Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

themadvix

I’ve done that before @joedenise but I want to know I’ve got soft neck garlic as it keeps better. 

joedenise

I've only planted a few cloves for that reason.  Last time I grew them they didn't' form the "skin" round the bulbs so just fell apart when I dug them up so obviously didn't last long so I'm hoping for better luck this time.

foxgloves

A gentle & pleasant day. Our little village garden centre had plenty of garlic & now that we know we can stay on top of the allium leaf miner pest, we decided to resume our usual amount of garlic growing. We bought variety 'Topadrome' as it produced a very good crop last year & fab bulbs this year.
I know I bang on about this every year, but from a money saving point of view, October is really the beginning of the garden year. 
As borders are cut back, look out for decent-sized self-seeded plants - foxgloves, aquilegia, verbena bonariensis, bronze fennel - all sorts of things can be temporarily potted up for filling gaps in borders for free. I found the most beautiful viola today - lilac & apricot-coloured, where a lone seed had clearly dropped into a container & germinated.
Ditto seed saving. So far I've collected & dried seed from a fancy frilly poppy, cerinthe, calendula, lemon cosmos & sweet peas. A couple of other cosmos still to go, as the seed pods ripen. 
I've also been taking verbena bonariensis cuttings this afternoon - 14 suitable little sideshoots prepped & poked in around the edge of a pot. If some of them root, that's free plants (have seen bigger potted up examples in garden centres on sale for £4.95 each, & that was a few years ago). If they don't root, then what have I lost except for 10 mins of my time on a sunny autumn afternoon.
Feeding the soil is another good autumn job. I like to think of this as saying thank-you to the earth for this year's garden harvest, as well as preparing the soil for next year. It's a good time to get compost bins open if they are ready & to spread it on the beds. No need to dig it in. The worms will set to work & start dragging it down for subterranean scoffs. Not enough compost? I don't think any gardener really produces enough of this wonderful free resource, but if you have the capacity to make more & have half empty compost bins, step it up now. Plenty of materials available from clearing beds & containers, as well as all those kitchen peelings from winter soups & stews. We are intending to cut open all our saved empty compost sacks to cover over one of our raised beds once we've cleared it & spread it with compost. It will keep the weeds down & help warm the soil ready for Mr F to get his shallots in next March.
I noticed today how big our comfrey plants are. As they will die back over winter anyway, I intend to cut a heap of comfrey, roughly chop it & add it to our veggie beds. It soon breaks down & is a good source of nutrients. Ditto free worm tea from worm composter. Production of this will slow now the unit has been moved into the greenhouse for winter, but I will still be adding what there is to anywhere I think could do with a bit of a nutrient boost.
I will also be looking through my seed box & making a list of edibles I definitely DON'T need to buy. The varieties I tend to buy every year can then be picked up gradually at just a pack or two on garden centre visits, which I find helpful from a budget point of view because it spreads the cost so much I barely notice it.
Oh....& lastly, if anyone bought a tray of geraniums for summer containers, tidy them up, put them in pots & bring them indoors. They over-winter perfectly well & will be good to go outside again next May, rather than buying new every year.......I'm sure everyone knows this, but it needs doing before the first frost. 
So.....I hope this post doesn't read like a gardening 'nag'- really it's just a round-up of the sort of activities which are going on here & why I tend to think of October 1st as Gardening New Year. It also saves money! I would also hazard a guess that a sizeable % of people who intended to grow food (or more food) this year, failed because the prep was left too late. 
I'm writing to you from the bench in our veg plot next to the triffid rhubarb. Our robin is watching me from our neighbour's whitebeam tree & chipping in the occasional stanza of song. The light is just beginning to fade into that vaguely crepuscular state when I sometimes feel I could see into times gone by or those to come. The local honeybees & red admirals have had another day of feasting on our windfall 🍐🍐 & Mr F has been up the ladder gathering another basketful for our pantry. 
Hoping for plenty of garden time this coming week,
Peace,
F x

joedenise

I'm hoping you can help me @foxgloves.  My neighbour has a rhubarb plant which she is willing to split and give me a piece, when is the best time to split it and plant it up?  I think it's probably getting to be around the right time!

foxgloves

@joedenise - Yes, you are right. If I was planning to divide ours, I'd be looking to do it about now. They die back over winter then the crowns start budding again end of Jan/Feb. So if you split it now & plant it, I'm thinking it should have time to settle in before Spring. 
Good luck! (& a sharp spade!)
F

milann

In the book I was reading about 30 plant based foods……seeds, nuts, lentils etc were also included it wasn’t just fruit and veg. There was a scoring system - wish I’d have taken a photo but I didn’t think to. Herbs and spices were 1/4 point each…..I do remember that. I It was  Eat more, Live Well by Dr Megan Rossi. I didn’t read it all but what I read made sense.
You have had a busy day today in the garden 👍

joedenise

foxgloves said:

@joedenise - Yes, you are right. If I was planning to divide ours, I'd be looking to do it about now. They die back over winter then the crowns start budding again end of Jan/Feb. So if you split it now & plant it, I'm thinking it should have time to settle in before Spring. 
Good luck! (& a sharp spade!)
F

Thank you.  I'll ask her to split it sooner rather than later and get into the ground.  I know we shouldn't pull too much the first year but hoping we can at least have a pudding or two from it next year!  Will see how it goes.

