Advice for a hopeless gardener

[GillyBee]

Jenny, I think you may have to use the Jamie Oliver system of hiding the veg. Belnd and stick in the sauce component of the food. Personally peas and paneer curry goes down well with everyone chez Gillybee as a change from normal peas on the side.
We love roast parsnips but you could also try root veg "crisps" or "chips" to see if they go down any better.

[jansman]

In the coming times, vegetable- based diets will be the norm. Meat will be a treat. Cost and environmental issues will drive that. Personally I adore vegetables, especially those I grow of course And I am not spouting vegetable propaganda; I am a butcher

[ForgeCorvus]

In the coming times, vegetable- based diets will be the norm. Meat will be a treat. Cost and environmental issues will drive that. Personally I adore vegetables, especially those I grow of course And I am not spouting vegetable propaganda; I am a butcher

I prefer good quality meat used sparingly rather then half a plateful of some of the cheap and nasty garbage out there.

It is not a good sign if you pick up a chicken breast and it drips clear slime (insert 'vomiting' emoticon here)

[Frnc]

I do have netting over, but it's only just above the surface so a bird could have pecked through. I have some courgette seedlings that have survived so far. Built an eggshell wall around those. I'll plant some more courgette seeds today, and raise the net. Also I'll add some soil, it's mostly compost, not very well rotted. Gonna earth up the spuds, 3rd time. And plant my onion sets.
Slugs seem to have started to go after the peas, but they are growing well so not too concerned. Nearly 3 ft tall, to the top of the netting. Will be through the roof soon.
Not sure I'm, gonna bother with tomatoes this year now.
Lettuce, planted twice, no sign. Ditto kale. Broccoli grew but got eaten by slugs. Carrots sown twice, saw one seedling that vanished.
Good job I like peas.
My garden has loads of green stuff that's not veg. Why can't the slugs eat that?

We're both doing well I think it's really helped to coax each-other along and compare notes.

Funny you say it's a good job you like peas.... I'm going to struggle to get my crops eaten by family There's only me that likes fresh veg and there's a limit to how much I can eat. Looks Like I'll have two years worth of parsnips after all the trouble I had getting them started. Even peas could be a problem and it would upset me to go to the trouble of shelling them, to have my tasting panel leave them on the plate.
Know what you mean about tomatoes. For all my efforts, I have only two big bushy ones out of about 50 sown. Peppers, aubergines and okra are still tiny. Maybe they'll catch up when it gets warmer.

I must say the kratsky hydroponics looks to be working well. I wish I'd tried it sooner. Definitely a great learning year so far. But rather expensive.

Deffo got going due to yourself, the no-dig idea was the clincher.
Expensive, yeah. It's amazing how much soil and compost you need. But most of it is one offs. I did ditch the compost from some spuds I grew a couple of years ago, as they got some sort of disease. I've had some big bills recently, so I need a few months now not spending much. Had to call out someone the other day because my hot water went off, and they keep telling me I need a new boiler.

[jennyjj01]

Speaking of impatient.....

I was damned if critters were going to steal this year's strawberry crop..... So I got in first.
This crop is triple what I got last year. Progress.

I'm sharing with family, but if I get one grumble, they will be on their own when tshtf.


[edit] Eaten now ! [/edit] There's still some left to ripen.

[jennyjj01]

I cannot grow carrots. Until this year. I got some 2 gallon buckets from work ( they contained sausage seasoning), punched holes in the bottom, two thirds filled them with home made compost, then topped it with seed compost ( weed free). Thinly sowed Amsterdam Forcing carrot seed across the surface, covered with a thin layer of seed compost and watered gently. Kept them damp, and here’s the result.

Hey Jansman,
How do you pick the time to harvest your bucket of carrots. Mine are Amsterdam forcing too.
There looks to be a lot of greenery and ONE carrot in particular has shot up like a tree. I don't want to pull them up just as they start to plump up, but i don't want to be too late either.
I've had a feel around in the soil and I can't feel much carrot at all. I'm being impatient again, aren't I.

Your thoughts?

[jansman]

I cannot grow carrots. Until this year. I got some 2 gallon buckets from work ( they contained sausage seasoning), punched holes in the bottom, two thirds filled them with home made compost, then topped it with seed compost ( weed free). Thinly sowed Amsterdam Forcing carrot seed across the surface, covered with a thin layer of seed compost and watered gently. Kept them damp, and here’s the result.

Hey Jansman,
How do you pick the time to harvest your bucket of carrots. Mine are Amsterdam forcing too.
There looks to be a lot of greenery and ONE carrot in particular has shot up like a tree. I don't want to pull them up just as they start to plump up, but i don't want to be too late either.
I've had a feel around in the soil and I can't feel much carrot at all. I'm being impatient again, aren't I.

Your thoughts?

WAIT! The foliage will get much lusher, trust me. Look again end of July. Then sow again at that time. They will stand the Winter, and we had them at Christmas.

[jennyjj01]

I cannot grow carrots. Until this year. I got some 2 gallon buckets from work ( they contained sausage seasoning), punched holes in the bottom, two thirds

Hey Jansman,
How do you pick the time to harvest your bucket of carrots. Mine are Amsterdam forcing too.
There looks to be a lot of greenery and ONE carrot in particular has shot up like a tree. I don't want to pull them up just as they start to plump up, but i don't want to be too late either.
I've had a feel around in the soil and I can't feel much carrot at all. I'm being impatient again, aren't I.

Your thoughts?

WAIT! The foliage will get much lusher, trust me. Look again end of July. Then sow again at that time. They will stand the Winter, and we had them at Christmas.

Cheers.
I just 'fingered'* the compost around my biggest parsnip It had great big foliage*, but sod all parsnip under the ground. I'll give them all another two months, minimum. The man on the internet says that they might start to bulge up above ground. My onions have the same issue. I think they have bolted. Very little by way of onion bulb.
Sod it. I'll just eat the green bits

*(Ooh Err Missus)

[jansman]

Hey Jansman,
How do you pick the time to harvest your bucket of carrots. Mine are Amsterdam forcing too.
There looks to be a lot of greenery and ONE carrot in particular has shot up like a tree. I don't want to pull them up just as they start to plump up, but i don't want to be too late either.
I've had a feel around in the soil and I can't feel much carrot at all. I'm being impatient again, aren't I.

Your thoughts?

WAIT! The foliage will get much lusher, trust me. Look again end of July. Then sow again at that time. They will stand the Winter, and we had them at Christmas.

Cheers.
I just 'fingered'* the compost around my biggest parsnip It had great big foliage*, but sod all parsnip under the ground. I'll give them all another two months, minimum. The man on the internet says that they might start to bulge up above ground. My onions have the same issue. I think they have bolted. Very little by way of onion bulb.
Sod it. I'll just eat the green bits

*(Ooh Err Missus)

Parsnips: no sooner than end of October.

[WomanOfTheWoods]

I keep a sowing, planting and harvesting calendar then add on an extra week to 10 days for being Up North. With seeds I count the number of days from germination to harvest.
With everything else,,, the number of days in the ground.
I'm always tempted to harvest some crops early. I just can't resist pulling up some early tatties. Then have a boiling with lashings of butter and parsley. Yummy. xxx