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Growing Your Own: What did you grow / raise / harvest?


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Went to a bbq at the weekend that was held by the allotment association where my younger son has a plot. Anyway, we've put our names down for one - my older son and his partner want chickens but I'm trying to talk them out of that as it will mean DAILY visits. Apparently one of the plot holders works at an intensive egg laying company and tries to save as many as he can of the birds that have stopped/not laying enough. Seems with a more relaxed life, they start laying again. 

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1 hour ago, Tanwen said:

Went to a bbq at the weekend that was held by the allotment association where my younger son has a plot. Anyway, we've put our names down for one - my older son and his partner want chickens but I'm trying to talk them out of that as it will mean DAILY visits. Apparently one of the plot holders works at an intensive egg laying company and tries to save as many as he can of the birds that have stopped/not laying enough. Seems with a more relaxed life, they start laying again. 

I hope they didn't serve barbequed chicken:o!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Tonight I processed another batch of stewed tomatoes.  This batch was heavy on the peppers , onions, and garlic.  I love being able to put the produce from my garden into the freezer, which can be available for the next couple of years .  The greenhouse harvest is winding down... there are only a couple of servings of beets, carrots and broccoli left.  Lots of chard, parsnips and lettuce and onions still growing.  They could grow into November.  There is also a tomato plant stashed in the pump house where it is protected from freezing...we'll see how long that can last.  Tomorrow I will make a  chili form some of these delicious stewed tomatoes.  

I misidentified some banana squash and harvested them prematurely, thinking they were summer squash instead,  oh well maybe I will learn from that mistake for next year...

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On ‎10‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 3:23 AM, flagsforhippos said:

Who's planting what this autumn?

 

I'm thinking elephant garlic, tips anyone?

If you look back to the first page of this thread, we had a garlic discussion on April 17.

Also some interesting ideas from @autumnsunrise regarding fall planting in Australia. 

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flagsforhippos

Thanks @Muledeer I don't know if the usual methods are applicable for elephant garlic as it's technically a leek but I've been told it's very hardy stuff so it's got half a chance even with my rather haphazard approach to gardening. I think I'm just going to have to go for it, get it in the ground well before the first frost and keep my fingers crossed.

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The house we bought a year ago came with a bunch of mature fruiting trees, some blueberry bushes, and a mature grapevine that I personally think is too choked up with invasive vine weeds to save. We lost a couple of the blueberry bushes this year and a couple of the apple trees seem sickly. All the fruit trees look like they have never been pruned even once, and one has a real nasty case of black fungus that’ll probably require us to cut it down. We are interested in getting our plants to harvest quality, but none of us have a lot of energy or expertise for the job. I like the idea of hiring someone to help us get started, but there’s so much that’s a higher priority to put our money into first. :/ It feels like a terrible waste.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today I planted all the fall garlic and harvested the remaining beets and green tomatoes (from a plant I moved into a shed last month.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

The garden season has officially ended this year for me.  Last weekend, I took down all the remaining veggies in the greenhouse.   I have a dedicated veggie fridge in my garage holding the last of the season's produce: lettuce, chard, beets, carrots, squash, and parsnips.  I also have garlic, onions, and banana squash that should last well into the winter.  Speaking of parsnips, does anybody know how to cook them other than steamed, or boiled and mashed with butter?  

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@Muledeer, you can roast them, put them in stews, curries, soups etc. 

I must admit I've never tried boiling and mashing them, I'll have to try that :)

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J. van Deijck

I do not have a garden anymore. and I must admit it makes me sad.

 

when I was a kid and a teenager, we used to have our own garden where we used to have our own vegetables (mostly carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflowers, cucumbers etc. etc.) and fruits (apples, cherries, sweet cherries, plums, pears, strawberries, raspberries, redcurrant and blackcurrant, we also tried - successfully - to have wild strawberries and blueberries). besides that, we used to pick berries in the forest. we also had chickens, which meant fresh eggs every day. <3

I don't have anything of this anymore and I must say I miss it, nothing was better and more tasty than things from our own gardens.

 

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A shard of glass

I'm currently growing jalapeños in my bedroom :3 with plans to also grow spinach too! I was also thinking of growing edible mushrooms (White closed cup kind) but it's rather pointless since they're dirt cheap anyway... might grow and harvest rocket instead :D

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flagsforhippos
7 hours ago, Muledeer said:

 Speaking of parsnips, does anybody know how to cook them other than steamed, or boiled and mashed with butter?  

If you ever make boxties try grating your parsnips and adding them to the potato mix. Yum 

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10 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

@Muledeer, you can roast them, put them in stews, curries, soups etc. 

