Poorly chicken

[Valkyrie]

Hopefully they've filled their tummies on everyone else's plots!  Yup deer fencing is horrendous!  It's the posh people that have the allotments here.  We asked for years but were told we'd have to find somewhere else if we were lucky.  Then the new people moved into the big houses with zero gardens and started the movement for an allotment.  Well done them!  But we ended up back in our garden with the veg.  Certainly produces enough for us but I have to choose what's easy and have room for.  Can't have spuds because not enough room, but the last lot of parsnips were such a good crop I didn't need to grow any last year - we are still eating them from the freezer (and they are still tasty!)

Hmmm - you need sloes to plant round the edge - sloe schnapps!  I think our allotment had the hedging but also a thick barrier of thorny roses around the car park!  

Give the pup a biccy for me and a cuddle!

[Luvachicken]

On 23/02/2018 at 6:24 PM, Luvachicken said:

I've just sowed some hanging basket sweet-peas

Lucky little things get to go in a heated propagator.

Most of the seeds have grown so I am really pleased, if slightly jealous of their warm and cosy surroundings they had last week.

[Valkyrie]

Not veg here, but cuttings from the hebe in the garden.  My dad took cuttings from a hebe while we were on holiday in Norfolk.  The result was a nice bush in his garden and when it was established he took cuttings and one was given to me.  When I saw the guys had uprooted the plant - even though I said I wanted to take cuttings (they suggested marking so they didn't touch it - so I did but it didn't make any difference) - I was a bit upset because I couldn't find it and thought it had been removed.  Luckily I found it under some other shrubs and took huge armfuls of branches.  Yesterday I popped them into water overnight and had 2 different rooting powders to test.  One was Vitax and the other is organic by Westland.  I have a 50/50 chance with both pots.  I should get at least one from that lot.  Then I potted up some Christmas cactus rootlets.  I have a few bags of assorted composts in my kitchen!

The chickens are in the greenhouse at the moment.  It's definitely more room than the cube run - even with the extension!  But their favourite perch is a bag of compost.  

Meanwhile the garden has been rotavated and it looks huge.  We have a nice sweeping downhill curve, but a nice gentle slope.  Great for little kiddies to roll down.  Can't wait for the turf to go on and settle so I can test it!

[mullethunter]

The broccoli seeds have germinated in their unheated greenhouse!!

Ate the last of our leeks today.

[Christian]

On 07/03/2018 at 8:45 AM, Valkyrie said:

Hmmm - you need sloes to plant round the edge - sloe schnapps!  I think our allotment had the hedging but also a thick barrier of thorny roses around the car park!  

Give the pup a biccy for me and a cuddle!

Will do! 

 

Iucky that the boundary fence along side is sloes and brambles so i do get some protection from the marauding deer! 

[Valkyrie]

Cool beans, so for your next session of Christmas goodies are you going sloe scrumping in October?  Ohhhhh bramble schnapps!  

[GrannyTrish]

34 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

Cool beans, so for your next session of Christmas goodies are you going sloe scrumping in October?  Ohhhhh bramble schnapps!  

And we all visit Christian for a tipple!

[Alis girls]

The weather has been so weird I have put off putting spuds in as ground boggy.  Is it okay to plant much later. 

[Valkyrie]

We put ours in last week - raised beds so nice and dry-ish.  They can go in later - I'm sure this wacky weather won't last long - and the spuds have plenty of time to catch up.  I expect to have another long dry spell in the summer at this rate of snow rain snow rain!  Wishful thinking!  

[Valkyrie]

OK this was very depressing.  Not a sign of the potatoes.  I felt they'd either been munched by squirrels (so put wire over the top) or more likely rotted with all this constant rain.  But a "dry" day down the garden found a few shoots.  Not all have broken the surface, but it makes me more hopeful.

I did get some broad beans from the garden centre - shock/horror - because nothing happening there either.  Needless to say on aforementioned "dry" day they were popped in.  Now I wait for the slugs to enjoy their new dining table.  Speaking of slugs I saw a dark and thin object near the back door.  Closer inspection and found it was indeed a little slug.  I should have given it some salt, but before I knew it, I'd got some paper ready for recycling and scooped it up and put it outside.  Why?

