so what type of bee is that?' whilst I'm asleep in the garden, I'd probably mutter 'they're fine, leave them alone' without waking up].

MissPop

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

[...] expensively dressed, silver haired ladies in Pashminas, all called Bunny or Bunty by their Panama hat-wearing husbands - [...] 'they're fine, leave them alone'

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

So in short, leave them alone?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

MissPop wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

So in short, leave them alone?

Strangely enough - YES!

londonlydia

After taking a screenshot of Suffolk Lass's response about the cherry tree because it was so good, I've got another question for the cumulative wisdom of this thread!

As I'm starting with a blank canvas (Well a canvas of either weeds or the driest clay at least!) I'm going to put in raised beds due to locking knees when I kneel. I'm trying to balance the space I have between veg/ main rotation and permanent things though. As a newbie I am just learning about crop rotating, but am now confused as to how many beds/ cross you're meant to rotate.... Three, four, or even five! I will rule out five, but I could do three or four. So, is one easier/better than the other, or depend on the preference of veg?

Think I solved the brassica issue btw, someone said I could make my own coleslaw which I do like

LoveKnittingSocks

Good evening!

The rain has been relentless here for the last couple of days but the sun finally showed its face this afternoon. My little container garden is going mad, and I'm amazed at how quickly things grow once they get started. My potato plants are huge and I think I've spotted a few flower buds - I'm really excited.

I've planted more onions, spring onions and lettuce, two more potato bags (slightly smaller) and some more basil. I've ordered some radish seeds and a blueberry bush which haven't arrived yet - I'm hoping they'll be here by the weekend so I can get planting.

My four remaining sprout plants are now outside under plastic bottle cloches - as soon as I put them out, the heavens opened, but they're still hanging in there

Please can someone tell me how big should my beetroot plants be before I thin them out?

I hope everyone has a great week :j