What Preps are you doing this week? Part 11

[jennyjj01]

It does feel nice to be harvesting.

I have some carrots that have gone to seed. Will save some of those.

Between posts, I nipped out and harvested a big handful of peas. Shelled and frozen.

It's such a small thing..... But I have to say how satisfying it is to harvest and eat home grown food. The ultimate prep.

My Peas gave barely half a dozen portions, but they were delish. Call it 2% self sufficiency on carrots, onions and peas

My nominally £30 in growing costs, plus god knows how many hours of graft has created maybe £3 of food, so far.

I so need to scale up!!!!

Noteworthy is that my crop from the composter and the few raised beds in my back garden far outweighs what my allotment had yielded.

Right now I have a batch cooked spag bol on the go and it includes my own carrots and onions. Yayyyyy.

[GillyBee]

I think it is very easy to underestimate just how much learning and experience goes into being a good gardener. Consider carrot investment as an investment in training and it will look like a better bargain. How much would a hands on gardening course cost?

[jennyjj01]

I think it is very easy to underestimate just how much learning and experience goes into being a good gardener. Consider carrot investment as an investment in training and it will look like a better bargain. How much would a hands on gardening course cost?

I'm always conscious of the cost of my gardening and I invest frugally(meanly), using cheap or second hand tools and saved seeds or even shop bought spuds for seed*. I don't count my hours of graft, as it's cheaper than a gym membership
IF, and it's a big IF, I'm allowed to keep my allotment, I commit to make it cost in next year. I need £30 worth of produce. We don't eat much veg, so a month's worth of spud, pea, carrot, onion, tomato rations can be my target.
By way of learning curve, I need to figure out why most of my onions and some carrots went to seed and why my spud foliage got devoured by critters. Nets are definitely on the shopping list.... Ex-net curtains.

*The cheap seed spuds did badly, but equally so too did expensive shop bought ones.

Meanwhile, back at the allotment, recent digging and weeding has plucked out less marestail than last year. I honestly think I'm making progress on that.

[Arzosah]

I've been working on my garden too - I've let perennial weeds get the better of me, and I've been going at it properly, now that the fox cubs have grown up and aren't sleeping at the bottom all the time I'm only gradually making the situation better, but I'm keeping what I've weeded clear, and that's really important - I've been very bad at that in the past.

[Medusa]

I hav been growing my own fruit and veg now for about six years. Just a greenhouse, raised beds and tubs etc. Knowledge is great, but nature is still the King. We could not grow as much this year for various reasons and really glad that we did not. Tomatoes in the greenhouse have succumed to something, huge plants but little fruit and lots of dead foilage. Tomatoes outside of a different variety have produced masses of flowers but little fruit with no sign of disease. The onions did not really germinate, Rhubarb has been pretty rubbish which is unusual for us, peppers which I grew have taken ages and are only just flowering, the ones I bought have only produced 3 decent sized peppers. Cucumbers seem to have produced mostly male flowers. Strawberries did ok but the fruit was far smaller than in previous years, the raspberries are ok but nowhere near as tall as last year. Our non food plants ie hostas and arum lily are brown around the edges and are presenting much as they normally do at the end of August, so a month ahead of how they normally are. Our apple trees are doing ok with reasonable crops but the plum fruited and the tiny plums just fell off and did not set. Not a great year for us at all and I am blaming the weather. Looking at the hostas and arum lily it seems that we may have an early autumn.

[GillyBee]

My rhubarb was poor too. I have purchased a Livingstone variety to try as that apparently is able to grow properly & crop for 9-10 months of the year so may not be as impacted by a bad spring in future.
Charles Dowding was complaining about lack of light earlier in the season which has definitely had an impact. I dont know if I'll get many beans. The runners might manage some but the slugs have had 3 sowings of french beans now. Tomatoes are slow both in and out of the greenhouse I may get a lot of green tomato ketchup. Opal Plum lost half it's buds to pigeons and some of the fruit to foxes but otherwise did OK. Still waiting for the Victoria to ripen. The courgettes are just starting to produce - slowly. I have pretty much given up on carrots and onions. The seedings are so tiny when small that they seem to succumb far too easily.

[jennyjj01]

Knowledge is great, but nature is still the King. We could not grow as much this year for various reasons and really glad that we did not. Tomatoes in the greenhouse have succumed to something, huge plants but little fruit and lots of dead foilage. Tomatoes outside of a different variety have produced masses of flowers but little fruit with no sign of disease. The onions did not really germinate, Rhubarb has been pretty rubbish which is unusual for us...
Not a great year for us at all and I am blaming the weather.

Not just me then. Last year onions were great but carrots all died. This year carrots were much better but onions terrible. My rhubarb and raspberrys only just fruiting sparsely.
Oh hum. Next year.....

[GillyBee]

Most years some things do well while others fail. Tomatoes are good most years but not this year or the year they all got blight.
I got a great crop of spinach -ONCE- but have never managed to repeat the trick. I just try a mix of stuff each year knowing some will be good and some will fail but this year has had a higher fail rate than usual.I
I just worry for the farmers....

[Yorkshire Andy]

Waterpump / cambelt kit ordered for the good lady's car.... And a pair of shockers since the MOT man said the bushes were on their way out and get them done before the next MOT..

Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):
Rear Shock absorbers has a slightly worn bush both rear shocker upper bushes (5.3.2 (c))

That was end of February not noticeablly rattling yet but I don't fancy doing them on the drive in the depth of winter

[Yorkshire Andy]

Oh and nextdoor is putting up a new fence.. I've taken the opportunity to baste the shed sides I can now get to with decent timber treatment whilst it's easily accessible before the new fence goes up.. the neighbour was impressed with my battery spray gun took me longer to get it out and set up and clean out after use than it did to do the 8'x7' shed whilst it was out and the weather was dry i did the lot