God I love growing our own

[Sutty]

More weeding today. Nearly there now, though I swear at some point in the last couple of years someone has moved the ground further away.

I long ago came to the conclusion that I must still be growing, because every year it's a bit further to get up from kneeling down!

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

There has been talk of frogs and spawn elsewhere recently so maybe I'm in the wrong thread.

I've been surprised by the gift of time I've had these last three weeks since retiring from Treasurer, Membership Sec, and newsletter for my BKA. So when my wife wanted us to start again with our three lovely mature ponds in the garden, I had to respect that she'd waited till I was less time-poor.

Two of the ponds were adjacent. They were to be combined. We hadn't seen the fish for a very long time, and what had been crystal clear water was now impenetrable. We thought the toads / frogs might have something to do with it. Even so, three frogs (as we thought) had produced a LOT of spawn. So we removed the plants and water and discovered there were 40-50 frogs. They're pretty mobile so there might have been some double counting. All eight fish were present and much larger than when last seen. A lot of planting, both in and around the ponds has still to be redone. The fish are happy and we put the spawn back in.

The innovation in pond construction this time was to make a shelf for a layer of stones under the surface of the water at the edges. It makes it much easier to hide the liner.



The third pond had a leak so was more of a bog garden. Because we'd been supplied with a far larger piece of liner than we bargained for, we replaced the liner there too. The plants really thrived in it. I'm sure they'll come back before long.

 

[beeker]

Have had poly tunnel envy for a while. I'm never going to get one, or have the time or skill for a whole tunnel.
But I've just inherited one of the small walk in plastic tube greenhouses (walk in is a bit of an exaggeration ). Plan is to put it up at work, tucked away, and look after-able while I'm there.

Would like some ideas for easy starter things, I definately want some tomatoes for pizza base use, having just bought a wood fired oven too.
Fancy some chillis, and courgettes too.
Just some ideas on varieties, that will cope with my lack of knowledge. ( Shropshire based) And best things to grow them in etc. pots, bags? Substrate?

Thanks in advance. Clueless but enthusiastic

Mark.

 

[enrico]

Have had poly tunnel envy for a while. I'm never going to get one, or have the time or skill for a whole tunnel.
But I've just inherited one of the small walk in plastic tube greenhouses (walk in is a bit of an exaggeration ). Plan is to put it up at work, tucked away, and look after-able while I'm there.

Would like some ideas for easy starter things, I definately want some tomatoes for pizza base use, having just bought a wood fired oven too.
Fancy some chillis, and courgettes too.
Just some ideas on varieties, that will cope with my lack of knowledge. ( Shropshire based) And best things to grow them in etc. pots, bags? Substrate?

Thanks in advance. Clueless but enthusiastic

Mark.

Used those in the past. Worth running gorilla tape round all the joints and strapping the whole thing down on either side with a ratchet strap thrown over the top, not too tight, also try and prevent water from settling in hollows on the roof

 

[enrico]

There has been talk of frogs and spawn elsewhere recently so maybe I'm in the wrong thread.

I've been surprised by the gift of time I've had these last three weeks since retiring from Treasurer, Membership Sec, and newsletter for my BKA. So when my wife wanted us to start again with our three lovely mature ponds in the garden, I had to respect that she'd waited till I was less time-poor.

Two of the ponds were adjacent. They were to be combined. We hadn't seen the fish for a very long time, and what had been crystal clear water was now impenetrable. We thought the toads / frogs might have something to do with it. Even so, three frogs (as we thought) had produced a LOT of spawn. So we removed the plants and water and discovered there were 40-50 frogs. They're pretty mobile so there might have been some double counting. All eight fish were present and much larger than when last seen. A lot of planting, both in and around the ponds has still to be redone. The fish are happy and we put the spawn back in.

The innovation in pond construction this time was to make a shelf for a layer of stones under the surface of the water at the edges. It makes it much easier to hide the liner.

View attachment 39153

The third pond had a leak so was more of a bog garden. Because we'd been supplied with a far larger piece of liner than we bargained for, we replaced the liner there too. The plants really thrived in it. I'm sure they'll come back before long.

View attachment 39154

Was it the liner that was black one side and brown the other? They ALWAYS send us double the amount. Used it on shed roofs, bird houses, laying on the garden to kill weeds. Worth every penny!

 

[JamezF]

Would like some ideas for easy starter things, I definately want some tomatoes for pizza base use, having just bought a wood fired oven too.
Fancy some chillis, and courgettes too.
Just some ideas on varieties, that will cope with my lack of knowledge. ( Shropshire based) And best things to grow them in etc. pots, bags? Substrate?

I think the best advice is to grow what you prefer to eat. And if it's practical to save your own seeds, all the better, because they're getting more and more expensive. Real Seeds have instructions on their website covering saving seed from all sorts of vegetables if the idea appeals.