"Dry" I should hasten to add means it rained in the morning then held off till late afternoon.

Still on a plus note, the turf hasn't needed to be watered since it was put down at the beginning of March.  

[mullethunter]

Finally things seem to be drying out and warming up down here (I know putting this in writing is incredibly foolish!) so I’m getting on with the growing 😁

Planted out in the veg plot are my second early potatoes - Jazzy; red onion sets - Red Baron; and parsnips - Gladiator. 

Then in pots either in the little greenhouse, on the shed outside window ledge or an indoors windowsill I have leeks, broccoli, sprouting broccoli, Brussels, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, cucamelons, sweet peas, sunflowers and mesembryanthemums. 

I love spring 😊

[Valkyrie]

Well the tatties are now romping away - we have lost just one.  Actually they seem to be growing where we didn't plant them so perhaps will keep them - nothing else there.

Today we had our first rhubarb in years.  I did have rhubarb plants but they kept flowering and in spite of breaking off the head the plants weakened and died without even one stem to chomp.  I planted this current one the other year but it didn't do much - this year it seems to have split into 3 shoots with a fair few healthy stems from each.  So a bit of demerara and a gentle steaming with ice cream and it was delicious!  Probably the tastiest I've had in years.  Can't remember the name - I don't think it was Champagne but never mind, at least we had one dessert from it.

[mullethunter]

Getting busy in the veg plot!

Sprouting broccoli is now flowering so the chickens are working their way through it - that’s the last of the produce from last year. Unless you count the rhubarb which we’re also harvesting (I’m forcing one of our plants).

Second early potatoes (Jazzy) are doing well and I’ve earthed them up once. Parsnips haven’t germinated so well this year so I’ve just put another row in, and also direct sowed half a row of leeks as my pot germinated ones seem a bit stunted. A row of peas (Early Onward) that I planted expecting the mice to eat have just poked their heads up.

Then in pots growing on to be planted out I have: dwarf French beans (Amethyst), broccoli (Beaumont), Kale (black magic I think), early purple sprouting broccoli, and red Brussels sprouts from my secret Santa ‘funky veg’ kit. Also waiting for runner beans (streamline I think) to germinate.

Then having started on the kitchen windowsill and now in my small unheated greenhouse are tomatoes (Primabella and a striped one from my ‘funky veg’ kit called Tigerella), cucumbers (mini munch) and cucamelons.

Phew! Think that’s it! Not sure I have space for it all!

[patsylabrador]

I'm really rubbish at growing vegetables but want to try again this year. I'm also very lazy and don't want to do all the digging and weeding and so on. I've gathered some kit and am in the process of making a vegetable garden that should require almost no work. That's the theory anyway. I've got a couple of cloches en route for the sink which will hold kale and chard. Planning to get some more vegetables to put in pots for my tiny plot this weekend. It's worth a try anyway. I've put layers of weed membrane and a strip of artificial grass under the popadome. I've got carrots, potatoes, more chard and absolutely no idea what I'm doing. 

[Valkyrie]

For the last couple of years I've done no-dig in the veggie beds and been very happy with the way it's going.  I've noticed weeds pop up less and less.  Today I weeded 6 little things in the entire patch - not had to do anything for weeks and even then it only took me a minute as there were hardly any!  The borders are another matter - veg section was experimental and now I have extra time for the other areas.  It is a very alien thing for me to do, but the digging sometimes got a little too much and I tended to overdo it (narrowing disc) even though I know the warning signs when to stop - I just carried on!  Mulch and hoe is the order of the day.  The new place will be a huge test because the garden is all grass with a few flower beds.  Watch this space as they say!

Meanwhile good luck with your new venture!  My daughter has been pouncing on the garden centres and sown basil, carrots and thyme in seed trays.  She had no idea what she was doing but she's having a go. I keep getting photo updates of the sproutings!  Needless to say she doesn't have a veggie patch or even a herb garden - it's all lawn.  I think she's hoping to get deeper planters - she's happy and that's what counts.  I try and keep out of her little venture unless she asks - then she can follow my ideas or do something different - she will learn for herself and that's half the fun.  So remember to enjoy yourself whatever happens - just blame the weather like I do if things don't go your way!

