Permaculture & Getting Going in the Garden.

Susukino · Post by **Susukino** » 14 Aug 2007, 14:09

Pippa wrote:Wondered how everyone was getting on with the gardening?

Pippa, everybody seems to have been hit by blight this year. My mum's potatoes were wiped out despite a promising start. Perhaps just the wet weather... What variety did you plant?

Suss

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 14 Aug 2007, 14:30

My potato crop was completely destroyed by blight.

SunnyJim · Post by **SunnyJim** » 14 Aug 2007, 15:21

We've had a fairly bad year, but as its our first we're still pretty pleased by it all. We got quite alot of salad crops, including heaps of lovely hot radishes.

Pototoes got blight, but I cut the foliage off them and have left them for three weeks. Might be lucky in managing to dig some decent tubers out, but won't know till thursday.

Got some small but plentiful grapes from the vine, and our tomatoes in the greenhouse have done really well. Should have plenty for making tomatoe sauces for the winter.

Carrots were planted too close to the potatoes and got shaded out.

Early peas were eaten by snails. Then I ate the snails. Second crop of peas produced OK, but I should have planted more.

We've also got pepper plants which could still come good, but its been a hard year for them with a dull june (understatement) and early snail attacks.

On the plus side I've just recived a pile of packets of late sowing seeds. I ordered them from the organic gardening cataloge. They are all OK for planting late summer. Ideally I'd have got them planted at the end of July, early August, but will put them in and see what happens. In case anyone is interested in what can still be planted at this time of year I will list them;

Late sowing seed collection.
Money saving seed collection of eight individual packets of seeds for later sowing, and harvest through autumn into spring. A tasty variety of good home cooked food basics.

Broad Beans - Super Aquadulce.
Spinach - Giant Winter.
Peas - Pilot.
Carrots - Nantes2.
Parsley - Moss Curled.
Onions - Bedfordsire Champion.
Rainbow Chard - Bright Lights.
Sugar Pea - Norli.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 14 Aug 2007, 15:32

SunnyJim wrote:Early peas were eaten by snails. Then I ate the snails.

Mwahahahahaa!!!!

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 14 Aug 2007, 15:36

SunnyJim - are your winter onions seeds or sets?

SunnyJim · Post by **SunnyJim** » 14 Aug 2007, 15:44

Seeds, much to my surprise... trying to get some more info up, but cut and paste seems to have stopped working for me!

Late sowing seed collection - vegetables.
Money saving seed collection of eight individual packets of seeds for later sowing, and harvest through autumn into spring. A tasty variety of good home cooked food basics.

Broad Beans - Super Aquadulce.
Spinach - Giant Winter.
Peas - Pilot.
Carrots - Nantes2.
Parsley - Moss Curled.
Onions - Bedfordsire Champion.
Rainbow Chard - Bright Lights.
Sugar Pea - Norli.

Late Sowing Seed Collection. Winter Salads.

Money saving seed collection of eight individual packets of seeds for sowing in late spring and summer to harvest through autumn and into spring.
Raw vitamin boost from fresh salad stuff through the colder months.

Corn Salad - Louviers.
Winter Lettuce - Valdor.
Rocket - Rucola.
Endive - Pancalieri.
Claytonia.
Spring Onions - Whitle Lisbon Winter hardy.
Chicory - Rossa di Verona.
American Land Cress.

Late Sowing Seed Collection. Oriental Leaves.

Money saving seed collection of eight individual packets of seeds for later sowing, and harvest through autumn into spring. Oriental Leaves - steamed, stir-fried or raw, mild and strongly flavoured leaves.

Chinese Cabbage - Wong Bok.
Pak Choi - China Choi.
Komatsuma.
Chopsuey Greens - Shungiku.
Mibuna.
Chinese Cabbage - Tatsoi.
Mustard Greens - Giant Red.
Purple Choy Sum.

SunnyJim · Post by **SunnyJim** » 14 Aug 2007, 15:46

Need a quick reboot me thinks.

Very odd. Something about the organic gardening cataloge messes with my cut and paste!!!! Hope there's no nasty buffer overrun bug being used to steal all my gardening tips!

Yay! Got there in the end!

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 14 Aug 2007, 16:16

Soooo the break down of what grew and what didn't...

Failures first:

All brassicas destroyed by cabbage root fly - that's the turnips, the cabbages, the kolh rabi, the broccoli and the kale! Duh.

Sweetcorn was very slow to get going, so I don't think we'll get a crop. Slugs just love them.

Sweet potatoe slips that I bought at great expense don't seem to be thriving (and I have tried them in various situations....)

The pumkins look dubious after a slow start and many losses of young plants due to slugs.

Garlic puny.

(Edit to add - Runner beans a diasaster - built a HUGE frame for them to grow up and despite several sowings I have only 2 plants on the frame and them only 3' tall! *Sigh*)

SUCCESSES SO FAR

Potatoes - planted in the cardboard and compost bed, and covered in old hay. Great success. I cut the tops down when blight struck, left for 2 weeks and then dug up for storage. Okay they won't see us through the winter, but we've been eating our own spuds all summer and will have enough to last a couple more months - not bad when feeding a family of 6.