After growing lots of different varieties, we have settled on a cherry tomato variety called Garnet for salads and at the moment it's a toss-up between Amish Paste and the Polish Linguisa that Dani sent me seeds from for soups and sauces. I'm also experimenting this year a very early variety and some different colours. A plate of food that is a riot of colour always appeals to me.

The same applies for chiles. There's no point growing something like a Scotch Bonnet or Habanero if they're too hot for you to enjoy eating. The majority of my chiles are jalapenos, because we eat bucketloads of them, and cayenne because we dry them on strings and give them to friends and family at Christmas or blitz them into chile flakes for use in cooking. Last year I added Black Hungarian chiles which are similar to jalapenos, but start deep purple/black and eventually ripen to a beautiful glassy scarlet. It's the colour thing again

For sweet peppers I prefer pointy varieties rather than traditional bells, so always have the red and yellow Corno di Toro and after that it's more a case of what I can find that's purple, black, cream or chocolate. The more unusual colours don't really seem to be as popular and it can be tricky to find them, but scorched and peeled they can look great on pizzas for instance. Or even just raw in salads.

For preference I'd grow courgettes outdoors. Almost all the squashes are pretty boisterous plants and in a polytunnel they tend to take over. A cucumber trained up a string might work though, depending on the size of the tunnel. I'm still trying to find a variety that really works for us.

Augergines can be a bit marginal in polytunnels in my opinion. If you have a relatively warm microclimate then it might work. Here they really need a greenhouse to perform well, but we're much more exposed than many. The local town (barely two miles away) sits in a "bowl" protected by hills and despite being little more than ten metres lower than us the protection that affords allows people who live there to grow stuff that I really struggle with.

I grow everything no-dig, so in late spring before the plants go in the ground in the polytunnel I spread compost over the top of the soil (ideally my own, but every so often I have to buy in green waste compost from the council subcontractor) and then transplant everything into that. I sow hardy lettuces and mustards, chervil, dill, coriander and similar in modules in late August and transplant those straight into the polytunnel as soon as the tomatoes and peppers come out (usually late October here). Last winter was awkward and I didn't get the timing quite right, perhaps because it was so dull for so long, but for quite a few years that has kept us in salad leaves through the winter by picking one or two leaves off each plant and allowing them to regrow. The plants get removed once it's warm enough for lettuces go into the ground outdoors and then the cycle starts again.

As enrico says, make sure the cover is well fixed down. In almost twenty years I've never had a problem with my 30'x14' tunnel, but the small ones are often made to a price and may need better anchorage than you expect or than has been provided. I bought an "emergency" 6mx3m one last Summer in case we needed it for housing the chickens under cover this winter, but the winds have lifted the cover off the frame at least four times this year.

James

 

[JamezF]

Come to think of it, another thing I grow for salads in the polytunnel, though more in late Winter because that's when they're starting to get interested in growing, is peas. Not for the pods though -- just the tips of the shoots. I've heard people recommend a tall-growing variety such as Alderman or Telegraph(?) or Champion of England, but mostly I just throw my spare pea seeds into a bag once I'm done sowing them, regardless of variety, and then sow a fistful three to a cell in module trays in the greenhouse in late January or early February depending on the weather. Once they're a couple of inches tall they get transplanted quite close together into the polytunnel without thinning and after they have settled in and are growing well we start picking. I'll do the same in the outdoor plot too, just a bit later in the Spring.

James

 

[beeker]

I think the best advice is to grow what you prefer to eat. And if it's practical to save your own seeds, all the better, because they're getting more and more expensive. Real Seeds have instructions on their website covering saving seed from all sorts of vegetables if the idea appeals.

After growing lots of different varieties, we have settled on a cherry tomato variety called Garnet for salads and at the moment it's a toss-up between Amish Paste and the Polish Linguisa that Dani sent me seeds from for soups and sauces. I'm also experimenting this year a very early variety and some different colours. A plate of food that is a riot of colour always appeals to me.

The same applies for chiles. There's no point growing something like a Scotch Bonnet or Habanero if they're too hot for you to enjoy eating. The majority of my chiles are jalapenos, because we eat bucketloads of them, and cayenne because we dry them on strings and give them to friends and family at Christmas or blitz them into chile flakes for use in cooking. Last year I added Black Hungarian chiles which are similar to jalapenos, but start deep purple/black and eventually ripen to a beautiful glassy scarlet. It's the colour thing again

For sweet peppers I prefer pointy varieties rather than traditional bells, so always have the red and yellow Corno di Toro and after that it's more a case of what I can find that's purple, black, cream or chocolate. The more unusual colours don't really seem to be as popular and it can be tricky to find them, but scorched and peeled they can look great on pizzas for instance. Or even just raw in salads.

