Growing your own - is it worth it?

[oddoneout]

I too had only come across the term green garlic as meaning fresh(ie non storing) in the articles I'd read. If I had seen that picture without any other information I'd have assumed they were young leek plants, having grown so-called baby leeks myself several times - and very nice they are too. I wonder if green garlic grown from 'pips' (like exhibition leeks) rather than fully formed cloves, which would not only provide more growing material to plant but also presumably forestall the clove's normal tendency to split as it would be an immature form of the clove?

[oddoneout]

As for the peas, I now have so many empty and used seed packages that I cannot decide which I used this spring. I am hoping that they will be more recognisable in a few days’ time. I really must organise things better.

Not to worry, as the pigeons would prove given half a chance peas are food full stop!

[vinteuil]

French garlic.

... ail aulx, ail aulx, it's off to work we go...


.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... ail aulx, ail aulx, it's off to work we go...

- pure genius

[oddoneout]

... ail aulx, ail aulx, it's off to work we go...


.

Wonderful - and as a bonus I know know the plural of ail(except in botany apparently, when it's ails - which of course sets off another train of thought....)

[doversoul1]

The **** badgers got in the garden (protected by a rabbit fence) and absolutely smashed and stomped and stripped every single plant and ate every pod of my first dwarf broad beans. I hear a couple of other gardens in the village have their beans destroyed. I have just ordered an electric fence kit. It may be too late for the broad beans but it should protect my carrots. How many pounds of carrots can you buy with £136+p.p.?

[oddoneout]

The **** badgers got in the garden (protected by a rabbit fence) and absolutely smashed and stomped and stripped every single plant and ate every pod of my first dwarf broad beans. I hear a couple of other gardens in the village have their beans destroyed. I have just ordered an electric fence kit. It may be too late for the broad beans but it should protect my carrots. How many pounds of carrots can you buy with £136+p.p.?

Heavens, that's beyond disheartening. I'm not sure I'd want to carry on after that, all credit to you and I hope the electric fence proves effective. You'll have a new chore now - checking it's not shorted and that the batteries are still working. Remember not to stand to close if you are watering - the current travelling back up the stream can be a bit of ...ahem...a shock.
I'm currently in a catch 22 situation with next door's mole who is finding their barren patch lean pickings and so makes forays into my little veg garden(just 3 beds roughly 4' x 4') because I'm having to water them to keep things alive which means the worms are more in evidence. His tunnelling under the plants means I have to water them in after replanting which means he comes back.....and so it goes.

[gradus]

Badgers can be b******s, fortunately we haven't been bothered for some years but I deeply sympathise having had them destroy my crops.
Not quite as bad but still a nuisance is this prolonged drought. I'm spending over an hour every evening watering to keep needy veggies and soft fruit in adequate condition. I've given up on the spuds which are looking sorry for themselves. Outdoor toms though just love it.

[doversoul1]

oddoneout
The electric fence will be turned on just before dark (approx. 9.30pm) and turned off just after the sunrise (4.30 am!!) in order not to upset the squirrels, the rabbit, the pheasants and other not so completely harmless creatures. Well, that is my intention. We’ll see.

Watering
I noticed that the grass along the raspberry bushes has turned completely brown. I also noticed this morning while I was watering that the water pressure went down to the point where the jet tuned to dribble. Very worrying indeed.

[oddoneout]

My main grass patch(calling it a lawn is a bit of a stretch) has been brown for some time now, but the past few days it has also been crunchy to walk on, so I think recovery could be quite lengthy even if we get useful rain before too long. Not a complete disaster in some respects - little mowing to do and the white clover is still green, and also flowering well(possibly a response to drought stress) so lots of bee activity.
In the veg patch some seedlings I assumed were the various salad leaves I sowed have turned out to be alfalfa, from old seed I scattered for the birds a while ago, so some concentrated weeding is called for before they get too established. Deep rooting has its uses in soil improvement and long-term green manuring but not for a tiny veg patch!

[gradus]

Dug up some Belle de Fontenay potatoes last night and they had made no weight but were tasty. Most of my spuds are dying back in this drought but one or two eg Vivaldi are still growing and flowering despite similar pre-planting manuring.
Gooseberries, blackcurrants and Josta berries similarly tiny but nicely flavoured.

[doversoul1]

A bumper crop of peas. The twigs I used to support them are nowhere near strong or tall enough and the plants are collapsing. A lot of these twigs are elder branches I freshly cut to use for the peas. I see some of them must have rooted and they now have quite a lot of leaves.

The broad beans that the badgers smashed up (down?) are now growing more beans whilst still flat on the ground. Tough old thing.

My potatoes (Wilja) look ready to be dug now. They are rather close to the bee hives and the bees are exceptionally bad tempered this season which means the digging will have to be before breakfast or after supper. We have quite a few ‘self seeded’ potatoes in various places among the vegetables. We dug one that was growing amongst the dwarf beans. If the potatoes we planted are all like this one, we shall have our own potatoes until spring.

[oddoneout]

I used elder sticks as row markers on my allotment many years ago. They'd had the leaves stripped of and had been left lying around for a while, but still managed something like an 80% rooting rate. I left some of them to grow on - they were all decorative garden varieties - and kept them pruned to make a clear stem with a bushy top so as not to block the path or the beds. They looked good, provided cut flowers and foliage and attracted plenty of desirable insects.
The volunteer spuds on my plot always seemed much more resistant to blight and other problems than those I planted from purchased seed. They also seemed to cope with frost; when I took over a different plot where the planted crop hadn't been harvested I not only had some very late season tubers(Christmas day new spuds!), but they came through a hard winter and cropped the following season. For several years a plant deep in the compost heap, partly in the pallet sides, provided excellent clean tubers - if I could get at them - which for some reason mostly escaped rat or mice attention.
As with selfseeded tomatoes I sometimes wonder whether there isn't an easier way of doing things?

[Constantbee]

They are rather close to the bee hives and the bees are exceptionally bad tempered this season

Aren't they just! Can't hang the washing out without wearing the guest smock at the moment. Guest smock? Light bee suit giving short term protection from bee stings. We keep a couple for interested visitors and neighbours to put on, in case they get bothered.

Fennel having a much better year this year. A variety called Florence is doing well.

[gurnemanz]

Gooseberries, blackcurrants and Josta berries similarly tiny but nicely flavoured.

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.