God I love growing our own

[JamezF]

My new raspberry plants arrived yesterday afternoon, but I didn't get home with my new lathe until after dark, so wasn't in a position to do much with them. Much as I prefer not to dig, the bed they're going into was full of bindweed so this morning I dug that over and removed about half a wheelbarrow full of bindweed roots. Then I ran out of time to plant the new canes because other stuff came up so they're in a bucket of water overnight. Hopefully I can get them planted out tomorrow.

James

 

[gar1990]

So was having a look at our apple trees, we have a small orchard of around 20 trees, the youngest are around 2/3 years old. under the strap of one of these new ones I noticed this. presuming its canker and needs to be pruned out. so what is the best method? Just cut it out and let it regrow from below? or cut out and try to graft on the top half or a branch or 2?

 

[Curly green finger's]

I am setting up a new strawberry bed this winter. Or I will be, if it ever stops raining I chose three varieties for early/mid/late season, though honestly I think half the plants have no idea what's happening any more (not that different from me, really). They are Honeoye, Cambridge Favourite and Florence. I've grown Cambridge Favourite before and been quite happy with it. The other two are more of an experiment based on what information I could find online.

James

I second Florence we had bare root plants last year and the fruit was good when the guys didn’t eat them before they were ripe.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Does anybody pickle cucumbers?
What variety do you grow?

 

[JamezF]

So was having a look at our apple trees, we have a small orchard of around 20 trees, the youngest are around 2/3 years old. under the strap of one of these new ones I noticed this. presuming its canker and needs to be pruned out. so what is the best method? Just cut it out and let it regrow from below? or cut out and try to graft on the top half or a branch or 2?

To rescue that I'd probably cut it off below the damage and hope that a new shoot grows back from lower down. It's always going to be a weak point otherwise and the tree will likely fail there in the future.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

looks like the strap was on too tight or something was constantly rubbing against it

 

[philipm]

Does anybody pickle cucumbers?
What variety do you grow?

We make cucumber relish found recipe online. Really good with cheese.

 

[Erichalfbee]

We make cucumber relish found recipe online. Really good with cheese.

I need cucumbers to pickle whole. Thanks

 

[Goran]

I need cucumbers to pickle whole. Thanks

We use Levina F1 for decades.. We only pickle cucumbers whole, trying to harvest them when pretty small. Never bother to change cause we don't need much and are satisfied with it.. We don't like " Parisian pickling" and similar..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks Goran. I have tried a few times and ended up with soggy cucumbers. My Polish mum used to make lovely crisp ones. One more go this year

 

[alancooper]

Ah strawberries! - too much rain and humidity to make them worth growing here. But raspberries galore - I planted an acre of mixed broadleaf trees a few years ago and freeliving (ie not cultivated) raspberry has invaded from the surrounding hedges. Freezer now stuffed with them. And my honey bees take best advantage of in June.
Borderline “growing my own”?

 

[gar1990]

Thanks James and Jenkins, thought it was probably a chop and regrow job, thanks anyway!

 

[rossbyjove]

Whilst I can believe it's true that you can buy some vegetables more cheaply from a supermarket than growing your own, as pargyle and enrico say there are still other good reasons to do so, and of course you should be comparing like with like: harvesting fresh produce from the garden half an hour before you eat it is not the same as buying produce from the supermarket that may have been in cold store for months or packaged in a "modified atmosphere".

For me the compelling reasons are that I can grow varieties based on taste rather on, say, how well they keep on the shelf or how easy it is to harvest; everything is organic; I know the provenance of everything I grow -- given that we know a good deal of supermarket "honey" is likely to be fake, how confident can you be that anything else is actually what is printed on the label?; and there are zero food miles (other than my occasional compost deliveries). Come to think of it, growing vegetables even reduces the amount of waste we produce, partly because the need for so much compost means that I put as much as I possibly can on the compost heaps, but also because the only packaging involved is when plants grow it themselves. I find it's also a very therapeutic way to spend my time as well as being exceptionally rewarding when sitting down to a meal where almost everything on the plate came from our own garden.

