growing your own fruit and veg

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by ned, Sep 11, 2013.

  1. vippy

    vippy Valued Member

  2. kundalini

    kundalini New Member

    My vegetable garden just got fed some chicken and cow manure.
    Brewing some bacterial soup right now.
     
  3. seiken steve

    seiken steve golden member

    Herb garden has been eaten by the dog....

    Got chilli seeds drying, as well as pepper seeds.

    Anyone grown garlic or ginger? Apparently super easy, figured I'd grow the things I cook with a lot.
     
  4. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    [​IMG]

    Why isn't winter over yet? :[
     
  5. ned

    ned Valued Member

    Havent tried growing garlic but seen it in a friends garden who tells me it"s easy to grow,like you say.I've also foraged wild garlic (aka ramsens )which grows in woodland and comes into season in a month or so.Normally the bulbs are too small to be much good but the leaves are great steamed or blanched-a bit like garlicky spinach.
    Yesterday I planted broad beans(my favourite),chard and little gem lettuces,I too have to try and keep pesky pets off my nicely prepared seedbeds-their footprints give them away
    (and later the annoying gaps in the rows ! ).
     
  6. shootodog

    shootodog restless native

    You could use re-purposed PET bottles to make SIP (sub-irrigated planters).

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Kwajman

    Kwajman Penguin in paradise....

    I was a big time gardener, at one point my garden was almost a quarter acre! Loved all the fresh produce and getting to work the ground....
     
  8. ned

    ned Valued Member


    3 months later,everythings looking good in the veg patch.Only the early cabbage failed.Lettuces,spring onions,leaf beet and swiss chard are all ready,early potatoes and broad beans are flowering and need a few weeks yet.
    Also have beetroot,tomatoes and runner beans doing well and today sowed
    carrots(bit late)and transplanted some calabrese seedlings,pinched off my dad.Plot is nearly full now,though still a bit of room left for snap peas, french beans and courgettes.
    Been eating asparagus and strawberries from my dad's garden today :love:
     
  9. Hapuka

    Hapuka Te Aho

    I'm studying Horticultural science at university. Sadly because I'm renting, there isn't a heck of a lot that I can grow. So everything at the moment is either growing in pots/containers and bags.

    Its the beginning of winter here in New Zealand so I have Lacinato kale and curly kale, flower sprout, rainbow chard, broccoli, cauliflower, savoy cabbage, upland cress, mustard greens and kokihi (New Zealand spinach).

    The property I'm renting at also has 2 large lemon trees, a grapefruit tree, a large feijoa hedge, a pear tree, a quince tree, an apple tree, grape vines, a fig tree (which isn't doing that great) and a couple of plum trees. And all of which are planted in the wrong locations.

    I also have wild edibles that I eat from the nearby bushwalk, mainly kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum) which is related to the kava plant and makes an excellent spicy tea.
     
  10. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    I've got tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers and peppers, along with herbs and 3 apple trees.
     
  11. GenghisK

    GenghisK Jiu Jitsu Kempoka

    New to the discussion, and relatively new to serious gardening, but getting the hang of it since taking on an allotment (a British term for a chunk of community owned agricultural land leased to an individual at a nominal rent for them to grow their own food). Much fun is to be had I've found, as well as a degree of fresh air and exercise that to my mind is a massive improvement upon anything that I'd achieve in a gym. I've also been mucking about with a couple of raised beds in the front garden, and have a few fruit trees in the back that either my wife and I acquired with the house, or put in over the last few years. I'm very much shooting for variety with the hope of as many home grown things in the kitchen over the year as possible.

    Results (or not) so far, in roughly alphabetical order


    Apples - takes years for a tree to establish, then seems to fruit roughly every other year.

    Artichoke - planted two plants last year, did nothing last year, looking fantastic with half a dozen large globes this year. Not picked any yet.

    Asparagus - two patches planted, both vanished without trace. Third just planted and so far not dead.

    Beetroot - will grow, just. The few you get are great.

    Blackcurrant - inherited a bush with the allotment, productive, makes great syrup.

    Borlotti Beans - all the gardening books enthuse about these. So far, so have the slugs, so I've yet to achieve a crop. Still trying.

    Broad Beans - fragile and effort consuming, but gorgeous. Pick them when young, as once a bit older they're very chewy.

    Cabbage - see kale.

    Cherries - my wife and I planted a tree half a dozen years ago. Most years it generates a tiny handful of really delicious cherries. This year it might just, for the first time, do a bit more.

    Chillis - Easily grown indoors as a pot plant, pretty disastrous anywhere else.

    Chuckleberry - just planted that this year, not tried the fruit yet, but have high hopes.

    Coltsfoot - a weed that outgrows everything else on my allotment, but composts well.

    Cucumber - reasonably easy to grow in the greenhouse, but pointless as tastes exactly the same as shop bought just funnier shapes.

    Garlic - fantastically easy, and satisfying to have, but not neccessarily any better or worse than shop bought.

    Gooseberries - well they grow, but they seem to have a very short period between solid, and over-ripe. I have a healthy inherited bush, but really haven't got the hang of these yet.

    Kale - the local slugs and snails thought it was delicious, so I've never yet found out.

    Leeks - another easy, delicious, but very slow.

    Lettuce - easy in the greenhouse, gets decimated by the pests outside of it.

    Onions - as Leeks, but need huge amounts of weeding.

    Oregano - easy, takes over!

    Parsley - stupidly easy.

    Parsnips - easy, delicious, slow to grow.

    Pink Fir Apple Potatoes -

    Plums - old tree in the garden, occasionally generates small amounts of really
    tasty fruit.

    Pumpkin - hard work to establish, but a good pumpkin plant is a thing of joy. Last year I had a single successful plant, which generated three pumpkins (after planting 8 seeds). Those three pumpkins massed 18kg however.

