The FastDay Forum

38 quarts, boy that is impressive. What varieties did you find easiest to grow? The ones that I had a major crop of was golden pear drop. Easy to grow and really tasty and pretty looking too

Can I ask about your mom?

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Never done any veggy stuff yet but do enjoy plants and the 'haphazard' cottage garden approach (see pic) - it is a lot more messy than in the pic would love to hear about others' experiences, count me in!

Armchair gardener here - OH has grown veg since he was 12, so it's best I don't get hands on (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) but he is a Suffolk Master Composter so any compost questions I can indirectly help with.
We now have so many freezers to store courgettes, runner beans and red currants the shed looks like Curries! Apples have been phenomenal this year, so he has built a press - we shall see. Cider would have to be my responsibility - he calls wine "gone off grape juice" . But the pigs are loving all the manky ones - they are my department.

[Betsysgr8]

Karen, I don't remember the varieties, early girl and some beefsteak and grape tomatoes if I remember correctly. In addition to canning, every meal had some form of tomato included and I mean every meal. Still love'em though!

Mom is doing good now, she had congestive heart failure last October but is much stronger and as she says "she's a big girl now and can do it herself" whatever "it" maybe, lol

I am a keen gardener, but don't grow veg. I used to be a garden designer, so am happy to answer any designy type questions.

Never thought I would talk composting here, this post is only for the keen gardener otherwise you will be bored. @rawkaren approach composting like a recipe where you add layers then moisten but not soggy and keep aerated. I keep meat bones out of mine (otherwise you attract vermin)and only use cow poo or chook poo. (Eek please no cat or dog poo as so unhealthy for you)

1. Get a kitchen bin and collect all your veggies scraps, be light on with the citrus peel. The other layers are roughly
2. fine nitrogen (fresh fine grass clippings the best).
3. course carbon (more chunkier brown stuff dead dried out clippings)
4. fine carbon (aged decaying leaves, a nice mix can be the shredded paper mixed with some sawdust and chook poo from the cook shed)
5.course nitrogen that is chopped up fresh leaves, spent old veggies you have pulled out of the garden like a vine or long leaves like lemon grass all chopped up into a reasonable size.
6. Manure
7. water
Can add other elements see Mr Google

All this stuff I have an open pile on the ground which is like a 3 sided bay and I just add as I go roughly as above all. My composting fork is always at the ready to turn and the pile needs a water to keep it moist. You are basically recycling all your garden and food scraps and letting nature take its course as it decomposes it attracts a village of composting worms who have just migrate there

I tend it as I go bit by bit eventually it all ends up in various garden bed enriching the new soil

I'm in! We do flowers and vegetables. I like trying different things and starting my plants from seed. It keeps me sane with our long winters. We bought a tent like greenhouse last year which works great.

The deer jumped my fence this year and got all of my peas, most of my peppers, Swiss chard, and beans. Odd year weather wise but I did get a bumper crop of tomatoes that I am still trying to figure out what all to do with them. I've canned marinara sauce, bloody Mary mix, made oven roasted tomatoes, and eaten fresh.

I have leeks, fennel, pumpkins and eggplant. Red and Black raspberries. Apples.

Didn't get a single zucchini. Weird.

I'm growing ginger and lemongrass in pots to bring in for the winter. Lots of south facing windows. We ordered some garlic for planting. @Sian S do you soak your garlic before planting?

Wow. So many experts here. What a talented group! Looks like we have a forum here.
@gillymary, thanks for the composting tips. Now you said its like cooking, I get it. I guess you need to keep it moist to get everything working together.
@Heucherella, thanks for offering your skills as a garden designer. What a wonderful job - why don't you do it anymore? I would love a job that involved working outdoors for a living. Isn't it funny how some things grow and others don't.
@JM53. Is it easy to grow ginger? I bought a wasabi plant and the leaves have been eaten by something and it just looks a total wreck, so I don't know if I'm going to get anything next year from it.
@silverdarling. Those plants look almost tropical. How do you do that in Northumberland?

Sorry, too many questions. However my final one is that I put some globe artichokes in this year and they are doing well, but the label says 'protect the crown in the winter'. Can anyone tell me what that means. Would cutting them down and putting cloches on suffice?

I'm growing ginger and lemongrass in pots to bring in for the winter. Lots of south facing windows. We ordered some garlic for planting. @Sian S do you soak your garlic before planting?

I am thinking of ordering some garlic too. My friend says she just grows the stuff from the supermarket but I read that most has been treated with growth inhibitor. Mine will need to go in a pot - hope this will work OK! x

I'm a gardener. I have just got an allotment (two months ago). Yay.

Betsy how do you can your tomatoes, have you got a machine and if so, is it worth it? We use loads but I still end up buying tins and tins.

Absoluteley!

my pumpkin crop last summer.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 3842_o.jpg

last summer i let my garden run wild a bit thought this spring i put things in rows. last summer tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 1308_n.jpg


my native garden on the outside verge
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 7732_o.jpg

a cornucopea of produce
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 2870_o.jpg

and they give me wonderful manure for the compost pile and eggs!

my most gorgeous quail.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 6222_n.jpg


and i have bees for pollination
spot the bee (taken with a simple camera)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 1992_o.jpg

and for honey of course - we give it to friends as honeycomb, apparently something rare

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 6620_o.jpg

now you have me excited
my garden is my oasis to escape and eat from.

plenty more pics where they came from.

[janeg]

Room for a little one in the potting shed? Oh, I'm getting so homesick!
Primula valii - sigh
lavender- love the smell
heuchera - beautiful
all this talk of fruit and veg and harvesting...sigh
I was an avid gardener, self sufficient in veg and lots of flowers. Even managed to have a reasonably good garden in Shetland (cold, windy, salt laden and not garden friendly)
Then moved to the sand pit!
It's begining to cool down a bit so the terrace will be getting it's splash of colour. Annuals only- even the palms and cacti have died with the heat! So I've given up with anything perennial. Seeds are difficult due to the lack of window ledges and general darkness of the house so it's plantlets.
Looking forward to getting dirty again.
Loving all your pictures and stories.

Juliana that honey looks fabulous and shouldn't be looked at on a fast day. Wish I lived near you. I'd love to have bees. Maybe when we get to our forever home.