I'm doing well with the 30 different fruits and vegetables a week - I'm up to 29.25 already.  There will definitely be some more spices in the morning as I'm making kedgeree for breakfast which I think will take me up to the 30.  I've also still got some different fruits which I haven't had in the last couple of days since I started counting.

Blackcats

Thank you for the gardening tips which are really helpful for a non gardener who dabbles a bit.  I was pleased with the results of my bulb planting efforts last autumn so I'm going to get some more planted this week.  I think it's a relatively inexpensive way to build up a splash of spring colour.  I've found a couple of nice blue pots which will look pretty either side of the front door with violas or pansies.  I used to spend fortunes at the garden centre which at least means I've got lots of plant pots.

PennysIntoPounds

foxgloves said:

A gentle & pleasant day. Our little village garden centre had plenty of garlic & now that we know we can stay on top of the allium leaf miner pest, we decided to resume our usual amount of garlic growing. We bought variety 'Topadrome' as it produced a very good crop last year & fab bulbs this year.
I know I bang on about this every year, but from a money saving point of view, October is really the beginning of the garden year. 
As borders are cut back, look out for decent-sized self-seeded plants - foxgloves, aquilegia, verbena bonariensis, bronze fennel - all sorts of things can be temporarily potted up for filling gaps in borders for free. I found the most beautiful viola today - lilac & apricot-coloured, where a lone seed had clearly dropped into a container & germinated.
Ditto seed saving. So far I've collected & dried seed from a fancy frilly poppy, cerinthe, calendula, lemon cosmos & sweet peas. A couple of other cosmos still to go, as the seed pods ripen. 
I've also been taking verbena bonariensis cuttings this afternoon - 14 suitable little sideshoots prepped & poked in around the edge of a pot. If some of them root, that's free plants (have seen bigger potted up examples in garden centres on sale for £4.95 each, & that was a few years ago). If they don't root, then what have I lost except for 10 mins of my time on a sunny autumn afternoon.
Feeding the soil is another good autumn job. I like to think of this as saying thank-you to the earth for this year's garden harvest, as well as preparing the soil for next year. It's a good time to get compost bins open if they are ready & to spread it on the beds. No need to dig it in. The worms will set to work & start dragging it down for subterranean scoffs. Not enough compost? I don't think any gardener really produces enough of this wonderful free resource, but if you have the capacity to make more & have half empty compost bins, step it up now. Plenty of materials available from clearing beds & containers, as well as all those kitchen peelings from winter soups & stews. We are intending to cut open all our saved empty compost sacks to cover over one of our raised beds once we've cleared it & spread it with compost. It will keep the weeds down & help warm the soil ready for Mr F to get his shallots in next March.
I noticed today how big our comfrey plants are. As they will die back over winter anyway, I intend to cut a heap of comfrey, roughly chop it & add it to our veggie beds. It soon breaks down & is a good source of nutrients. Ditto free worm tea from worm composter. Production of this will slow now the unit has been moved into the greenhouse for winter, but I will still be adding what there is to anywhere I think could do with a bit of a nutrient boost.
I will also be looking through my seed box & making a list of edibles I definitely DON'T need to buy. The varieties I tend to buy every year can then be picked up gradually at just a pack or two on garden centre visits, which I find helpful from a budget point of view because it spreads the cost so much I barely notice it.
Oh....& lastly, if anyone bought a tray of geraniums for summer containers, tidy them up, put them in pots & bring them indoors. They over-winter perfectly well & will be good to go outside again next May, rather than buying new every year.......I'm sure everyone knows this, but it needs doing before the first frost. 
So.....I hope this post doesn't read like a gardening 'nag'- really it's just a round-up of the sort of activities which are going on here & why I tend to think of October 1st as Gardening New Year. It also saves money! I would also hazard a guess that a sizeable % of people who intended to grow food (or more food) this year, failed because the prep was left too late. 
I'm writing to you from the bench in our veg plot next to the triffid rhubarb. Our robin is watching me from our neighbour's whitebeam tree & chipping in the occasional stanza of song. The light is just beginning to fade into that vaguely crepuscular state when I sometimes feel I could see into times gone by or those to come. The local honeybees & red admirals have had another day of feasting on our windfall 🍐🍐 & Mr F has been up the ladder gathering another basketful for our pantry. 
Hoping for plenty of garden time this coming week,
Peace,
F x

What an utterly gorgeous post 

Suffolk_lass

I have just received my garlic bulbs from Kings Seeds, who are quite near us, over the border in N Essex.

All that talk of purple hair made me think of the poem I want at my funeral, when it happens. Just caught up. Not easy when there is so much to do in the garden this time of year. I'm just off to buy some winter bits to plant up, and the bulbs I know I want