The ups and downs and ins and outs of growing your own, 2018

Waterlily24

We picked our first tomatoes today - just three but one had been eaten by something. Some others will be ready soon. Two cucumbers are about 5/6 inches long so they'll be ready soon too.

smeeinnit

zafiro1984 wrote: »

happy days :)

My tomatoes are not even in flower but I did pick 2 raspberries, needless to say they didn't reach the kitchen.

Same here with the toms, a small amount of raspberries have made the kitchen however, about 6 lol

zafiro1984

Yesterday
Finally got one set of main potatoes in, one more set to go, hopefully I'll do it over the weekend.
Weeded the onion/shallot bed.
Pulled the plug on the parsnips, nothing really germinated. I'll put some leeks in there when they are big enough.
Watered everything when I got tired

Today
I want to finish off my runner and french climbing beans, everything is ready but as soon as they get planted I need to net them - rabbit problem.
Looked at the blackcurrants yesterday, I could start picking , they are netted - dear problem if they are not netted.

we'll see how things go
Got a youngster (horse) going to its new home first thing in the morning so need to get that ready today they are coming 350miles for him, so I don't know how much time I'll have for the plot.

Kantankrus_Mare

How long did you give your parsnips zafiro? Mine have been in for at least 4 weeks and still no signs. My leeks have barely germinated either so managed to get some in the reduced bit in B&Q yesterday and got them planted out. Didnt really cost me anything as I paid with some giftcards I earnt on here

Strawberries are doing so well. In all up to now , I think we have had 19 large punnets off them and still more to come.

Almost all of my butternut squash germinated and they are out.

Husband came with me today and lifted my garlic and overwintered onions. Left to dry off in shed. Tomatoes wont be long, and hopefully cucumbers as well. Courgettes are going to be plentiful. Just waiting for all my bulbs to flower. My sweet peas looked very forlorn when I first planted them out but they have started flowering so must have done something right.

Raspberries are just going red too. Love this time of year when all the hard work comes to fruition. :T

CAFCGirl

zafiro1984 wrote: »

CAFGirl:- I gather this must be about your border dispute. I'd get onto the council again and have a serious moan, try to ring and talk to them rather than an email.

Well..... I made a point of going up there yesterday, ready to hand over my notice. A mixture of aspects - ever crop failing, bindweed taking over, the sheer magnitude of work, the border dispute, lack of support from the council.

I was doing a spot of weeding out of view from the pathways when I heard two of the comittee and our site rep stop at the border and start discussing how 'well this one has a slipf o a thing working it all by herself bless her, and her neighbour has been giving her stick about the border saying its all on her'.... to which the response was 'yeah thats not on that'.
At which point I popped my head up and said 'Could you guys please help me out with what im meant to do because ive emailed the council, ive gone through my tenancy and i cant get any answer from anywhere?!'

We managed to figure out that both myself an my neighbour are right in where we think our plot boundaries are, and the gap thats then generated is in fact meant to be a pathway (which should exist between all neighbouring plots). Mine has the main cement path on 3 edges so its never occured to me that there should be a plot pathway.
So long and short is, we were both right, and we're both responsible. The site rep said if we get it cleared and bag up any rubbish on it, the council will collect it as we've inherited the plots in that condition. So there is that at least.

Having an answer does make things a little bit more bearable. They did also mention they will tell my plot neighbour and any animosity etc, to let them know and they'll address it.

After my weeding was done, I found one beetroot. had actually survived against all odds. About baby beetroot size, golfball. I can honestly say that beetroot saved me from myself and I have a renewed sense of purpose and motivation for it all.

I subsequently have sown some more beetroot in that bed :rotfl:

unrecordings

Hurray !
Sometimes it's the little things that can turn a situation around

Cheery_Daff

So pleased there finally seems to be an answer CAFCGirl! :j

Lovely to hear of all your harvests :j

We were very late starting as we didn't move house til the end of Feb and then it snowed quite a bit and then it took us a while to settle in. Finally got round to putting beans in the ground today :j :j Loads of squash and courgette on the go although still only a few inches high in pots being hardened off - aiming to plant out next weekend. Cucumbers about two inches high with only four leaves - no sign of any actual cucumbers yet :rotfl:

I think if I manage to harvest ANYTHING this year I'll count it as a success :rotfl:

Ooh, I have managed to make compost though - quite impressive as I didn't build the bins til mid-late March so it's only really had three months, if that :j Obviously just got the right mix of mostly veg peelings, coffee grounds, and some old hay that was left in an outbuilding :j

VintageHistorian

I have managed to harvest 2 strawberries (damned birds got the others) and 6 radishes for DH. Sadly realised that even when kept in the fridge that radishes don't last very long so I've told DH I'll pick them on the day they're needed. I've also moved the strawberry plant closer to the house to try and keep the birds away. The in-laws gave us some canes and netting but I've actually used two of the canes to prop up one of the tomato plants and the cucumber plant, they were both damaged by winds the other week.

The other tomato plant seems to be determined to grow wide rather than tall. It looks quite droopy but has a lot of flowers, so presumably it'll survive long enough to give us some toms.

Also moved the pepper plant closer to the house as it's growing quite slowly and I think it's not getting enough sunshine, closer to the house will give it an extra few hours of sun.

Dizzy_Ditzy

:hello:

I need to do some reading back but from what I can see, there's been lots of successes and some down moments for whatever reason. Keep going folks, you know it's worth it

I *finally* got the news I've been waiting for today that the plot I want is now up for grabs :j it's the plot next to where we have the chickens so essentially we are just going to extend the chicken plot but I can't tell you how much easier it will be over the winter and next year to have both plots on the same site!

I'm only growing potatoes and the contents of my fruit cage at Plot A so it will be easy to wind that one down.

BUT...

The bloke who's plot I'm taking over has decided to sell everything that isn't the actual plot - the shed and contents and everything. I guess that's fair enough but it just seems to me like he's still delaying the process. I don't actually need a new shed as we have two on the chicken plot or tools as we already have everything we need. The bindweed and brambles on that plot are over 6ft high in places so I fully intend on negotiating an overgrown discount from the council.

Of course, all this is dependent on the council pulling their fingers out and getting things moving. I suspect that I'll have to chase them, a lot :rotfl:

And the funny thing - I'll be swapping Plot 6a and Plot 6a :rotfl: :rotfl:

CAFCGirl

Back up the plot early doors this morning. I managed to clear two large beds and put in some red cabbage and celery plus one lonely courgette plant. Built a brassica cage and then weeded out two smaller beds which i think I will just expand into one larger bed.

At home I've done some more sowings of squashes, cucumbers, lettuce and fennel plus some garlic chives, basils, thai basil and coriander.

I do also have some sweetcorn holding on for dear life so will get those in next time I go up this week.

Not sure if anything will actually produce or if I've left them too late but at least it might look like I'm growing something for a while