Onions - again in the c&c beds, but no hay. I laid newspaper over the compost (to block light from germinating seedlings as my 'compost' is mostly horse manure), covered newspaper in sand (to stop it blowing away) then soaked it all and punched holes in the paper to plant the tiny onion plants. Again this worked really well. Few weeds made it through and the onions seemed to like the situation. Only down side is the compost was a little rich and most onions are rather thick necked. I'll use them rather than store too many. Again all our own onions for use since around May, and enough for at least another couple of months.

Courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes and the vine in the greenhouse all doing okay.

Fruit bushes - gooseberry, redcurrant, black currant and raspberries all good & loadsa jam made. Rhubarb til we could eat no more!

Jerusalem artichokes 'bout 6' tall now so here's hoping for a good crop. Globe artichokes good too.

Leeks, carrots, beetroot and parsnips all seem okay - but I'm holding off eating them til they grow some more.

Tried small amounts of oats (hmmm - how to harvest?) quinoa and grain amaranth... all still to be tasted.

Various herbs growing well esp chives and sage.

(Edit to add - Peas and broad beans were also successful.)

Other developments:

Bought a breeding pair of Welsummers. I used to breed and show these (and their eggs) so this is a start.

Bought 2 weaner piglets for fattening. Gloucester Old Spots. So cute! But they are for the freezer and the children know it too.

6 apple trees planted.

Wind turbine going up & solar panels in the shed waiting for the main man to get time.

Bought a second oil tank second hand just today - to be filled as a buffer.

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 14 Aug 2007, 16:20

SunnyJim wrote: In case anyone is interested in what can still be planted at this time of year I will list them;
.

Ooo thanks - I have a few of these seeds in my box.... so they'll be worth a try. Timely reminder - thanks.

LastDrop · Post by **LastDrop** » 14 Aug 2007, 19:09

Thanks Kenneal, I wasn't too sure about trying eBay for a greenhouse after hearing the swearing from my next door neighbour when he tried to put his up. I'm not too sure if he had small enough hands.

SILVERHARP2 · Post by **SILVERHARP2** » 14 Aug 2007, 20:12

grew potatoes in 10 old compost bags on the patio, first time and excellent result. Lambs lettuce in containers worked better then in the ground as they were less motheaten by the time I got to them. However summer was so wet kind of lost interest in the garden.

Pippa · Post by **Pippa** » 14 Aug 2007, 21:11

Susukino wrote: Pippa, everybody seems to have been hit by blight this year. My mum's potatoes were wiped out despite a promising start. Perhaps just the wet weather... What variety did you plant?

Suss

I planted three different varieties, one of which was anya, the other two I can't remember but one is white and the other red!!!!

The anya's don't take well to blight, most of them are putrid, the white ones seem a little better, about half are putrid and the red ones are champion, about 3/4ers are fine; shame I don't know the type

One bonus about this all is that I didn't mound any of them so at least saved a little effort.

I am eating the red ones as much as possible now. Apparently the only difference between a new potato and a normal potato is that you dig the new ones up earlier before they mature!!!! Sorry if you all know this (probably obvious) fact but I didn't 'til this year.

Also, did mean to mound the potatos as everyone told me I should but when they spouted I realised that I had planted much closer than I should have and there wasn't any room to mound them.

Next year I will plant more potatos but only mound those which are going to stay in the ground long term, ie main crops.

Also have learnt that need to diversify roots and plant a mixture of carrot, beetroot, parsnip, potato.

Would also like to have a go a grain as long as I get the whole weed thing under control.

Wondering how much grain you have planted Sally?

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 15 Aug 2007, 08:35

Pippa wrote:Wondering how much grain you have planted Sally?

Tiny amounts!

The oats once husked may only make a single bowl of porridge - I just wanted to try them out. The seeds are from Real Seeds and apparently are a variety that are easier to hand thresh than the conventional ones....

Quinoa and Amaranth around a dozen plants of each (also from Real Seeds) so I'm not expecting high yields. Again I just wanted to see what it would be like to grow and process these and if I could extract anything much edible from them!

On the potato front I have read that a variety called Sarpo Miro is blight resistant. I am hoping to source some of these for next year. Although blight was not a major issue here - it did kill the tops which I removed at once. Spuds were OK though.

SunnyJim · Post by **SunnyJim** » 15 Aug 2007, 08:59

Andy Hunt wrote:SunnyJim - are your winter onions seeds or sets?

Turns out they are for overwintering to get an early crop next spring. Must be a hardy type of onion plant who's leaves can withstand a bit of frost.

SunnyJim · Post by **SunnyJim** » 15 Aug 2007, 09:02

Sally wrote:
Pippa wrote:Wondering how much grain you have planted Sally?
Tiny amounts!

The oats once husked may only make a single bowl of porridge - I just wanted to try them out. The seeds are from Real Seeds and apparently are a variety that are easier to hand thresh than the conventional ones....

Quinoa and Amaranth around a dozen plants of each (also from Real Seeds) so I'm not expecting high yields. Again I just wanted to see what it would be like to grow and process these and if I could extract anything much edible from them!

On the potato front I have read that a variety called Sarpo Miro is blight resistant. I am hoping to source some of these for next year. Although blight was not a major issue here - it did kill the tops which I removed at once. Spuds were OK though.

But surely next year will be a scorcher and you'll need one that is good at growing in dry conditions?