Selfsufficientish.com

Hi,
Grace and I have spent some time discussing what worked well and what didn't work so well last year in the garden. I thought I would share these points. I'm also interested in learning what you will do differently this year.

1. No lawn fabric. We used this in the raised bed to minimize weed pulling. This really worked. The downside is it was a real hassle for planting some high density plants...too many holes. The other problem is we couldn't mix in new compost throughout the growing period.

2. No borders of marigolds and onions. This is an organic approach to keeping out the 'bad' bugs. I must admit it worked. However, the marigolds grew bigger than anyone had imagined...and sucked the good nutrients out of the soil...which resulted in smaller veggies. This time we'll grow small groups of onions and marigolds at the end of the boxes...and marigolds in pots.

3. Start seeds earlier in the season inside. We've done that. Still haven't got the bugs out of the propagator and lighting. However this is an improvement. We're targeting a harvest time before the July and August South Carolina summer months. This means planting as soon as the last frost. In fact, we've placed a few cold weather plants into the ground today.

4. Several times last year Grace and I got our wires crossed on who watered the plants last...and who sprayed the organic bug spray on the leaves. We don't have a better system...need to work on one.

5. Better drip irrigation system. When we watered the garden, everything got watered...even if there were no plants. We'll add valves this year so individual boxes may be isolated.

Regards,
Chuck

After 3 years of blighted tomatoes, give up planting tomatoes outside
Plant more sweetcorn, but in batches
Plant greenhouse peppers earlier (why are they so slow to grow?)
Give up on "potato bags" - nice idea but lousy result.
Protect strawberries from birds - corral them into a nettable area
build a fruit cage for the raspberries.
train and propagate the thornless blackberries

stop wasting my time trying to grow carrots!
be more organised, so things are sown in time for a good crop (thinking brussels sprouts and sweetcorn)
dont let the pigs escape and eat all the beautiful strawberries!!
persuade husband to play a more active part in the growing and sowing, rather than just drowning, sorry, watering everything!
dont go mad and overdo it, all on the first nice day of the year ... hang on, too late for that!

Don't move house in the middle of July!
Oops instead I'm going to be heavily pregnant/giving birth then!!!

@little blue duck,
We men are good at drowning our plants

@dave45
What do you mean by potato bags? I've had several people tell me about netting for the berries.
Can you describe the fruit cage for the raspberries? We've got 8 raspberry plants.

@fifi,
You could plant veggies into a couple of dozen pots...and move them with you. If you want to start early labor you can move them yourself. Congratulations by the way!

Regards,
Chuck

CnG

potato bags - probably a consumerist con - smth like this http://www.recycleworks.co.uk/potato-gr ... 16362.html. They work but only just. Probably OK if you live in an apartment with balcony and are desperate for smth home-grown... but could yield a very expensive potato. All my "bagged" spuds had scab last year... None of those in the ground got it... they got wireworm (?) and other beasties tunnelling into them.

fruitcage - I am extending the chicken coop (made from a rectangular framework of 2.5m fence posts and lengths of 3"x2 and covered in wire mesh) I shall move my raspberry plants inside, and maybe some more fruit trees. I should have thought of this before I planted my cherry tree.... the birds get up earlier than I do in summer, and pinch all the cherries bar a handful, regardless of the netting I throw over the tree. So that will still be at risk.

chuck_n_grace wrote:
@fifi,
You could plant veggies into a couple of dozen pots...and move them with you. If you want to start early labor you can move them yourself. Congratulations by the way!

Regards,
Chuck

Thanks Chuck. Fortunately we're not moving this year, I think that would be too much to cope with!! Good advice re moving pots, we planted tomatoes and courgettes in builders' buckets along with some other pots and got my Dad to move them in his big car, it was lovely having homegrown food just days after moving in. Then growing radishes and salads whilst there was still some summer left.
I think this summer I will be focused on picking the strawberries and raspberries we have planted, yum!

1.This year we will be aware that Romana broccoli actually grew heads very late in the season...November! Unfortunately, we were away and the heads all got frozen by the time we returned..looked good tho. We had given up on them as there was about three foot of luxuriant leaves and no signs of heads beginning Nov when we went!
2. Bring stored veg inside or make the shed much more insulated as the butternuts froze during the snow...never had problem before but I guess have to plan now!
3. Get help with the allotment digging this year...Dave thinks he is well enough to do it but is not. Lots of friends have offered...accept!!
4. Carrots in troughs at home much better than in allotment, will do again.
5. Plant the all year round lettuce seed early and keep crop through year.
6. Butternuts grown under the sweetcorn worked really well so will do again this year.

lessons from 201

1. Don't make assumptions about the weather, we had the longest drought ever, 12 weeks, and the longest hardest winter for a long time. (We also lost our pumpkins in store on the allotment).

2. Don't go on holiday during the growing months, only after September and before March, if you are aiming for self-suficiency in veg. Although we arranged for people to water the polytunnels, a weeks holiday effectively meant I lost a month of raising seedlings.

3. Drying butter beans is a pain

4. Thought I had worked out over the years how to avoid slug damage but tried growing Swedes (not bothered before), only to have the seedlings slaughtered by slugs, need to work out an alternative strategy for them

5. Birds love yellow beetroot leaves, ours were pecked to nothing

6. Squirrels seem to expand their taste buds each year - all fruit except cooking apples, sweetcorn, broad beans, peas...

Plenty of mistakes made here, but the main thing i've learned is NOT to mix parsley in with the carrots seeds (supposedly gives protection from carrot fly, and increases carrot vigour) unless you want three foot high parsley and one inch carrots!! : )
Still, i have popped a few carrot seeds in next to the parsley in the herb bed though! : )

As both were first time veg for me last year, I have learnt to sow far fewer mange tout (and in succession) and far more peas!