Growing your own - is it worth it?

[gradus]

I was amazed to find my Tomcot Apricot in full flower on the allotment today but from past experience I'm apprehensive that it may be making it's final appearance as happened with the same variety in the garden a few years ago. Still I'm going to hand pollinate as much as possible otherwise zilch later on. Our garden apricots are just beginning to flower along with a Pluot and they too will have to have hand pollination to have any hope of fruit later on.
By the way Aldi have got some very useful 3mtr long poly or fleece cloches at the moment, ideal for strawberries or anything else that might appreciate a little protection.

[Constantbee]

I was amazed to find my Tomcot Apricot in full flower on the allotment today but from past experience I'm apprehensive that it may be making it's final appearance as happened with the same variety in the garden a few years ago.

Was it the frost? Heavy rain can also a problem for plums and apricots, if you can’t protect them during pollination. A commercial grower in Worcestershire we dealt with once told us how a neighbour’s crop had been decimated due to a hailstorm they’d avoided.

Not much doing here yet. Bees are out and about though. They were getting a pollen supplement before the warm spell but are now bringing in pollen from the Hazel catkins.

Cat brought in a young leveret the other morning - a very early brood. Not a pretty sight. Well cats will be cats, won't they. Having disposed of a succession of his cadavers out of the window over the years I have now managed to make a few friends in the local crow population, who swoop low over the lawn in the mornings looking for carrion.

[gradus]

Was it the frost? Heavy rain can also a problem for plums and apricots, if you can’t protect them during pollination. A commercial grower in Worcestershire we dealt with once told us how a neighbour’s crop had been decimated due to a hailstorm they’d avoided.

Not much doing here yet. Bees are out and about though. They were getting a pollen supplement before the warm spell but are now bringing in pollen from the Hazel catkins.

Cat brought in a young leveret the other morning - a very early brood. Not a pretty sight. Well cats will be cats, won't they. Having disposed of a succession of his cadavers out of the window over the years I have now managed to make a few friends in the local crow population, who swoop low over the lawn in the mornings looking for carrion.

It could have been we've been down to -6 so far but I'm hoping that it's a response to all the sunshine last Summer and the ripening of fruit buds. The first Camelia has produced huge flowers compared to it's usual performance which I guess may also be down to sun-ripened buds.
Shame about the leveret, a few months ago my wife opened the bedroom door to find a young rabbit sitting on the landing brought in by one of the cats. We took it outside but a few days later found the mangled remains. Only circumstantial evidence but I think I know who did it.

[doversoul1]

My apricot tree is, I think a fairly primitive variety and seems to pollinate unaided but we never have the fruit. How do people keep the birds off the fruit?

I have noticed that one of my strawberry patches had no plants left. They were there earlier and the tub still has them. It’s too thorough to be slags. We have a couple of very large rabbits in the garden. Do they eat strawberry plants? If even the plants get eaten, I don’t think I’ll bother to grow them this year.

[oddoneout]

My apricot tree is, I think a fairly primitive variety and seems to pollinate unaided but we never have the fruit. How do people keep the birds off the fruit?

I have noticed that one of my strawberry patches had no plants left. They were there earlier and the tub still has them. It’s too thorough to be slags. We have a couple of very large rabbits in the garden. Do they eat strawberry plants? If even the plants get eaten, I don’t think I’ll bother to grow them this year.

Yes is the short answer to that.

[doversoul1]

Yes is the short answer to that.

Ah well, in that case, there will be no more strawberries for the badgers.

Last year, after the strawberries, the badgers got into the vegetable garden completely ignoring the rabbit fence. They ate and smashed up every single plant of broad beans and peas. After that, we bought an electric fence kit but having read the instruction, whether we’ll have energy to set it up in time this year is somewhat debatable.

[gradus]

My apricot tree is, I think a fairly primitive variety and seems to pollinate unaided but we never have the fruit. How do people keep the birds off the fruit?

I have noticed that one of my strawberry patches had no plants left. They were there earlier and the tub still has them. It’s too thorough to be slags. We have a couple of very large rabbits in the garden. Do they eat strawberry plants? If even the plants get eaten, I don’t think I’ll bother to grow them this year.

