The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

euronorris

Has anyone here overwintered garlic? Can I just use a clove from a shop bought garlic, or do I need specific ones? We use garlic a lot, so I'd really like some home grown ones next year.

euronorris

Topher, sorry you've had such a bad season. You are not alone, and I am certainly no expert. It seems to have been a tough year all round I think!


I was expecting/hoping for a second bloom of blueberries, but no joy there. At least, I don't see any new buds or flowers yet and it now seems a bit late for round two.


My shop bought strawberry, June cropping, plants suffered a near fatal drought whilst we were on holiday in May and never really recovered. I didn't realise they were June bearing either until then. Saw less than 10 strawberries from them. I started some strawberries from seed that took forever to germinate (I had almost given up entirely on them), and have taken just as long to start producing (evidently they are everbearing, but I didn't know that when I started with them! lol). I literally ate my first strawberry, grown from seed, last night. lol. It was lush. There are now quite a few more forming, so that's positive, but it was never going to be enough to fill a punnet. I understand that second and third years are better for strawberries, and after that should be replaced with a new plant from one of the runners.


I've had a massive learning curve this year. And still have sooo much to learn.


As for the problems with some of your plants. I'm not sure. I have a book at home about vegetables, and all of the potential problems and how to treat them (or not, as is sometimes the case). I shall try to remember to look it up for you.


As for beans....when I planted mine, I had a similar issue. Pesky slugs! I then planted a new seedling, this time with a cut off plastic bottle placed around it, with some copper tape placed around the top edge. This seemed to be enough to keep them at bag long enough for the plant to get established. They still get the occasional snail/slug, which I pick off by hand, but they have suffered with aphids (been using a soapy water solution to spray on), and now later in the season the caterpillars are also trying to have a go! *rolls eyes*


This video has some helpful tips on dealing with slugs. Going to give the beer trap a try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R7LkDigfDc

zafiro1984

euronorris wrote: »

Has anyone here overwintered garlic? Can I just use a clove from a shop bought garlic, or do I need specific ones? We use garlic a lot, so I'd really like some home grown ones next year.

Garlic is a bit like potatoes. sometimes you can get away with using stuff bought from a supermarket but it is recommended to use virus free cloves. If you use a lot why not buy the proper cloves as I would think most garlic is imported and the cloves may not survive here over the winter. I've grown both undercover and outdoors. The better crop was under cover but I covered the outdoor ones over the winter and the crop was fine.

euronorris

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Garlic is a bit like potatoes. sometimes you can get away with using stuff bought from a supermarket but it is recommended to use virus free cloves. If you use a lot why not buy the proper cloves as I would think most garlic is imported and the cloves may not survive here over the winter. I've grown both undercover and outdoors. The better crop was under cover but I covered the outdoor ones over the winter and the crop was fine.

Thank you. I think I will do just that. Our soil is very clay like, but we don't tend to get boggy (except in exceptional circumstances - when pretty much everywhere round here flooded due to all the rain), and I've just red that hard neck varieties will still grow in clay soil.


I definitely do NOT want to introduce any viruses.

FoxFace

Well, most of the tall weeds have been cut back now and we found a few beds the previous owners had installed. We were thinking we may cover the bed areas to mulch, they are very grassy (including couch unfortunately) but actually pretty clear of any other weed… so will these beds need to dug over etc before we cover them... I'm googling and there seems to be a massive difference of opinion, some saying I need to dig out all weed roots and some saying if I leave them under black cover, they will die down to a manageable amount anyway?

Started to feel a little overwhelmed for the first time last night... clearing the taller weeds was the easy part and has uncovered just how much grassy weedy soil we actually have to clear.

unrecordings

I overwinter, but use growing stock (not supermarket), the seed suppliers tend to use bulbs & varieties from France, where conditions are nearer those of the UK (compared with supermarket bought which could be Spain, Morocco, Latin America etc). My garlic is generally poor though, I might not bother this year unless something catches my eye

silverwhistle

FoxFace, I know the feeling, but at least the 'we' bit must mean there's more than one pair of hands to help. I stand and contemplate my new wasteland alone!

Spotted another frog the other day, and a couple of juvenile slow worms, which have obviously appreciated my plot for its generous cover!

My two bay compost heap is now up and running today, thanks to pallets from the local plumbers merchant who also provided cardboard for lining it and mulching. A whole tub of apple fallers from my garden, some top material from my domestic compost heap, sawdust and rotted horse manure.

In other positive news my blood pressure seems to have gone down markedly. My suspicion is that it's not just being outdoors but swinging a mattock is great for exercising and eliminating aggression.. PS: Wear a shower cap or your hair fills with soil..

No sheds are allowed on our plot but I may put in a large box: a few more tools left up there would mean I could make more visits by pushbike as it's only 6/7 minutes. Next year when I go there to water I'd hope to incorporate my training runs into the routine.



On the subject of garlic, the Isle of Wight grows plenty. It's a bit of a microclimate, but if you find out what variety they grow they should be pretty well adapted to UK conditions.

unrecordings

silverwhistle wrote: »

In other positive news my blood pressure seems to have gone down markedly. My suspicion is that it's not just being outdoors but swinging a mattock is great for exercising and eliminating aggression

That's good news. I'm still biding my time before I get out there again, with the kind of muscle fatigue I have it's a very fine line between a good work out and causing damage.

euronorris

Well, I 'popped'* into town on my lunch break to go to Wilkos and check out what they had. Got some bone meal/potassium feed/whatever it's called to put in the trug for the none tomato stuff. The beetroot I planted weeks ago, along with the spring onions etc, have barely grown at all. Like they are stunted. And I think in my keenness to feed the tomatoes, I've put way too much nitrogen into the soil! Whoops!


Whilst there I grabbed some Garlic bulbs for £2 to try. Though it is a good tip to check out what the Isle of Wight is growing as have had some lovely garlic and chilli pepper sea salt from my parents visit to the garlic farm there on their holidays.


Popped into Savers whilst there as heard they had 1kg bags of tate and lyle sugar for 49p. Indeed they did, so grabbed two bags as DH getting through a lot with his ginger beer making at the moment.


*By popping into town, I mean got stuck in traffic and searching for a parking spot in the multi story because I forgot that as a seaside town it would be heaving during the summer holidays! Whoops!

zafiro1984

Just watered and collected tomatoes, courgettes, carrots, two varieties of dwarf beans, runners, more onions, few raspberries, cucumber, foraged for blackberries and noticed that the rose hips are ready.

made tomato soup with garlic and chilli (both home grown and frozen last year) froze the soup. Eat some cucumber, toms, courgette and carrots sprinkled with some herbs, dried garlic and dried chilli for lunch. Sorted out what was going to be used with dinner and froze what I could of the rest

I'd forgotten just how much of the day is taken up with harvesting and storing fruit and veg in one form or another at this time of the year and I haven't made any jam, jelly or chutney yet this year.