[Patricia W]

And you can also blame the slugs, snails, birds etc as well.  Not to mention the ‘wrong’ type of soil.  .It’s war out there really... but it’s fun and rewarding.  But not always in the form of the crops you were expecting! 

[mullethunter]

Slugs and snails  I won’t use slug pellets but I wish I did!

[Valkyrie]

Patsylabby - have found one of my old blog/diaries that I used to like reading.  Lost it and now instead of picking up where I left off, decided to re-read the posts from the start.  I've been watching and reading about smallholdings for a very long time!  And I think this post sums up veggie growing - sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not so good - but then other things seem to do fine to make up for it.  Here's the link:

https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/diary/appreciating-the-imperfect/

 

 

[soapdragon]

I have terribly heavy clay soil which is horrendous to dig so I grow veggies in pots. Have scaled down now the boys are older and not so keen to help but have just sown carrot seeds (the small button carrots meant for pots) and tomato seedlings are coming up. Want to get a trough of cucumber seeds planted before we go away at half term. Wild garlic romping merrily around the garden and the cherry tree in lovely blossom...nothing else edible.......yet!

[Cat tails]

Think there is a lady on Gardening World tackling a veg plot that has incredibly heavy clay. She made raised beds and I think she covered the clay with cardboard?

Looked it up. It’s Francis Tophill who is helping a guy out with his allotment. It’s on a hill and has heavy clay soil.

[soapdragon]

Thanks for that, CT. Sadly, though, we don't have room for raised beds as our garden is only wee - our building work a few years ago encroached on a garden that wasn't big to begin with. However, we do OK in pots on a small patio and I love my lots of roses in the beds which seem to be fine with the clay - I just hate cutting them back hard but they recover quickly to give me lots of blooms for the house so can't complain!

[Plum]

I'm on heavy clay and years of chicken manure and compost has made loads of difference.  I dig it in Autumn or Spring.  I've got some bags of fabulous compost I've not put on the beds made from kitchen waste, grass, run and cube stuff.  Can I use it as potting compost or does it need mixing with soil?

First time growing veg for years.  We've put in dwarf beans, carrots, chillis and peppers, sugar snap peas and some 8 year old salad leaf seeds.  No signs of the lettuce yet but not given up hope.  Tomatoes are growing great guns.  Doing everything in pots and troughs and a little plastic greenhouse as I wont give up flower beds I've just rescued from the chickens.

Love to see your roses SoapD when they flower.  I've never tried them, thought they were hard work but if you've been successful on clay perhaps I will.

Talking about slugs, I have massive ones that like chicken pellets.  They get flung over the fence into next doors wilderness in the dark of night.  Wonder if neighbour watches me.

[Cat tails]

I gave up on planting veg in the garden and me too just keep them in pots. Every spring my garden is overtaken by ground elder... never going to get rid of that! 

[Valkyrie]

Same here - very heavy clay, but the veggie patch is super.  Only took 26 years to get it like it (and a lot of Aubiose in the compost too!) - my grandmother had very stony soil but not one carrot ever forked!  They were huge!  Dad's was light, sandy soil and it just soaked up compost like no tomorrow - it seemed to disappear in that dust bath!  The chickens would have loved that dirt!  But even he managed to grow veg.  

Plum I think if you add a bit of light sand and sieve the compost so that it's light but not too rich you should be OK.  You can add a little vermiculite or perlite if you like - that holds water but keeps it all light.  I'm not sure of the ratios though.  You don't want too nutrients in that mix.  When potting on you can always use the leftover mix and add more compost without the sieving.  Your growth sounds like it's going really well - you should have a nice harvest!

[Valkyrie]

Keep picking the elder shoots - young leaves make a good spinach substitute.  Every time you harvest it will weaken the plant and give you something tasty - egg, cream and ground elder in a pot - Cat tails' revenge!