Netting works if the tree is small enough, I can still cover a cherry that is c 9feet tall with a 15 foot spread using netting, albeit with a helper. If not I think these might help:https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/23270392560...r=532214516725

[doversoul1]

Netting works if the tree is small enough, I can still cover a cherry that is c 9feet tall with a 15 foot spread using netting, albeit with a helper. If not I think these might help:https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/23270392560...r=532214516725

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2019/mar/04/is-it-cruel-to-set-up-nets-prevent-bird-nesting-jeremy-vine-chris-packham-protesting

Obviously, this is not the same but do you not have similar problems with netting? I use netting to cover young vegetables to keep the pigeons off but I peg the net down. How do you keep your netting from flapping about?

[gradus]

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ham-protesting
Obviously, this is not the same but do you not have similar problems with netting? I use netting to cover young vegetables to keep the pigeons off but I peg the net down. How do you keep your netting from flapping about?

Cherries and in particular the one I've trained tend to be open and not particularly attractive to nesting birds - having 2 cats helps - but the real problem is preventing blackbirds from entangling themselves by trying to find a way through to get at the ripe cherries and I've had a couple who've died trying. The only way to alleviate this is to check a couple of times a day or don't grow cherries. Mind you netting can be a problem with other creatures and grass snakes have sometimes been entangled on our allotments - not everyone is keen to help them free themselves.
I peg the cherry tree netting down so that it surrounds the entire tree and remove a peg to get inside.

[gradus]

Anyone got mouse problems in their greenhouse? Little devil(s) have eaten through or taken all 5 trays of broad beans in modules and excavated several others destroying onion seedlings in the process. I'm reluctant to lay traps but it's annoying to put it politely, any ideas as to how to see them off?

[oddoneout]

Anyone got mouse problems in their greenhouse? Little devil(s) have eaten through or taken all 5 trays of broad beans in modules and excavated several others destroying onion seedlings in the process. I'm reluctant to lay traps but it's annoying to put it politely, any ideas as to how to see them off?

Rigid clear covers over the trays? You'd need to be careful about temperature/scorch problems, but as mice generally don't seem inclined to chew through the likes of hard plastic to get at food(unlike rats) it might keep them out for long enough.

[doversoul1]

Rigid clear covers over the trays? You'd need to be careful about temperature/scorch problems, but as mice generally don't seem inclined to chew through the likes of hard plastic to get at food(unlike rats) it might keep them out for long enough.

The problem with covers is that they make the seedlings leggy. I place my peas in gutters on an old Formica table with cardboard ‘collar’ on each leg. This stops them from climbing up the table. You have to make sure though that there is nothing near the table that they can climb up and jump on to the seed trays. You can use a humane trap if you are prepared to drive them to the next village every morning until your greenhouse is mice-free.

[doversoul1]

Oh deer

[...]
This week, the Royal Horticultural Society released guidance on how gardeners can deer-proof their outdoor spaces. Replace tulips with daffodils and red hot pokers, it suggests, because deer don’t like the taste and it will stop them rummaging through your flowerbeds.
[…]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/20/stags-in-the-city-how-deer-found-their-way-into-our-town-centres-and-back-gardens

[gradus]

No deer regularly visit our garden although Muntjac are everywhere and we've had problems on the allotments. It's as well to be cautious when driving though as it is not unusual to see deer grazing near roads and popping out suddenly in front of the car, as happened to me a week ago.

[doversoul1]

How does your garen grow?

Having picked the last shoots, I finally pulled up the curly kale and the purple sprouting to prepare the ground for the beans: runner, fine dwarf (Kenyan), climbing French and borlotti beans. I bought Thompson & Morgan’s borlotti beans last year which turned out to be just slightly large French beans. Very disappointed. The dwarf broad beans I planted during the hot spell are flowering now but they need higher temperature fore the nectar to flow or the bees won’t be able to pollinate.

So far, the rabbits are kept under control by the neighbours cats but they (the cats) are not interested in badgers. Pity.