Achocha: an easy alternative to growing sweet green peppers
I tried growing peppers yet again this year in the greenhouse. Some were attacked by a mystery pest that ate into the fruit just at stem level. The fruit gradually rotted. But one plant was not attacked and we ended the season with sweet peppers – just four but these are the first peppers that I’ve ever managed to grow. I also planted achocha this year. I hadn’t heard of these until I spotted them on The Real Seed website. Who could resist the name “Fat Baby” and the photo of just a hand poking out from the undergrowth of achocha....
read moreWe have got a Solar Tunnel polytunnel!
It’s all Lynn Keddie’s and Jackie’s fault. They both set the “why not get a polytunnel” seed in my brain. Like everyone else we are becoming very concerned about the rising price of food. It just seems to be creeping up and up. If we invested in a polytunnel we could extend the growing season even further and might be able to become 95% self sufficient in vegetables and a lot of fruit. That is with the help of the freezer, the dehydrator and plain old fashioned bottled fruit and tomatoes. The fledgling flower selling business...
read moreGrowing flowers to sell: Carnations
As you know I’m growing flowers to sell. This is never going to make me a millionaire but it’s a steady small stream of income and our garden looks amazing. I’ve been trying to up my sales at the village shop – I bought a pretty metal three tiered stand to make a tempting display of gift wrapped flowers in temporary vases – these are in fact 1 pint picnic glasses that sit neatly in the coffee cup holder of a car. Disappointingly these are not selling as well as the flowers (gift wrapped) and displayed in a bucket! Next week...
read moreBuying bulbs in bulk and a few bulb planting tips
This is the time of year that the shelves are groaning with Spring bulbs at the local garden centres. Tempting displays that usually draw me in. But not this year. These little packs of 10 bulbs for £3.99 are too expensive. I’m buying in bulk. When I first moved to the cottage I invested in a lot of tulip bulbs that gradually died out over the years – I had no idea that most of them need to be lifted and stored over the summer. Since then we have invested in species tulips that spread gently in the tubs and borders. There are two types of...
read moreThe hand dug well project: thinking and planning
The water table is very high in our garden. When John Coe used to mow our lawn he declared that it was the greenest midsummer lawn that he had ever mowed. “Even in the hottest summers it’s still lush when the lawns in my village are burnt and dry.” Admittedly he gardens on sandy soil over in Freckenham. That’s why he can grow long straight carrots. Unfortunately I can’t but win hands down on the lawn front. When the pond was being dug I wanted a deeper area for the fish to hibernate safely overwinter. The men digging the pond...
read moreHow to deter cabbage whitefly organically? New discoveries
Cabbage whitefly has been this Summer’s bane and it is causing problems this Autumn too. Cabbage whitefly are different from ordinary whitefly. When you brush against the plants, clouds of minute white winged specs fill the air. On the underside of the leaves you will notice tiny lesions which are sucking the sap out of the leaves. The Sutherland kale resprouted well after hacking away the infected leaves – the whitefly didn’t like the nettle tea at all – but they are back with a vengeance. How can these tiny creatures...
read moreGrow Red Brandy Wine tomatoes for flavour and great returns
We’ve grown a wonderful new (to us) tomato this year. Taking Tamar’s advice – she writes the sparky Starving off the Land blog – I invested in an American variety of tomato seed called Red Brandy Wine. This variety has some resistance to blight. I spotted biodynamic seed in the Lunar Organics online catalogue . Following biodynamic principles, I sowed the seed on a fruit day. Then pricked out and planted on the relevant day. Incidentally I found the Lunar Organics biodynamic calendar much easier to use than Maria Thum’s...
read moreGrowing strawberries from seed. It’s well worth it in the end.
Do you remember my excitement over growing Florian strawberries from seed? And later, my frustration when they just didn’t seem to grow- just sat there the size of doll’s house plants? Eventually I got fed up with viewing them though a magnifying glass and planted the five plants that had survived my fury in a large, redundant hanging basket. Not expecting great results. I used ericaceous compost as I discovered last year that strawberries prefer a more acidic soil than mine. They immediately began to thrive – clearly they hated...
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