The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Greenglockenspiel

MingVase said:
Strawberries aren't ready until July - they might still flower. Mine are just starting now.

I am hopeful that they will! But I am in the south of England and my neighbours already have fruit on theirs, so we'll see.

Greenglockenspiel

elaine241 said:
Can you eat gourds? I thought they were for ornamental purposes. I have grown radish and they seem to be quite peppery. I have planted the white ones so I can compare. I am cutting plenty of mixed salad leaves from inside the poly tunnel and outside ; so glad not to buy bags of salad from the supermarket. My spinach is about pickable as is some of the bigger leaves of chard. My squash plants are huge and loving life, courgettes, toms, bean and potatoes all healthy. Onions, shallots, kohl rabi ( first year growing), carrots, peas,beetroot, parsnip, cucumber all going well. I haven't space for my brassicas so I will transplant to pots for now and plant out when I do have space. Growing sweetcorn for the first time so I am hoping for lovely sweet cobs. The chilli plants in the poly tunnel are looking very healthy so hopefully I will be self sufficient in these once dried. So glad I had my little flock of hens they have done me proud through this lockdown and kept some of my friends in eggs as well.

Yes, I don't think gourd refers to a specific variety,  I thought it was more of a catch-all term for curcurbita fruits. Not sure if it might also refer to melons and loofahs as well as I think they're also related. I have actually also bought some loofah seeds for next year which I'm quite excited about, I thought homegrown loofahs would make interesting Christmas presents with some nice bath bits.
Our potatoes are also looking healthy, as are onions, garlic and peas. LI could probably start to harvest a couple of cut and come again lettuce leaves but I'm waiting for them to get a bit bigger. Broad beans are flowering but infested with aphids (I have used a homemade garlic spray but it didn't seem to have much of an impact, might make it stronger next time!). Our brassicas have been decimated by something munching on them as well so OH has been eating lots of eggs so I can spread the shells!

boultdj

Greenglockenspiel said:

MingVase said:
Strawberries aren't ready until July - they might still flower. Mine are just starting now.

I am hopeful that they will! But I am in the south of England and my neighbours already have fruit on theirs, so we'll see.

Greenglockenspiel, is it possible you have got everbear strawberry plants? They don't start flowering till July, but then will flower and fruit in about a 6/7 week cycle till the first frost's, latest I ever picked was late November in a very sheltered spot on a south facing wall. Pity non survived the move and I've not been able to replace them as yet.

euronorris

Our radishes have been harvested again recently. Most sow some more this weekend. We are growing a variety called Crimson Giant, that the Heritage Seed Library sent me. I think it is very mild (and I think a Tikka is a bit too hot for me - as a guide to how sensitive my heat radar is lol), with an almost nutty flavour at the end. DD (3) thinks it's very spicy! lol. I guess young tastebuds are a lot more sensitive.

Have also been harvesting cut and come again lettuce every week. We had some with our salad last night, and a couple of spring onions. Have had a few small beetroot too. Though I noticed that they have blackfly on them as well. Arghhhh!!!

Our strawberries are almost ready. A few are just starting to show a tinge of pink. And I am soooo impatient for them to ripen! lol. Still waiting on blueberries and blackcurrents and raspberries.

Our first courgette is also almost ready. I think the garlic is close. Rhubarb didn't amount to much in spring. Died back even. Got too many crowns close together I think. Will try splitting them later in the year when they are dormant. BUT...was showing new signs of life, so stuck an upturned plant pot over them, and a little peak today shows some good new growth there! So, you never know!

Peas and mange tout growing nicely. Mange tout will probably be ready to harvest some next week. Peas will need longer of course. I have done a second sowing of both. Beans also now showing production. One variety suffering more with blackfly than the other.

We harvested our first earlies of potatoes last weekend. They were delicious, but they really need a few more weeks. I was too impatient. I am being more patient with the second earlies (charlotte). But harvesting them with DD was an activity she enjoyed so very much! We used the empty paddling pool to tip it all out into. Kept it all need and tidy, and then I put the soil all back into the potato grow bag ready for the sweet potato experiment.

Impatiently waiting on tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. All growing well, and tomatoes in flower, but, you know. I want them already! lol

GreyQueen

I've never grown white radishes so I cannot opine on them, I just grow whatever I drop my hands on most cheaply, usually French Breakfast, occasionally those round ones whose name has escaped me.

This year I am growing FrankenSquash, my joking name for the seeds I saved from a supermarked Butter Nut Squash. I've grown BNS before on the lotties and they were just fine, but their seeds are always F1 hybrids, so my thoughts are that the supermarket veg will be the same, meaning some mutant squash might come out of the other end. I planted 12 seeds in 6 pots, having lightly abraded the seed casing to let water in faster. They were up in 5 days, 100% germination in the LR. They grew so fast it was shocking, they've been potted on into single pots and are huge, I am transporting them one at a time in the bicycle basket up to the lotties. Planning to dig out the giant dock plant which grew on a muck pile and stick in a couple of Audreys and stand well back. If nothing else, it will be interesting and 400 sq m gives me some room to play with.

Sadly, my spuds were frost burned and all the haulms died, they are generating new tops but the drought has made it a slow process. A few self-sown strawbs are in flower.

euronorris

Oh no, your poor spuds! I remember the frosts well because I was either earthing them up (the main crop which were still quite 'young' at that point), or wrapping them in bubble wrap at night, and then unwrapping them again in the morning for about a week! lol

maryb

I don't think the libraries will be open before July.  In fact they'll probably be among the last things to reopen because people wander round and touch books and you can't easily decontaminate them.  I suppose they might open for computer use but the computers are normally right beside the books rather than in a separate area

ETA just checked my local library - all my loans have been auto renewed until August

Rowan9

I wonder if libraries will open for collection though? And limit the number of people in? That might work before August. 

All this talk of radishes and cut and come again salad leaves is making me want a big salad for tea. I have two little tomato plants coming up from delicious tiny tomatoes. 

Greenglockenspiel

boultdj said:

Greenglockenspiel said:

MingVase said:
Strawberries aren't ready until July - they might still flower. Mine are just starting now.

I am hopeful that they will! But I am in the south of England and my neighbours already have fruit on theirs, so we'll see.

Greenglockenspiel, is it possible you have got everbear strawberry plants? They don't start flowering till July, but then will flower and fruit in about a 6/7 week cycle till the first frost's, latest I ever picked was late November in a very sheltered spot on a south facing wall. Pity non survived the move and I've not been able to replace them as yet.

A good theory, but they are a mixture of Elsanta and Sonata so mid-season. Hopefully my neighbour has earlies and mine will flower soon 😊

annieb64

Ancient washing machine died this morning-a motor fault according to the display panel. Local shop has just delivered a new one. DH and I had to drag it into the kitchen which was hard work. We had put the old one on the drive and the delivery man took it away so one less thing to worry about.
The local shops are really brilliant in this lockdown. I hope everyone keeps using them afterwards