Growing your own - is it worth it?

[doversoul1]

The badgers have gone through the main crop of broad beans thoroughly by pulling them down or biting off the stems. Now they’ve found the peas. I had a premonition yesterday. I went out after supper and picked what was left of the beans and as many peas as I could pick (I suppose one doesn’t need to be psychic to guess it). If this dry weather continues, the next to go will be the carrots and the sweet corn. I bought an electric fence but have realised since that I need to clear the weeds along the fence which is not going to be an easy job. Ah well. We’ve had quite a lot of peas and beans unlike the strawberries which we didn’t even have one.

And the blackbird population in the garden has exploded that that the raspberries are ripe.

[oddoneout]

Likewise with gooseberries, which make a delicious dessert. Tayberries have been prolific - just enjoyed some on breakfast cereal. Thornless blackberries are also looking very good and should start to ripen before too long. I never planted them -they spread under the fence from my neighbour.

A friendly invasion indeed - not only useful but unarmed...
I have brambles encroaching along about 60 foot of my boundary from the neighbour's neglected patch; very prickly, impossible to control effectively, and not even decent fruit to go with the windfalls from their apple tree. The blackbirds like them and ensure my garden gets plenty of successors by leaving the outfall on my side of the fence.

[gradus]

We're lucky with the brambles on the allotment which fruit well. Loganberries area pain though, not much fruit this year but yards and yards of rampant new growth, so much so that I am thinking of digging them up in favour of Tayberries which seem altogether better mannered.
Watering is getting onerous, we're not supposed to use hoses but several of my fellow allotmenteers do, whilst virtuously/stupidly, I have stuck to watering cans but it's an uphill battle applying 30-40 gallons every evening.

[oddoneout]

I have stuck to watering cans but it's an uphill battle applying 30-40 gallons every evening.

I used to fill several cans at once and load them into my wheelbarrow to reduce the lugging on a very long and narrow plot when the shed run-off butts and tanks had emptied. The last time we had a hosepipe ban I remember there was irritation that it was using a hosepipe that was the misdemeanour regardless of where the water was coming from so in theory linking to a rain collection tank or siphoning bathwater for re-use could get you a warning letter. I could see the reasoning behind the rainwater tank(could have been filled with mains water), but siphoning out bathwater......really, how many would fill the bath simply to water the garden? Set against wastage from leaks it seemed more than a little petty.
FWIW I don't think you are stupid for observing the hose restrictions, but in today's world doing the right thing for the common good isn't seen as the sensible choice sadly. Mind you I suppose there is an argument that compliance lets the water companies off the hook when it comes to explaining how and why they've run out of water; if it works they can claim good resource management, and if it doesn't they just find reasons why it isn't their fault, but it's too late anyway.

[doversoul1]

They must have danced all night. My broad beans and peas are not just trodden on but completely flattened!!

At the moment, the vegetable patch takes two and a half hours and the flower an hour and a half to water. I can't see how we can possibly manage without using a hose. So far, there is no talk of the ban down here in Kent. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

[cloughie]

They must have danced all night. My broad beans and peas are not just trodden on but completely flattened!!

At the moment, the vegetable patch takes two and a half hours and the flower an hour and a half to water. I can't see how we can possibly manage without using a hose. So far, there is no talk of the ban down here in Kent. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

With those timescales sounds more like a smallholding dover. Fingers crossed and knees on prayer mat for rain methinks!

[doversoul1]

With those timescales sounds more like a smallholding dover. Fingers crossed and knees on prayer mat for rain methinks!

We have been meaning to scale down for many years, just for two elderly people but so far haven’t quite managed.

We have started digging the potatoes. Not as heavy crop as last year but with no blight, no slug damages or no scabs, we are quite pleased.

[oddoneout]

Just had an uncomfortable reminder that solar water heating can be very effective.....I have a short coiled hose attached to the outside tap to make it easier to fill watering cans and attach the main hose, and had my fingers over the end as I turned on the tap to fill up - ouch! I do remember to put filled cans out of the sun and check the temperature when dipping cans in the water buts but had forgotten about this bit of checking which also needs doing.

[doversoul1]

Just had an uncomfortable reminder that solar water heating can be very effective.....I have a short coiled hose attached to the outside tap to make it easier to fill watering cans and attach the main hose, and had my fingers over the end as I turned on the tap to fill up - ouch! I do remember to put filled cans out of the sun and check the temperature when dipping cans in the water buts but had forgotten about this bit of checking which also needs doing.

It was lucky that you weren’t ‘watering’ young plants! It must be the heat; my catalpa tree is, for the first time in 40 years, absolutely covered in flowers. I suppose it’s not surprising, since it is also called Indian bean tree.

