172 replies to this topic

[PersianPaladin]

peterf, on 29 May 2008, 07:55 AM, said:

no such thing as little effort PP.
THATS JUST A PLOY TO SELL THE BOOK TO LAZY BUGGERS

Heh...its not a ploy.

The method of using mulching really did save a lot of effort for people like the author who have phyiscal problems.

[laserguy]

peterf, on 29 May 2008, 08:15 AM, said:

hi LG,
ive grown chillis for a lot of years now and your right about the Naga .
regarding flower drop try increasing your humidity as it sounds like dry set to me.also monitor night time temps as cold nights have the same effect,i keep my plants on the dry side in a soil based compost and only ever water them by flooding the bench once or twice a week depending on conditions.
try this website out http://www.thechileman.org/
mark hails from darlington and is an expert on our beloved chillis.peter

Thanks for that,Peter. Had a quick peek at that link and added it to my favourites,think it'll keep me amused for ages and be much consulted. Here's another question for you Jethro,or anyone else who's able to help. Hopefully we'll be moving house in the nearish future. In the bathroom we have an old Monsterosa plant which is huge and has spread across two walls and part of the ceiling (held aloft by various Heath Robinson bracketry). It's part of the family and will of course be coming with us,but how do we get it out without causing undue stress and damage?! Will it stand pruning (and if so where and how is the best point to perform surgery?) to the point where it will be possible to manouvre it out,and will it recover ok?

[johnholmes]

jethro, on 29 May 2008, 01:02 PM, said:

You're welcome. They're easy once they get going, just picky for germination.
Useless snippet of the day: all those WW11 Poppy fields were caused by bomb blasts bringing old Poppy seeds to the surface, a bit of light and they all sprang into life; the irony of life eh, so much life lost led to so much new plant life.

yes I have to say I love poppies, short period of flowering but just chop them down once they have flowered and most flower again, then they are there next year and so on.

on another tack Jethro?
How godd as a perennial are perennial wallflowers? I am looking to make my garden, for my advancing years(!), as effort free as possible. The more things I can get to reappear every year the better?

[I can't believe it's not better]

Hi Jethro, I hope you don't mind if I post this link to a short (3 mins) video about the Teifi Community Forest Garden Project, near the Teifi estuary. It's organised by Naturewise, a permaculture group. If anyone in the area is interested, have a look. TCFGP Cardigan.

[jethro]

Sorry Laser, can't or rather wouldn't dare answer that question; house plants and me don't mix, I've got at least a 50% record of killing everyone I've ever had.

John: Perennial Wall flowers have a tendency to go leggy and woody, within 3-5 years they end up with growth at the top and not much else. The trick is, like Lavender, they need pruning back as soon as they have finished flowering, that way they'll shoot out from the bottom again and stay bushy. They smell heavenly too. Also, if they do start going leggy, they're simplicity itself to take cuttings, readily rooting in a gritty compost.

I can't believe it's not, on 29 May 2008, 08:42 PM, said:

Hi Jethro, I hope you don't mind if I post this link to a short (3 mins) video about the Teifi Community Forest Garden Project, near the Teifi estuary. It's organised by Naturewise, a permaculture group. If anyone in the area is interested, have a look. TCFGP Cardigan.

Of course I don't mind, more the merrier.

Watched it, looks interesting, I love it when people from all walks of life come together to do something positive, kind of restores your faith in humanity. If every community could be persuaded to do something similar to this, wouldn't the world be a nicer place to live in. Can't place his accent, Icelandic??

[I can't believe it's not better]

Yeah Jethro. Humanity. Accent is part Islington, part Cardigan and part somewhere 'I'm having a mental block' Europe!

