Growing your own veg

Hard looking ground but soil looks good, (y) I'll be interested to see how the Pink Fir Apple does.

They're not supposed to yield very well, but meant to taste good, think I only planted 4 or 5 of those, we'll see how they go. Next year I'm going to get sample packs of a few different varieties. Yeah the soil is good, there was spuds sowed there donkeys years ago and a stand of bracken growing in it since. I cleared all the roots out a few years back but left it idle then and nettles colonised the patch. One side I cleared out most of the nettle roots and the top of the sod which I will compost hopefully. The other side I just shook the earth off and put the top of the sod aside, want to see what'll happen with different ways of doing things. You can see the diagonal break in the middle, protruding bedrock! So there's only just a few inches of soil really. It's also very very dry at the moment, no rain of note in a long time and none forecast this week. If I threw silica gel pouches on there I'd be adding moisture :LOL:
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Sounds like hard work, hope you get a suitable reward.

It's been pretty dry here for a while as well, which has been handy for working on the drains. Treated myself to a new 25m hose on a reel which I've secured to the house wall. Check the moisture every second evening at the moment. Most plants are holding the moisture OK but the little cherry tree and the lavender seem to be using a lot:scratchhead:
 
Sounds like hard work, hope you get a suitable reward.

It's been pretty dry here for a while as well, which has been handy for working on the drains. Treated myself to a new 25m hose on a reel which I've secured to the house wall. Check the moisture every second evening at the moment. Most plants are holding the moisture OK but the little cherry tree and the lavender seem to be using a lot:scratchhead:

Would mulching around the tree help?
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Probably, I've just topped the tub up with compost so maybe that'll help. Been very hot through the day the last couple of days, Swamp was up at 31c yesterday. Not much by Old Mac's standards but tropical for us.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Thanks to those who mentioned germinating seeds on blotting paper/paper towel. I decided to give give it a go with some runner beans and courgettes
19 from 20 runner beans have germinated(y)
16 from 17 courgettes have germinated(y)

All the germinated seeds are now in pots, not sure what I'm going to do with them all as I'd have been happy with 6 runner beans and a couple of courgettes:LOL: Hoping to get the first raised bed built over the weekend so I suppose some of the beans can go in that in a week or so
 
Probably, I've just topped the tub up with compost so maybe that'll help. Been very hot through the day the last couple of days, Swamp was up at 31c yesterday. Not much by Old Mac's standards but tropical for us.

Not wanting to doubt your eyesight or the accuracy of your thermometer, but 31 is excessively high for Mayday and nowhere reported high temperatures so far as I can discover.

26.7º yesterday is our max for the year, and we are running higher than most, if not all, past years. I have not done an analysis, but estimate from the running mean that we are slighlty above even the last 3 years.

I hope your thermometer is in a proper sort of situation - especially making sure that the sun never shines on it, and not influenced by anything else. Of course it could be a heat trap. Immediately below the west side of my house is always several degrees warmer than the open air temps so I do not record there.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Yeah I've been doubting it, it never gets the sun but is very sheltered and doesn't get much wind either which has been the cooling factor elsewhere. It has been hellish hot in the swamp this and I gave myself heat stroke around 3pm on Wednesday, hour in a tepid bath sorted the worst effects but I still felt iffy until the next morning but then I had shovelled the better part of 6ton of gravel into barrows and tipping it into the trenches.

I use 2 soil thermometers in semi permanent positions and will do the same when the beds are in as one side of the swamp is slightly more exposed, it'll be interesting to compare the readings over say a year.

I've got another min/max thermometer to put up near the gate which should give significantly lower temps. My main interest is in what's happening where I want to grow things rather than what's happening in the general area. Once I get the raised beds in that's area where the thermometers (in a louvred cabinet) and a rain gauge will go.

