Growing your own - is it worth it?

[ardcarp]

Bumper year for figs. There's a limit to how many you can eat...gorgeous as they are....so it's non-stop fig jam and fig chutney making at the moment. Any other fig ideas will be appreciated. Just can't bear to let them go to waste.

[gradus]

Bumper year for figs. There's a limit to how many you can eat...gorgeous as they are....so it's non-stop fig jam and fig chutney making at the moment. Any other fig ideas will be appreciated. Just can't bear to let them go to waste.

Around here they have done well too although my trees are young-ish and have been more modest in their production but apples continue to rain down from overloaded trees when the wind blows. Onions have been poor owing to planting the seedlings too late and them not getting their feet down before the hot dry spell. Fantastic crops of bindweed in the wake of the recent rains.

[ardcarp]

Runner beans and French beans have, er, been a disappointment in this neck of the woods, however. Dry and wet spells just timed wrongly for them, I think.

[gradus]

Dug up some Vivaldi well into secondary growth following all the rain, very small but delicious steamed.
Any thoughts on stuff to sow now that will actually get used?

[oddoneout]

Dug up some Vivaldi well into secondary growth following all the rain, very small but delicious steamed.
Any thoughts on stuff to sow now that will actually get used?

Quite a lot of salading(stuff harvested as small leaves rather than whole large plants) is worth sowing now - things like leaf spinach, cut and come again lettuce, many of the oriental greens, beetroot and chard for baby leaves, radishes might produce roots. With the soil being warm and the days being not too hot and dry growth can be quite impressive.
http://moreveg.co.uk/ has suggestions for September sowing.

[gradus]

Quite a lot of salading(stuff harvested as small leaves rather than whole large plants) is worth sowing now - things like leaf spinach, cut and come again lettuce, many of the oriental greens, beetroot and chard for baby leaves, radishes might produce roots. With the soil being warm and the days being not too hot and dry growth can be quite impressive.
http://moreveg.co.uk/ has suggestions for September sowing.

Some good and cheap offers for seeds from Morerveg, thanks for the link.

[Jonathan]

We've very recently taken on an allotment so I may well be asking questions more frequently here soon! It's taken hours so far to remove the nettles and the Mares Tails (which apparently are an absolute swine to get rid of so we've been ripping them out as much as possible and will grow things over the top of them as the roots go down about 2 metres, apparently). It's been fun so far!

[oddoneout]

We've very recently taken on an allotment so I may well be asking questions more frequently here soon! It's taken hours so far to remove the nettles and the Mares Tails (which apparently are an absolute swine to get rid of so we've been ripping them out as much as possible and will grow things over the top of them as the roots go down about 2 metres, apparently). It's been fun so far!

Exciting times! It's a good time of year to start a plot. Just a word of advice - you won't win the mares tail war; it's a case of learning to live with it - after all it's been around millions of years! The green tops will compost well and add minerals(due to the deep rooting), opinions vary about adding the black bootlace roots as well. I always did, but others preferred to put them on the bonfire. 30 years of experience with it on my allotments taught me two main things - it likes bare soil and will make the most of the lack of competition, and it also seems largely resistant to weedkiller(this I saw from my neighbour's efforts - I didn't use it) thanks to the waxy coating on its stems. In established crops it's relatively easy to pull up the clumps as they don't wrap around things and the roots are slim and straight, but in seedling crops it can be more of a problem - I would sometimes use my sharp slim salad gathering scissors to just cut the tops out until the seedlings were better able to stand disturbance from pulling it out. I found that hoeing it kept things looking tidy but also seemed to encourage the production of very bushy lowgrowing clumps that were much harder to pull up.
Nettles will yield to persistence; their green tops are excellent compost or liquid feed material, and the roots, being tough and inclined to grow close to the surface, are much easier to pull out than many weeds - the bright yellow colour is also helpful!

[Jonathan]

Thanks for all of that oddoneout! We're avoiding using weedkiller on it as we did some research and it said the same as you did - it doesn't work! We've been pulling up as much as possible and are just trying to stay on top of it.
The Nettles were a doddle in comparison - just a quick hoe and they were knocked over. In yesterdays hot sun, the uprooted plants soon begun to wilt and one of our fellow allotmenters (is that a word?) said they'd die and rot in quickly.
Thanks again!

[gradus]

We've very recently taken on an allotment so I may well be asking questions more frequently here soon! It's taken hours so far to remove the nettles and the Mares Tails (which apparently are an absolute swine to get rid of so we've been ripping them out as much as possible and will grow things over the top of them as the roots go down about 2 metres, apparently). It's been fun so far!

Fortunately we have no Mares Tail but any number of other weeds! Annual Mercury and Gallant Soldier are currently making hostile takeover bids but neither are difficult to deal with although Annual Mercury seems almost weatherproof and flourishes through the Winter too.
Best of luck with the new allotment, despite everything that nature throws at us it is still well worth the effort.

[Jonathan]

Thanks gradus! I'm sure I shall keep everyone on this thread posted as things evolve.

[ardcarp]

It is often said that growing potatoes is a Good Thing when you are starting to use a new or overgrown plot. Maybe it's all the digging and earthing up that does it.

[oddoneout]

It is often said that growing potatoes is a Good Thing when you are starting to use a new or overgrown plot. Maybe it's all the digging and earthing up that does it. :oh:

Hah - that's the bit they all keep quiet about! Being more realistic, it's true that a well grown spud crop will produce a foliage canopy that does a reasonable job of keeping down annual weeds and the ground preparation gives an opportunity to get at perennial weeds.They don't have a magic effect on weeds though and a badly infested plot will interfere with the crop but.....given a modicum of good weather and care you will get a worthwhile crop.Even if the couch grass grows through the tubers they are still usable.... They are also a good way of using a lot of space which makes the plot look cultivated(always useful to keep the management off your back!)

[doversoul1]

Jonathan
This sounds like a terrible cliché but I find that growing your own food gives you (me) something like a primeval pleasure and gardening makes you (me) very much aware of the natural cycle of life.

Good luck with your allotment but don’t be tempted to grow pumpkins. They have invaded just about everything around them in my garden and now they have pushed down the rabbit fence almost to the ground. I had to cover the endives I planted a few days ago with a net before they are all nibbled to the ground.

gradus

Dug up some Vivaldi …

I don’t know how many times I said this but I can’t help repeating it: are they all-year-round?

ardcarp
Apparently, potatoes improve soil by wriggling about in the ground as they grow.

[oddoneout]

Jonathan
This sounds like a terrible cliché but I find that growing your own food gives you (me) something like a primeval pleasure and gardening makes you (me) very much aware of the natural cycle of life.

Good luck with your allotment but don’t be tempted to grow pumpkins. They have invaded just about everything around them in my garden and now they have pushed down the rabbit fence almost to the ground. I had to cover the endives I planted a few days ago with a net before they are all nibbled to the ground.

gradus

I don’t know how many times I said this but I can’t help repeating it: are they all-year-round?

ardcarp
Apparently, potatoes improve soil by wriggling about in the ground as they grow.

The invasiveness of the squash family can be a virtue - good way of covering a lot of ground while getting to grips with other areas - and of course having produce that will store well for the lean months of the year is an important consideration. You do have to keep an eye on their empire building tendencies though I agree.
Spuds do indeed wriggle about - but if they can't get into the soil properly that may bring them to the surface, which is most definitely not desirable as green potatoes are useless(unlike green tomatoes).