Dig for Victory - Mark II

Larumbelle

I have tomatoes called tumbling tom that look so pretty cascading out of a hanging basket. Like SEE, I grow quite a bit in mine too, because the slugs haven't figured out how to get to them yet! You can pick hanging baskets up for pennies at the moment - Wilkinsons has them for £1 each and I picked some up at Blooms that were £1.25 and had 40 spring bulbs included in the price.

In John Harrison's book he discusses the economy of growing in raised beds vs planting in rows. He reckons that, although you lose quite a bit of space to paths with raised beds, the yield per space is about the same.

RAS, I am thrilled to hear what is happening in your city - mine is unfortunately far less enlightened and don't really see it as important, they seem to spend most of their parks money on themed topiary and hanging baskets of annuals to try and win Britain in Bloom. A bit of guerrila gardening went on at a waste patch near here and the council had it all dug up and left derelict again, so it is once again full of weeds four feet high :rolleyes: Although they did plant up a random patch of loads and loads of sunflowers near me last year

Speaking of livestock, only one allotment site near me allows you to keep chickens, I have my name down but it's still a long wait. But I am aware through the local network of a man who'll bring his pigs down to clear your allotment for you, and apparently the powers that be turn a blind eye to it as pig clearance is far superior to anything else up when it comes to permanently banishing perrenial weeds!

One thing I was very impressed by was the attitude of our local country park when it comes to free food. The head ranger is a keen forager himself and he runs occasional free organised beginners tours as well as happily showing you the best spots for certain foods if you ask him. He gave me a great recipe for rowan jelly. He's not allowed to 'do' mushrooms though.

ceridwen

Silvercharming

I'm all in favour of a bit of guerilla gardening - what a *** waste for the Council to go and dig up a bit of it in favour of leaving it as a tatty waste area. How are flatdwellers supposed to manage otherwise? (bar a good Gardenshare Scheme)

Those sunflowers could come in handy for harvesting seeds from though...and its very "fortunate" that they happen to be near you;)

Guerilla gardening is the only way that some totally landless householders might get the chance ultimately of growing a bit of their own food - so I reckon a judicious use of the "Nelson Technique" could be appropriate - ie local authorities looking through the telescope with their blind eye. A good case for people learning what food plants just look like ordinary decorative-only plants - less likely that the Council would go digging them up perhaps? (I guess that Councils will be less likely to spend money on maintenance (wanted or otherwise) soon - between lots of them having money sitting there in Icelandic bank accounts on the one hand and the fact that they are soon going to be raising less revenue from business rates (a side-effect of shops shutting that seems to have been overlooked).

rhiwfield

Silvercharming mentioned foraging. Thats probably going to be harder in an urban area but in a rural area the opportunities are greater.

Trouble with fungi is that its so hard to make an absolutely positive id. One pretty green and yellow one last year turned out to be a parrot waxcap (a class A hallucinogenic).

Still, sloes, elderflower and blackberries are easy, tho' round our way if you wait until the first frost to pick the sloes the birds will have had them all

mardatha

does anybody else have probs with black flies on strawberries ? is it normal and do you just wash them? mine were covered !

Larumbelle

Ceridwen, yes, it was a huge coincidence about the sunflowers It certainly brightened up the patch of grass near Tesco's and it was great at attracting birds, bees etc. and looked really pretty. I heard lots of locals saying how nice it was of the council to plant them :rolleyes: but to do them their credit, the council cut around them and cleared up the dead sunflowers at the end. I reclaimed some of the seedheads for winter birdfeeding (they're great, you just keep the flowerhead intact and put it out flat for the birds to help themselves to seeds) and to save seed from, and I saw lots of other people doing the same. Maybe we'll have another sunflower display this year :whistle: although I'm pretty sure a lot of viable seed got scattered around when the display was finished, so...

Rhiwfield, I couldn't possibly comment on my introduction to foraging suffice to say that even Holland has banned use of the mushrooms in question now :rotfl:Jokes aside, I know what you mean about the fungi. My mum was into mushrooming, she used to take photos and samples to collect sporeprints off and everything, but there were only ever about five that she'd ever let us eat, these were the ones that it's more or less impossible to confuse for any other type. In France and Italy, I'm told, all pharmacies can ID your finds for you to tell you whether or not the can safely be eaten. I can well imagine why the council's public liability insurance doesn't stretch that far, but it is a real pity, mushroom knowledge in this country is fast dying out because the only way to really learn is to spend extensive time foraging with an expert.

All the same, the opportunities for urban foraging aren't too shabby, but a little elementary knowledge about edibles and a little local knowledge are needed. I can definitely recommend this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Free-Collins-Richard-Mabey/dp/0007183038/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231504300&sr=8-2. I am still only at the stage of foraging for 'obvious' freebies - sweet chestnuts, elder berries/flowers, sloes, (a lot I collect goes into wine ) rowan, brambles, cobnuts and nettles. I read somewhere that good old conkers are also good foraging, for use as fabric detergent, which I will be trying in autumn. I definitely want to start trying a few more of the plants highlighted in the book this year.

