Garden Update

[MaryN]

It has certainly been a busy season so far. Things seem to be a little behind, but growth is good and the crops I have had so far have been very acceptable.

Last year my brassicas - cabbage, sprouts and purple sprouting - were decimated by slugs. I was not amused. We got a bit of PSB out of it and the hens feasted on what was left, but it was not a good year. So, this year I decided on a different approach. OH was dragooned into building a cabbage pen covered with anti-butterfly netting. I'm pleased to report that so far it has been a big success. I have watched the cabbage whites fluttering outside but none have managed to get inside. There has also been the extra plus that I have been able to indulge myself in using a few slug pellets - usually a no-go with pets and wildlife - without any livestock being able to get in either. Win win. If anyone else has been having trouble with pests, this could be the way for you. Next year all brassicas and pest-sensitive stuff will be grown in a cage.

Cropping has been good so far. We glutted on strawberries, and I am now picking gooseberries (hate those thorns!), blackcurrants and loganberries. The pea crop has been tremendous and I am picking, podding and freezing every day at the moment. Looks like it might be a good winter on the home-grown produce front.

Happy gardening.

[SecretPrepper]

Looks fantastic.

[Scythe13]

That's looking good.

I've found a lot of our plants are going a little crazy this year.

Spinach is like bean stalks, tomatoes are tiny, but everything else is flourishing!

[Steve]

My bottom field has grown a lot of grass this year, so I asked my neighbour ( a contract farmer ) is he wanted it for hay. I don't have the equipment to bale it myself and the sheep that kept it reasonably short last year are now in the freezers. He got 30 huge round bales from it, and when I mentioned that I needed some muck for expanding my veggie patch he volunteered to deliver me 20 tons.

Tidy, as they say around here.

Expect a photo of a huge pile of shit when it arrives.

My veg is all doing very well, helped along by the enormous amount of rotted horse muck the previous owners left piled up behind the barn, and in front of the barn, and in the barn. Next year should be a big one for our veg as we're aiming to grow enough to feed pigs too.

Get the muck while you can, it's an investment in your land / food future.

[Jace]

In previous summers we have grown pumpkins, tomatoes and loofah in our small (1.5sqm or so) garden, but decided to branch out to brassicas too this year.

Bad mistake! They were pretty much been destroyed by slugs, although the few caterpillars I did manage to catch were much appreciated by the goldfish that got to gobble them up. To make matters worse, we had weeks of continual rain and overcast skies, so the other seedlings basically stopped growing, the roots of our herbs rotted and most of everything else died.

The few herbs we did salvaged were fine until today, when the temperature hit 35 degrees and are now all wilting. Hopefully the extra watering I just did will pick them up a bit, otherwise will try to put them in pots and move inside.