The Veg Garden 2015 - who is growing what this year

[manxie]

Hi Cruiser, and all
Our garden is about 100 foot by 50 foot out the back and the same at the front. Sadly very wet and needs some drainage doing.
We give most of the eggs to family, or use ourselves, so far I have sold the excess at £1 for 6 large brown eggs which is less than half the price they are in the local supermarket.
I have sold a few off basically to either cover the cost of their feed (layers pellets @£9.95 for 20kilo from the farmers combine here that lasts them about 10 days) I have no cockerel so they are usually very quiet and the neighbours either side have no objection.
I shan't be doing veg as such as it is cheaper to buy as needed but am doing herbs and salad veg etc using raised beds, and I have goosberries and raspberries and loganberries and rhubarb in very big tubs.
I also have cherry and plum trees in huge planters. I might try some cabbage in the ground, wet as it is to feed to the chickens as they love a hard cabbage to peck at, they have huge fun with one and when one bird pulls off a biggish leaf it will run off with it and three or four will chase after to steal it so entertaining for us to watch as well, they are quite good company when I talk to them they seem to interact with gentle clucking/warbling sounds and are so gentle when I have handled them occasionally.
The front garden is 1/3rd drive and 2/3rds lawn, with an overgrown hedge/jungle about 10 foot deep, and only gets sun first thing then at the evening the back gets sun all day till about 7 at present, so hope to clear all the brambles (big) and sycamores (small) from the boundary hedge and have so far 2 rhodedendrons to go in there to provide some all year green and lovely flowers in spring/summer.
we only got the keys for here dec the 8th and moved in New years eve so the 6' christmas tree with roots went in the center of the lawn on the hedge side and put electric on the outside wall of the house so we can decorate it with lights each year hopefully it will grow nicely.
I have the feeling that if the drainage isn't successful I shallbe paving most of the remaining back garden and possibly half of the front as that is just as wet I am lower than the street behind me and their gardens drain into mine unfortunately.

Manxie xx

[cruiser2]

Manxie,
Thank you for your reply.
When I was young we had a big garden. My father used to grow vegatables during the war and my other kept hens. She sold most of them.

[Kaz]

My summer garden was a failure, my tomatoes didn't grow above knee height, and the suppose to be big fat tomatoes in reality were smaller than cherry tonatoes. They were watered regularly, and I had straw around them to keep the soil damp. Any ideas?

Did you feed them regularly? Toms need food as well as lots of water

[Weka]

My summer garden was a failure, my tomatoes didn't grow above knee height, and the suppose to be big fat tomatoes in reality were smaller than cherry tonatoes. They were watered regularly, and I had straw around them to keep the soil damp. Any ideas?

Did you feed them regularly? Toms need food as well as lots of water

Food? What's this food you talk of?
Actually, I had the chicken coop on that part of the garden 12 months ago, so I had assumed that would be enough, but perhaps that was the problem? Too much something and not enough of something else?

[debih]

I bought some bits to go in the polytunnel yesterday.

Three Moneymaker tomato plants, two cucumbers, some tumbling tomatoes that I'm going to put in hanging baskets and three strawberry plants that have gone in a grow bag on the work bench.

I also bought some cabbage, cauliflower and kale plants to go in the allotment. I'm sick of seeing it bare so am going for instant gratification!

[Kaz]

Could be Weka They sell tomato food in all the garden centres here

I love kale Debih

[manxie]

An old market gardener once told me that the best "food" for tomatoes was ,,,,,,,,,,, sorry,,,,,,,,, sheep shit in a big barrel and stir it often and apply it liberally every day to your tomatoes and never ever let them dry out at all.

Manxie xx

[Diflower]

In the absence of very local sheep I've always relied on Tomorite

[manxie]

OH DEAR Di, surely you can further go afield and find the aforesaid animals and collect their wonderful free bounty? It likely wouldn't take you long to pick a bucket full off the ground, ( no marigolds allowed) and if you were observant you could watch for them depositing and gather it while it is still warm and soft and moist, I am certain your tomatoes would love you for your efforts.

Manxie xx

Ps please wash your hands before cooking tea after harvesting your tomato gold. hehehe

[meriad]

eeew - sheep poo in a barrel; can't even begin to imagine what that must smell like. My dad used to collect nettles and have them soaking away in a barrel to be used as fertilizer and pest control and that stench was horrid enough. Just the memory is enough to make a person gag


Well yesterday I got the first of the veg in
3x chilli
3x tomatoe
1x cucumber
4x corn
1x red pepper (the long thin one)

Bought but not potted on (because I'm not sure best way to do this)
Beans (lots of them!) but not sure if it's best to plant out in a row into the ground and make some form of trellis or in pots with wigwam canes? Any suggestions?

I still have a few pots to plant up with herbs and want to get some beetroot.