Garden activity

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
jansman
Posts: 13625
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by jansman »

jennyjj01 wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 12:41 pm
GillyBee wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 10:52 am ..onions, carrots parsnips etc These are both cheap and UK grown so not worth it.
that was very much my attitude.
But I succumbed when I found some carrot seeds.
I was annoyed as I filled my basket of 20p veg
Last year I experimented with Amsterdam Forcing carrots in 2 gallon pots. That variety produced baby to finger sized carrots en masse. Extremely vigorous. After I harvested the marrows, and cleared the plants ( late August) , I sowed more. They stood all Winter, and we pulled them as needed. There are four more buckets, germinated and thriving right now. Onions I don’t do anymore, conventional ones that is. The ground has white rot. However, I have a bed full of perennial onions; Welsh, Egyptian and chives. So reliable.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
jennyjj01
Posts: 3430
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by jennyjj01 »

jansman wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:22 am
Food waste is most prevalent in the home ,according to the office for National Statistics.An average of 9.5 million tonnes per year in the UK.

https://wrap.org.uk/resources/report/fo ... urvey-2021

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environm ... 2021-11-01
Phew. Back of the envelope estimate...
6.6 million tonnes domestic wasted food
67 million humans.
99 kg each per year
Or about 2kg of food per week wasted?!?
That's got to be about two days total diet chucked away each week. Who the hell does that?
Is my maths wrong?
Anyone care to venture their own food waste estimate?
I bid <200g per person per week for my household. It increases slightly when we get poor quality Too Good To Go bags, but my conscience is clear with those.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
Moorland Prepper
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:43 am
Location: On the edge of the Pennines

Re: Garden activity

Post by Moorland Prepper »

Garlic is super easy. Throw the books in the bin. Plant in September. The pointy end should be just above the surface. Water in well. Neglect completely until weeding in the Spring. Harvest in July.
Hi British Red

That's sounds interesting for a winter crop, but how do they cope with frosts? I tried a few winter veg. last winter but noticed that on some, the instructions said something like shelter or take inside if the weather is bad.
jansman
Posts: 13625
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by jansman »

Moorland Prepper wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:22 pm
Garlic is super easy. Throw the books in the bin. Plant in September. The pointy end should be just above the surface. Water in well. Neglect completely until weeding in the Spring. Harvest in July.
Hi British Red

That's sounds interesting for a winter crop, but how do they cope with frosts? I tried a few winter veg. last winter but noticed that on some, the instructions said something like shelter or take inside if the weather is bad.
Garlic will stand the hardest winter.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
ForgeCorvus
Posts: 3035
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by ForgeCorvus »

jansman wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:48 pm
Moorland Prepper wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:22 pm
Garlic is super easy. Throw the books in the bin. Plant in September. The pointy end should be just above the surface. Water in well. Neglect completely until weeding in the Spring. Harvest in July.
Hi British Red

That's sounds interesting for a winter crop, but how do they cope with frosts? I tried a few winter veg. last winter but noticed that on some, the instructions said something like shelter or take inside if the weather is bad.
Garlic will stand the hardest winter.
Garlic is a poverty plant, people grow it where they can't grow other stuff.


Regarding food waste, I'm not sure what the current numbers are but in 2018 (or 2019) it was an average value of £425 per household....... Thats food thrown out from domestic homes in England.
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
"All Things Strive" Gd Tak 'Gar
jansman
Posts: 13625
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by jansman »

ForgeCorvus wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:42 pm
jansman wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:48 pm
Moorland Prepper wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:22 pm

Hi British Red

That's sounds interesting for a winter crop, but how do they cope with frosts? I tried a few winter veg. last winter but noticed that on some, the instructions said something like shelter or take inside if the weather is bad.
Garlic will stand the hardest winter.
Garlic is a poverty plant, people grow it where they can't grow other stuff.


Regarding food waste, I'm not sure what the current numbers are but in 2018 (or 2019) it was an average value of £425 per household....... Thats food thrown out from domestic homes in England.
I’ve never heard it called a poverty plant. It certainly grows in any old soil!
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
ForgeCorvus
Posts: 3035
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by ForgeCorvus »

jansman wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:51 pm
I’ve never heard it called a poverty plant. It certainly grows in any old soil!
A guy I used to drink with many years ago used the term to mean crops that will grow in poor and marginal soils...... He was doing a degree, I not sure exactly what but something to do with food plants.
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
"All Things Strive" Gd Tak 'Gar
User avatar
rik_uk3
Posts: 707
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:49 pm
Location: South Wales UK

Re: Garden activity

Post by rik_uk3 »

Richard
South Wales UK
Retired, spending the children's inheritance.
jennyjj01
Posts: 3430
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by jennyjj01 »

I'm over the moon with recent seedling success. Every morning patrol brings me new joy. (Pathetic isn't it :) )

The courgette quintet and my batches of peas survived and are thriving. After February failures and March mis-steps, April has brought Abundance.

From having 5 sad struggling tomatoes, I now have dozens across three varieties at various stages. God only knows where I'll put them! Beetroots, chard and three different varieties of carrot have survived and are now lined up and defending their ground like little soldiers. Even my spring onions are establishing little colonies where I planted their loo roll pots. Bell peppers from some saved seed, Okra and a couple of Aubergines have recently joined the joyous throng.

I've been desperately trying to get some parsnips to germinate. Dammit. Tried in the windowsill, straight in the planter, in a damp tissue and finally in a ziplock of moist compost. I'm tearing my hair out with the buggers. It's like the failures I had with carrots last month, which I finally overcame with the wet tissue trick. Particularly irritated that the entire parsnip planter surface germinated tiny weeds that I thought MAY have been parsnips, but they weren't! I know. Patience. Patience... And the seeds were fresh.

Most amazingly successful gardening activity this week.... My composter finally burst into life. One batch of grass cuttings over the weekend seemed to fire it up like a furnace, and it's now steaming and at 65C!..... Hmmmmm A bit like the secret ingredient :P

Just need to re-double my efforts for May and this year I might qualify as a gardener.

Love it when a plan comes together.
[EDIT Stop-Press]
20 April patrol was met by the first two germinated parsnips. That's two out of a square metre worth. These babies (Peter and Polly Parsnip) will be my identity parade when I try to weed out any non-parsnip seedling interlopers.
[/Edit]
Meet Peter and Polly...
IMG_20220420_152808.jpg
Last edited by jennyjj01 on Wed Apr 20, 2022 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
jansman
Posts: 13625
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Garden activity

Post by jansman »

Parsnips are notoriously difficult germinators.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.