James

That's basically it.

 

[alancooper]

That's basically it.

Goes without saying really

 

[philipm]

Managed to get the tractor and plough out on the garden today a bit sticky but did get it all turned over.

 

[JamezF]

Whilst the wind died down today and the air temperature was perhaps a degree or two higher than it has been, it looks as though we're forecast some more rather bracing weather next week. I've put off and put off ordering in six tonnes of compost in recent months because the ground has been so wet, but if it's going to be frozen I might well just get on with it and get the truck in. I need to get the new strawberry bed made at least, because the new plants that I potted up a few weeks back and left in the (unheated) greenhouse are already producing new leaves.

James

 

[JamezF]

I'm somewhat behind at the moment after losing about three weeks to illness before Christmas and in mid-January, but now I've managed to feed all the brash that was blocking access to the veggie plot through the chipper, today I finally got into the greenhouse and started sowing seeds: broad beans for the veggie plot and a couple of varieties of snapdragon which should go into my bed for cutting flowers (once I've made it). There are more to do this weekend too.

The brash was from apple tree prunings and a sycamore that was leaning over some of our outbuildings. I didn't feel I could fell it safely myself, so had to get someone in to climb it and take it down in pieces. That's the first of next Winter's logs sorted anyhow, as well as five dumpy bags of woodchip for paths in the veggie plot. There's more brash to do yet, but it's not immediately in the way so it will wait until more urgent jobs are done.

Bees are flying for the first time (that I've noticed) this year. Had to persuade a few of them out of the greenhouse. Looking for water, I guess. Shouldn't be too hard to find that. I also saw a queen wasp flying. She could be in trouble if we have more frosts over the next couple of months, though there may well be plenty of food around. I don't think there's been any point so far this Winter when there haven't been insects of some sort flying during the day.

James

 

[JamezF]

More sowing on Sunday: peas for shoots, beetroot and some busy lizzies that my wife wants for pots on the patio. Yesterday I filled up a trailer with some of the green waste compost I had delivered a couple of weeks back. Hardly seems to have made a dent.

This morning I used it to make a start on my two new beds in the veggie plot and only just managed to empty the trailer before the rain started. Hopefully I'll have enough cardboard to finish the job. It's going to be close. Woodchip for the paths at least shouldn't be a problem -- I'm up to eight dumpy bags full at the moment and there's still more to come.

I'll finish making the beds using my own compost. I find the green waste compost has a tendency to form a "crust" when it dries, so water runs off it rather than being absorbed. Hopefully having my own compost on top should prevent that.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

More sowing on Sunday: peas for shoots, beetroot and some busy lizzies that my wife wants for pots on the patio. Yesterday I filled up a trailer with some of the green waste compost I had delivered a couple of weeks back. Hardly seems to have made a dent.

This morning I used it to make a start on my two new beds in the veggie plot and only just managed to empty the trailer before the rain started. Hopefully I'll have enough cardboard to finish the job. It's going to be close. Woodchip for the paths at least shouldn't be a problem -- I'm up to eight dumpy bags full at the moment and there's still more to come.

I'll finish making the beds using my own compost. I find the green waste compost has a tendency to form a "crust" when it dries, so water runs off it rather than being absorbed. Hopefully having my own compost on top should prevent that.

James

Do you put that straight on the grass?

 

[JamezF]

Do you put that straight on the grass?

Yes. I mow the grass short and just lay the cardboard (or a couple of layers if it's thin) down and put about 10cm of compost on top. It kills off most stuff. Occasionally there's a persistent dandelion or dock that needs attention later, but generally it works pretty well and the grass dies off without access to light. The real problem is that I have to keep ordering stuff from Thorne so they'll send me lots of cardboard

My weed problems are mostly stuff that blows in from the surrounding pasture land, but pulling them when they're small before the roots really establish makes control fairly easy. Except hairy bittercress. The seeds ping off any plant in the area and as far as I can tell it self-pollinates very easily. I weeded all of it out of the beds last Autumn and I have some that's grown over the Winter and has green seeds now, and there's more that's in flower

James