2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

carinjo

@sammy_kaye18 i got a w1lk0 wine tap last year to add to a big black bin for making nettle feed. Was about £6. 
Epic fail this morning. Ms C and i was on allotment at 6am to water and get the brassicca bed ready. Trying to put the netting of last year over frame realised it won't fit because we changed the height and length!  I was annoyed and Ms C was like no worries, i'll weed, you go to work.
She completely tidied the front plot: weeding, fixing the beds' borders etc. 
It looks amazing. 
Niece and nephew coming to visit tomorrow i'll get them to do some planting, they keen outdoorsy kids! 

MissRikkiC

I did it @sammy_kaye18 and it’s perfect for collecting rain water for the blueberries as they need rainwater over tap water. We got the tap and cap for it for a couple of quid and used plumbers mate for the seal. The plumbers mate is better than sealant or the likes and is likened to the stuff they use in fish tanks. My husband used a hacksaw to remove the lid. The only thing I would suggest is paving slabs to lift it slightly, don’t put the tap too high up and put something that floats in there like a log incase anything does happen to get in; it won’t drown.

KajiKita

Finally got my runner beans in the ground today. Need more mulch to go around them to keep the weeds and the water down in the ground, but it feels like a real piece of progress ❤️

Getting really fed up with the bindweed - it’s taking sooo much time to (try!) and keep on top of it …. 

KK

carinjo

@KajiKita i'm going to share advice @Suffolk_lass gave on here previously: guide the bindweed up a bamboo cane or similar and then spot treat it with your preferred weedkiller. (I hope i got it right!) I've got a small paintbrush and knot killer and started using that on the bindweed and marestail. Slow, painstaking work, but life is too short to dig out weeds if one works full time. Good luck! 

KajiKita

Thanks for the suggestion @carinjo 😊

KK

Suffolk_lass

Yes, that was it @carinjo - over here I have resigned myself to control rather than killing. 

We (DH) managed to plant all the climbing beans (blauhilde, borlotti and cosse violette with the additional benefit of lovely flower and pod colours) and runners (firecracker and moonlight).  I select and start them, lovingly tend them until they are ready to plant out, then he does that (a variation on the dullness of weeding, slashing (grass-cutting) and burning to add some interest for my reluctant under-gardener (!)

Meanwhile I potted on all but two tomatoes (too small) into their final pots. I have reduced the numbers this year as I still have over 20 500ml jars of passata made from last year's crop. I do like to grow plenty, because sometimes, a crop fails (last year the greedy pigeons had my gooseberries!) and having some preserved ones is a good fallback. I ran out of frozen prepared courgettes a while ago so might keep one or two more plants this year.

My chillies, peppers and squashes also all got potted on. They are very slow. I bought my preferred compost but from a bulk supplier this year and I wonder if it is old compost as everything feels so slow this year (except the Bl**dy creeping thistle in the no-mow lawn!).

Plants in the wrong place (AKA Weeds)
Today we have to get going on the thistles, or they will flower and seed. The cleavers (sticky willies here) are in flower too. Even the little area of nettles that I tolerate (small tortoiseshell and peacock butterfly larvae feed on them) need scaling back as they are in flower and spread well enough by root creep. Not sure the cinnabar moth is going to get the ragwort flowers as I want that gone too. DH has been using his (beekeeping) plumbers blowtorch on the gravel weeds and so far, so good with the invasive creeping woodsorrel.

KajiKita

Beaten back the bindweed and the little weeds on the spuds patch and will mulch that thickly this afternoon when the sun goes over a bit. It won’t stop the bindweed but it will slow it down and I should have fewer little weeds to battle as their seeds wont be seeing the sun! 

Tied in sweetpeas, honeysuckle and the roses on the pergola as a back easing job! 😉

KK

sammy_kaye18

Thank you all for the advice RE the makeshift water butt. 

I have purchased a tap now and have plenty of bricks etc in the garden that we dug up whilst making some beds etc so I can make a stand for it as well.
I have a plastic greenhouse and I'm thinking of hiding it behind there. It is still easily accessible though. 
I can then use the greenhouse and run a piece of guttering along my side of the fence as catchment as well. 
It will get sun in the morning but from about mid day it is shaded. 

When my husband fixes his shed - the roof doesn't have enough of a slope - but when that is fixed - I can move it then to the side of the shed to catch from with guttering - the shed is about 2.7m x 3m so it has a fair size roof to catch from. 

ArbitraryRandom

carinjo said:

@KajiKita i'm going to share advice @Suffolk_lass gave on here previously: guide the bindweed up a bamboo cane or similar and then spot treat it with your preferred weedkiller. (I hope i got it right!) I've got a small paintbrush and knot killer and started using that on the bindweed and marestail. Slow, painstaking work, but life is too short to dig out weeds if one works full time. Good luck! 

Re this advice - do you just use the packet instructions for dilution or make it stronger/weaker?

I've got some roundup powder that I ended up not using on the brambles, and I don't want to go whole hog on the garden again but the bindweed is everywhere! Wondering if I can use it. 

It's this stuff if it makes a difference: https://www.homebase.co.uk/roundup-tree-stump-rootkill-weedkiller-250ml/12809392.html

Glittering_M

Has anyone got any experience of selling things from a stand by the gate/honesty box type thing?

This is something I'm considering for next year looking to sell:
Surplus honey
Possibly beeswax candles if I get enough beeswax and enjoy making them
Possibly excess plants I don't have room for that friends don't want
Any surplus produce
Possibly things I create from said produce, e.g. apple cider vinegar, sauces.

Possibly I could also include things like a book/seed swop.

As you can see lots of maybes I'm just curious. I know if I sell things like sauces I'd need food safety training and possibly for my premises to be inspected but I'm not sure about other legislation and requirements. Obviously HMRC would also need informing as I have other self employment which takes me over the 1k grace amount.