What are you planting this year???

[DominicJ]

Fair enough then.

[RenewableCandy]

having just finished reading your posts on another thread about how collapse isn't going to happen and how it's all just the normal process of change which will benefit some people and not others, where has this come from?

Benefit some doesnt mean benefit him

FC's posts are normally arguing that there will be no collapse, just some hard times. The above post directly contradicts a lot of his others, in which he appears to be quite comfortable with unfolding events.

Methinks the FifthColumn protesteth too much (and no I am not going to be capable of reading that out loud later this evening ).

Erm...what I mean is that this might be the genuine article, the rest being self-reassurance. I only recognise this in other people because I've done it myself (but on a different topic).

[fifthcolumn]

Errr . . . having just finished reading your posts on another thread about how collapse isn't going to happen and how it's all just the normal process of change which will benefit some people and not others, where has this come from?

Are you joking, or just inconsistent?

No I'm serious and I'm 100% consistent.
I've concluded that if there is a collapse back home I would be dead. Along with most of you lot. I've also concluded that growing veggies in my back garden there is a waste of time for the same reason.
The only ones in the UK who can possibly survive a global alec scarrow style collapse are those who own hundreds of acres and have been farming with no inputs for years. They also better have a private army.
That, unfortunately, is not me and I have no chance whatsoever of even coming close to it. In other words I have concluded I am dependent to the system and that if the system goes down in the UK so do I. There's no point in thinking about it.

In fact if there *was* a collapse I planned to be the one doing the raiding. It would have been *me* going from house to house stealing peoples supplies...
Ultimately I would have been wiped out but it would be fun while it lasted.

I concluded that the UK is indeed in danger of collapse and that is why I left the UK, first by going to Norway and now by going somewhere else which I think will be more stable.

Now, however, my position is that you're *probably* doomed and I'm *much* less likely to be doomed.
That is my "comfortable" with unfolding events position juxtaposed with my "collapse means doom" position.

i.e. collapse will be unevenly distributed. Which is exactly what Dominic is saying and I agree with him.

In fact, in the early stages of any potential peak oil based collapse the economy local to me will boom. Sadly the same is not true of a financial collapse but even if we get hyperinflation, the economy local to me will still be a *lot* better than the city of violent nutters I just left.

[Ballard]

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..............Yawn.

.....................Anyway.

I'm going to plant large easy grow crops at the allotment such as ;-

Potatoes at least three varieties,
Butternut quash, sweet corn, and runner beans (the three sisters)
Broad beans
Corgettes

In my new 6 meter by 1m raised beds at home it will be all the salad crops and stuff which needs more attention.

I've also got my hands on the 1/4 Acre woodland at the back of the house which I have been raiding for logs all winter, and I'm going to look into forest gardening in here (the farm of the future programme got me interested)

Have fun, be nice....

edit (I'm rubbish at spelling )

[fifthcolumn]

I'm going to plant large easy grow crops at the allotment such as ;-

Knock yourself out.

It'll only be of any use to you if the supermarkets continue to function and it doesn't cost twenty quid for a small bag of potatoes and a fiver for a loaf of bread.

If it eventually does, watch out mate.

Yawn all you like.

[Erik]

Fifthcolumn: whether or not there is a sudden collapse which leads to maddened hungry yobs rampaging through your vegetable patch is not particularly relevant to this thread. There are all sorts of positive reasons for growing food, which of course you don't need me or anyone else to list for you. We all have our doomerish moments, but come on, lighten up a bit, chill out and plant those seeds man! You'll appreciate it later if society doesn't happen to collapse totally this year. And if TEOTWAWKI does happen then the last thing you'll have to worry about is your garden.

[kenneal - lagger]

I've also got my hands on the 1/4 Acre woodland at the back of the house which I have been raiding for logs all winter, and I'm going to look into forest gardening in here (the farm of the future programme got me interested)

Make sure you don't have a deer problem before planting anything. All my stuff was trashed within weeks of planting and we've since had over twenty deer shot on our land in the last 18 months. We've got two in the freezer now and one outside waiting to be skinned and butchered.

