My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

It's been raining most of today, but I did manage to get out and spray the blackcurrant bush. I can't see any more signs of the plant being eaten, so hopefully I caught whatever it was in time. The sweet pepper is still showing insect signs though, so I'll have to spray it every day for a few days I think.

I've sorted out all the herb seeds that I can plant this month as soon as I get the weather for it. I have a lot more herb seed packets than I thought. My cucumber plants are large now and I need to give them something to climb up. Unfortunately, I don't know where I'm going to find the space - I'll have to think about it.

The batch of biscuits I made, is already almost gone, so I'll make another batch tomorrow. I'll make chocolate flavour cookies instead of oat this time. Although the oat cookies are lovely.

Tonight I'm just watching a DVD with a dog lying across my feet - it's what evenings are made for.

teapot2

Hope your plants survive the insect attacks.  Did you spray your blackcurrant bush with soap spray as well or something else?  I only have a couple of blackcurrant bushes, the recent wind has broken some of the smaller branches but the fruit is ripening nicely 🤞🏼.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Hopefully DH gets some cuddles as well as the dog lol 

AnimalTribe

teapot2 just soapy water so far, but I've used rhubarb leaves soaked in water in the past. I was just too lazy to make any this time. It's nice to see your garden producing good things to eat. Do you grow anything else?

Oridinary_Yet_Unique of course.   

It’s been a reasonable day here, no wind but some sun so the solar panels have been running the house.

The coriander plant I bought from the supermarket and replanted seems to be doing well. There must be at least 30 plants from the one supermarket pot.

I harvested the first radish today. I eat both the bulb and the leaves so it’s a two in one vegetable and very quick growing. I sowed a few rows between other plant rows as they don’t take up a lot of space and are ready before the other plants come through too much.

I did my usual catch up phone calls and spent the rest of the day weeding and repotting seedlings. I haven’t planted the seeds I intended to, but hopefully I’ll get to do that tomorrow. I didn’t make another batch of biscuits either.

DH has sold two things on Ebay so that’s a bit more money in the savings account.

DawnW

Supermarket herbs are great aren't they? I don't bother to grow things like parsley and basil from seed any more, as it is so much easier to split the supermarket ones and grow them on. I have a mini basil farm in my conservatory, which I keep trimming to make lovely pesto.

teapot2

AnimalTribe said:

teapot2 just soapy water so far, but I've used rhubarb leaves soaked in water in the past. I was just too lazy to make any this time. It's nice to see your garden producing good things to eat. Do you grow anything else?

I don't have lots of space so most stuff is in troughs or pots.  I'm growing a few potatoes, also spring onions, salad leaves, radishes, green beans, mange tout, carrots and spinach.  I also have quite a few herbs on the go, strawberries, blackcurrants, and lots of rhubarb.  Also trying tomatoes again but plants are quite behind. Sounds like a lot but its small amounts of most things.  

How long roughly do you soak the rhubarb leaves for to make your plant spray?

AnimalTribe

DawnW - yes supermarket herbs are great and very econonomical. I used to get the basil plants and keep them in the kitchen. They never did very well, then I planted them outside in the cold, wet, windy, North and they thrived - I couldn't believe it. 
Teapot2 - My mistake it's comfrey I steep in water as a plant food.
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-make-a-comfrey-feed/
Rhubarb leaves I boil 
https://makehousecool.com/index.php/2021/06/06/how-to-make-a-natural-insecticide-from-rhubarb-leaves/
I figure if I spray the plants early in the season and wash them well when I pick them I'll have no problem with oxalic acid content. It sounds like you have a great mix of things growing.

My tomatoes are way behind too. I recently discovered that tomato leaves are edible so if my tomatoes don't produce many fruits at least I'll be able to make tomato leaf pesto. I made it last year but I can't find the recipe I used - I did find this one though
https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/tomato-leaf-pesto

I managed to pot up some seedlings for my sister first thing this morning, but it's rained all day, and turned into heavy mist in the evening so I've spent another day doing the normal household chores and then my extra work was crafting things for Etsy. 

AnimalTribe

DH and I spent the day out and about being tourists. We did visit a couple of charity shops, but I was very restrained and only bought a couple of birthday cards. Lunch was excellent. This evening we both just chilled out. So not a productive day, but a very pleasant one.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Not every day has to be productive to be beneficial.

AnimalTribe

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

Not every day has to be productive to be beneficial.

Very true.

Today was a fabulously sunny day, so I spent nearly all of it in the garden. We have a resident stoat, but I saw another stoat today, it wasn't a baby, but it wasn't fully grown either, so I think our resident has had a family. 

DH did some shopping and was pretty restrained again and he used £30 of Nectar points so he only had to pay £1.50 - that's got to be good.