    Raspberries - take a few years to establish, then effort free and prolific. Largely the birds seem to ignore them, which is even better.

    Rhubarb - hard work to establish, then magnificently easy and productive every spring.

    Rocket - seldom very successful, just bolts and becomes largely unappetising once put into the ground. Just buy it from the supermarket.

    Salad Blue Potatoes - one of the most gorgeous things ever to come out of the ground, worth the ground and the effort. Not actually salad potatoes, but definitely blue. And potatoes.

    Shallots - see onions.

    Strawberries, easy to grow, hard to get much fruit before anything else gets there first.

    Swede - just tried planting these. The slugs love these as well. Not optimistic.

    Swiss Chard - gorgeous, and basically unkillable. Tenderer grown in the greenhouse, but there's a limit to the space. Like lettuce when young, like cabbage when old, use the stalks like very pretty asparagus.

    Thistles - see coltsfoot.

    Tomatoes - dead easy in the greenhouse, utter failures elsewhere.




    I think it's great, I love it. But it is in large part about (a) pests, and (b) soil. Deal with those, and the rest sorts itself out mostly.

    I bought two dwarf pear trees in a nursery sale not long ago, and have a self set walnut tree and a damson bush relocated from my mother in law's garden, none of which have produced anything yet, but all look healthy. I look forward to seeing what they do in coming years. It is a long game.

    Overally, just about everything you grow in natural soil, reinforced with proper compost, just tastes massively better than any equivalent you'd buy. I also notice that because there's much more flavour, we tend to eat a lot less of it.

    G
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2014
  12. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    I'm not growing much edible stuff this year (apart from all the herbs which are permanent residents.)

    I've got three tomato plants in pots, and some rocket which I'm growing from some rather old seeds. They've come up, but they look a bit feeble. I also planted some very old lettuce seeds, but not one came up. It seemed worth a try though, rather than just throwing the seed away.
     
  13. ned

    ned Valued Member

    Had to google tomatillos-a member of nightshade familly,small spherical round fruits,a
    staple in mexican cooking.Used green for sauces,sweeter red ones for jams/preserves.
    Sounds interesting,but lack of a greenhouse might rule it out for me,although I've had no problem with(cherry) tomatoes outside .
     
  14. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Great thread! I'm a bit jealous of you lot, (in a nice way), we live in an apartment and with the weather conditions being what they are here it's pretty hard to grow stuff.

    My girlfriend has a summer cottage (common in the Nordics) where we could grow the odd thing that does grow here. It's quite close (45 -60 mins drive) but a little far to go and check up on things a few times a week.

    Oh, we do get a load of berries and I mean tooooons....or is it tooooonnes?

    We've thought about putting a vegetable patch there, there's space enough, and trying to grow some of the more hardy vegetables, but she wants to rent the place next year. I'm gutted about it. :(

    I really love working at the cottage, kinda wish I'd become a landscape gardener or something. It would be nice to do some other gardening there too.

    Edit: The berries are gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants. We also have some herbs there; basil, thyme, coriander, rosemary and mint.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2014
  15. GenghisK

    GenghisK Jiu Jitsu Kempoka

    I've never tried to grow Tomatillos, but really like them. Think solid green tomatoes with a lime flavouring. Cook really well for inclusion in all sorts of dishes - but virtually unobtainable in Europe.

    If I can grow them in a British greenhouse, I want to try !

    G
     
  16. ned

    ned Valued Member

    Have had plenty to eat from the garden,potatoes,broad beans,beetroot,lettuces all finished.
    Now picking french / runner beans,carrots,spinach,spring onions and snap peas(a few).
    Tomatoes are ripening and we have the usual glut of courgettes but luckily I love'em so thats ok !
    Good crop of plums and pears too,with the addition of some delicious eating apples from the absent neighbours tree :) .
     
  17. zhouchunzi

    zhouchunzi New Member

    Does anyone know how aloe is planted? Often practicing boxing fist, body and fist will have a wound, aloe is better, can be directly applied to the wound, you can quickly heal

    If you wish to advertise please contact myself or Simon to discuss rates :)

    Mitch
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2017
  18. kingzcq

    kingzcq New Member

    This is an old post, popular is not high ah, my family planted persimmon tree, persimmon is very delicious, high vitamin and fiber content
     
  19. Mushroom

    Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

    I kinda wish at times, I got greenish fingers. Even though I grew up in a restaurant environment, my dad suffered heavy asthma/hayfever. So any farm visits were very limited and veg was mostly delivered via 3rd party.
     
  20. ned

    ned Valued Member

    Seasonal springtime bump for this old thread - dug over my plot in the last week and been planting today, peas( mangetout ) and swiss chard.

    Feels somehow more significant than the usual relaxing past time this year given the increasingly unreal turn life seems to be taking. Due to my wife being at high risk
    to the virus with an auto immune condition we're in iscolation as lockdown gradually brings the rest of the country to a halt.

    With a lot more time on my hand and shortages in the shops I'm concentrating on maximising what I can produce myself in the garden.
    Recently had my first picking of purple sprouting broccoli which over-wintered and dug up last of the beetroot today.

    Weather looks set fine for the week and now's a good time to get potatoes and broad beans planted. I'm turning over a couple of overgrown flower beds
    for the potatoes and onions to save space in the usual plot for other crops.
    If you have fresh ground to grow on potatoes are good for breaking up the soil and suppressing weeds with foliage.

    It'd be nice to hear what anyone else is growing. Any space can be productive, nothing like fresh greens. My top tip is leaf beet - like spinach but
    tolerates dry conditions and keeps going for ages.
     
    Nachi likes this.

Share This Page