I've been meaning to start a thread about using urine as a fertiliser. I do it all the time I have a good little book somewhere that I can't find called 'Liquid Gold'. It's all in there and it's partly the way forward. In UK society it seems we'd rather not think about no.1's and no.2's. Just flush it/them down the loo (more electric required at the sewage works) - all that nutrient! Nitrogen loving plants love wee wee. (#1's is high in nitrogen - eg. sweet corn, green leafy plants). Disclaimer: But beg, steal, borrow this book before starting that sort of thing folks - don't just start pooing and winkling in the lettuce patch, 'cos it's not that straightforward .

The water that flushes the toilet doesn't just get there without effort. It uses a whole number of electricity consuming processes to make it absolutly fit to drink and then needs pushing along miles of pipe (friction) and up to the altitude of your house (Potential energy =Mass x 9.8 x Height). Shame to just flush it all away after every single #1.

Corn on the cob anyone?

[johnholmes]

thanks J I'll remember that, certainly with lavender, be brutal is my maxim, and it does seem to work

[peterf]

PersianPaladin, on 29 May 2008, 01:29 PM, said:

Heh...its not a ploy.

The method of using mulching really did save a lot of effort for people like the author who have phyiscal problems.

PP nearly all books are aimed at a certain market,and as for little effort there is no such thing..iv'e worked with disabled people at FINCHALE COLLEGE DURHAM.
and i think if i was to suggest that they needed little effort would have greatly upset some of them whilst sitting their NVQ LEVEL 3S.
LIFE IS WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT.
YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN.PETER

GARDENING IN THE BLOOD HERE,HERE'S THE YOUNGESTS EFFORT 2 YEAR AGO
http://video.google....I...h=&start=10

GIANT PUMPKIN2

Edited by peterf, 29 May 2008 - 23:55 .

[PersianPaladin]

peterf, on 30 May 2008, 12:53 AM, said:

PP nearly all books are aimed at a certain market,and as for little effort there is no such thing..iv'e worked with disabled people at FINCHALE COLLEGE DURHAM.
and i think if i was to suggest that they needed little effort would have greatly upset some of them whilst sitting their NVQ LEVEL 3S.
LIFE IS WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT.
YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN.PETER

GARDENING IN THE BLOOD HERE,HERE'S THE YOUNGESTS EFFORT 2 YEAR AGO
http://video.google....I...h=&start=10

GIANT PUMPKIN2

Read the book first before criticising.

[J07]

Stephen Prudence, on 29 May 2008, 12:38 PM, said:

Lemons can be awkward because like the sunny weather and dry weather like you say but it is possible to grow them but they may never ripen and may be much more bitter. In a good summer here like 2003, lemons will ripen though unfortunately I wasnt growing any in 2003. Growing lemons is much more of an interest in growing borderline species than growing fruit but the idea of sustainable fruit source is exciting to me, and the great thing is that they can be seeded when they fruit! I grow mine in a small pot and its doing fine, but like Bougainvilleas its one of those Mediterranean plants that prefers to be outside rather than inside. Before I put the lemon outside it defoliated completely, but now outside its grown back its foliage, which makes think they would not actually mind +5C as long as they have good air circulation (and no frost of course)!

Lemons are domestic to me though, I want to grow Archontophoenix palms, Syagrus palms, you name it, Guavas, Pineapples which I don't think would necessarily die in this climate if given ample protection outside in winter.

I think Lemons don't mind frost all that much. At least, they can handle ground frost, not sure about air frost. However, given your location I would imagine that neither is all that common.

I had never heard of http://en.wikipedia....Archontophoenix before you mentioned it.
I also never knew there were quite so many hardy palms in the world.

True that pineapples can survive, but they won't fruit. Though you can get "red pineapples" now, which is some sort of infertile variety that is grown commercially in Northland.

A plant which would do well for you is the Pineapple Guava (Feijoa). It's the Southern Hemisphere season for them (just coming to an end) so they may pop up in small quantities at specialist food stores. It's from the South American highlands and would do fine in the UK I think. Lovely looking tree also.

[peterf]

PersianPaladin, on 30 May 2008, 03:27 AM, said:

Read the book first before criticising.

LIGHTEN UP PP,you must have missed the smiley at the end of my post
have you read it ?, if so a small review would be great.

