Growing Your Own Food

Ananda · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:05 am Post subject:

Nice!
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stonemaybe · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:04 am Post subject:

Ananda · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:21 am Post subject:

stonemaybe · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 11:51 pm Post subject:

as you can see, the ladybirds are already interested in the dill! (that's 3 rows of dill on the left, the rest are tomatoes)

my itsy bitsy teeny weeny blueberry bush went in today

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Ananda · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:28 pm Post subject:

Looking good!
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Frostheart · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 5:56 pm Post subject:

We may plant some onions and potatoes depending on time/weather, and probably replace some of the raspberry bushes a bunch of bloody rabbits ate almost to the roots last winter (even an oak sapling was gnawed into oblivion).

Not yet, tho. This morning the land of frost giants and other barbaric whatsits appeared as follows. Razz

(This is what Ananda means with cold, though I'm guessing she still lives at least a few hundred km's further to the south.)

stonemaybe · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:16 pm Post subject:

Spent a wonderful four hours today putting tomatillo seedlings (they're BIG seedlings!) in pots. Googling's given me a bit of confidence - apparently they grow fine in the UK climate.

Tomatoes, dill and chilis still doing great. Spinach is thriving, a couple of onions and carrots have appeared, my first broccoli and first radish appeared today. Nothing yet from any of the aubergines or courgettes (planted a couple types of both), peas, beans, cucumbers, parsley, thyme, or sweet peppers. Nor the rest that I can't remember just now.

Laughing

I think I'm obsessed.

Scrub think.
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Ananda · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:24 pm Post subject:

Frostheart · Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:55 am Post subject:

Menolly · Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 4:34 pm Post subject:

Took some updated photos this morning after watering.

Summer bed.

I lost the sage and four of the seven pepper plants, but everything else seems to be thriving so far.

Winter bed.

It appears the two rows of turnips may have been planted too late, but I seem to have one or two which are struggling to mature. I'll look forward to the renewable source of greens for as long as they last.

Finally! The tomatoes are starting to bear fruit.
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stonemaybe · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:26 pm Post subject:

wow menolly they look great! Wish we had even a wee bit of Florida climate here - after a summery 2nd half of March when loads of seeds germinated, we've gone back to near-freezing, ferocious winds, and torrential showers.

I also managed to break most of my dill while re-potting Sad

Tomatillos and tomatoes are ok after re-potting though, too early to tell for the chilis. Radish, aubergine, onion, carrot and the odd broccoli seedling are good, and the spinach is growing wild. Still nothing from cucumbers, peppers, courgettes, peas, beans, thyme, parsley, coriander, ...um forget the rest!
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stonemaybe · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:09 am Post subject:

Don't laugh - this is deadly serious and has already nearly caused a divorce!

Tomatoes are thriving, planted 24 freebie seeds and now 22 really healthy plants on the go. Of those, 6 would win awards (imho)

Cherry tomatoes I only planted 10 days ago. 3 out of eight are up and looking good.

Tomatillos are amazing! i bought 25 seeds off amazon last year. 22 are up. Windowsills are proving a bit of a problem as they lean into the light so much. Still, they're HUGE compared to everything else.

Jalapenos doing great too. 8 out of 10 germinated and looking really healthy.

Cayennes took longer to get going. 9 out of 13 are now transplanted. 5 look good, rest may struggle.

G2 cayennes (from seeds i took from last year's chilis) are doing better. 21 plants on the go, half of which look really healthy.

Chives have yet to show their heads, but only planted recently.

Garlic is Very Happy

. Planted 4 a week ago. 3 are already up.

Dill is proving troublesome. They're so fragile and skinny, and the follow the light so much. I've chopped the bottoms off loads of 500ml plastic bottles and put them over the plants to support them. This seems to help. 11 out of 12 of the original ones are still growing. 2 out of 6 planted 3 weeks ago are up.

Coriander(cilantro) i sowed a load of seeds in one big container 2 weeks ago. The first seedlings are up. Looking good.

Parsley has appeared, but they're so small it's hard to know how they'll do, yet.

Sage only planted last week, nothing yet.

Ditto basil.

Spinach is great. Sowed a couple of containers at the start of the month. They're (small) jungles! A couple more sown last week to maintain my saag supply.

Thyme has appeared, eventually, but looking small like the arsley so hard to tell.

Aubergine (eggplant) 2 types sowed at start of april 5 out of 6 of melange are up and looking healthy, 2 out of 6 halflange likewise.

Cucumber - 1st 2 seedlings have appeared this week (4 sowed) , none of the chinese slangen have raised their heads yet.

