Growing your own veg

Interesting, there are a lot of other buds (some are starting to develop) but this one is a lot earlier. If the two later plants are as productive as this one looks to be I'm going to be pretty sick of courgettes by the end of the summer, the plan is to harvest them as they reach 4-5", going to be an interesting experiment anyway.

Expect a lot more male flowers before you see any females. You will know the females as soon as you compare them. Eat them at any stage from with the fresh flowers onwards. We re not keen on the flowers, but 2 to 4 inch courgettes are an extra vegetable. More fill belly than gourmet in my opinion, but better than say an eggplant.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Fortunately the folk moving in next door are very keen on stuffed courgette flowers so if I get overrun I'll offload some onto them :) as well as some of the herbs. Now I've got the 3 beds I had planned for this year built the next project is levelling an area a hen coop and run. In filling bed 3 I've also levelled enough ground to take the last of the garlic off the patio.

Hmm eggplants, maybe something to give a whirl next year ;):ROFLMAO:
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Quick rummage in the top 2 inches of a couple of the Express planters yielded this for the pot, the rest of the tubers can lie undisturbed and carry on growing:D cleanest spuds I've grown to date
 

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KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Sharpes Express and Lady Crystl went in 19th March. Have them simmering with some home grown mint, to go with the chicken in white wine with home grown Sage and Rosemary :hungry: veg is minted peas and carrots (bought unfortunately).

I do have some pea (Green shaft) and more leek (Jollant) seedlings to go in raised Bed 3 when I get it finished, will sow some Autumn King carrots in there as well.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
I had my 1st earlies in a wee bit quick as they were taking over the basement so panicked a bit they got nipped a bit by frost but came back just fine. Next year they'll be in a cooler area next and I won't fill the planter quite as full to start with but earth them up a bit any time frost is forecast. Nicola were the last of the earlies to be planted but I notice they seem to be ahead of the others and expect to see flowers any day now.

Argh how frustrating about your peas. It's the first time I'll have tried growing them, only giving them a go because I've made minted peas twice now using my own mint and they're delicious. Plenty of cats around the neighbourhood to take care of any rodents, I'll start them from seed next year so I have a wider choice of varieties rather than have to take what's on offer.
 

Jungle Bill

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Angus
Any photos? I do not understand your description of what you do. Ferguson's planter did the job in one go. Two people sat on the typical Fergie seat on the planter and dropped a potato down the spout whenever the bell rang. No ridging up needing to be done afterwards The potatoes went into the bottom of the ridge.

IMG_1497704498.519524.jpg


At Alyth show today, I knew I had seen this mentioned somewhere.
 
View attachment 536722

At Alyth show today, I knew I had seen this mentioned somewhere.

That is exactly what we had. Absolutely brilliant for planting a few acres. I had the tractor wheels set to be in the bottom of the drills. It is then possible to either cultivate out the weeds, and redrill, or spray and redrill, or hand hoe the weeds and redrill, or even just freshen up the drills. Usually (due to the Fergies narrow wheels) I would just spray and not bother to redrill, although I have done all tasks at various times.

I am no doubt biased, but irather equate Harry Ferguson with the people who built the pyramids. Their genius has not been improved upon.
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
Or...spread some muck, sprinkle seed tatties on it, then roll out some straw on top. View our test plot at Groundswell No-till day 29th June. This what it looked like yesterday. We didn't spray weeds off first, so far straw has suppressed all bar potatoes.
1497897018857.jpg
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
Or...spread some muck, sprinkle seed tatties on it, then roll out some straw on top. View our test plot at Groundswell No-till day 29th June. This what it looked like yesterday. We didn't spray weeds off first, so far straw has suppressed all bar potatoes.View attachment 537766

I've seen this done on a small scale before. It seems to work, but they don't yield as well as conventional spuds. How do yours compare? Or is a slightly lower yield worth it vs. the benefits to the soil and reduced labour / diesel?

Also - what soil type have you got? I saw someone do this v badly on a clay soil that also looked fairly compacted to me.

Thanks - this is really interesting.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Looks interesting, I suppose it depends on a lot of variables as I'm finding with 3rd year growing tatties in planters OK but still room for improvement "next year Rodney, next year";)
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Lifted my Early Purple and Elephant garlic and some of the Langor shallots today. Pretty pleased with the results but I'm finding what appear to be subsidiary bulbs either on the root or actually encased within the main bulb of the Elephant :scratchhead: Just wondering if I could store them and use them as seed for next season (planting for this variety is from September onwards)
 

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Netherfield

Member
Location
West Yorkshire
Lifted my Early Purple and Elephant garlic and some of the Langor shallots today. Pretty pleased with the results but I'm finding what appear to be subsidiary bulbs either on the root or actually encased within the main bulb of the Elephant :scratchhead: Just wondering if I could store them and use them as seed for next season (planting for this variety is from September onwards)

I remember this being asked of the late great Joe Maiden on gardening on Radio Leeds, he did not think it a good idea, you would get very mixed results and can carry virus as well.
 

Netherfield

Member
Location
West Yorkshire
Couldn't say for sure, when I've suffered it's always been in the late spuds, and into August/September, never seen it in first or second earlies.

Usually shows like a furry mould under the leaf.

I've looked through books I've got and can't see anything just like yours are showing.

You could try signing up to blightwatch.co.uk they send out warnings when blight is likely in your part of the country.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
bed1 lifted all of the early beetroot (Pablo) and will replace with winter cabbage or whatever, not decided yet. Very pleased with the beetroot, can't remember seeing them as big even in the shops. First planting of leeks (Jolant) are coming along nicely so will use as needed.
One row of beetroot was a bit shaded out by the courgettes, something top bear in mind next year but I'm thinking of growing the courgettes, which are overproducing just now, in tubs next year.

bed 2 Carrots need a second thinning culi looking good and are high enough to have raised the fleece clear of the ground. hopefully we're past the time of year for the secong flush of root fly.

bed3 All the peas are up through and climbing the netting. Parsnips and later carrots & beetroot are coming up nicely in had to lay some light net and set up a string with old CDs hung along it to keep the doves and sparrows off.
 

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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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