Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
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axelt123
Re: Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
What is your experience, is it more productive to grow food in small boxes (ie foot by foot gardening) or in rows. i currently use rows but you have to keep a eye on weeds alot and theres a lot of wasted walk ways.
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Magz
Re: Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
I'm totally tech thick, but I found some thing yesterday that makes the pics smaller, but I didnt book mark it, so that's no help at all reallyBrambling wrote:Thanks to an overzealous digger driver, I have no topsoil so raised beds are the only way I can grow veg. I used Pallet collars and then lined them with cardboard and filled with topsoil. I had a fantastic crop of toms, winter squash, beans, shallots and salad veg. I had a great crop of Kale, Broccoli and red cabbage too, but I had to move the girls and they ate them!
I'd post a few pics of this years efforts, but it wo't let me, says the file is too big?
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preppingsu
Re: Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
Our spuds didn't do so well this year and so we have none stored for the winter. Must have been the type as last years were great and fed us into the new year.
carrots were good this year - still got some in the ground and bags in the freezer. When we thinned out, we just threw them into the salad bowl yummy. However, one of my OH patients swears by carrot plug plants so he doesn't have to thin out. Lot of work me thinks.
We grow most things in large beds -lots of horse muck thrown in and I try and grow green manure on empty beds in the autumn.
The only thing we grow in pots/planters are toms, lettuces & cucumbers. But we are lucky to have the space.
BTW potatoes do well in black plastic bins, as long as you keep adding compost to cover up the shoots as they grow and water loads.........
preppingsu
carrots were good this year - still got some in the ground and bags in the freezer. When we thinned out, we just threw them into the salad bowl yummy. However, one of my OH patients swears by carrot plug plants so he doesn't have to thin out. Lot of work me thinks.
We grow most things in large beds -lots of horse muck thrown in and I try and grow green manure on empty beds in the autumn.
The only thing we grow in pots/planters are toms, lettuces & cucumbers. But we are lucky to have the space.
BTW potatoes do well in black plastic bins, as long as you keep adding compost to cover up the shoots as they grow and water loads.........
preppingsu
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Brambling
Re: Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
Axel, I've grown veg the traditional way and now in raised beds, I have to say raised bed gardening is far easier, especially if you're an old moo like me with a bad back. Foot for foot you get a better crop with raised beds too. The pallet collars I used are approx 3'x4' you can grow things a lot closer together when using raised beds so what you may lose in pathways, you make up for in density of growing. I'd never go back to traditional methods now.
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smileyt
Re: Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
Root veg in general doesn't like being transplanted (with the exception of leeks if you count those as roots).
Brussel sprouts need to be in really firm ground.
Sweetcorn is hard to ripen in our climate. You need to either go for the baby corn (the unripe mini ones that cost a fortune in the supermarket, are freighted in from Thailand and are used in stirfries) or try to buy one bred specially for our climate and that claims to ripen early. And cross your fingers for some sunshine!
Carrots - if your ground is stony then go for the round varieties so that they grow and the roots don't fork. Carrots on the whole prefer a lighter soil.
If you want to grow beans next year, a good tip is to start filling a trench now with left over veg peelings etc and plant them in the trench next May/June.
Obviously you will need to wait for the snow to go and the ground to unfreeze before you can dig your trench
Brussel sprouts need to be in really firm ground.
Sweetcorn is hard to ripen in our climate. You need to either go for the baby corn (the unripe mini ones that cost a fortune in the supermarket, are freighted in from Thailand and are used in stirfries) or try to buy one bred specially for our climate and that claims to ripen early. And cross your fingers for some sunshine!
Carrots - if your ground is stony then go for the round varieties so that they grow and the roots don't fork. Carrots on the whole prefer a lighter soil.
If you want to grow beans next year, a good tip is to start filling a trench now with left over veg peelings etc and plant them in the trench next May/June.
Obviously you will need to wait for the snow to go and the ground to unfreeze before you can dig your trench
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bigpaul
Re: Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
I grow spuds in tyres, place tyre on ground put some manure in the bottom about quarter the way up, cover with compost and plant spuds on top not too thickly about 6 is prob enough, cover with compost to top of tyre, when shoots grow through this layer, put another tyre on top and fill to top, when shoots grow through this put on another tyre and fill to top, put another tyre on ground and do the same until you have planted all you spuds, water regularly. i usually make about 6 tyre stacks of 3 tyres each, total 18 tyres. the tyres retain the heat and its easier to fill the tyres than the more traditional 'earthing up'!
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axelt123
Re: Fruit and Veg Growing (or not)
Brambling wrote:Axel, I've grown veg the traditional way and now in raised beds, I have to say raised bed gardening is far easier, especially if you're an old moo like me with a bad back. Foot for foot you get a better crop with raised beds too. The pallet collars I used are approx 3'x4' you can grow things a lot closer together when using raised beds so what you may lose in pathways, you make up for in density of growing. I'd never go back to traditional methods now.
Thanks for the input
axel