What are you growing?

[RenewableCandy]

You grow bamboo?

How long does it take to grow to a usable length?

I'm thinking of popping into the local hedgerows to get some hazel shoots of about 6ft, for stakes and such. (we're blessed with hedgerows that are overgrown with hazel.. )

Yes, we have bamboo. It took several years to get established...

God help you if you ever want to get rid of the damned stuff...

You'll have to get a panda

[postie]

But I was wondering, what stuff people are growing and how much of it?

Absolutely nothing. And therefore none.

Get out of my thread, you 'orrible little troll.

Go on... Shoo!

[RenewableCandy]

There are raspberry-canes coming up on the Renewable lawn now...I don't care actually, because unlike the lawn they do something useful.

There was a massive thunderstorm here earlier on this afternoon, and it's done our garden a huge favour. The dozen or so new runner-beans have doubled in size and the asparagus has perked up. There's also loads of self-seeded salad in the containers: we had the first leaves today and they tasted gorgeous. Sorrel has seeded itself in various places: don't you just love it when nature does all the work for you ?

A currant has seeded itself in a box: I'm going to "liberate" it into the neighbour's garden which she's too busy to look after and lets me use. The tree we planted there is suffering from over-crowding, so I'm going to have to ask the neighbour if she minds losing a couple of bushes next to it: I have lavenders that can go in instead.

[emordnilap]

So far:

Onions (hundreds)
Garlic
Half-a-dozen varieties of spuds
A dozen varieties of lettuce
Radishes
Asparagus
Cabbage
Carrots
Peas
Several varieties of tomatoes
Courgettes
Peppers
Chillies
Bed prepared for marrows
Sweetcorn
Globe artichokes
Spinach
Pak choi
Broad beans
Mange tout
Dozens of herbs
Half-a-dozen varieties of apples
Pears
Damsons
Blackcurrants
Jostaberries
Strawberries
Looking around for some grape vines
Gooseberries
Plums
Rhubarb
Elderberries
Wild garlic
Wild strawberries
Cherries
Raspberries

[woodpecker]

Redcurrants
Blackcurrants
Plums
Garlic
Horsesradish
Tomatoes (2 varieties)
Strawberries
Courgettes
Basil (lots, 2 varieties)
Parsley
Oregano
Thyme
Chives
Sage
Rosemary
Lettuce (3 varieties)
Rocket
Black beans
Cherries
Grapes (vine still small, nice grapes)
Figs (love the tree, don't really grow it for the fruit)

I have a small garden, and would grow more things with more space. Am about to dig up small lawn for raised beds.

[postie]

Blimey.. are some of you secret green-grocers?



Had an amazing find t'other day, or rather the other half did. She's a scouty person and went on a Scout leaders thingy. In a barn at this place was a load of wood, and she eyed it up and asked about it.

Turns out the wood was surplus raised beds. They'd been used once.. then stored.

They are absolutely amazing, as they are Scandanavian designed, folding raised beds. 4 pieces of wood, with double hinges. When unused, the fold up to almost nothing. However, the genius of the design is in the hinge. It has a "bayonet" type fixing to it, so that you place 2 pieces together and it forms a higher raised bed. It takes about 20 seconds to erect a proper sturdy raised bed of 2 feet high.

I've tried googling for a picture. I found nowt.

I'll have to get out there with a camera.

Oh... and the missus brought home 3 of these things. Which makes either 3 shallow beds, or 1 deep bed and 1 shallow... and she's back there next week... and will (on orders!) be picking up about 10 more.

[hardworkinghippy]

Blimey - that's a good find !

I'm munching my way through a half kilo of cherries this evening. The tree has now been taken over by the birds but we've other later varieties to come and loads of other fruit which is doing OK so far.

My onion and garlic patch is being taken over by wild strawberries which are doing incredibly well in the rich soil and helping to mulch the onions. I've eaten a handful almost every day now for two weeks.

I won't do a list but I've got a lot of stuff in the garden this year - all I need now is some water....

[kenneal - lagger]

We can match emordnilap except with the jostaberrries. lettuce and radish. Instead of lettuce we've got cut and come again mixed leaf salads, instead of globe artichokes we've got the Jerusalem variety, jostaberries - loganberries and Himalayan blackberries, red currents and sloes. We've also got aubergines.

I bought a peach tree today from Homebase but when I got it home and tried to get it out of the pot to plant it the tree came out of the soil with virtually no small roots attached. It looked like it had been damaged and then repotted and put on sale. It was shooting quite strongly so I complained and got 50% (£6.50) off. I'll keep watering it and hope for the best. I've planted it in a bed on the patio against our south facing wall so it should get plenty of shelter there. It's on dwarfing stock so should only grow to 2m high by 2m wide after five years according to the label.

We were given a fig tree last autumn which spent the winter wrapped up on the patio in a pot. We've planted this facing west on the south west corner of the house. It seems to be doing well and most of the figlets from last year are swelling nicely and have coloured up well. I'll trim it and the peach tree to grow close to the wall so we can cover them in bubble wrap easily over winter. The cob wall should keep them virtually frost free.

The fig was alright in the frost of last winter so it should do quite well where it is planted. The peach label says it's hardy so we'll have to see about that. Where it's planted it will eventually be inside a conservatory.

