Growing things

[Stuart]

Anyone here enjoy gardening/horticulture? We currently have a garden full of soft fruit (strawberries, raspberries, etc), vegetables and herbs, a greeenhouse full of chillies & peppers and another greenhouse full of some rather odd looking plants with a dark side, something that some of our cousins in the colonies might recognise:

[joeyn]

Pitcher Plants are kinda freaky.
:)
Joey

[Turtlejosh]

I'm not into it, but I would like to be when I have my own place. At the moment, I only have a Bromelia and a venus fly trap

[Stuart]

I'm not into it, but I would like to be when I have my own place. At the moment, I only have a Bromelia and a venus fly trap

Have you manged to get it through a winter yet?

[didiosa1980]

At one point in my life I want my own garden with which to grow my own veges. I'm unsure whether to put them all in a big greenhouse, which I know is really expensive to build, or use raised garden beds to keep them safe from moles and other burrowing entities. I'd also like to plant some fruit trees in the meantime and reap that harvest. Right now, I'm doing some self-study with veges in plants and learning all I can so when my day finally comes I can plant everything I want and know all I need to make sure my crops grow up strong the first time.    Anyone have any preferences they can share about greenhouses or raised gardens?  I was thinking of even having a small greenhouse so I could get sprouts going weeks ahead of main planting seasons.

[Stuart]

Raised beds are an excellent way to grow most vegetables. You'll easily grow potatoes, carrots, onions, etc in most temperate climates without cover. Cold frames are a cheaper option than a greenhouse to warm the soil at the end of winter, cloches or fleece covers are also effective at this.

Greenhouses are great for starting crops early - sprouts and other brassicas will do well started off in the greenhouse in February or March and planted out when they're large enough. You could even start them on a sunny windowsill. We started sprouts in the greenhouse this year, before planting them on outside. We're also growing strawberries, other soft fruit, potatoes, french beans, horse radish, carrots and parsnips outdoors.

Right now we have a greenhouse that's full of chillis & peppers. They're growing very well here in Scotland in the greenhouse without any additional heating. Courgettes and tomatoes also grow well in greenhouses, although we're having some success with cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets outside.

I would think the beds are best. A greenhouse would be too hot & expensive for many vegetables, but if you had a lot of land, a polytunnel might be the answer, with raised beds inside it.

[didiosa1980]

Thanks for the advice. This is the list of stuff that I was hoping on growing, but whether I actually do will depend on the location I end up living in. ZUCCHINI, ASPARAGUS, BROCCOLI, CARROTS, CAULIFLOWER, SWEET CORN, GREEN PEPPER, LEEK, GREEN ONION, POTATO, TOMATO, YELLOW SQUASH, STRAWBERRY, APPLE, AVOCADO, BLUEBERRY, CHERRY, FIG, LEMON, PEACH, PEAR     I have a lot yes and I have a feeling I won't be able to have almost any of those fruit trees because they need constant hot and humid weather. But as far as the veges go, anyone have any opinion on growing those? I have only played with growing corn, tomatos, and zucchini (courgettes) in the past 2 years, so I've got a long ways to go. Any help is always appreciated. 

[Ed]

We've got a fairly large garden so we grow loads of our own produce - garlic, onions, leeks, broccoli, lettuce, courgette, cucumber, potatoes, chillies, tomatoes, melons, watermelons, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, sweetcorn, cabbage, peaches, apples, pears, soya plants, peas, mange-tout, loads of herbs, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, you name it. Probably a lot of things I've missed off the list, including several varieties of bean. We also have five ex-battery hens and three baby geese, so we're getting chicken eggs at the moment and will eventually have goose eggs too.

EDIT; Also squashes and peppers.

[Danee]

We've got a fairly large garden so we grow loads of out own produce - garlic, onions, leeks, broccoli, lettuce, courgette, cucumber, potatoes, chillies, tomatoes, melons, watermelons, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, sweetcorn, cabbage, peaches, apples, pears, soya plants, peas, mange-tout, loads of herbs, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, you name it. Probably a lot of things I've missed off the list, including several varieties of bean. We also have five ex-battery hens and three baby geese, so we're getting chicken eggs at the moment and will eventually have goose eggs too.

EDIT; Also squashes and peppers.

I believe this rather tops everyone. Wow, and mucho applause!

