God I love growing our own

[JamezF]

I’m avoiding a plague of courgettes by planting only one next year

They fool you though, courgettes, by sometimes being a bit moody about germinating. So you sow three or four seeds "just to be sure". Then most of them come up and it seems a shame just to chuck the extra plants in the compost. Of course by then everyone else you know has more courgette plants than they need, so you can't even give them away.

Fortunately in our case they never really go to waste because the chickens absolutely love courgettes.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

They fool you though, courgettes, by sometimes being a bit moody about germinating. So you sow three or four seeds "just to be sure". Then most of them come up and it seems a shame just to chuck the extra plants in the compost.

That’s me! With everything. Cucumbers too.
I advertise spare plants on our Nextdoor group and spare produce goes to our food bank.
Nothing wasted.
Just waiting for medlar leaves to drop for @pargyle

 

[pargyle]

That’s me! With everything. Cucumbers too.
I advertise spare plants on our Nextdoor group and spare produce goes to our food bank.
Nothing wasted.
Just waiting for medlar leaves to drop for @pargyle

With the cold snap this week they will start to turn... should be perfect for the NHS ...

 

[Erichalfbee]

With the cold snap this week they will start to turn... should be perfect for the NHS ...

You’ll have a bit to carry, then.

 

[enrico]

The 10cm figure is only for the first year, when the bed has just been created. He suggests half that for subsequent years and I believe is experimenting with reducing the amount he uses year on year. When I look at how much manure is used on the (organic farm) fields behind my house, that really doesn't seem anywhere near as much. I guess the advantage is that a thicker layer of compost tends to smother quite a few of the weeds.

It is an awful lot, even so.

I was astonished to find out recently that in the local town people need to pay an annual subscription of something like £60 per household to have a green waste collection. I assume that goes into the same waste stream that produces the compost I buy at just under £300 for six tonnes (including delivery) that involves a forty mile round trip with a lorry. I feel sure there ought to be a better way to manage that process to everyone's advantage. (Meanwhile our neighbouring farmer just builds a big bonfire with all his green waste, directly under the 11kV power lines. I kid you not.)

James

I have five large compost heaps in full use, I buy in a waggon load of horse manure, I still pat £60 for my green bin which I fill every two weeks and today had to travel to Street with thirteen bags of green waste as Taunton is closed due to a fire. I just can't use all my waste

 

[enrico]

Last two bunches of grapes. They have been amazing this year. The wasps had all the red ones but never touched the white ones

 

[pargyle]

You’ll have a bit to carry, then.

Bringing my sack truck ! 6 trays of jars and a sublimox ... good job I've got an estate car...

 

[Amaranth]

I’ve just heard a good trick for courgettes that I’ll be trying next year. Once they really get going, cut down some of the plants quite low, to delay them, and that will spread the harvest of young fruits over a longer period.

i think part of the no dig, or even dig less, rationale is that the role of underground fungal networks is recently being understood much better. There is a symbiotic relationship between many plants, including common veg, whereby the fungi bring up nutrients and exchange them for sugars from the plant. It takes place at the root tips. The networks are better preserved with less soil disturbance, and bringing up subsoil with double digging is particularly damaging.

Hence the sale of mycorrhizal preparations to inoculate the soil, especially for woody plants. Apparently some specific veg need different species of fungi though, and it may be helpful to inoculate the soil with a little from an area where the wild version grows, eg wild carrots, sea beet and sea kale in the wild. I heard the last bit in a lecture on fungi - not sure if that has been experimentally validated.

 

[JamezF]

i think part of the no dig, or even dig less, rationale is that the role of underground fungal networks is recently being understood much better. There is a symbiotic relationship between many plants, including common veg, whereby the fungi bring up nutrients and exchange them for sugars from the plant. It takes place at the root tips. The networks are better preserved with less soil disturbance, and bringing up subsoil with double digging is particularly damaging.

That seems consistent with what I found out when I started trying to discover why not digging might be preferable.

James

 

[JamezF]

Almost my wife's first words to me this morning when I walked into the kitchen were "There's a dead deer in the garden".

So there is. A medium-size Roe deer. No obvious injuries though I've not looked it over in detail. Looks like the compost heap is going to get a bit of a boost this morning...

James

 

[Amaranth]

Almost my wife's first words to me this morning when I walked into the kitchen were "There's a dead deer in the garden".

So there is. A medium-size Roe deer. No obvious injuries though I've not looked it over in detail. Looks like the compost heap is going to get a bit of a boost this morning...

James

I hope your compost heap is downwind of the house!

 

[JamezF]

I hope your compost heap is downwind of the house!

Ah, it won't be going "on" the heap. Definitely "in". I might have to rob some stuff from one of the older heaps to make sure there's enough of a covering. It is astonishing how fast stuff disappears once the heap gets sufficiently warm though.

James

 

[enrico]

Ah, it won't be going "on" the heap. Definitely "in". I might have to rob some stuff from one of the older heaps to make sure there's enough of a covering. It is astonishing how fast stuff disappears once the heap gets sufficiently warm though.

James

At the very least cut down the back bone from the neck to the rump. Each side of the backbone is the venison loin which is so tender you can almost eat it raw. Get your fingers under it at one end and roll the loin out from either side. It is a gift from heaven, especially if it was in your garden

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes agree with enrico. Eat it

 

[JamezF]

Not entirely comfortable about eating it when I don't know the cause of death and it can't be properly bled out. There's no sign of injury and it certainly doesn't appear to have starved, so the next obvious reasons are disease and poisoning, neither of which fill me with enthusiasm for a bit of wild butchery.

James

 

[enrico]

Not entirely comfortable about eating it when I don't know the cause of death and it can't be properly bled out. There's no sign of injury and it certainly doesn't appear to have starved, so the next obvious reasons are disease and poisoning, neither of which fill me with enthusiasm for a bit of wild butchery.

James

It doesn't need to be bled out, just soak in salt water for 24 hrs. Poisoning and disease won't affect the meat.
But ...... I can understand your reluctance.
I used to work a country police beat in a previous life and I would find deer that had been hit on the motorway left by the night traffic crew on my doorstep ( much to my daughter's disgust ) I would butcher and joint them and they would collect them the following night. Got it down to less than an hour but I never gave them the loin. I kept that for us. We used to throw memorable venison BBQ s for the judging of the police pumpkin competition. Those were the days........ Not like that any more!

 

[JamezF]

It doesn't need to be bled out, just soak in salt water for 24 hrs.

I wasn't aware that was a possibility. I shall have to do some more investigation in time for the next one

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Poisoning and disease won't affect the meat.

unless it had been euthanased (unlikely in this case I accept) heard a tale a few years ago of someone who came across a roadkill deer which in actual fact had been injured, put down by a vet and left to be collected. He fed it to his dogs and it did for them

 

[Goran]

Blue pumpkin - Hubbard so far is the winner.. One big gray is nice but sooo dry - can cut into blocks, need some liquid to accompany. Jarrahdale pumpkin is so far disappointment, will try next one to don't give final verdict upon one roasted pumpkin..

 

[enrico]

unless it had been euthanased (unlikely in this case I accept) heard a tale a few years ago of someone who came across a roadkill deer which in actual fact had been injured, put down by a vet and left to be collected. He fed it to his dogs and it did for them

must have been allergic to venison