We've got a bed of wild garlic down by the gate but I want to bring a few bulbs up nearer the house for convenience and to get them away from the traffic fallout. I just need to find a nice damp spot for them. Among the other wild plants we have plenty of nettles, which we add to spinach, and always get masses of fat hen and chick weed. Those get fed to the chickens but I'm trying to persuade SWMBO that we should try some as they're supposed to be perfectly edible.

[Keela]

So I'll play the game and add my perennials too:

Rasberry
blackberry
jerusalam artichoke
gooseberry
cardoon
black currant
rhubarb
red currant
hazelnut
white currant
sweet chestnut
jostaberry
walnut
wine berry
elderberry
tayberry
strawberry
fig
plums
apples
golden gage
cherry
pears
globe artichoke
kiwi
grape

[emordnilap]

Heh heh. Just added a couple to my list.

kenneal, the globe and jerusalem artichokes - the latter, we've had but I never really got to like them; I tried and tried but couldn't. Something to do with the texture plus they're a bit sweet for me. The globe type seem hardly worth it to many but I really enjoy all the fuss involved in preparing and eating them. It seems to say 'seasonal/enjoy'.

Our lettuce is going really well, we just pull a few leaves off to have with every meal - is that what you mean by cut and come again?

They hardly need washing, just a quick run under the tap and a spin dry. A few fennel leaves, coriander, chives and chive flower petals, parsley plus a dressing something like this:

• 2/3 cup oil (we were using Palestinian organic oil but now we've found some organic rapeseed oil grown and pressed in Kilkenny)
  1/3 cup organic apple vinegar
  1-2 tsp organic 'crunchy' mustard
  1/2 crushed clove organic garlic
  1 tsp organic brown sugar
  salt, pepper
  1 tbs yeast flakes (optional)

Put everything in a jar, put on the lid and give it a good shake each time you use it. Delicious.

[kenneal - lagger]

We planted the Jerusalem artichokes a few years ago, tried them the first year and haven't bothered again. It gets windy enough in our house without the added fartichoke effect! We do give a lot of them away. We'll have to try digging them out sometime, I suppose, as they take up about a third of one of our beds. I put them in as a backup for the spuds but we haven't needed the backup as yet.

The cut and come again salads are a mixed leaf, some lettuce, some brassicas, which you cut as baby leaves. They last about a month before getting to big and woody. I just grab a handful at lunch time, add to a sandwich and bung on some mayo. Perfect instant inch thick sandwich.

[postie]

as promised earlier, the raised bed contraptions we snaffled for free.
First pic shows the single bed, and further up, 2 singles slotted together to form a deep bed.


And folded...

[2 As and a B]

Blimey.. are some of you secret green-grocers?



Had an amazing find t'other day, or rather the other half did. She's a scouty person and went on a Scout leaders thingy. In a barn at this place was a load of wood, and she eyed it up and asked about it.

Turns out the wood was surplus raised beds. They'd been used once.. then stored.

They are absolutely amazing, as they are Scandanavian designed, folding raised beds. 4 pieces of wood, with double hinges. When unused, the fold up to almost nothing. However, the genius of the design is in the hinge. It has a "bayonet" type fixing to it, so that you place 2 pieces together and it forms a higher raised bed. It takes about 20 seconds to erect a proper sturdy raised bed of 2 feet high.

I've tried googling for a picture. I found nowt.

I'll have to get out there with a camera.

Oh... and the missus brought home 3 of these things. Which makes either 3 shallow beds, or 1 deep bed and 1 shallow... and she's back there next week... and will (on orders!) be picking up about 10 more.

Pick up more and sell them on eBay!

You couldn't drop some round to Sussex could you? I know someone who'd love them. (Not me - I have no more room in the garden for raised beds.)

[kenneal - lagger]

I have a trailer that I could pick up up to 2.5 tonnes of them in. I also have a friend in Sussex who could do with some, Brighton to be exact. And I could use some as well.

[2 As and a B]

Didn't realise we were doing fruit as well!

• James Grieve apple tree - looking healthy and without woolly aphid this year, for the first time
• Red Pippin (aka Fiesta) apple tree
• The John Downie crab apple tree out the front and exposed to northerly and easterly winds may have been killed by the cold - hopefully it will survive but won't know until next year
• Sunburst cherry tree - with cherries this year(!) and now protected from birds by fleece, so if the cherries rot or just fall off and I get nothing from it again this year, it'll have to show it the saw and spade
• A veritable forest of Autumn Bliss raspberry canes are shooting up - some reset to form a second row
• A dense undergrowth of alpine and cultivated strawberries - had first, bright red, huge, plump strawberry yesterday and it was deliciousissimo!
• Blackcurrant bush - produced 2Kg for the freezer last year and this year it looks like there will be yet more
• 6 varieties of blueberry bushes - got a lot of berries last year, but they're not doing much so far this year
• Vine (red grapes) with lots of flowers on, so bodes well
• Cranberries are in leaf
• Rhubarb (not strictly a fruit, I know) is doing its usual mega-growing and I've pulled some 9Kg of stalks so far, 8Kg of which have been sold to passers-by for the total princely sum of £4 (and, like the past two years since I started doing front-of property sales, no one has stolen the cash!)

Are we doing herbs as well? Anyway...

Sage
Thyme
Oregano/marjoram (lots of plants)
Fennel
Basil (indoors)
Parsley (indoors)
Feverfew

And a bay tree

Oh, and the (finally killed) sycamore that was trying to grow in/through the fence has sprouted a couple of big flat fungal growths - may be edible. I'll have to get the id books out.