I've had my suspicions about "fifthcolumn" in the past, the name gives him away somewhat.

[Andy Hunt]

Thanks for clearing that one up fifthcolumn.

Hoping to get the odd pear for the first time on my sapling this year.

[Erik]

Hoping to get the odd pear for the first time on my sapling this year.

Well, after all this doom talk, at least you've identified something that you actually want to go pear-shaped.

[fifthcolumn]

Fifthcolumn: whether or not there is a sudden collapse which leads to maddened hungry yobs rampaging through your vegetable patch is not particularly relevant to this thread. There are all sorts of positive reasons for growing food, which of course you don't need me or anyone else to list for you. We all have our doomerish moments, but come on, lighten up a bit, chill out and plant those seeds man! You'll appreciate it later if society doesn't happen to collapse totally this year. And if TEOTWAWKI does happen then the last thing you'll have to worry about is your garden.

Well just to nitpick a *little* bit. This is the section for "peak oil" preparation right?
So I think it's on topic to argue whether it's worth planting anything at all in a general sense.
If you want to argue that this thread is excused from that particular form of thinking and is just simply a pure "what are you planting this year" with no peak oil overtures then oh alright then I give in, I'll stop doom laden posting on this thread.

In any event, I lied. My little one who is six now has been planting stuff with me since he can remember so when I said we were planting nothing at all he decided he was going to plant on his own.

So we have his baby strawberry plant on the kitchen window-sill in a pot.

I must confess, though, that I have been thinking of doing some guerilla gardening and planting some tatties in the wasteland in front of my house (of which there is rather a lot of land) since I'm fairly sure none of my neighbours would recognise potato plants even if TSHTF.

[Andy Hunt]

Hoping to get the odd pear for the first time on my sapling this year.

Well, after all this doom talk, at least you've identified something that you actually want to go pear-shaped.

Ahahahaa!!!!

There's life in the good old Powerswitch humour yet!!

[DominicJ]

FC
But theres a lot of ground between 28 Days Later and Star Trek

What if its costs £1.50 for a loaf of bread and £5 for a small bag of potatos?
What if its some other arbitrary measure?
What if each person is issued with a small potato and a small loaf of bread each day?
I have that, AND I have some fresh fruit.

Ok, it might get stolen, it might not though.
I dont think £250 is an excessive amount to risk.
Its not like come 28 days later I'd have much better to do with it.

[2 As and a B]

This thread is about growing fruit and veg.

I should be out doing that, not reading this thread.

Shallots today/tomorrow.

I know it doesn't take much to plant out shallots (it's all in the preparation) but I'm going to an exhibition about a new recycling plant soon, and may get some booze en route...

[contadino]

Butternut quash, sweet corn, and runner beans (the three sisters)

Have you done the three sisters thing before, and if so was it a success?

The reason I ask is because after seeing it done on a gardening programme I thought I'd give it a try. I posted something about it up on a gardening forum and a couple of the knowledgeable people were adamant that it's a bit of an urban/lotty legend. They quoted lots of mineral values at me and said it wouldn't work.

I think I'm still going to give it a try - nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that - but it would be great if I could find someone who can say "Yes, I've done it and it worked well."

Ta.

[kenneal - lagger]

Butternut quash, sweet corn, and runner beans (the three sisters)

Have you done the three sisters thing before, and if so was it a success?

The reason I ask is because after seeing it done on a gardening programme I thought I'd give it a try. I posted something about it up on a gardening forum and a couple of the knowledgeable people were adamant that it's a bit of an urban/lotty legend. They quoted lots of mineral values at me and said it wouldn't work.

I think I'm still going to give it a try - nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that - but it would be great if I could find someone who can say "Yes, I've done it and it worked well."

Ta.

We've done it but you have to get the sweet corn going well, and early, before it's planted out. It might be easier with the timings in the sunny climes of Italy.