Edited by peterf, 30 May 2008 - 07:12 .

[peterf]

well some more welcome rain overnight,the ground is finally ready for planting out.
carrots,turnips,sweet peas and runner beans going in today.i was talking to my mate (local nurseryman) yesterday and he was really worried about the cost of gas and electricity.hes had to increase prices by 20% and is feeling the pinch now.
i suppose the big chains can handle the increase in production costs,but i fear a lot of the small family run buisness are heading for disaster

[jethro]

We had a little more rain than was welcome, down here in Somerset.... it's been a very wet Spring around these parts but the Sun's out today at least. I got drenched on Tuesday planting out Runner Beans, Dwarf French and Broad Beans, discovered my well worn water-proofs aren't, any more.

I share you friends concerns about rising energy costs, nurseries work to tight margins already, it doesn't take a great deal to tip them over the edge. Factoring in all the variables like transporting compost, production costs of that too as commercial compost isn't produced via a huge compost heap, it uses massive amounts of heat to speed the process. Energy costs to produce fertiliser and pesticides. Transportation costs to get it out to the consumer, vast energy costs in hot-house production to supply us with out of season produce; the list goes on and on. There's only so much cost which can be absorbed by the supermarkets before they have to pass it on to the consumer, and I can't see any charitable actions coming our way.

I've got many friends who've struggled to get on the housing ladder, mortgaged up to the hilt, often 5 or 6 times their salary; with interest rates going up, fuel prices going up, gas and electric going up and now food costs likely to rocket too. The times of everyone having a veg patch at the end of the garden may make a comeback out of necessity.

[peterf]

jethro, on 30 May 2008, 10:16 AM, said:

We had a little more rain than was welcome, down here in Somerset.... it's been a very wet Spring around these parts but the Sun's out today at least. I got drenched on Tuesday planting out Runner Beans, Dwarf French and Broad Beans, discovered my well worn water-proofs aren't, any more.

I share you friends concerns about rising energy costs, nurseries work to tight margins already, it doesn't take a great deal to tip them over the edge. Factoring in all the variables like transporting compost, production costs of that too as commercial compost isn't produced via a huge compost heap, it uses massive amounts of heat to speed the process. Energy costs to produce fertiliser and pesticides. Transportation costs to get it out to the consumer, vast energy costs in hot-house production to supply us with out of season produce; the list goes on and on. There's only so much cost which can be absorbed by the supermarkets before they have to pass it on to the consumer, and I can't see any charitable actions coming our way.

I've got many friends who've struggled to get on the housing ladder, mortgaged up to the hilt, often 5 or 6 times their salary; with interest rates going up, fuel prices going up, gas and electric going up and now food costs likely to rocket too. The times of everyone having a veg patch at the end of the garden may make a comeback out of necessity.

your not wrong there Jethro,lets all dig for victory against the greedy corporations

[J07]

Remember to pee around your cabbages, that should keep fertiliser costs marginally down.
And seaweed is always free

[peterf]

J07, on 30 May 2008, 12:47 PM, said:

Remember to pee around your cabbages, that should keep fertiliser costs marginally down.
And seaweed is always free

pee on the ones you dont want,give them to people you dont care much for

[Azores Hi]

peterf, on 30 May 2008, 09:41 AM, said:

well some more welcome rain overnight,the ground is finally ready for planting out.
carrots,turnips,sweet peas and runner beans going in today.i was talking to my mate (local nurseryman) yesterday and he was really worried about the cost of gas and electricity.hes had to increase prices by 20% and is feeling the pinch now.
i suppose the big chains can handle the increase in production costs,but i fear a lot of the small family run buisness are heading for disaster