The courgettes (zuchini) are being very slow! Three types sowed nearly 4 weeks ago and only one, a di nazza (round one) has appeared. It is looking VERY bizarre - every time I see it I'm reminded of ... not sure, maybe a nightmare I had when I had a fever when i was a kid.

Radishes are amazing!the saxa 2 ones are the healthiest looking plants of all. Sowed 4 and all 4 are looking great. so I got another 4 varieties and put them in too Very Happy

Sugar peas are SLOW. Only 1 out of 4 has raised it's head so far.

Garden pea likewise slow. Again 1 out of 4 is up, it's looking heathy but decidedly sci-fi

Onions (3 types)are a mixed story. I have one that's obviously a mutant, a dozen or so others that might be ok.

Carrots are looking fluffy. Planted 4 of the healthiest out in the ground in my unused flower border yesterday.

Broccoli 4 out of 8 are up and looking good.

French marigold (to protect the carrots apparently) are up, but don't seem to have developed at all in the last 2 weeks.

Lettuce is a quick starter! Sowed 4 of them 6 days ago, 1 is already up and looking good.

No patisson sunbursts yet Sad

And ditto the sweet peppers.
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Ananda · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:14 am Post subject:

Wow, you have a better selection than the shop across the street! Sounds great.
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stonemaybe · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:33 am Post subject:

It's all very experimental, though! We'll see how much produce I get!

My main concern is that i have very little space to plant any of them into the ground, and by biggest containers (when things are ready for them) aren't very big at all! I know the chilis will be ok because the containers I had them in last year were relatively small, but worried about tomatoes, tomatillos, courgettes and aubergines.
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Menolly · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:21 am Post subject:

Starting to blush!
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SoulBiter · Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 8:20 pm Post subject:

Vegetable gardens tend to be trial and error for your location.

I usually plant my spring veggies in the winter (or late fall):
Spinach,leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, broccoli, and Kale.

It winters over and comes up in the early spring and I have yet to be frosted out. However all of those except the Kale cant tolerate summer temps and die about May or June.

My spring/Summer stuff is Green beans (blue lake), pole beans (kentucky wonders), tomatoes, cucumbers, Butternut squash, Bell peppers, jalepeno, cowhorn peppers, red potatoes and sweet potatoes.

I don't have enough sun in my spot for corn to do well. My tomatoes tend to not produce as they could if it were a bit sunnier but I do get quite a few. Yellow and Zuccinni squash get killed by vine borers so I don't plant them anymore.

I also have about 9 blueberry bushes that are doing great. I put them in last year and hopefully in the next couple of years I wont be able to keep up.
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stonemaybe · Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:05 pm Post subject:

yeah this year is experimental, Soulbiter. Next year I'll focus on what's worked well.

First harvest today Very Happy

only spinach leaves but still, it's a start!

Spent approx 8 hours with plants today
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Shaun das Schaf · Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 9:50 am Post subject:

Nice beds Menolly. And Stonemhybe, you're not obsessed at all Laughing

I had a depressing season with pests. We have protected courtyards where we grow everything in pots, but the pests love the warm, wet, sheltered 'supermarket' and myself and the neighbours fought a losing battle. Got rid of first round of slugs, then white fly infestation hit, got rid of that, replaced by heaps of green catterpillars, aphids, another round of slugs, snails and some other thing I didn't recognise, plus ants hit the strawberries, basil and cucumber.

I use homemade soap/chilli/garlic sprays, eco-oil for the tomatoes, beer traps for slugs, but we had such a wet, warm summer, I would have had to be permanently out in the garden defending it. Still got some produce, but all in all, it was a bit depressing and I'm wondering about whether to turn the garden decorative next year Sad

Or just grow cherry tomatoes (their firmer skins tend to protect them) and the herbs pests don't eat.

Well, thanks for letting me whinge. I wish you all much better luck with your gardens!

aliantha · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 3:06 am Post subject:

A friend who has a plot at our community garden was complaining today about how deer ate off the tops of her sugar snap pea plants -- just as they were flowering and about to grow the pea pods. She was not a happy camper.
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Shaun das Schaf · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 7:06 am Post subject:

Yes, that experience is particularly painful! Or when the caterpillars wait til the big green fruit is there and decide they'll make lovely houses. I'm always grateful we don't actually have to survive on what comes out of our gardens! (I would not be here typing this Laughing

) But seriously, makes you think how much harder life was when we really had to compete for food and when crop failure meant you didn't eat. (Still the case in some non-1st-world places of course.)