Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello Readers,
 Well, I decided that with the weather being much more comfortable today, that I'd whizz through my indoor tasks & get into the back of one of my big borders to progress some clearing I began yesterday. However, this didn't happen as I got caught up in all sorts of decluttering, admin & putting-away jobs & was making so much progress, I decided that waving the secateurs around could wait. Anyway, budget-helping activity as follows:
*Took advantage of the windy weather by washing 2 winter coats. So nice not requiring the heated airer to get these bigger items dry. 
*Garden pickings: Lettuce, spring onions, parsley & cucumber no.8.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Did rubber chicken duties. It provided roast chicken yesterday & there's sufficient divided up for cold chicken, home made cajun wedges & salad tonight, spicy chicken & bean wraps tomorrow plus a container of meat for the next Man-Stew creation. Everything else currently simmering in the slow cooker for stock.
*Did my usual Monday morning budget updates. 
*Perused recently arrived energy statement from the Cephalopods. Hmmmm, am still thinking their AI tool which forecasts energy uses V monthly payments was having a la-la when they suggested that big dd increase. The credit on our account is rising, as one would expect in summer, & is actually at a higher level than this time last year. Our gas & electricity use is quite stable over the summer months, so I did a rough calculation which showed that on the current trajectory, we should be approaching the coldest months in a stronger position than last year.......when we didn't once drop into the red, so I don't know where their mad figure came from & they couldn't explain it either. While on this subject, we were pleased to see that the free electricity hours have resumed. We were able to take part yesterday afternoon by moving all our recharging, laundry & vacuuming to that spot.
*Did a few surveys.
*Spent some time getting my diary straight. Various dates needed to go in, it reminded me I need to chivvy my sis about exactly when they are arriving when they come to stay, I wrote lots of notes in to remind me to do things.....just simple boring things like cancelling the milk before our holiday, etc, but I always say that being very organised always ends up saving us money one way or another. 
*Added some items to my library wishlist. I do buy books but I read a lot, so the library is a fantastic money saver.
*Decluttered 3 drawers. Not money saving, I know, but always good to move stuff on if it is just sitting there not getting used or appreciated.
*3 free plants from my friend, so I shall enjoy finding a space to put those. 
And that's been my day so far.....I did put a few more answers into the Sunday crossword over lunch & read a couple of chapters of my book. My steps need improving now as it is Day 60 of my '60 days of not being sedentary' challenge, so it really would be a p*sser to drop the ball on this today! I'll start by taking a nice juicy banana skin down to the wormery.
Hoping for a productive week, a good start anyway.
Keep it in your purses, m'dears! It can't jump out on its own however much the old Spendy me used to think that it did!
F x

foxgloves

Are you feeding your strawberries weekly, @Makingabobor2? Ours get a weekly dose of tomato food (which is pretty good on everything) as soon as the berries start showing, which is a good rule of thumb for all veg. Courgettes are often a bit smaller in the early stages then tend to get bigger & more prolific as the plants increase in size. That's when you turn your back & suddenly find you've got a marrow!
F x

Blackcats

Foxgloves - my dad views courgettes as rather exotic food from foreign lands and won't eat them but he does like them when they are described as baby marrows.  

Moorviews

Thank you for the full description of this year’s plant raising experience. Mine was exactly the same! Seedlings pricked out and then just not thriving, sickly yellow leaves and stalled growth. The pots and soil were indeed hot but I didn’t think of solving this by potting on as I was still waiting for them to grow enough to do so. Like you, I was using a reputable brand of peat free compost (WL). The tomatoes that I have now put into the growpots in the growbags are finally growing. I don’t have the windowsill and conservatory stage as I sow later and live in a milder area but this has never been a problem before. Hopefully, it isn’t too late for me to take some action now with my poor stunted specimens! I think you have a very good theory with the heat but also wonder about the compost itself, whether it doesn’t act to regulate the heat properly? I thought my plants were actually being cooked at times and was using cooler water to try to help. I have used the same compost outside with my pots and baskets and it seems fine for that. It sounds as though I might need to adapt my growing to pricking out into larger pots early, despite conventional methods saying otherwise. Or I might try the deep seed trays. Of course, all of that advice was based on the traditional use of peat. I think I shall also need to start feeding almost straight after pricking out. Thank you for your thoughts and theories. Maybe we will crack it next year!!!

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

Are you feeding your strawberries weekly, @Makingabobor2? Ours get a weekly dose of tomato food (which is pretty good on everything) as soon as the berries start showing, which is a good rule of thumb for all veg. Courgettes are often a bit smaller in the early stages then tend to get bigger & more prolific as the plants increase in size. That's when you turn your back & suddenly find you've got a marrow!
F x

I have used tomato food, but maybe not regularly enough. Only 2 or 3 times. I'll use it more.  
When I say the courgettes aren't growing, I mean some of them are turning yellow at the end and starting to shrivel up, when they are only a couple of inches long. Although there do seem to be a few better looking ones starting now. 

EssexHebridean

For goodness sake - you've just reminded me about feeding strawberry plants with tomato feed! What a twit, I've not grown them for enough years that I have completely forgotten about that little trick!

We too suffered from the stalled growth - I put it down to stuff getting erratic watering while we were away and losing a lot as a result, and so having to start thigs off again later than ideal, although I couldn't think why that might be an issue. we also had a lot of stuff just failing to germinate too - although I think I may have sussed that when I realised that the peat free composts seem to form almost a "crust" over the top of the module or pot. 

foxgloves

@EssexHebridean - Yes, some of the peat-frees are b*ggers for forming a crust. The one we bought this year didn't really have that problem but I think I might get some vermiculite in for next Spring just in case.
F

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 - The cause of those little courgettes which don't grow then turn yellow & shrivel from the flower-end is usually that they haven't pollinated properly. It's usually a problem at the beginning of the season & becomes less of a thing as the plants really gwt going.
F

foxgloves

@Moorviews - Yes, it does sound as though we had the same problem, doesn't it? I think you make a good point about all the traditional wisdom being based on growing in peat. For instance, feeding seedlings. That just wouldn't have happened. The rule of thumb was that there'd be sufficient nutrients for at least 2 months & only at potting-up time might one administer a bit of very dilute seaweed solution or similar. Now the advice is to feed. My very green-fingered friend & I have been doing this for the last few years, as we both came to the conclusion that while the peat-free mixes do contain added food, the overall look of some of our plant babies seemed to indicate that their roots were not accessing it.
Also, here's something I've recently noticed. The compost we bought last year had added fertiliser in the form of those little green 'beads'. Now I know they are slow-release, but wouldn't you expect them to have dissolved into the compost after a whole year? I tipped out a couple of containers recently & was surprised to see loads of the green fertiliser beads still v much in evidence. Did they deliver any nutrients to my plants? I have no idea.
Next Spring, if we have such hot weather, I will be moving my plant babies up a pot size much more quickly than normal as I'm still sure it was the compost getting very hot throughout the whole 9cm pot which stalled growth so significantly.
F

foxgloves

@Blackcats - Oh they are funny, aren't they? I can remember my Nana at the age of around 80, getting very excited about her decision to try a can of coke (or 'cooca-coola' as she pronounced it). She said she "wanted to find out what all the fuss is about". A can was provided & we watched as her face turned inside out & she pronounced it "like vinegar with sugar in it" & bemoaning the "5 bob" she wouldn't see again.
F