Latest Temps in the swamp have been

02/05
Air 31/6.9
Soil 11.5

03/05
Air 29.6/2.5
Soil 10

04/05
Air 32.8/4.9
Soil 10.5

05/05
Air 30./4.1
Soil 10

Drains are in and covered up so I can finally start making the raised beds. YAY!!
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Yeah I've been doubting it, it never gets the sun but is very sheltered and doesn't get much wind either which has been the cooling factor elsewhere. It has been hellish hot in the swamp this and I gave myself heat stroke around 3pm on Wednesday, hour in a tepid bath sorted the worst effects but I still felt iffy until the next morning but then I had shovelled the better part of 6ton of gravel into barrows and tipping it into the trenches.

I use 2 soil thermometers in semi permanent positions and will do the same when the beds are in as one side of the swamp is slightly more exposed, it'll be interesting to compare the readings over say a year.

I've got another min/max thermometer to put up near the gate which should give significantly lower temps. My main interest is in what's happening where I want to grow things rather than what's happening in the general area. Once I get the raised beds in that's area where the thermometers (in a louvred cabinet) and a rain gauge will go.

Latest Temps in the swamp have been

02/05
Air 31/6.9
Soil 11.5

03/05
Air 29.6/2.5
Soil 10

04/05
Air 32.8/4.9
Soil 10.5

05/05
Air 30./4.1
Soil 10

Drains are in and covered up so I can finally start making the raised beds. YAY!!

Maybe should have said before you shovelled the 6 ton of gravel but chopped off IBC containers make ideal deep beds.
 
It has been hellish hot in the swamp this and I gave myself heat stroke around 3pm on Wednesday, hour in a tepid bath so

Never happened to me in the UK, but it is not funny. Guinness, any other beer f not (not lager) or something with a heap of vitamins and minerals in it, plus a good feed of anything seemed to work with folks in Australia. It happens. Working away from the house (everybody carries heaps of water) delay in getting back and drinking plenty of water washes out all the water soluble vitamins. Plus the heat.

My main interest is in what's happening where I want to grow things rather than what's happening in the general area.

It sounds as if you have a really interesting micro climate there. I know you have a big ag experience so can apply your experience and knowledge to this, but you might possibly be able to grow things there that cannot be grown in the locality or wider area. Worth thinking about. I am trialling a few date palms. Medjools - the big fat juicy ones. The oldest is now 5 y.o. Might be worth spending a few bob and trying something like melons. Sweet potatoes? Only if you like them of course.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Finding an intact IBC (going free) in the first place will be the hard part the black I can improvise.

The heatstroke took me by surprise, stacking bales in a field in the middle of July is kind of expected, in my garden at the start of may is definitely not. I'll get some re-hydration salts in and keep a solution handy.

I've been asked twice no if I'm putting in a market garden, sorry folks not happening, the only thing I may be able to produce a surplus of is herbs and maybe strawbs if my towers work. Like the idea of growing sweet potatoes and having a go at melons appeals to my sense of pushing the boundaries and I'm always up for a challenge :D. I like sweet potatoes, Nell not so but then I'm not fussed about courgettes but I've got 17 to find homes for in a couple of weeks. If I can keep the early frosts off I reckon I should be able to some things off to a really early start.

Have you had any dates off your palms yet? The nearest I've got to a palm I've is a Cordyline (dance salsa) which will be part of the feature I plan to put at the front of the house along with a couple of alpines......oooh look at me going all decorative and artsy :wideyed::wtf:
 
spuds went in on Sunday - Pink Fir, Nicola and Charlotte - please dont ask me why Im growing so many salad - no idea what I am doing. Because I am so late in ordering I had Rudolph and Lady Balfour as Main. I plan to eat the salads over summer and store the main. I ordered far too many and gave some to the pigs to hide them from the boss. If I have too many salads then I can shift a few bags with the egg delivery so that wont be a problem. Managed to barrow the right tractor for the job and a plough that hasnt seen any work in 35 years!
18275253_1948853312018173_8792649146056352640_n.jpg
 

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