I don’t know if this is something to do with the weather. I gave a couple of courgette plants to a friend who said the other day that they (the plants) only had male flowers. I took no notice when I heard it but now I see that my plants have plenty of flowers but very few courgettes. Another odd thing is that my Bramley apple tree is self-thinning; there is a carpet of small fruit under the tree. A sensible thing to do, I suppose.

[gradus]

Very heavy, branch-breaking apple crop on an old Laxton and some of the others incl a young Grenadier (£5 from Morrissons 5 years ago) are also carrying heavy sets. Pears are almost fruit-free and only one plum has shown anything to pick. Some good blackberries this evening but loganberries and early raspberries a disaster. First year I've had a zero crop on early potatoes because of drought, I'd assumed that heavy mucking would take care of everything but I was wrong. Outdoor toms picking and very tasty with allthis sun, polytunnel toms not far behind. Huge crops of outdoor cucumbers (6 plants), I gave away 15 today.

[oddoneout]

It was lucky that you weren’t ‘watering’ young plants! It must be the heat; my catalpa tree is, for the first time in 40 years, absolutely covered in flowers. I suppose it’s not surprising, since it is also called Indian bean tree.

I don’t know if this is something to do with the weather. I gave a couple of courgette plants to a friend who said the other day that they (the plants) only had male flowers. I took no notice when I heard it but now I see that my plants have plenty of flowers but very few courgettes. Another odd thing is that my Bramley apple tree is self-thinning; there is a carpet of small fruit under the tree. A sensible thing to do, I suppose.

Lucky as you say; fortunately I don't use that hose for direct plant watering.
My courgettes are only producing male flowers, and no sign amongst the many buds yet to open of female ones, so I'm just picking them each morning to use in salad; at this rate it'll be the only crop I have off them! It's a (non-commercial)heritage variety I've not grown before, and the only one I've got this year so nothing to compare with. Frustrating as it's supposed to be dual purpose - immature fruits as courgettes but also able to grow on to small winter storing squash, and obviously also to save seed from. Oddly enough the cucumbers(outside sort) are doing OK and busy setting little fruits, so I just(!) have to make sure to keep up with the watering.
Fruit trees will always do some self-thinning - the June drop - but this year the apples seem to be losing them for longer, and at a larger size. Probably just as well as although mature trees are coping pretty well the resources needed to carry a big crop will put a strain on them.

[doversoul1]

It must be the heat; the pumpkins have gone absolutely wild. I thought I’d given them enough space to spread but now they are climbing over and smothering just about everything around them. I have just managed to push back a branch off the cucumber trellis. The way their tendrils grip is just like those sea monsters in ancient sailors’ tales.

[oddoneout]

It must be the heat; the pumpkins have gone absolutely wild. I thought I’d given them enough space to spread but now they are climbing over and smothering just about everything around them. I have just managed to push back a branch off the cucumber trellis. The way their tendrils grip is just like those sea monsters in ancient sailors’ tales.

They are impressive aren't they - and rather disconcerting; I sometimes get the feeling that if I stood still for too long I would get engulfed. I fear the recent weather change will spell the end for my tomatoes which have already had a bad season and are very behind, ideal conditions for blight to appear. Ah well, outdoor toms are always a gamble these days, and it comes off often enough to be worth trying each year.

[doversoul1]

They are impressive aren't they - and rather disconcerting; I sometimes get the feeling that if I stood still for too long I would get engulfed. I fear the recent weather change will spell the end for my tomatoes which have already had a bad season and are very behind, ideal conditions for blight to appear. Ah well, outdoor toms are always a gamble these days, and it comes off often enough to be worth trying each year.

Outdoor tomatoes: Have you tried Crimson Crush? They really are blight resistance.

https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/Popular+Vegetable+Seeds/Salad/Tomato+Seeds+-+F1+Crimson+Crush_182440.htm

You can buy seeds as well as plants.

Pumpkins: I had the similar feeling. Those tentacles....

[gradus]

Outdoor tomatoes: Have you tried Crimson Crush? They really are blight resistance.

https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/Popular+Vegetable+Seeds/Salad/Tomato+Seeds+-+F1+Crimson+Crush_182440.htm

You can buy seeds as well as plants.

Pumpkins: I had the similar feeling. Those tentacles....

Picked climbing French beans but they were so stringy that I binned them in favour of the dwarf beans which seem to stand the heat better. Luckily my outdoor toms are into their stride but blight is an ever-present fear in damp and humid conditions. I have found that red oak leaf lettuce have stood the drought well and resisted bolting for far longer than I expected.