Ah but neccessity is the mother of invention they say! Sorry completely OT I know but alot of my customers are now relying on alternative sources of heat, one I know uses waste heat and CO2 from a factory power plant to heat a vast greenhouse to produce tomatoes, plus another has a digester which produces methane from waste vegetable matter. The methane he burns in a combined heat and power plant, the electricity produced he sells back the the national grid and the heat and CO2 is used in his glasshouse.
Another I know uses a giant wood burner to heat her greenhouses.
All very clever stuff, the point being that if the times are changing then growers must change with them. But unfortnately your are correct, alot of the smaller growers are struggling, luckily this year, produce prices are high enough that most will get through this year at least.
Anyway. Back on topic, this is a great thread and I hope it continues, I have got my veg in but my plot is very small, just signed up for an allotment and there are 15 people in the q ahead of me
Growing your own veg seems to be more popular than ever!

[Filski]

Hi folks, nice to see a 'grow yer own' thread. Reducing your own costs but also reduces vege-miles and your own carbon footprint too (let's leave that discussion for the appropriate forum).

I'm in Greenwich, up in the sky on the 7th floor of a new apartment complex. No yard, not even a nature strip. Nothing but a 3m x 1.2m balcony that faces west, is a place for our bikes, a chair or 2 during summer. And lots of pots. Well... 2 rectangular ones about 20cm x 30cm x 80cm and a couple of others.

I'm only posting to show that everbody can grow your own, no matter how small or how difficult you think it may be. It's really very easy! We've had strawberries for the last 4 years (bought at Chelsea Flower Show) and only repotted once. We almost never water them, never bring them inside and we look to have another bumper crop this year. After they finish we'll divide them into 2 pots now that they're getting too big.

Variety doesn't suffer either. Last summer we had more lettuce growing than we could eat, same goes for cherry tomatoes and carrots. We tried chillies but failed on those. This year we'll grow much the same crop and maybe try potatoes and a few others.

There's nothing like making a salad for friends and asking them to pick their own lettuce.

[grab my graupel]

Well I have got the available garden space, and I'm ready to get started with this
Veg growing thing; my problem is, I'm not sure about the timing etc.
Is there anything that I could be getting started with at this time of year, or anything I could
be sowing now, and if so, what do people recommend as an easy low maintenance
veg to begin with.

[peterf]

grab my graupels, on 30 May 2008, 08:44 PM, said:

Well I have got the available garden space, and I'm ready to get started with this
Veg growing thing; my problem is, I'm not sure about the timing etc.
Is there anything that I could be getting started with at this time of year, or anything I could
be sowing now, and if so, what do people recommend as an easy low maintenance
veg to begin with.

brian you still have time for most veg,my seed tatties only went in 10 days ago which is very late for me.
here's a couple of links to very good forums which have packs of advice for growers.
http://www.chat.allo...bd0018982ccc2ed


http://www.kitchenga...forum/index.php

Filski, on 30 May 2008, 08:35 PM, said:

Hi folks, nice to see a 'grow yer own' thread. Reducing your own costs but also reduces vege-miles and your own carbon footprint too (let's leave that discussion for the appropriate forum).

I'm in Greenwich, up in the sky on the 7th floor of a new apartment complex. No yard, not even a nature strip. Nothing but a 3m x 1.2m balcony that faces west, is a place for our bikes, a chair or 2 during summer. And lots of pots. Well... 2 rectangular ones about 20cm x 30cm x 80cm and a couple of others.

I'm only posting to show that everbody can grow your own, no matter how small or how difficult you think it may be. It's really very easy! We've had strawberries for the last 4 years (bought at Chelsea Flower Show) and only repotted once. We almost never water them, never bring them inside and we look to have another bumper crop this year. After they finish we'll divide them into 2 pots now that they're getting too big.

Variety doesn't suffer either. Last summer we had more lettuce growing than we could eat, same goes for cherry tomatoes and carrots. We tried chillies but failed on those. This year we'll grow much the same crop and maybe try potatoes and a few others.

There's nothing like making a salad for friends and asking them to pick their own lettuce.

brilliant Filski just goes to show you dont need large areas of land,i think we will have more like your good self joining the band the way prices are going.
that can only be a good thing aswell