The Veg Plot.

[redtrummy]

I sent this message to the family yesterday, I was a little tipsy from the beer and wine.


The Joy of Living = A couple of home-brew pints before Sunday lunch, followed by a very drinkable home-made Damson wine. Dinner consisted of: fresh spuds, fresh cabbage, fresh broad beans, fresh kale and red currant jelly, ALL home grown, accompanied by a leg of lamb, mint and onion sauces plus parsnips and carrots. Desert, was a deep apple, redcurrant and josta berry pie (all fruit home grown), it does not get better than this!

Oh the joy of living !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sseyUtOvetA



Struggle with carrots, but I keep trying - never use peat products and home-made compost seems just as good as any shop resourced stuff, just difficult to make sufficient

[shiftin_gear98]

Strawberries, are about the only thing my garden is producing so far this year. But it's been a bumper crop.

[redtrummy]

After a week away lost a new row of peas - no sign of a row of beetroot and a row of carrots recently set. Plus most of the tops of my Chillies have been scorched, burning off the flowers, and that was before it got really hot!

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

After a week away lost a new row of peas - no sign of a row of beetroot and a row of carrots recently set. Plus most of the tops of my Chillies have been scorched, burning off the flowers, and that was before it got really hot!

That’s not good. Chillies should recover, and there’s time to sow more carrots and beetroot as successional sowings. You should get away with a late sowing of peas too I’d guess.

[redtrummy]

This was my late sowing of peas! Have got a few beetroot plants ready to set out and I always seem to struggle with carrots, but yes hopefully the Chillies will produce something. Interestingly I managed to get one Dorset Naga plant to grow out of five seeds, supposedly one of the hottest possible which are more difficult to germinate and that suffered no damage at all

[garynortheast]

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62206677

Interesting article but the problem seems to be that the people operating a system which relies on profits as its motivation, do not want people showing genuine self reliance.

Houses no longer have gardens large enough to grow any meaningful quantity of food (unless the owner has enough money to buy a house with a decent sized garden). Most social housing built in the last 30 years certainly don't have proper sized gardens.

So many people now don't know how to grow food for themselves any more, even if they do have a garden, as many of them were never taught this skill through school.

Many allotments have been sold off as building plots, often for houses with no proper garden (oh, the irony of that one!), and there are long waiting lists for allotments. Allotment growing has to a large degree (but not entirely) also become a middle class activity, as, very often this is the section of society with the knowledge and curiosity needed to learn about growing their own food. A good many of the remaining working class allotment holders (again, not all) are of an older generation, from an era when many working class folks grew a lot of their own food.

The council house we moved into when I was in my teens in the 60s, like all the council houses on our estate had a good sized garden, and my parents grew a certain amount of veg.

Someone (I forget who) remarked that one of the biggest acts of rebellion a person can commit is to grow their own food. Sounds ridiculous? Not really when you consider the implications. By doing this we are reducing our reliance on controlling and bloated industrial food corporations, along with all the health issues of such an industry, with it's overuse of chemicals and antibiotics, and with the huge obesity problems linked to poor diets in westernised society.

[redtrummy]

Good read. Up until I was 16 I was brought up in a council house then my Dad built were we live now, with its large garden. Its big enough to build on, but once its gone its gone and when Covid hit it became a mental life saver for me. I accept and am thankful for Dads incredible energy. I did Rural Science at school but Mrs Brabin- Smith would be appalled at the way I go about the gardening

[redtrummy]

Started cutting my hedges yesterday - unable to do them before the bird nesting season due to Covid and then a bad back, now luckily 90% better thanks to ytube exercises - today I am kn------. Think its going to be a long job

[garynortheast]

First cucumber from the greenhouse today. Very tasty!

[redtrummy]

They are sweeter than shop bought that's for sure. Looking forward to trying the black cherry tomatoes that are nearly ripe. I gave several plants away and somehow ended up with one! Cumbers have been steady but toms are being a little slow ripening and plants not done too well, There is always next year.
The super hot weather damaged quite a few plants in the garden mainly the french and runner beans.