Mardatha, black flies on strawberries is pretty normal, spray them with a little washing up liquid in water and they'll be gone!

RAS

rhiwfield wrote: »

I was thinking more of a sudden shock rather than a slow trend of rising population, a finite amount of agricultural land and some mediaworthy palliatives. Perhaps not in my lifetime but at some point governments will need to tackle population increase because the pressure on finite natural resources and wildlife is increasing inexorably.

Many posts on MSE are concerned with avoidance of waste and minimum use of resources. Yet as a race we make the big decison to introduce ever more resource hungry mouths into the world (and I'm as guilty as anyone!) while preaching conservation of energy, water and food.

Thought this article was interesting http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/09/food-climate-change

Given what we know about brittle landscapes, there is a huge amount that could be done over the next 10 years to improve a lot of land in sub-tropical and tropical areas. I just do not know if it would be enough to counteract the effects of the climate change already in the system.

RAS

silvercharming wrote: »

Ceridwen, yes, it was a huge coincidence about the sunflowers .................... Maybe we'll have another sunflower display this year :whistle: although I'm pretty sure a lot of viable seed got scattered around when the display was finished, so...

:rotfl: I hope you have a wonderful display this year SC:rotfl:

silvercharming wrote: »

Rhiwfield, I couldn't possibly comment on my introduction to foraging suffice to say that even Holland has banned use of the mushrooms in question now :rotfl:

Gave me dreadful stomach ache, so had to leave them alone.

silvercharming wrote: »

Jokes aside, I know what you mean about the fungi. My mum was into mushrooming, she used to take photos and samples to collect sporeprints off and everything, but there were only ever about five that she'd ever let us eat, these were the ones that it's more or less impossible to confuse for any other type.

One family on the south coast made a fatal mistake this year and I know that one young man who leads foraging trips, er tripped up badly and needed treatment.

silvercharming wrote: »

In France and Italy, I'm told, all pharmacies can ID your finds for you to tell you whether or not the can safely be eaten. ...Mushroom knowledge in this country is fast dying out because the only way to really learn is to spend extensive time foraging with an expert.

I see some people in woods with bag fulls of the most amazing looking stuff.

I want chantrelles in our local beech woods and find nothing (sniff).

silvercharming wrote: »

All the same, the opportunities for urban foraging aren't too shabby, but a little elementary knowledge about edibles and a little local knowledge are needed. I am still only at the stage of foraging for 'obvious' freebies - sweet chestnuts, elder berries/flowers, sloes, (a lot I collect goes into wine ) rowan, brambles, cobnuts and nettles. I definitely want to start trying a few more of the plants highlighted in the book this year.

Apart from the obvious lamb's lettuce and hairy bittercress, I tried fat hen last year - quite decent flavour, not exactly crisp but thick leaf with that sort of snaps in your mouth. Also chickweed. which sadly is not very common on my plot.

I tend to bruise the leaf and check for any skin reaction, then taste a cut leaf edge. if that is OK, nibble a tiny bit. rather later, eat a leaf etc.

silvercharming wrote: »

I read somewhere that good old conkers are also good foraging, for use as fabric detergent, which I will be trying in autumn.

Would be interest in learning the outcome of that. I rescued some soapwort seedlings a couple of years ago but only this year will i have enough to try it out.

ceridwen

RAS - with those comments about foraging - you've now got me wondering if I know you in the "Real World" - hmmmm....well hello again if so:D . I think we have to do what we can to combat those effects of the climate change already "in the system" as you put it. I do think we need to "do our bit" - rather than just sit there and see what comes our way....but then, at a personal level, a comment that has frequently been made about me is that I am a "survivor". So - yep - I do believe we can survive. To coin my phrase I invented "not just survive, but thrive".

SilverCharming - "coincidence" works sometimes in very odd ways....nowt like a bit of serendipity:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Glad to hear those sunflowers might just - by coincidence - appear again:D

Davesnave

RAS wrote: »

I rescued some soapwort seedlings a couple of years ago but only this year will i have enough to try it out.

You had to rescue soapwort? Normally, it looks after itself rather well!

The trouble with the old fashoined soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, is that it flops and looks a bit muddy. I grow a double pink and a white double called 'Mrs Betty Arnold,' both of which are much stronger and more upright than the type species.

I'm not sure whether the 'soapy-ness' of these garden selections is impaired. I would guess not, as they have really strong roots. (Here I'm assuming that 'try it out' means as a soap, and not its other use, as a purgative! :rotfl: )

Changingme

Try'd growing veg last year in pots as don't have avery big garden,managed to grow some tumbling tomato's,carrots,cucumber,spring onions,corgettes and some salad leaves,am novice but hoping to do same this year with some radishes and new spuds aswell.Grew all from seed ,I think I just need to plant earlier.:p