Growing your own - is it worth it?

[vinteuil]

I have been pulling radishes (French Breakfast) for a week now. Every spring I ask myself ‘why do I bother?’ They are not much use as vegetable other than to nibble a few with bread and cheese for lunch.

... I think radishes, with a pinch of sea salt and a little curl of butter, just go so well with a glass of champagne. Well worth a try!

[gradus]

Picked and ate the first tiny peas and broadbeans yesterday but the pods are very slow to fill this year however I am now convinced that Autumn sowing of these crops works, here at least.

[jean]

I have had good results from sowing broad beans in Autumn (it seems to fool the blackfly) but can you really overwinter peas?

[umslopogaas]

According to the RHS, you can certainly sow peas in the autumn for overwintering, but they need protection from mice and birds. They suggest raising in troughs or pots rather than sowing straight into the ground. I've seen them raised in sections of plastic guttering, in the spring you just push them out, soil and all, into a furrow where you want them to grow.

[gradus]

Contrary to RHS advice and my own instincts I sowed the peas direct in November and was surprised that they did so well, none or very few taken by mice. A friend on the same allotment field had done the same the previous year and it worked a treat. The second sowing was in February and they have now more or less caught up so a bit of a pea glut soon. Seed peas are so cheap (I buy at the season end when Wyevale reduces everything to 50p a packet) and I think its worth a try.
We have no shortage of wildlife on our allotments - mice, rats, shrews, wood pigeons, rabbits, badgers (from time to time), grass snakes, deer plus of course foxes and assorted avian visitors. Everything has to be rabbit fenced and netted, in fact I probably spend as much time on crop protection as actually gardening.

[doversoul1]

Contrary to RHS advice and my own instincts I sowed the peas direct in November and was surprised that they did so well, none or very few taken by mice. A friend on the same allotment field had done the same the previous year and it worked a treat. The second sowing was in February and they have now more or less caught up so a bit of a pea glut soon. Seed peas are so cheap (I buy at the season end when Wyevale reduces everything to 50p a packet) and I think its worth a try.
We have no shortage of wildlife on our allotments - mice, rats, shrews, wood pigeons, rabbits, badgers (from time to time), grass snakes, deer plus of course foxes and assorted avian visitors. Everything has to be rabbit fenced and netted, in fact I probably spend as much time on crop protection as actually gardening.

This is a genuine question, as I am in the same situation with much larger vegetable patch than one piece of allotment.

How do you do weeding and harvesting?

[gradus]

This is a genuine question, as I am in the same situation with much larger vegetable patch than one piece of allotment.

How do you do weeding and harvesting?

have to confess that I am the only plot holder who does not rabbit fence and protects crops with netting draped over electric conduit. I keep out most of the nibblers this way but bafflingly 'they' still find ways in - I have no idea how. Hoeing is no problem as I slide back the netting and harvesting works similarly. It is a pain in the rear though as I would love to do just the growing.
I find that the younger the crop the more it is attacked although there are exceptions. Lettuce is rarely touched but greens of all kinds attract wood pigeons but not always. Sweet corn gets attacked when young and old , the latter by deer and the occasional marauding badger. Potatoes and Toms never get touched by anything except of course blight. Carrot foliage attracts nibblers and of course root fly but fine mesh over the crop stops them, it also works for flea beetle on peas and beans but obviously has to be removed as the crop grows.
Asparagus seems trouble-free as are globe and jerusalem artichokes. I net strawberries against blackbird attacks and build a sort of green netting Nissen Hut over the cherry trees to keep the birds off the ripe fruit, incidentally I plant most fruit trees using the Bouché-Thomas method which keeps them very manageable without any pruning needed.
Runner beans and other climbing beans only get attacked when young and I try to protect with old windows along the rows.
I would dearly love to be able to grow fruit and veg without all the hassle.

[umslopogaas]

Gradus, do you have a problem with squirrels? I have to put wire netting over my strawberries, the little b******s bite through the plastic stuff, and they wreak havoc with the crop. I wouldnt begrudge them a few, but they bite lumps out of every fruit, and before they are ripe enough for me to eat, so the damaged fruit then goes rotten. Today's job is to finish off the wire netting, it is awkward stuff to handle.

[gurnemanz]

You reminded me to rig up a net over redcurrants just about to ripen. Birds tend to take more than their fair share.

[doversoul1]

A few days ago, I found that my Brussels Sprouts plants were badly pecked, so I covered them with a net but they are still being pecked. I see a rabbit from time to time but I can’t see how a rabbit can get under the net, and they are definitely pecked and not nibbled. Can pigeons peck plants through a net? I’ll try lifting a net to see it that will stop them.

The squirrels in my garden are very keen on young hazel nuts. By young, I mean when the kernels are just forming. They go through the trees thoroughly and eat the pin-sized kernels before we can hardly see the nuts. And yes, they bit off almost every fig on the tree last year before they are nowhere near ripe. And I still feed them with peanuts (Nuts!!).

[umslopogaas]

According to my book (Buczacki and Harris: Pests, Diseases and Disorders of Garden Plants) wood pigeons love brassicas and can reduce them to shreds, so it will be pigeons that are pecking your sprouts. To lift the net, you could try making a frame out of canes so that the netting is raised well above the plants.

And the squirrels have all my unripe hazel nuts, too.

[jean]

According to my book (Buczacki and Harris: Pests, Diseases and Disorders of Garden Plants) wood pigeons love brassicas and can reduce them to shreds, so it will be pigeons that are pecking your sprouts.

I don't need a book to tell me that!

They fool you though, because when there's other food in abundance they don't bother, and you don't get round to netting - but then there's a slight famine and they suddenly notice your brassicas, and that's it.

You do have to raise the netting though and h keep it taut, because they're so heavy they'll press down until it reaches the crop and they'll get it anyway.

[gradus]

Netting is not the complete answer but if you stretch it over 9ft plastic conduit so that the bed looks like a miniature netting nissen hut it keeps most critters out, I agree that slack netting is not the answer as pigeons will happily peck through it if it rests on greenery. For carrot fly or flea beetle much finer Enviromesh is needed. Rabbits will gnaw through protective netting (and wire netting) but not so often as to be a major problem and I find that even onions bitten down to a couple of inches of leaf eventually recover. I have difficulties with squirrels at home when the walnuts ripen but fortunately not the hazels. Squirrels seem deterred by the the cats, not that the cats do much, although they have coursed squirrels across the garden on occasion, fascinating to watch the twisting and turning of both animals, needless to say the squirrels never get caught.
My strawberries are squirrel free on the allotment but as I mentioned in my earlier posting, birds, especially blackbirds can wreak havoc if the strawbwerries aren't netted. Checked today and the first berries are nearly edible.

[umslopogaas]

I no longer grow brassicas. I used to try cauliflowers, but they take up a lot of space for a long time and I had terrible problems with caterpillars, though I dont recall any damage by pigeons. Perhaps the ones round here are too well fed.

[jean]

I grow kale now (curly and cavolo nero) becaause the slugs don't like it, and they were the main problem, apart from the pigeons.

I've just seen the list of objections that were raised to a new allotment site near here. They included:

(iii) Smells, vermin, anti-social behaviour, noise and traffic generated by the allotments,
(iv) Once people lose interest, the land will be built upon, people are not interested in
allotments,
(v) Impacts on views, allotments will be unsightly

I'm glad to say they were overruled.