The all new good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2020

Suffolk_lass

-taff said:

Suffolk Lass, thanks for the vidoe form me too, I loved watching it, reminded me of my mother and my aunties all getting together to do that. Rows and rows of jars all waiting to be dispersed among the family. Loved it. I'm going to watch all her videos now...

And that's exactly how I make it, with a mouli to separate seeds and skins...Except I don't turn the jars over and I'd totally forgotten about the basil! Will do that this year tomato glut permitting! It's a shame you can't buy tomatoes in bulk they they seem to be able to do in the USA and Italy...

Just be aware they are a terrible time stealer!! My friend and I did an Italian Cookery evening class a few years ago with a teacher who had been the chef at the local County Hotel and her English was the same as the Nonna in the video. You can understand it and it makes you smile. Her recipes were written in exactly the same accent so stairwell = stir well, for example. I just read them with that accent and they make perfect sense!

crv I look forward to your evaluation of the different watering systems. When we built our new greenhouse DH ran two pieces of hose pipe under the foundations so we can run electricity and water in there as needed. It is definitely a phase 2 thing for us. DH is my principal watering system at the moment, with me doing the greenhouse and him using the hose!

Planted out two of the sunflowers in the space the humungus agapanthas were removed from the day before, and put 7 large tomato plants outdoors at last into that sunny corner. They were Sungold and Black Russian. Four people have had a clump of agapanthas in the Village so far, with two more to go. It was just massive and I'm sure it is why there is a crack in the extension wall!

[Deleted User]

Sounds like you've been busy suffolk_lass!! 
The greenhouse glass is being picked up tomorrow and the compost arrived so we can start planting at the weekend!! 🙌 The squirrels and pheasants have already started to eye up the veggie beds so we have dug out some mosquito nets that we've had for around 15 years to use as protection for the brassicas as soon as we plant them 😉 I'm happy to share but don't want everything annihilated as soon as we start! 

[Deleted User]

I have a question (possibly a stupid one but I need to ask!) and hope one of you knowledgeable lot can help me out! Dh wants to grow asparagus- I've had a look at a few sites about growing it in raised beds and it seems viable 😉 however, it says that you should plant it down the middle of a 4ft wide bed which is fine, but does this mean that the space around it can't be used for other veg?? I'm keen to grow it but not sure I'm prepared to give up an entire bed for it 🤔

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, mosquito nets - that's a good idea. We are using fruit cage netting in the (perhaps futile) hope that the pollinating bees can get in and out but the cabbage white butterflies cannot(!)

-taff

It does mean that. They have long roots, they look like a squid when they're all stretched out, so yes, you'd have to leave the rest of the bed unsused so as not to disturb the roots. They also take 3 years really to start producing viably. It's a bit like a new rhubarb plant. Take one or two spears for the first couple of years, then you can take many more on the thrid.

[Deleted User]

-taff said:

It does mean that. They have long roots, they look like a squid when they're all stretched out, so yes, you'd have to leave the rest of the bed unsused so as not to disturb the roots. They also take 3 years really to start producing viably. It's a bit like a new rhubarb plant. Take one or two spears for the first couple of years, then you can take many more on the thrid.

Thanks for this taff 😊 I think that I'll probably give it a miss until I work out whether we can afford to lose the space - I need to get at least a full year in before I'll have an idea really 🤔 dh will just have to wait! 😂 

[Deleted User]

My new veg beds! 🙌🙌🙌 (excuse the rest of the bit of garden in view - that's being sorted later this summer! 😂) 
Thought I'd get a piccie on as I'm so happy with them! Sorry! 🙈
Suffolk_lass, I am a bit worried about keeping bees out but I'm hoping it won't have a detrimental effect 🤔

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, they look fantastic - it depends what you grow re pollination! - so runner or climbing beans will need pollination so don't cover them! Are you going for the classic 4-crop rotation? We have in four of ours because the nutrition and disease levels are reduced. I use a book called Practical Allotment Gardening by Caroline Foley (had it years) and it has a really helpful page with the rotation explained:

peewhyeff

Have several large clay pots, and glazed pots lying arond in bits.  On last weeks Gardeners World, Monty Don had a large clay pot which had split into 2 and he said'don't worry, I will be repairing that'.  Has anyone on here had success with repairs,  and what have you used?

[Deleted User]

Suffolk_lass said:

Ooh, they look fantastic - it depends what you grow re pollination! - so runner or climbing beans will need pollination so don't cover them! Are you going for the classic 4-crop rotation? We have in four of ours because the nutrition and disease levels are reduced. I use a book called Practical Allotment Gardening by Caroline Foley (had it years) and it has a really helpful page with the rotation explained:

I'm only planning on using the nets on the brassicas - when I grew them years ago I didn’t net them and they were stripped bare one night!! Just stalks of leaves remained and you could barely even see them through the caterpillars! 🙈😂 I'm happy to lose some stuff to creatures but not everything! 
Yep, the plan is 4 crop rotation 😊 one of the beds will be for cut flowers and another one for my grandbabies to grow what they want so there will be 4 'working' veggie beds- I'm going to put 'window' boxes on the end of the beds for strawberries and grow raspberries etc in pots elsewhere in the garden. At the end of the row of beds there is a decent size patch where I will have my nettles and comfrey growing for liquid fertiliser (the nettles are there already!) and I can put a few slabs there for the bins to put the comfrey and nettles in. I've already got bins that I use for wine making so I'm re-purposing 2 of those 😊 I'm really looking forward to getting started this weekend! 🙌 
My chocolate mint turned up today too so I'll be planting that out in a big pot tomorrow!