Put away your purse & become debt-averse

MissRikkiC

Happy Friday everyone. 

So very envious of all the talk over homegrown fruit and veg. I’d planted tomatoes last year and then ended up with no time available to tend to or even pick them as my daughter was born and now we’ve used the bed for plants this year. I have a raspberry plant with a few very small starters on it which I hope will grow arms and legs as we love them but hearing of all your homegrown makes me want to overhaul the garden! 

We have plans to do that anyway this year but that’s mostly the one side and it will be for my daughters benefit rather than ours, however maybe I’ll just be satisfied with mud pies and mud tea from her kitchen (that we/I intend to build!) 

We have a great garden centre near us that’s really not badly priced (we recently bought 8 smaller ceramic pots, 4 medium and 2 large ones, 3 house plants and some soil for £75! That said I have no clue what I’m doing so will be watching intently for advice even with the basics like looking after plants through the winter, from my very lack lustre garden! 

I too, am enjoying a hot bath in peace before putting my daughter to bed, enjoy your Friday everyone

Baileys_Babe

Thank you @foxgloves for the rhubarb information. Hopefully next year I will have a mountain of rhubarb.

We need to up the fruit and vegetables growing in our garden if only we had any knowledge of how to do this. 

foxgloves

There's plenty of information about how to grow food @Baileys_Babe. I think I've flagged this before, but my bible for veg growing (plus pretty much all aspects of gardening) back when I bought my first house was Geoff Hamilton's book 'Organic gardening'...so helpful for veg. I still use it now. It does pop up in charity shops. If you are serious about starting to grow a bit more food, think about something you like to eat - say corn on the cob, just as an example. Look at what you'd need to do to make that happen i. e read up about it, find a suitable square of earth for a bed, save yoghurt pots for modules, buy seed next Spring, sow at beginning of May, etc, etc, so you know what you are doing at every stage. Tomatoes are one of the biggest money savers because you don't need to buy them for about 3 months, they can be skinned, blitzed & frozen to use in cooking, you can batch cook pasta sauces, make chutneys for your own stores & for gifting, use on pizzas, etc. I always feel I really get my money's worth from my single packet of tomato seeds & some compost - all grown without chemicals & with food metres, not miles.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
Fab sunshine all day, but not so hot as to cause me to wilt into a heap. Perfect! Visited a local beauty spot this morning, for which we have a parking pass, so only expenditure was a coffee & biscuit each (from our Personal Spends) plus a new keyring for me (mine keeps pinging apart), one for the front door key (old one was from a Christmas cracker & am surprised it lasted as long as it did, lol) & a birthday card for a friend. So different from the Spendy Years when I seemed to start spraying cash around as soon as I entered a gift shop.
As we had bought coffee out, we came home for lunch & have spent the afternoon in the garden. Mr F has cleared a mini jungle & removed a dead thicket of clematis from our arch. We were able to shop something from home to stop it looking bare as we had a string of solar lights not in use so we have fitted them around the arch & hopefully they will look pretty as dusk falls. I have planted out the french beans, chopped a bunch of comfrey onto the bed for nutrients then side-shooted & tied in all the tomatoes. Also tied in cucumbers & staked aubergines for a bit of support. Dodgy ankle survived this morning's walk but is aching now after the gardening. Have strapped it up. Looks very incongruous with sparkly silver sandals but I think that damned ligament is going to need some tough love.
Ok, time to go,
Peace, 
F x

Baileys_Babe

Thank you @foxgloves for the book suggestion.
For some reason, I have become paralysed with fear of doing it wrong. You have reminded me I used to grow tomatoes in our previous house, mainly tumbling varieties from hanging baskets, they were delicious.
Your idea of finding out how to grow one thing and build up from there seems manageable, I am going to make a list of the food I would like to grow and then research one item and eventually build up a file suitable for our garden.

Humdinger1

@foxgloves please do fill us in the frog details! You do yourself a disservice; all your writing is fascinating.  You elevate the everyday.  Read much more than I comment but am trying to be more involved, maybe cutting back on the number of diaries I read and be more of a proper community member.  Thanks again love Humdinger x 

QueenJess

Baileys_Babe said:

Thank you @foxgloves for the book suggestion.
For some reason, I have become paralysed with fear of doing it wrong. You have reminded me I used to grow tomatoes in our previous house, mainly tumbling varieties from hanging baskets, they were delicious.
Your idea of finding out how to grow one thing and build up from there seems manageable, I am going to make a list of the food I would like to grow and then research one item and eventually build up a file suitable for our garden.

That's a great idea. I usually try to do too much in one go and still haven't a clue what I'm doing for anything. I need to start again really when I get some time. I'm mainly doing salad leaves this year.

teapot2

Another fan of Geoff Hamilton here, I have a couple of his books and refer to them all the time.  I got mine on the big river for very little cost.
@foxgloves, your mentioning cleaning your duvet in the bath made me smile.  In pre-duvet days when we were wee, my mum used to put a tin bath out in the back green with warm water and detergent and me and my sis would tread the blankets with bare feet to clean them

QueenJess

teapot2 said:

Another fan of Geoff Hamilton here, I have a couple of his books and refer to them all the time.  I got mine on the big river for very little cost.

They are about £3 (including postage) on the Bay of E second hand (my online book place of choice).

foxgloves

@Baileys_Babe - That's a great way of making it feel achievable. You have plenty of time then for saving decent yoghurt pots & food trays to use as modules & seed trays. Cut-down clear plastic bottles also v useful for cloches. Garden centres often let you help yourself to shuttle trays for free.
@Humdinger1 - Contributions always welcome. Thanks for your nice comments. I love writing & have at least three unfinished novels filed away. At this rate, I'll be so ancient by the time I get round to finishing any, I doubt anyone will publish them! Should at least get one of them properly finished though if only for the discipline & because underneath it all, I know I have it in me. 
@QueenJess - That's a very good price, as v useful book. Full of helpful pics & advice. 
@teapot2 - Yes, it is an old fashioned thing to launder stuff in the bath by treading but it has worked for that duvet. It looks much cleaner, smells nice & fresh from drying in the sunshine & will save the cost of buying a new one for the guest bed.
F x