Growing your own food (2 Viewers)

[Umfufu]

Started my 2nd annual herb garden last weekend.
It's on the balcony of the girlfriend's apartment so space is limited.

Basil, rosemary, thyme, chives, spring onions & then went a bit mad & stuck a few carrots in to see what happens.

I also planted Sweet Pea so there'd be a bit of colour on the balcony to keep herself happy.

Here's hoping the sun comes out!

 

[Diddles]

there is still loads of prep to do on the allotment - so many bramble roots to dig out it's unreal.

anyway. it's taking shape and our planting is on schedule.... we have only planted an onion bed but that's the schedule....

I think starting with a garden that wasn't an overgrown waste land would have my back hurting less..

I'm in bits from doing the veg patch at the weekend. Had to saw up loads of tree branches that I threw in it a few weeks ago. The compost bin got knocked over on Friday so I dug up all the veg beds, put everything from the bin in and put the soil back on top. It's not really compost yet but I'd nowhere else to put it and there was loads of flies around.

Then I put newspaper down on the beds and spread bark chippings on top for mulch. Then I took it off again today as apparently bark is crap for veg mulch.
Damn you internets.

Apparently leaves are good for mulch. I've a ton of leaves up the back, but sure will they get blown away if i put them on the veg? I have to check it out some more.

This year we will be doing:

courgettes
butternut squash
turnips
broccoli
sprouts
peas
sweet peppers

For fruit we definitely have apples (eating and cooking) and hopefully if the rest of the stuff comes on this year (not much joy last year) we will have:

pears
strawberries
gooseberries
blackcurrants
blackberries
raspberries

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

bang some rocket in there umfufu,grows easily enough and you'll have plenty of it too.
just picked up a grow your own venus fly trap today,hopefully it gows,i've had a few before but theye very hard to keep.

 

[Umfufu]

bang some rocket in there umfufu,grows easily enough and you'll have plenty of it too.
just picked up a grow your own venus fly trap today,hopefully it gows,i've had a few before but theye very hard to keep.

Did a few mixed salad leaves last year.
Might try rocket this year alright. Especially if the carrots don't work out.

Haven't bothered germinating anything.
Just stuck them outside. Bit worried that it's too cold at the moment.
Might try to strategically place them on windowsills around the apartment without making it obvious to the girlfriend that her apartment is littered with pots of muck.

 

[Diddles]

Apparently leaves are good for mulch. I've a ton of leaves up the back, but sure will they get blown away if i put them on the veg? I have to check it out some more.

Apparently I have to MAKE mulch with them, which takes ages. A job for next year so.

 

[Cryptid]

Entertaining reads about this sort of stuff (not dissimiliar to this thread): http://idler.co.uk/index.php?s=country+diary

I've never grown anything, apart from a crap beard once. Hopefully someday though.

 

[Umfufu]

I've never grown anything, apart from a crap beard once. Hopefully someday though.

If you want a quick & easy way to start just buy 2 of the potted herbs in your local supermarket, transplant them into one of those rectangular terracotta pots from B&Q with a bit of compost & you'll get the whole summer out of them.

Mint, thyme, rosemary & chives are easy to keep.
Basil needs a bit of warmth & sun but it's still worth trying.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Just stuck them outside. Bit worried that it's too cold at the moment.
Might try to strategically place them on windowsills around the apartment without making it obvious to the girlfriend that her apartment is littered with pots of muck.

stick a plastic bag loosely round em for a few weeks and keep in a well lit but out of direct sunlight area,the bag will help keep em warm but just make sure theres air circulating and you should be grand.

 

[Umfufu]

stick a plastic bag loosely round em for a few weeks and keep in a well lit but out of direct sunlight area,the bag will help keep em warm but just make sure theres air circulating and you should be grand.

Now that's using your head.
I'll be doing that tomorrow evening.

 

[wild_cat]

For fruit we definitely have apples (eating and cooking) and hopefully if the rest of the stuff comes on this year (not much joy last year) we will have:

pears
strawberries
gooseberries
blackcurrants
blackberries
raspberries

What problems were you having with the strawberries? Raspberries need to be in the ground for two years if I remember correctly.

 

[broken arm]

Apparently I have to MAKE mulch with them, which takes ages. A job for next year so.

we just have a roll of plastic fencing staked to the ground to make a leaf composter.

we cut bigger holes in it to encourage hedgehogs to hang around d'allotment.

sort of like this..

 

[flashback]

I tried making a compost heap there last summer, had it all piled up there, autumn came and the bastard froze. And basically stayed frozen until about today.
Now its all tinder dry.
I even had a plastic cover over it to try and keep it warm or something.

The frog was right. It ain't easy being green.
None the less, I'm building a raised bed down the alleyway between my gaff and the nextdoor neighbours. He said he'd pay for half. We'll see.
Should be able to load loads of stuff in there though, ~14 meters by 1 meter, its like an backup garden. I'm also taking charge of two other people's front gardens on the street because they are sick of the grass growing business.

So its low lying insect attracting plants alles uber der shop. The place will be crawling with praying mantises.