For preference I'd grow courgettes outdoors. Almost all the squashes are pretty boisterous plants and in a polytunnel they tend to take over. A cucumber trained up a string might work though, depending on the size of the tunnel. I'm still trying to find a variety that really works for us.

Augergines can be a bit marginal in polytunnels in my opinion. If you have a relatively warm microclimate then it might work. Here they really need a greenhouse to perform well, but we're much more exposed than many. The local town (barely two miles away) sits in a "bowl" protected by hills and despite being little more than ten metres lower than us the protection that affords allows people who live there to grow stuff that I really struggle with.

I grow everything no-dig, so in late spring before the plants go in the ground in the polytunnel I spread compost over the top of the soil (ideally my own, but every so often I have to buy in green waste compost from the council subcontractor) and then transplant everything into that. I sow hardy lettuces and mustards, chervil, dill, coriander and similar in modules in late August and transplant those straight into the polytunnel as soon as the tomatoes and peppers come out (usually late October here). Last winter was awkward and I didn't get the timing quite right, perhaps because it was so dull for so long, but for quite a few years that has kept us in salad leaves through the winter by picking one or two leaves off each plant and allowing them to regrow. The plants get removed once it's warm enough for lettuces go into the ground outdoors and then the cycle starts again.

As enrico says, make sure the cover is well fixed down. In almost twenty years I've never had a problem with my 30'x14' tunnel, but the small ones are often made to a price and may need better anchorage than you expect or than has been provided. I bought an "emergency" 6mx3m one last Summer in case we needed it for housing the chickens under cover this winter, but the winds have lifted the cover off the frame at least four times this year.

James

Wow thank you for the comprehensive reply James. I think I'll start with some Jalapenos, a cherry tomato, and one of those sauce varieties Amish Paste or Polish Linguisa.
Tomatoes from my dad's greenhouse always tasted amazing, I can see a chilli competition coming with my son who's chillis all failed last couple years.

It's only a tiny greenhouse, so might not manage that all.

Just seen you are in Wivvy, used to holiday at my ex's family friend's farm a long while ago. Somewhere up Huish Champflower way.

 

[Amari]

I long ago came to the conclusion that I must still be growing, because every year it's a bit further to get up from kneeling down!

Just to be cheerful: it's likely to get worse - it's that sarcopenia - I can't kneel now unless I have a spade handy to dig in to pull myself up on. I marvel watching children leaping from the ground without a thought. Took it for granted at that age......

 

[Sutty]

Just to be cheerful: it's likely to get worse - it's that sarcopenia - I can't kneel now unless I have a spade handy to dig in to pull myself up on. I marvel watching children leaping from the ground without a thought. Took it for granted at that age......

On the bright side I'm fitter than I was 20yrs ago thanks to hillwalking & spent my 60th last April at 5800m "high camp" before summiting a 6475m mountain the next morning.
You can stave off the sarcopaenia to a significant extent if you keep active. Strength training also shown to help.

 

[JamezF]

I'm starting to get too tall for my hair, too

James

 

[Amari]

On the bright side I'm fitter than I was 20yrs ago thanks to hillwalking & spent my 60th last April at 5800m "high camp" before summiting a 6475m mountain the next morning.
You can stave off the sarcopaenia to a significant extent if you keep active. Strength training also shown to help.

I can't find reference to that spelling of sarcopenia - a term only proposed in 1989 according to Wiki. The condition with either spelling is not mentioned in NHS list of medical terms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia
BTW: congrats and amazement on your climbing to that height.

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you want sweet cherry tomatoes you can’t go wrong with Sungold

 

[JamezF]

I'm suffering with the lurgy today and anything that requires fine motor skills or any form of concentration is way beyond me so I kept well away from the power tools in the workshop, but I did at least manage to get peas, radish, salad onions and nasturtiums sown for the veg plot, plus scabious, nicotiana and larkspur for the cutting garden (bed, really). That was about the limit of what I could manage though.

Normally I'd have sown parsnips and planted first early potatoes by now, but there's no way the ground is ready despite finding a few frost-burnt volunteer potatoes when I've been weeding over the last couple of days. Perhaps I should consider water chestnuts.

There'll be a drought by midsummer I shouldn't wonder...

James

 

[Sutty]

I can't find reference to that spelling of sarcopenia - a term only proposed in 1989 according to Wiki. The condition with either spelling is not mentioned in NHS list of medical terms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia
BTW: congrats and amazement on your climbing to that height.