I must admit I've never tried boiling and mashing them, I'll have to try that :)

Reminds me of "taters"

 

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Went through the garden for the last time today- it is finally going to be seasonable and cold here. The last of the butternut and pumpkins came in, the drying beans are all harvested and drying, the chickens got a couple of unripe squashes, as did the horses. (they seemed to want to try them- I think more as toys than anything else!). I also found a few onions that I thought had been lost, and a few jalapenos hanging on to frostbit plants. I should ideally get the bucket on the tractor and dump some more horse mud/manure on the plot for the winter, but I don't know if I will get that done. It has been so wet here that it may just freeze solid before I can scrape up the paddock.

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  • 3 months later...

I just got another couple of containers of last years raspberries out of the freezer. I didn't make jam this year.  There were a few warm days and I got the fruit trees pruned but it has turned cold again and my hands don't work very well in the cold anymore. Does anybody have luck growing spinach or lettuce indoors? This time of year I crave green stuff.

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On 11/3/2017 at 8:30 AM, Muledeer said:

The garden season has officially ended this year for me.  Last weekend, I took down all the remaining veggies in the greenhouse.   I have a dedicated veggie fridge in my garage holding the last of the season's produce: lettuce, chard, beets, carrots, squash, and parsnips.  I also have garlic, onions, and banana squash that should last well into the winter.  Speaking of parsnips, does anybody know how to cook them other than steamed, or boiled and mashed with butter?  

If you have any left and they haven't gotten woody try slicing them thin and cooking them in butter. They kind of caramelize.

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11 minutes ago, froglady said:

I just got another couple of containers of last years raspberries out of the freezer. I didn't make jam this year.  There were a few warm days and I got the fruit trees pruned but it has turned cold again and my hands don't work very well in the cold anymore. Does anybody have luck growing spinach or lettuce indoors? This time of year I crave green stuff.

I suggest you contact @faraday☘ regarding indoor gardening.  And, thanks for the tip on parsnips,  I still have a few roots that need to be eaten,,,,,,

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  • 3 weeks later...

The season has started, but only in a small way. I've just put some potatoes in planter pots. Just a few so if the weather turns bad again all I'll lose is a couple of seed potatoes, no major loss 

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I bought a few kindergarden plants today - all flowering not veg.  I like raising some plants for containers in this way, as it's more fun potting them on and watching them grow, and quite a bit cheaper too.  I also bought some lily bulbs including an ismene, but I have never had any luck getting one which actually flowers.

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Spider plants and Alvo vera

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dragon_nerd

Rosemary, spider plant (unfortunately they died :( ) and basil (still alive :lol:

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On 2/20/2018 at 8:05 PM, froglady said:

If you have any left and they haven't gotten woody try slicing them thin and cooking them in butter. They kind of caramelize.

I tried cooking my leftover steamed parsnips like fried potatoes, using bacon fat or butter.  I ate them with breakfast along with fried potatoes made from leftover bakers.  Absolutely delicious!  Fried parsnips, bacon and eggs.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Oh, it's been lovely catching up on all this! Wish I could plant food crops , but the 'soil' where I live is 6 inches deep before becoming the builders' rubble from an old power station that used to be on this site. instead, it's got to be the ornamental stuff. 

However, at work, there has been a 'secret eater egg' thing going on and the person I've been assigned happens to be sitting at the next desk. Having watched her demolish punnet after punnet of Blueberries, it wasn't hard to choose the 'flowers' she asked for, especially as she has a new house with a garden and has a green thumb, so , planting vicariously through my colleague... 

@dragon_nerd, having tried to grow Basil quite a few times now, with no results at all, i eventually resorted to buying a six inch pot at the supermarket and keeping it going instead, but that doesn't really count!:lol:So, much appreciation for your Basil growing skills.

 

 

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I currently live in a small apartment that doesn't even have a patio, so unfortunately I don't have a way of growing my own plants. I do have a couple of succulents on my kitchen windowsill if that counts. xD

 

When I was a kid I did live in a house that had a plum tree and an orange tree in the backyard.

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SpaceDustbin

I have some strawberry plants on my balcony that have miraculously survived winter so far, so fingers crossed for them actually flowering this year - but the plants surviving this long is already a victory in its own :P

 

I also might start a little herb garden again, but then I have to be at home a bit more often than last year :lol:

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Isn't the biggest problem with Basil that it keeps going "Boom Boom" :P:P

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5 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

Isn't the biggest problem with Basil that it keeps going "Boom Boom" :P:P

Only if it's Fawlty?

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