 

[frambosenshmak]

Apparently leaves are good for mulch. I've a ton of leaves up the back, but sure will they get blown away if i put them on the veg?

turn the soil with a hoe to mix the leaves in with the topsoil to stop them blowing away or alternatively mix the leaves in with some soil in a wheelbarrow or bucket or whatever vessel can get your hands on and then spread that over the top of the vegpatch. mulching only really works before the veg starts to grow as its for prepping the soil for all the nutrients the veg will suck out of it as they go through the yielding of fruit/veg stage.

This year we will be doing:

courgettes - got great results with these although slugs do love em
butternut squash
turnips - make sure to thin them well apart as i left too many too close together and got small carrot like turnips which are useless considering how thick the skin is

broccoli - you'll need to cover these with a muslin or polythene cover as butterflies caterpillars go to town on brocolli. birds are quite reluctant to eat bugs n slugs from gardens these days due to people putting pesticides down. many a brocolli i steamed last year to find white boiled caterpillars hanging in them. if you see spiderlike webbing on the brocolli or loads of little black deposits on the leaves or stems then you got early caterpillars

sprouts

peas - prone to failure if not looked after in early stages. protect them shoots well from slugs with cut up drinks bottles also be sure to stake them well and tie them up as if they are left to fall over in the soil early on they get damp and rot. once up and running along stakes just watch for slugs and snails

sweet peppers

For fruit we definitely have apples (eating and cooking) and hopefully if the rest of the stuff comes on this year (not much joy last year) we will have:

pears
strawberries - again dont leave in the soil once strawberries appear, straw helps to keep the fruit dry and not rot. watch out for slugs and woodlice theyre fond of the fruit. also dont overwater. at end of fruiting the strawberries will send out runner arms with little plants at the end. try and guide the runner along a spot you want the plant to root down or pot the new plant in a little plastic pot. dont cut the runner arm off until the end autumn/winter as this is helping the new plant to grow. i started with 4 plants i now have over 40! oh and you must discard your original strawberry plants every 3 years as they can pass disease onto future plants after so many generations of regrowth.

gooseberries
blackcurrants
blackberries
raspberries - with all the berries make sure to put down loads of manure. the more acidic the soil beforehand the sweeter the fruit.

just a few tips in case you're short.

as recommended here already grow rocket its a great deterent for slugs and those especially as they go after the sweet lettuce leaves. also garlic is easy to grow but do like well drained soil. buy garlic in shop seperate bulbs and pop into ground like seeds one thumbnail length below surface. again not to slugs or bugs tastes.

the primary ones the slugs love are - beets, lettuce, carrots, peas. so try shield them within your patch with deterent veg and herbs/plants.

and the one success i had in slug repelling - guinness. its their favourite tipple of all the beers. pound shops were doing cheap beertraps last year. and if you can bear to part with your guinness for the cause you'll net yourself some serious kills. i know it sounds quite gruesome and inhumane but if you want to grow veg somebodies got to get hurt and its either you or them

 

[Diddles]

thanks for the tips frambosenshmak.

About the leaves, they've been raked and sitting under some trees since autumn - would they be ok for putting straight on the beds?

 

[billygannon]

Anyone else have rat problems? Remedies? We have rats everywhere, burrowing into the hen run and eating the hens food. They're not interested in eating poison cos there's so much food around

Get a barrel and fill it with sweets, cakes and all sorts of food.
Put the barrel where the rats generally congregate.

Get up early the next day and go to the barrel and put a cement lid on the barrel.

Bury the barrel deep in the ground.

About a year later, dig the barrel up and open it.
There should be one huge dead rat in there.


Voila!

 

[Umfufu]

Everything's starting to sprout!

 

[flashback]

I tried making a compost heap there last summer, had it all piled up there, autumn came and the bastard froze. And basically stayed frozen until about today.
Now its all tinder dry.
I even had a plastic cover over it to try and keep it warm or something.

when I dug into the compost heap there last week I realised that only the outside bits you could see were dry, and the rest was nice black crumbly compost.
Disaster averted!
I dug the leaves that were blowing about and the dry stuff into the middle, should be almost done by now probably.
Composting is amazing. I've probably got 6 wheelbarrows of soil sitting there now, for nothing.
I felt very impressed with myself so I did.

I planted a cover crop over the winter, Crimson Clover. Its meant to improve your soil. Fix Nitrogen and all that. I suppose its going ok. Bit patchy though. I'll dig it in soon enough I suppose.


I think my soil is doing better than this time last year though. When I did a bit of digging there it was quite wormy, which is meant to be a good sign.
Shoulda been a farmer.

 

[broken arm]

Everything's starting to sprout!

I KNOW... it's great.

we just put down all our chitted spuds yesterday but there is all sorts of stuff sprouting all over the shop.

 

[magicbastarder]

Now its all tinder dry.

piss on it.

planted the spuds the other night. got accent seed potatoes in tesco, good for baby spuds apparently.

 

[broken arm]

Shoulda been a farmer.

totally. i've had more satisfaction from preparing our allotment (backbreaking as it is) than from anything else in years.