Gardening

[Rough Country Boy]

Gidday

I am probably a dumb old bugger so I do a lot more readin than postin on this forum. You have so many people who seem to know so much and that is probably why I read more than I post.

You seem to cover everything from cheese to livestock and then take all that right through to the table ready to eat. I sure as hell like my meat but I aslo like some veges with them, in particularly when I have grown them myself.

Would it be a good idea to also have an area where we can discuss the growing of fruit and veges and taking them through to ready to eat on the table?

Or do you have a sister forum site that caters for the fruit and vege side of things?

[Fallow Buck]

Sounds like a good Idea RCB,

I like to grow a few veggies. Last night I did braised venison shanks in damson Jam and one of my last Savoy cabages that managed to escape the veggie eating critters. Your own veggies are always better!!

I could have done with some guidance earlier int the year as I struggled with my Butternut squashes and beans. My Potatoes in a barrel were a complete failure too.

Rgds,
FB

[mark gadd]

Hi.
Sounds good to me.I've grown ornamental grasses on a wholesale basis but that seems to be tailing off (fashions change ) but now after nagging by the wife I want to grow some veg.We grow spuds in bags but this years crop was rubbish.

Mark Gadd.

[Zulululu]

Big thing with growing your own is they don,t get picked before they are ready so as to increase shelf life , you can ripen them on the plant . And they do taste better , I grow my own herbs and am lucky to be able to do it year round where I live .

[mark gadd]

You alwas go on your Jolly when the thing you've been looking forward to is just ripening,with us it's figs.

[jenny_haddow]

Growing veg, fruit and herbs certainly goes hand in hand with what we do on this forum. Sitting down to a meal where you have produced everything at home, even to the cheese course, well, you cant beat it can you?

This year was my first in a long time where I produced a serious crop of veg. This was due mainly to having a garden with good soil at last. I was worried when the heat built up early in the summer (especially being on a water meter!) and I thought I had lost the beans at least, but the rain eventually came and I got a good crop after all, albeit from the top of the poles.

This weekend, nearly the middle of November, I picked my last cucumber and 6 tomatoes. Last week saw off the last of the spinach, and courgettes(zucchini) only finished 2 or 3 weeks ago. It seems to have been a long season.

I'm moving house soon so I haven't planted this garden out with purple sprouting broccoli etc, but the new garden will be up and running soon as I get there.

Growing is good for you. It's good exercise to get out in the garden, its fresh air, so its healthy and the end product tastes infinitely better than any thing you buy in the supermarket. If you don't have a garden, there are pots and window sills, equally theraputic.

Where I live was once the sea bed millions of years ago, so I keep finding fossils as I do the weeding - just a little bonus I get for growing my own!

Cheers

Jen

[Big Guy]

I have a large veggie garden, about 1 acre. Grow more than I need , supply neighbours and my kids with lots of produce. Sell a bit too. I prefer the home grown varieties rather than the commercial stuff. I grow potatoes 5 varieties, cabbage, 2 varieties, corn, 3 varieties, tomatoes, 4 varieties, cucumbers, 3 varieties,lettuce, carrots, parsnips, onions,6 varieties,herbs, lots,sweet peppers, 3 varieties, hot peppers 4 varieties, garlic, 4 varieties, squash, 4 varieties, pumpkins, 2 varieties, I know I missed something. It keeps me busy summer with planting, weeding and in the fall harvesting storing and preserving.

[BBQer]

I had a bit of a garden this year.

Had a problem with the corn. I grew "Candy Corn" variety. Many of the ears didn't develop full kernels. I read somewhere, pertaining to corn in general, that one silk is attached to one kernel and each silk must get a "bead" of pollen on it for the corresponding kernel to develop. Any truth to this?

Got a lot of aphids (looked like gray dust until I looked really close) on my broccoli. Sprayed it with some kind of oil for pests and that helped.

I always get this black spottiness on the stems of my tomatoes. Some kind of fungus? So this year I grew them in pots with store-bought potting soil, never let water get on the stems or leaves. It helped, but it still developed as the fruit began to ripen. Most especially on the "Better Boy" variety. It got into the fruit and ruined much of that.

And my pumpkins took over half the garden. Ended up with fourteen that were too big to lift. Had to roll them on to a tarp, one at a time and drag them out of the garden.

Here are some pics of the carved pumpkins.

[porker]

I've had a vegetable garden for a few years about 25m by 30m, and it has always been such a pain to keep wed, most years it beats me! So this year I tried deep beds, and all I can say is this is how to grow veggies! You basically only have to keep it wed when things are at the seedling or baby size, after that it closes in and drowns out the weeds.

My research on the web as to the problem of weeds has shown that the earth in a natural state never wants to be bare, she keeps dormant seeds safe until the earth is bare and then lets them germinate, so to work with nature, keep the earth covered, mulch the surface.

I only had two deep beds as an experiment and will be building more! the harvest from a handfull of beds, I imagine will be more than I had in my entire garden, things are kept a little closer than normal and the fertility is extremely high with all the organic mulch being applied.

I'm sorry if I'm trying to teach old dogs new tricks, buy I too was an old dog and wouldn't try anything other than what was a traditional way of growing. I'm now converted, and have more free time to actually enjoy my garden!

Few pics attached...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m82/ ... 0211-1.jpg

Greenhouse and first two deepbeds 2006

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m82/ ... G_0209.jpg

Deepbeds 2006

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m82/ ... G_0252.jpg

First Harvest of Grapes 2006

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m82/ ... G_0246.jpg

Some produce from the deepbeds 2006

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m82/ ... G_0248.jpg

Finished Product...Sausage stew!

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m82/ ... otlegs.jpg

And you do get the odd laugh!

[jenny_haddow]

Thanks for sharing the pictures Porker, and for the insight on deep beds. My daughter has gone this route and has wonderful produce.

We are a busy bunch us sausagemakers, we seem to do a bit of everything. How do we get the time?

[Fallow Buck]

We are a busy bunch us sausagemakers, we seem to do a bit of everything. How do we get the time?

Busy or Bushy!!

Time for some raised beds I think!!
(I will also need a bigger garden....hmmmmm
FB

[Rough Country Boy]

Gidday

Some of what yoiu said there Porker was dead right about nature not likin her earth to be bare. But weds do compete strongly with your veges and can seriously deplete the food availabilty for them so you can end up with a much lower yield that if weeded.

Of course the best of both worlds is to make sure the soil is not bare by covering it with some sorta mulch.

It sure looks like there are quite a few on here who keep their own gardens and who love to eat more than their home grown meat.