Growing your own - is it worth it?

[gradus]

Today my local Lidl has 6 grape varieties in pots at £2.99 each, all suitable for outdoor growing and something of a bargain.

[jean]

Does anyone have any infalible way of convincing the local cats that the compost around your vegetables isn't cat litter?

[umslopogaas]

A wire netting fence around the veg plot might keep them out. They could probably climb over it, but might not bother, especially if you put a litter tray outside the fence for them. Cats are one problem I dont have, neither I nor the neighbours have any. I wish I could say the same about field mice, they slaughtered my first sowing of peas, so I have resorted to traps. So far I have caught about twenty, and last night I only got one, so hopefully I've thinned out the population and can have another go. The peas are in plug trays waiting to go out but I dont want them to end up as mouse food like the first lot. I suppose I could get a cat, but that would only be swapping one problem for another.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Does anyone have any infalible way of convincing the local cats that the compost around your vegetables isn't cat litter?

But of course it's cat litter. Our two cats KNOW the potato bed is really a litter tray for them.

[doversoul1]

I thought I’d try growing outdoor cucumbers by letting them climbing up a net instead of spread on the ground. So I bought a net but it looks just the right size mesh for birds, squirrels and small rabbits to get caught in. Has anyone had any problems?

Also, according to the instruction on the packet, I need to use a stake at both ends which seems rather a heavy job. Would canes do?

By the way, I have noticed that British asparagus are in the supermarket. Has anyone on the forum harvested their own?

[jean]

Yes, I've eaten all the little I have and the plants are now shooting skywards.

[gradus]

Ditto, it's freely available still from local growers/farm shops though.

[gradus]

Re netting, i've used it regularly for some years, mostly to protect crops but only once did a bird get tangled up and that because it was trying to get at the cherries the net was supposed to protect. A neighbour had a grass snake enmeshed in netting he left on the ground but released it.
I've seen but not tried to grow cucumbers up netting, usually I tie the vine to a cane or a string tied to the frame of the greenhouse/polytunnel and let the cucumbers hang down. With ridge types outside I just let them sprawl - they taste just the same whatever the final shape.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Three years after building the raised asparagus bed, we now have a good crop for 2016. It was worth resisting the temptation to pick and eat last year's offerings, as the extra year gave the plants a chance to develop and strengthen.

[doversoul1]

Three years after building the raised asparagus bed, we now have a good crop for 2016. It was worth resisting the temptation to pick and eat last year's offerings, as the extra year gave the plants a chance to develop and strengthen.

I wish I hadn’t asked….

Wimbledon is over and so are my strawberries. It has been the best strawberry year ever. I put up a 60cmm wire fence around the two patches to, so I hoped, keep the badgers off but there were no signs of them up to now. They did find the fruit in the end and got in by squashing down the wire. As it was, there were hardly anything left, so I felt quite generous. The wire fence seems to have kept the birds away very effectively, as (I guess) they don’t like diving in.

It’s a fantastic year for raspberries, too. The blackbirds can’t keep up and seem almost to have given up.

I won’t go on about the rabbits. I told my problem to a Japanese friend who wrote back to me saying ‘I’m sorry to hear about your problems with rabbits. One of my relatives is having to cope with the damages caused by monkeys and wild boars’.

[umslopogaas]

It would have been a great year for strawberries, but despite wire netting, the grey squirrels found a way in and ate the lot, I didnt salvage one. Must make a proper wooden frame for the wire netting.

First peas just harvested, and french beans almost ready. Runners in a few weeks, I'll have more beans than I can eat. Still, the neighbours seem to appreciate the surplus.

Rabbits are one problem I dont have, the whole garden is rabbit fenced. It was expensive, but a one off cost and it would be impossible to grow anything edible without it.

[jean]

The strawberries produced a good crop, the raspberries are huge - but neither as sweet as if they'd had more sun. The birds who left my gooseberries alone for years discovered them last year, and seem to have got this year's crop as well.

Impressive crop of broad beans, and sowing them in autumn really does seem to fool the blackfly.

But I can't grow peas whatever I do. And I love them more than anything!

[gradus]

Strawberries flopped for me again, but no problem with peas!
Loganberries currently the stars of the plot with raspberries looking very leafy but without much fruit.
Do you sow peas direct or in modules/guttering for transplanting? I find that they do well either way on my lightish soil but I have to keep upsoil fertility with muck/compost to keep everything going well. Garlic has done well but onions have been attacked by rabbits and are producing only pickling sized onions.

[jean]

Do you sow peas direct or in modules/guttering for transplanting?

We've tried both ways. Sowing direct makes them susceptible to being eaten by mice or something before they even emerge, but even when the plants get established they are small and weedy and the leaves often turn white.

Other people on the allotments often seem to do better, but this year I don't see much sign of good pea crops on anyone else's plot.

And after a few very prolific years, we've had a problem with sweet peas, too. I wonder if the two (probems) are related?

[umslopogaas]

Peas are fine down here in Devon, I've just picked the first pods. I raise them in module trays until they are one or two inches high, then plant them out. That seems to solve the mouse problem, though they will still go for the remains of the seed.

Dont think the sweet pea problem is related, unless both are struggling with rather cold wet weather. Sweet peas are usually trouble free, in my experience.