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The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2024!
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No allotment here, just a patch in the garden and a small greenhouse (6 x4). I usually grow tomatoes and cucumbers in the GH and last year added peppers and got a good crop. Also lots of cucumelons, more for the novelty really. Outside I have several raspberry canes from which I get a decent crop and intend to buy some autumn fruiting ones. Also a tayberry which crops well. My 2 rhubard crowns haven't produced a lot. I think I need to feed them more and keep an eye on the watering to encourage them. Strawberries are in pots and last year I planted up the runners which now need moving to their new home
I have 2 x 1 metre square raised beds holding my perennial herb collection with a solitary perennial kale I planted last year. On the fence I have 3 apple and 1 pear cordons - the apples give me a decent crop and the pear gifts me one or two a year! My other 2 raised beds I grow a mixture of things - beetroot, radicchio, radish, salad leaves but unfortunately the dog thinks that this is his sun bathing spot, so I spend a lot of time trying different ways to keep him off. Beans I grow in pots - not very well last year, iIthink I didn't keep them watered enough. Failed with courgettes as well last year, though I have had success in previous years.
First job, when it feels a bit warmer, is to clean out the greenhouse. In the meantime, I'm looking through my seed packets to see what I need to throw out, buy or keep.Books - the original virtual reality.
Tilly Tidying:4 -
Cycled to the plot. Emptied one of the compost bins. Loads of worms but very wet. Got rained off. Spent a happy hour checking what seeds we have, sowing date. Fil has made a plan of where everything is going this year, just needs a couple of tweaks. Itching to get started sowing.
Love 🐞
Grow your own: £14.664 -
I should have cycled to the plot but I took the car.. it was freezing! Couldn't do any weeding as the ground was frozen so did a little bit of pruning and dumped a couple of barrow loads of compost from one of the bays to the cardboard on one of the beds.Very glad to be able to jump in the car on the way home as I was cold to the core so that assuaged my guilt a bit! Maybe better luck tomorrow if the temperature rises even a couple of degrees..5
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Started bean trench as wormery at home is full. Weeded part of the asparagus bed as couch grass is encroaching.
Love 🐞
Grow your own: £14.662 -
Did you have to mention weeding the asparagus bed? That's what I was trying to do the other day and now I feel guilty for not making it today.;-)I've a pile of seaweed at one end of the asparagus bed, and once I've done a bit of weeding I'll be able to spread it around. Another pile elsewhere for my potato bed this year. Free fertiliser from the local foreshore and lots of lovely trace elements.4
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ladybird1106 said:Started bean trench as wormery at home is full. Weeded part of the asparagus bed as couch grass is encroaching.
Love 🐞silverwhistle said:Did you have to mention weeding the asparagus bed? That's what I was trying to do the other day and now I feel guilty for not making it today.;-)I've a pile of seaweed at one end of the asparagus bed, and once I've done a bit of weeding I'll be able to spread it around. Another pile elsewhere for my potato bed this year. Free fertiliser from the local foreshore and lots of lovely trace elements.- Raspberries
- Fruit cage assembly
- clear up paths and generally make it look cared for
- weed the asparagus and add compost
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 here4 -
@Suffolk_lass I wish my list of outside jobs was so short!
I came back from holiday on Friday night (visiting family in Dubai) and managed to miss all the dry weather. Typical.
The council emailed to say that they are having a skip this coming week, and we could pile up any rubbish from our plots for them to put in it. We didn't have very much, but we spent a bit of time clearing some old rotting wood from a communal area. It wasn't in the way, but the banking above the stream looks much better now. We did remove some old weed membrane from the banking, but clearing it all properly - ready for my mini orchard - is going to be a slog. Husband is going to be out of work for a little while, and he's said if I decide where exactly to put the shed, he will start getting the foundations in whilst the weather permits.
At home, I've potted up some small (they arrived in 9cm pots) citrus trees, and also sowed some Red Baron and Redrover onion seeds in my headed propagators - these are all in the conservatory.
A couple of hedgehogs are still active at night, and (one of?) the foxes seem to be pestering them a bit more, so I've ordered another hedgehog house and a feeding station. I am loving watching one of the hedgehogs take leaves into the existing house to plump up its nest.
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Did my planning, organised my seeds and ordered new seeds today- slightly later than intended but at least it's done!!
I'm going to be using some of the beds at the front for salad leaves, jerusalem artichokes, onions, garlic and leeks this year which frees up one of the big beds out the back for more brassicas - I'll need to get another frame sorted and more netting to keep out the butterflies but it will be worth it!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'1 -
DD265 said:
I've got four surrounding beds with fruit trees, rhubarb, raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries in, plus ten raised beds to sort out (two will be in the fruit cage), composting, weeding, planting, moving plants, take cuttings of others, more weeding of the others and move the strawberries from their winter heeled in space, not to mention trellis repairs, netting-clearing, staking, bramble clearance (encroaching) and more bindweed staking to prepare. Oh and seed audit still to do. Greenhouse glass to clean, mouse defences, rabbit fencing repairs and reinstatement and a bit of growing. Apple tree pruning next month and a judicious lopping out in the gage, plum and crabapple, all on more vigorous rootstock than they were supposed to be.
Elsewhere, we need to re-edge our borders in the front garden, spread three tons of compost and divide and replenish the planting there, before a boundary marker (fence, railings or hedge) is reinstated, and the gravel areas weeded, raked back to where it should be and possibly topped up.
A patio at the back needs attention and extension with associated prep, clearance, moves of plants and mess to be made and cleared up.
The pig-shed needs rebuilding in part as rats and rabbits got underneath and the slab is badly cracked and degraded, and I want to extend it so I have a workshop area.
The tree we took down needs the logs splitting and storing to season for 2025 winter
pruning is still being done
And we have masses of bee equipment to clean, build, replace or repair in the next month to six weeks.
We have talked about rotovating the rabbit and root invaded lawn and re-turfing but I can't see it happening this year. We will continue to encourage the herbs in it and tolerate all but brambles, thistles and nettlesSave £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 here7 -
Managed to pry some leeks out the ground yesterday to make leek and potato soup. Looking forward to a hug in mug when I have it for lunch today.
Love 🐞
Grow your own: £14.665
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