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The even newer good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2021!

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  • Still harvesting courgettes, beans and tomatoes and just finished the last of the sweetcorn- the turnips are finished now and the swede has been eaten by creatures! 😂 Parsnips, savoy cabbage, brussel sprouts and leeks are looking good and the salad leaves and radish are still going strong. The one failure this year is butternut squash- loads of growth but no fruit 😔 not a major issue as we'll compost the plant but very disappointing as they did so well last year 🤔
    DNF: £708.92/£1000
    JSF: £708.58/£1000

    Winter season grocery budget: £600.85/£900

    Weight loss challenge 2024: 11/24lbs
    1st quarter start:9st 13.1lb
    2nd quarter start:9st 9.2 lb
    3rd quarter start: 9st 6.8 lb
    4th quarter start: 9st 10.2 lb
    End weight: 8st 13lb

    'It's the small compromises you keep making over time that start to add up and get you to a place you don't want to be'

  • droopsnoot
    droopsnoot Posts: 1,868 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Picked my first pepper the other day, seems to taste OK. A few of the other plants have peppers on them, but the rest seem not to be doing very well at all. Still, other than time and a bag of compost, it's cost me nothing. Even though I only planted about a third of the seeds that I got from my supermarket pepper, I couldn't stop myself from saving the seeds from the "new" one.

    Planted my lettuce out in the cold frame a few weeks ago, and something has taken them. Perhaps try these again next year.
  • Late to this thread but Hi ! We moved to Ludlow in April and are loving it. As we wanted to leave the garden for a year "to see what happens" - bind weed happens... that's what !
    We've not planted much but what we have done is doing ok ...3 fairly productive  courgette plants , runner beans are starting to produce in useful numbers, picked a bowl of very red tomatoes this morning, had a couple of chilli's but not as much as I hoped , maybe try them in the conservatory next year ... planted a bag of sprouting potatoes and had a bumper crop off them !!  
    I've dug over a reasonable patch of garden so will get more in next year .

    DEBT FREE - Feb '21& Mortgage Free Nov '24
    Now, let's look at FIRE
  • MissRikkiC
    MissRikkiC Posts: 1,409 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Im also late to the thread as is @Singlespeeder however have recently built 4 raised beds from Pallet collars (1/2 sizes) and am currently planting for winter/spring. About to go back at read with interest as other than (mostly) successful tomatoes and a handful of cucumber this year, im SUCH a newbie! 

    Ps. @Singlespeeder - We are in Shrewsbury, hello fellow County person :)
    Follow here for the daily life of an ADHD mum with 2 children and a new mortgage to pay

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6570879/life-in-our-forever-family-home-and-the-mortgage-that-came-with-it#latest
  • Singlespeeder
    Singlespeeder Posts: 285 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 31 August 2021 at 3:48PM
    @MRC we contemplated the advantages of Shrewsbury over Ludlow, there are a few, but found a house we loved in Ludlow and were lucky enough to get it.
    I have odd raised beds without any structure raising them.... I really need to sort them out over winter but unsure of the best way forward.... I'm super cheap and wood isn't :( 
    I have started cabbages off and they're looking good, will need potting on shortly.
    I also want to get garlic planted now for next year and am after rhubarb too... I also seem to look for it at the wrong time to plant it

    It's all very exciting !
    DEBT FREE - Feb '21& Mortgage Free Nov '24
    Now, let's look at FIRE
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,773 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    You can use any material for raised beds. Check out freegle/FB giving sites etc. for pallets, old bricks, old stone. People use old bed frames or other furniture broken down - even old tyres! 

    Old windows make great cold frames if they're not too rotten!
  • Suffolk_lass
    Suffolk_lass Posts: 10,265 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Welcome to the thread, both of you!

    I think a good way to contain bindweed is to let it climb up bamboo canes, then you can topically treat it with one of the "take it to the roots" controls containing glyphosate. I would be doing this now and then trying to dig it out - I do this in spring when the roots are white cords in the soft ground but the downside is that they snap and any remnant is viable, so my method controls rather than eradicating it.

    Good autumn things to think about are sweet peas and broad beans here. They will be in the cold frame rather than the greenhouse as I know I share that space with mice under the weed suppressing membrane.

    My cousin, who does a bit of weeding for me once a week, has decided to give up his three Tuesday jobs which includes us. I am going to need a better kneeler.
    Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
    OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
    I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
    My new diary is here
  • Singlespeeder
    Singlespeeder Posts: 285 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 1 September 2021 at 11:02AM
    On the bindweed front ..IT'S WAR !! We're just on a constant Search and Destroy mission. In previous years (before we moved in) the orchard was totally overrun with the hateful stuff, but we cleared that along with some Ivy (more to do this winter ) and have been really vigilant in picking any vines that make a "break for the trees" ... same as keeping the hedges clear too. I've reclaimed a veg plot for next year, 3x 4m square at the moment but with another couple of metres to clear yet. This is arduous work digging and removing the roots as best I can. I then cover the dug ground with thick cardboard which seems to force the anaemic roots to the surface, when I clear them again and so on ..... it HAS to be better now than when we began, as the garden is not like next doors which is JUST bindweed.
    We don't want to used chemicals. So we'll just keep picking and digging... it must weaken the plant, putting all that effort into growing new stems and never getting to flower or see much sunshine.... that's our thoughts anyway.

    I think I'll do broad beans - I've had poor crops before so stopped growing them, will try again. Any preferred varieties?
    DEBT FREE - Feb '21& Mortgage Free Nov '24
    Now, let's look at FIRE
  • carinjo
    carinjo Posts: 931 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I think I'll do broad beans - I've had poor crops before so stopped growing them, will try again. Any preferred varieties?
    I'll be doing Aquadulce which is what my neighbours on allotment grow over winter. And I can confirm they all survived frost and bit of snow earlier this year! 
    It's good for the soul to walk with your soles on the soil. 
  • We have a large garden, over 230 feet long. Goes up a west facing slope so gets sun through the evening too, on the odd occasions there is any.
    It's sort of in thirds, the first nearest the house is dominated by a large lovely Yew tree and various areas of seclusion and shade. The middle third is a small lawn, 3 /4  veg beds and a large shed.
    The top third is fruit trees ( several varieties of apple and 2 damson trees) and the burgeoning wildlife area.
    It's all been uncared for for a couple of years  before we moved in so is taking some effort to tame, though we don't want it manicured. Scruffy is good, sort of suits us ;)
    We've collected foxglove seeds and spread them about up the top.  And we're always on the lookout for hollyhocks for seed pods, we wander the town looking for plants to 'borrow' from. It's all for a good cause!
    Last nights walk was fabulous as we struck the motherlode ! There's a house behind ours with a beautiful garden, loads of colour ( and hollyhocks) ... we were stood admiring the garden when the owners turned up and we got chatting :) Lovely people. Gave us a number of seed pods, a huge allium head including seeds, and 3 Verbena plants :) They've also got our address and said they will drop more seeds off in due course! Exactly how neighbourhoods should be. And they're not alone, we got given some raspberry plants earlier in the year, and there often boxes outside houses with free plants on them. If we get inundated with hollyhocks (it could happen !) we too will be giving them away.

    Proper thrift !
     


    DEBT FREE - Feb '21& Mortgage Free Nov '24
    Now, let's look at FIRE
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