Growing your own - is it worth it?

[gradus]

Took 10 years watching what survived here to decide what to grow :¬/ Peculiar soil here and extreme weather conditions mean everything is a gamble. Looked at what veg was expensive in the shops and struck lucky with a few that we grow a lot of. Courgettes are great, but you have to watch them for blossom end rot because of the damp. Leeks love it here, but you'd expect that because it's practically the north east ;¬) And florence fennel. Found a late fruiting variety called Cantino that loves it here. It's got another 3-4 weeks to go before harvesting this year. Nice aniseed flavour. I used it in salads and stews :¬)

I have left it very late with fennel having only this week planted the modules. Interesting to see if they produce bulbs.

[Constantbee]

Not growing my own exactly, but have just been given some quinces by a neighbour. Lacking a runcible spoon, I've just stewed them up with some apples (ours) to make a scrummy puree. A good ratio is one quince to three large apples. Am freezing several batches.

Think the plural must be quinces somehow ... Whatever it is, somebody gave us quite a lot couple of years ago. I boiled them, strained them into a jelly and it set pretty thick. A short, open style of glass jar suits quince jelly if you decide to go down that route with the frozen ones. Difficult to serve otherwise. Columbians serve quince jelly cut from blocks with cheese. Not bad. V sweet.

[oddoneout]

If the pulp from the jelly making is sieved it can be used for making quince cheese(membrillo?). The same thrifty approach works well for medlars too, and a very old collection of farmhouse recipes I have suggests that this approach was pretty standard for any fruit that was strained for jelly. The pulp can also be used to make fruit leathers.

[gradus]

Fruit cheeses and butters were staples of preserving for many years and are I think enjoying something of a revival. The main requirement for both is a glut of fruit since jams and jellies are more popular if only a limited fruit supply is to hand. Quinces can often be seen growing and lying fallen under the tree as few people seem to bother with them. I picked up a dozen or so earlier this week that were strewn under a tree in a fruit tree nursery and the delicious smell of the fruit still lingers in the car.

[doversoul1]

Pea netting

I’ve always had enough hedge cuttings etc. to use for pea support but this year, I have run out of them and will have to buy something instead. I have bought some nets to cover the young plants from Amazon in the past; some were as good as it said and some weren’t. What should I look for in order to avoid buying something I can’t use? I usually start the seeds in black plastic gutters and I use four of them, so it is quite a long row.

[umslopogaas]

I think some of the plastic netting sold in Homebase has too large a mesh - the squares are 10 cm across - and instead I use a netting where the squares are only 1 cm across. Unfortunately I cant remember what its called, or where I bought it, but it might be pond netting, for covering goldfish ponds, and it almost certainly came from Homebase. Providing your pea rows are the same length every year, you can re-use it year after year, it never seems to perish.

[doversoul1]

I think some of the plastic netting sold in Homebase has too large a mesh - the squares are 10 cm across - and instead I use a netting where the squares are only 1 cm across. Unfortunately I cant remember what its called, or where I bought it, but it might be pond netting, for covering goldfish ponds, and it almost certainly came from Homebase. Providing your pea rows are the same length every year, you can re-use it year after year, it never seems to perish.

Thank you very much for the information. What is the height/width of the netting you use and how do you support it?

[umslopogaas]

I use garden canes to support the netting. For a row of 2 - 3 m, one at each end and one or two in the middle. They are about 1.2 m long, pushed in at least 20 cm deep. The netting is about 1 m high, but if growth is vigorous I often have to add and extra strip 30 cm or more wide, which means tying on extra bits of cane to increase the height. I use that green polypropylene string from Homebase to secure the netting to the canes. In retrospect, I think I would have cut the netting higher, at least 1.2 m, and used taller canes as well. The packet says Hurst Green Shaft, the variety I grow, reaches 75 cm, but mine seem to grow quite a lot higher.

I raise the seedlings in plug trays in the greenhouse, if I sow the seeds outside, field mice eat the lot. I wait until the seedling are about 8 cm high before planting out. The mice still snaffle the remains of the seed, but the seedlings survive. I plant a double row, one on each side of the netting. Spacing is one plant every 5 cm. Row spacing, according to the RHS, should be equal to the height of the plant, but that is for people with lots of space, I put mine a lot closer than that, allowing just enough room to walk between the rows.

It has been a long battle against the mice, but I think I am winning, and its very satisfying to harvest your own crop. I froze a lot last season, if you can get them through to harvest peas are very productive.

The mice also snaffle the developing crop, so as soon as pods start to swell I set lots of traps. Last year I caught at least thirty.