[Ed]

I can't take credit for it, it's my dad mainly! Obviously we dont grow them all at the same time, but I'll try to take some pictures of the garden and livestock sometime, it looks really lovely :)

EDIT: Forgot the grape vines :P

[didiosa1980]

We've got a fairly large garden so we grow loads of our own produce - garlic, onions, leeks, broccoli, lettuce, courgette, cucumber, potatoes, chillies, tomatoes, melons, watermelons, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, sweetcorn, cabbage, peaches, apples, pears, soya plants, peas, mange-tout, loads of herbs, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, you name it. Probably a lot of things I've missed off the list, including several varieties of bean. We also have five ex-battery hens and three baby geese, so we're getting chicken eggs at the moment and will eventually have goose eggs too.

So is there any difference between ex-battery hens and those born free range? I'm impressed and jealous at the amount of crops! What size would you estimate your garden? How long does it take to care for all of them and harvest when stuff starts ripening? Do you have any fertilizer tricks you'd like to share??     

[Ed]

The ex-battery hens are a little bit stir-crazy sometimes and will be emaciated, featherless and very fragile - we originally had 6 but one had to be put down as its legs kept breaking. When you first get them they won't know what a breeze is and will freeze in fright whenever there's a gust of wind! But they adapt to being free and outdoors quickly - you have to look after them carefully at first and mind the foxes though! Takes a long time for them to regain their full coat of feathers, but as long as you feed them well they fatten up to a healthy state fairly quickly. One advantage, though, is that they won't be bothered by local cockerels, as they've never seen or heard one in their lives and so won't react at all! No idea what born free-range hens are like, I'm afraid!

Our garden's probably about half an acre wrapped round three sides of the house (other side's the driveway) of which over half is crops and chicken/goose area. Took a hell of a long time to build up this capacity - we've been growing things since we moved in but only in the last year or two hit this level of productivity. Harvesting and caring is fairly minimal if you pick the right crops - most you can pick or dig up/pull out easily, and at first you can just pick what you need when you need it, which thins things out for later when you have to get the full crop in before it goes off.

One handy trick is to buy horse manure in quantity locally (doesn't smell like cow manure) and bury it in a pit under the central walkway of your polytunnel - that way as it decomposes into compost for everywhere, it gives off a lot of heat which kicks things off in the tunnel even better :)

Also, geese mow your lawn for you. They're grass-eating MACHINES.

In terms of quantity I'm mostly pulling figures out of my head, but we've had crops of 200 chillies at a time, roughly half a ton of potatoes, nearly a hundred sweetcorn cobs, onions and garlic bulbs in the fifties, more fruit than we even have room to freeze... You get the idea :P We only just finished crops from two years ago this Christmas!

[didiosa1980]

Okay, now I think it's safe to say that you need to take some pics of this awesome garden!   

So which kind of garden do you have? Raised beds? Use a greenhouse? Basic in the ground type? Do you use the poly tunnels for all of your gardens? Have you ever tried anything other than horse manure? What about compost made from fruit bits and leftovers?

What kind of geese do you have? We have Canadian Geese and one Chinese Goose hanging out at our complex. I was thinking on getting a goat for the mowing and also the use of milk and ect. Have any experience with that?

So how do you store vegetables and fruit besides the freezer? I know that strawberries don't go in the freezer and come back out the same way. Have any favorite methods? I'm hoping that I can make an excess and use it throughout the non-growing season.

[Ed]

Erm, we have some raised beds, some ground beds, one polytunnel and a poly covering over the peaches and grapes, as well as a small germination greenhouse. As well as horse manure we have a composter that can take cooked food, meat etc, so all leftover organics go in that for compost as well. I don't know what breed the geese are other than they're utterly adorable :P No experience of goats whatsoever!

Strawberries don't come out the same, no, so we make jams and flavoured vodkas with as much fruit as possible, and only freeze what's left - when you unfreeze strawberries the'r cellular structure goes to hell so they're all slimy, but you can still use them for cooking although you need to remember that they get a bit sour. Raspberries freeze really really well, they go a little bit sour but you can eat them while they're frozen and it's awesome :P When defrosted it's the same story as strawberries though. Otherwise, crumbles etc are good for using up lots of fruit.

[didiosa1980]

I forgot about the flavored alcohols! Gonna have to keep them in mind.  I found a book at a Borders or Barnes N Noble that talked about using fruit to flavor wines. Sadly, I didn't buy it, but it sounded like an interesting idea to get into provided I get grapes to grow. lol They seem like very delicate items to grow. What other fruits freeze besides raspberries? Hmm, I guess I'll have some serious research to do.