Selfsufficientish.com

Odsox wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote:I shouldn't have to sow in Jan as the packet says to sow in May/June in situ.

Ah well, that's the problem then as far as I'm concerned.
IMO, celery needs a long growing season and I certainly wouldn't trust sowing direct in the garden for all sorts of reasons. It's not the easiest seed to get to germinate and mine would get browsed off as soon as the first leaf appeared.
Good luck and you may well get some decent sized stems before the first frost.

Just discovered one of mine is flowering.

Well FINALLY we have our first and probably last crop of beans.

I have gone through 4 packets of all different varieties this year. The first lot went slushy, the second lot got hit by the heat and all the flowers dropped off before they could produce anything. The third lot got hit by the rain and the slugs got them as did the fourth lot. So it seems a poxy miracle we got any this year at all!

I harvested some of my Asian pears. My last tree still has about a dozen on it. I'll give it a few days. I harvested some brocolli. Then I harvested 4 beets that were ready. I had a salad of beet leaves and some teeny tine carrots that I pulled today to thin the carrots.

Keaniebean wrote:Well FINALLY we have our first and probably last crop of beans.

I have gone through 4 packets of all different varieties this year. The first lot went slushy, the second lot got hit by the heat and all the flowers dropped off before they could produce anything. The third lot got hit by the rain and the slugs got them as did the fourth lot. So it seems a poxy miracle we got any this year at all!

I feel the same about certain veg - this year I have 2" high curly kale, eventually. All four of them.

My Petit Gris de Rennes melons are not looking good, all covered in scabs and fissures so I removed two which although weren't ready to come off at the stalk end were going squidgy at the bottom end. One was rotting inside but there was a teeny bit of edible flesh but the rest had gone over so the chooks got it. Picked off some more to see if they are OK as these ones seem to ripen BEFORE they go yellow or want to come off the stalk. I don't think I'll bother with melons again as they only ripen at the same time as all the other fruit and there's a limit to how much one can eat in a day!

Everything at the moment, and going potty doing it,

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm28 ... 010243.jpg


so today's job build another rack as we still have lots of preserving to do,now that we have the family back from overseas, but hey that's why we work like idjits in the rain, cold and sometimes in the sun,
up to your bums in mud, and all this so that in the depth of winter you can sit around the kitchen table, belching, at both ends after eating and drinking the results of all the pain and the fun you had throughout the year, at least that's what I tell myself, but hey I wouldn't have it any other way.

May we wish you a very good harvest, and may your Tomatoes be not truly round and blemish free, and your beans be differents lenghts, and that that you some odd shapes and sizes in your fruit and veg ( and we have seen odd ones on this forum of late) and thanks to all you ishers for the fun and help we have had on the forum since last years harvest.



Hey Andy and Dave ISH just gets BETTER thanks lads

going potty under the harvest here too.. pulling lots of beetroot now too,
tonight's dinner is roast pork, roast spuds, roast beetroot, spagetti squash, baby corn, garlic cabbage and apple sauce. all home grown.

picked the first spagetti squash - yay!

Nothing! It was the worst garden year ever here. It was either incredibly hot or it rained. Tomatoes grew great but hardly produced any tomatoes. Got a few beans, and some kale that was it. I have some herbs and green onions in a big tub outside in the back yard and that is probably the only thing I will get anything out of this year.

Oh that's a shame Becky. Hope next year will be better for you.

Not much. A little bit of broccoli. harvested a few beets. Used the beet leaves for salads. I think I finished harvesting my asian pears.

Millymollymandy wrote:Oh that's a shame Becky. Hope next year will be better for you.

Well, I am hoping so. I now have a big pile of compost down by the garden (instead of up by the chicken coop) consisting of chicken manure, grass clippings, egg shells etc. Plus I now have the rainbarrel and the hoses from it run down to the garden, so hopefully, I can water more. It was basically just a miserable summer here and we will be glad to see winter come (we seldom get much fall weather here in GA where I am )

Hi Becky, If it's any consolation, we didn't get as much out our wee patch as we would have liked. We didn't get any protective covering over our broccoli so the cabbage white butterflies saw to those ,even the red cabbage had caterpillars, and no onions or garlic survived the onion moths! We did get some good tomatoes the only pest there was the dog who took a liking to them and would help himself straight from the plant ! You wont often read a list of garden pests and find Border Collie on there Heres to next year

We have such poor soil here anyway that it is hard to get things to grow. I usually do quite well with beans, tomatoes and peppers but apparently my soil is lacking in something these last few years, the beans still grow but the peppers and tomatoes don't grow well but don't produce. We don't have a lot of pests in the early spring but we have tomato worms and grasshoppers/locusts later on. Next year I have to get serious and put more effort into my garden but for some reason right about the time to plant turns out to be when I am busier than ever and can't find time to do the garden right.
Anyway, I have planted some 45 day cabbage and some broccoli for a fall garden and so far the only one of the plants has been eaten on. Not sure they will produce anything though.

Harvested most of my late sweetcorn yesterday, picked and froze 1.5 Kg of kernels to go with the kilo already frozen from a couple of weeks ago. Also about 10 frozen on the cob for OH to eat, I don't like it as I always get bits stuck between my front teeth and a butter soaked beard.
Not a good year for me with sweetcorn as most of the plants only had one cob, but they were grown on a new piece of ground that was a hedge up until last March. Still better than nothing though.

dingdong wrote:Hi Becky, If it's any consolation, we didn't get as much out our wee patch as we would have liked. We didn't get any protective covering over our broccoli so the cabbage white butterflies saw to those ,even the red cabbage had caterpillars,

Me too, me too - although I waged a war against the caterpillars, every night for a week I went out there and picked for about an hour - must have collected upwards of 1,000 of the blighters from accross the patch, and I am pleased to confirm that I won! There are a few holes, but not half as bad as it has been in previous years, and the little buggers seem to have given up now.

I think netting is the answer - but so expensive. We bought a small amount and put it on the cavollo nero, and I have to say I really noticed the difference, they are relatively untouched compared to the rest, and brussells sprouts seem to have been the brassica of choice for Wiltshire's caterpillars.