[gradus]

I use garden canes to support the netting. For a row of 2 - 3 m, one at each end and one or two in the middle. They are about 1.2 m long, pushed in at least 20 cm deep. The netting is about 1 m high, but if growth is vigorous I often have to add and extra strip 30 cm or more wide, which means tying on extra bits of cane to increase the height. I use that green polypropylene string from Homebase to secure the netting to the canes. In retrospect, I think I would have cut the netting higher, at least 1.2 m, and used taller canes as well. The packet says Hurst Green Shaft, the variety I grow, reaches 75 cm, but mine seem to grow quite a lot higher.

I raise the seedlings in plug trays in the greenhouse, if I sow the seeds outside, field mice eat the lot. I wait until the seedling are about 8 cm high before planting out. The mice still snaffle the remains of the seed, but the seedlings survive. I plant a double row, one on each side of the netting. Spacing is one plant every 5 cm. Row spacing, according to the RHS, should be equal to the height of the plant, but that is for people with lots of space, I put mine a lot closer than that, allowing just enough room to walk between the rows.

It has been a long battle against the mice, but I think I am winning, and its very satisfying to harvest your own crop. I froze a lot last season, if you can get them through to harvest peas are very productive.

The mice also snaffle the developing crop, so as soon as pods start to swell I set lots of traps. Last year I caught at least thirty.

Great method. Perhaps also cover the cane tops with old plastic bottles or similar so the mesh doesn't slip down and for added refinement, tie the netting to twine stretched along the rows so that the netting doesn't sag.
Fortunately we manage with hazel branches form the bushes in the garden and a local nursery adjunct to a large house garden sells hazel stick bunches.
Hurst Green Shaft are my perennial favourites.

[doversoul1]

umslopogaas
Thank you for your advice. I place the (pea) seeds in a form of five on a dice with approx. an inch between the peas. I start them in a couple of gutter in the boiler room to get them going. I plant them out as soon as they are handlable, about 3-4cm high. It’s quite a tricky job to slide them into a shallow trench I prepared. I found that, with this method, once the roots are established in the gutter, the plants don’t grow at all well. Yes, there’s something very special about peas grown in your own garden. But what happened to pea moths? There are hardly any magoty peas these days.

The seeds have arrived. Time to get the greenhouse ready for the spring.

gradus
Lucky you! re: hazel branches.

[umslopogaas]

Good question, what has happened to pea moths? I've never seen one in the ten years I have lived here in east Devon. No one near by grows vegetables, so perhaps I'm just too far away from the nearest infestations and the moths havent found me.

I know of the gutter method, but have never tried it, I have lots of plug trays and find them convenient, though of course, I have to plant out the seedlings individually, whereas with the gutters you can do a whole row at once ... if you can master the art of sliding them out of the gutter, which does sound tricky.

[Constantbee]

We've been using pea netting with some success, although if you're using it to train plants up the tendrils get stuck in it and they're harder to pick. Birch branches work if you can find some after a storm. They look great with sweet peas, too. I protect young plants with mini cloches made from plastic bottles cut in half, just need to control for slug damage and singeing from the sun. The cat does a good job keeping the mice down.

Lost all my fennel last year btw. Autumn was cold. They never filled out, then - bang - the frost came and hasn't gone since. Moral of the story is plant early.

[doversoul1]

We've been using pea netting with some success, although if you're using it to train plants up the tendrils get stuck in it and they're harder to pick. Birch branches work if you can find some after a storm. They look great with sweet peas, too. I protect young plants with mini cloches made from plastic bottles cut in half, just need to control for slug damage and singeing from the sun. The cat does a good job keeping the mice down.

Lost all my fennel last year btw. Autumn was cold. They never filled out, then - bang - the frost came and hasn't gone since. Moral of the story is plant early.

Looking at the photos of pea netting, they don’t look suitable for my row of peas. They are either too large (the meshes) to support the young plants or too small to pick the peas through. Also, some of my peas grows up to six feet. I may have to go round the garden and discreetly cut some branches.

I’ve long given up growing anything early or late. Weather is too unreliable and also we are quite high up and exposed to the wind.

umslopogaas

... if you can master the art of sliding them out of the gutter, which does sound tricky.

It is. I was caught last year; the trench was too close to the rabbit fence and there was not enough room to pull the gutter off the trench. I had to lift the end of the gutter and push the row of peas out very carefully. It really was quite a fiddly job.

[doversoul1]

How do you keep pigeons off purple sprouting? Mine have been so completely stripped that even the pigeons have abandoned them. I could cover them with nets but a) the plants are too tall to cover properly, and b) loose net is a hazard for other birds.

[gradus]

One way with broccoli or other tall greens is to make the netting framework taller say around 7 feet with the netting pulled taut. Its a bit of applied engineering and faff but it works - just think covered wagon. For the framework I use 3 metre plastic electric conduit which is cheap, durable and available cheaply through a local allotment shop, lengths are joined by connectors which cost 2p each.

Apricot Flavorcot is in full bloom so I've been hand pollinating as there are few insects flying at present.