UK spelling Vs American.
"Sarco"=muscle
"Aenia" (American "enia")=lack of
So: anaemia, leukopaenia, thrombocytopaenia, etc.
Of course the Brits are correct!
Eg "orthopaedics" was originally named from "straightening children": paed=child, ortho=straight. The American spelling "pediatrics" dodgy: ped=foot, so would mean straightening feet!

 

[Sutty]

BTW: congrats and amazement on your climbing to that height.

Many thanks.
I have higher mountains still in my sights!

 

[ldwgs]

I think the best advice is to grow what you prefer to eat. And if it's practical to save your own seeds, all the better, because they're getting more and more expensive. Real Seeds have instructions on their website covering saving seed from all sorts of vegetables if the idea appeals.

After growing lots of different varieties, we have settled on a cherry tomato variety called Garnet for salads and at the moment it's a toss-up between Amish Paste and the Polish Linguisa that Dani sent me seeds from for soups and sauces. I'm also experimenting this year a very early variety and some different colours. A plate of food that is a riot of colour always appeals to me.

The same applies for chiles. There's no point growing something like a Scotch Bonnet or Habanero if they're too hot for you to enjoy eating. The majority of my chiles are jalapenos, because we eat bucketloads of them, and cayenne because we dry them on strings and give them to friends and family at Christmas or blitz them into chile flakes for use in cooking. Last year I added Black Hungarian chiles which are similar to jalapenos, but start deep purple/black and eventually ripen to a beautiful glassy scarlet. It's the colour thing again

For sweet peppers I prefer pointy varieties rather than traditional bells, so always have the red and yellow Corno di Toro and after that it's more a case of what I can find that's purple, black, cream or chocolate. The more unusual colours don't really seem to be as popular and it can be tricky to find them, but scorched and peeled they can look great on pizzas for instance. Or even just raw in salads.

For preference I'd grow courgettes outdoors. Almost all the squashes are pretty boisterous plants and in a polytunnel they tend to take over. A cucumber trained up a string might work though, depending on the size of the tunnel. I'm still trying to find a variety that really works for us.

Augergines can be a bit marginal in polytunnels in my opinion. If you have a relatively warm microclimate then it might work. Here they really need a greenhouse to perform well, but we're much more exposed than many. The local town (barely two miles away) sits in a "bowl" protected by hills and despite being little more than ten metres lower than us the protection that affords allows people who live there to grow stuff that I really struggle with.

I grow everything no-dig, so in late spring before the plants go in the ground in the polytunnel I spread compost over the top of the soil (ideally my own, but every so often I have to buy in green waste compost from the council subcontractor) and then transplant everything into that. I sow hardy lettuces and mustards, chervil, dill, coriander and similar in modules in late August and transplant those straight into the polytunnel as soon as the tomatoes and peppers come out (usually late October here). Last winter was awkward and I didn't get the timing quite right, perhaps because it was so dull for so long, but for quite a few years that has kept us in salad leaves through the winter by picking one or two leaves off each plant and allowing them to regrow. The plants get removed once it's warm enough for lettuces go into the ground outdoors and then the cycle starts again.

As enrico says, make sure the cover is well fixed down. In almost twenty years I've never had a problem with my 30'x14' tunnel, but the small ones are often made to a price and may need better anchorage than you expect or than has been provided. I bought an "emergency" 6mx3m one last Summer in case we needed it for housing the chickens under cover this winter, but the winds have lifted the cover off the frame at least four times this year.

James

grow what is not available in shops, better tastes and value eg Pennard plants https://www.pennardplants.com/

 

[philat98]

If you want sweet cherry tomatoes you can’t go wrong with Sungold

I like Sungold. It fruits very early and has lots of flavour. Makes a nice orange pasta sauce.
I like Habanero peppers too. They have quite a bit of flavour. The plant is attractive too.

 

[JamezF]

My father-in-law swears by Orange Paruche as an alternative to Sungold. They're both F1 as far as I recall, so saving seed won't work, but I've had some success propagating cuttings from the former towards the end of the season (September-ish) by pinching out shoots from the leaf axils as one would normally with a cordon tomato, putting the cuttings into jars of water in the greenhouse until they start forming roots and then planting them in a 3" pot of compost. I think last September I took twenty cuttings and nineteen plants rooted. Unfortunately early in December we had a fairly savage frost (for here -- it got down to -6°C) unexpectedly and it killed the lot

When the seed vendors are charging the likes of £4 for ten seeds and you can't be certain that they'll even all germinate, if you have a light space that stays frost-free it seems like a sensible approach to take. If it's too warm and not bright enough however, the plants can get very leggy over the winter. I had that happen the previous year and ended up chopping the plants into pieces to try to get them to root again. They weren't overly keen.

James

 

[philipm]

Given up with my ponds No longer have Fish as the otters just kept on eating them.Strange how a few years ago they were endangered now in this area they have become a bit of a pest.