Do you grow your own vegetables?

During lockdown I’ve bought a new place. To be precise sold just before and bought just after lockdown.

The new place was owned by a keen grow-your-own couple and has several very large vegetable areas and others growing fruit. Also a large greenhouse and a potting shed. I’m now looking at it in blinky-eyed bewilderment.

What are your experiences, advices and top tips for growing your own?

@divegeester said
During lockdown I’ve bought a new place. To be precise sold just before and bought just after lockdown.

The new place was owned by a keen grow-your-own couple and has several very large vegetable areas and others growing fruit. Also a large greenhouse and a potting shed. I’m now looking at it in blinky-eyed bewilderment.

What are your experiences, advices and top tips for growing your own?

Well we grow some vegetables.

There are Things which more or less just grow (for us zucchini is an example) and plants that Need a bit of care (Tomatoes e.g.) A lot depnds on yur local conditions and what you like. In our parts for example radish is not a good fruit since we have those pesky larvae which feed on them...

@divegeester said
During lockdown I’ve bought a new place. To be precise sold just before and bought just after lockdown.

The new place was owned by a keen grow-your-own couple and has several very large vegetable areas and others growing fruit. Also a large greenhouse and a potting shed. I’m now looking at it in blinky-eyed bewilderment.

What are your experiences, advices and top tips for growing your own?

nip to the greengrocers

@divegeester said
During lockdown I’ve bought a new place. To be precise sold just before and bought just after lockdown.

The new place was owned by a keen grow-your-own couple and has several very large vegetable areas and others growing fruit. Also a large greenhouse and a potting shed. I’m now looking at it in blinky-eyed bewilderment.

What are your experiences, advices and top tips for growing your own?

No, but respect to people who do. Amazing how long people wait who apply for allotments

Be willing to buy and use a BB Gun. Rabbits hate the taste of copper.

If you're adverse to the flavor of pesticides, learn to enjoy the thought of eating microscopic beetle and weevil eggs. It's just added protein after all. 🙂

@wolfe63 said
Be willing to buy and use a BB Gun. Rabbits hate the taste of copper.

Just use a .22 and you have meal to boot!

-VR

@divegeester said
During lockdown I’ve bought a new place. To be precise sold just before and bought just after lockdown.

The new place was owned by a keen grow-your-own couple and has several very large vegetable areas and others growing fruit. Also a large greenhouse and a potting shed. I’m now looking at it in blinky-eyed bewilderment.

What are your experiences, advices and top tips for growing your own?

How did I ever miss this thread? 😲 I am so envious as I would love a big flat garden.

I’ve been working on a plot of land, next to my neighbour’s property, since retirement 3 years ago. It slopes from north down to south and west down to east so is a really hard work with slow progress. However, Covid 19 and lockdown has been the reason for what I consider a great development there this year 😄

@divegeester said
During lockdown I’ve bought a new place. To be precise sold just before and bought just after lockdown.

The new place was owned by a keen grow-your-own couple and has several very large vegetable areas and others growing fruit. Also a large greenhouse and a potting shed. I’m now looking at it in blinky-eyed bewilderment.

What are your experiences, advices and top tips for growing your own?

Well done in buying your new abode. We had a large veg plot in our last but one house in England, and I recommend you give it a go if you have time. In the end we produced so much that we had to buy a chest freezer to keep it all in, but we never had to buy vegetables...There's no point really in giving specific advice, as it all depends what you like to eat, and there exists of course a wealth of literature and on - line advice.
Generally speaking, grow as much as you have time to look after, and as much as you enjoy growing, be prepared for some failures and losing stuff to pests etc. Trial and error is a big part of it, but otherwise it can be extremely rewarding. In the potato world (for example) there's nothing quite like digging up new potatoes, sticking them in a pan immediately and eating them with butter. Shop - bought potatoes will never taste the same again.
Good luck, and may the forces of nature be with you, dear chap.

@divegeester said

What are your experiences, advices and top tips for growing your own?

accurate testing of the soil for nutrient content and moisture
learn which fertilizers, and how much, are required for specific plants

it's a full time job
at first it will be overwhelming
when you taste the dirt tho, the sense of reward is exhilarating

Paprika seems to work at keeping, at least rabbits, at bay and only a little is needed.

@great-big-stees said
Paprika seems to work at keeping, at least rabbits, at bay and only a little is needed.

cayenne will chase a whole slew of bugs away

@rookie54 said
cayenne will chase a whole slew of bugs away

Not this BUGger. I loves cayenne. Bring it on...or maybe I should say, “Put it on”. 😀

@rookie54 said
accurate testing of the soil for nutrient content and moisture
learn which fertilizers, and how much, are required for specific plants

it's a full time job
at first it will be overwhelming
when you taste the dirt tho, the sense of reward is exhilarating

I’ve been learning about permaculture and am developing my plot on those principles. It’s no show garden. There’s no waste with messy piles of branches, twigs and leaves for composting or refuges where the native frogs, toads and slow worms can hide from the local marauding cats. There’s no digging to preserve moisture content of the soil and my latest veg beds are now bordered with new logs that will eventually be used for the wood burner in 2-3 years time.

I fertilise with seaweed, manure and blood, fish & bone.

Dumb thread.

@chaney3 said
Dumb thread.

Go to bed.