Growing your own vegetables

[99_oK?]

Just called a Vet I know, yes you need a herd number and to comply with x amount of instructions to keep Piggies

You need a herd number for goats. Regs are the same as cattle, all adults must be tagged before 6 months old, and need papers to move. Like cattle there are many different breeds, most of the commercial ones in this country are kept indoors.

As for breeds - there are plenty, some for milk, some for meat + a few who are considered dual-purpose, but all the farmed breeds are high maintenance. You need a shed and a hard-stand/dry ground (e.g. concrete) where they like to spend most time. They will have foot problems if the ground isn't dry, they don't mind rocks and scrub, but won't survive in a wet or muddy environment. some breeds and individuals can be somewhat aggressive. Most commercial goat herds here are permanently housed - they do not like our wet climate! There are also feral (wild) goats, but they can be a real handful, and your neighbours might be in to talk to you too!

I wouldn't just surprise him with a gift - for starters it'll eat the tender plants before going on to nibble just about everything else...!

[No. 16]

You need a herd number for goats. Regs are the same as cattle, all adults must be tagged before 6 months old, and need papers to move. Like cattle there are many different breeds, most of the commercial ones in this country are kept indoors.

As for breeds - there are plenty, some for milk, some for meat + a few who are considered dual-purpose, but all the farmed breeds are high maintenance. You need a shed and a hard-stand/dry ground (e.g. concrete) where they like to spend most time. They will have foot problems if the ground isn't dry, they don't mind rocks and scrub, but won't survive in a wet or muddy environment. some breeds and individuals can be somewhat aggressive. Most commercial goat herds here are permanently housed - they do not like our wet climate! There are also feral (wild) goats, but they can be a real handful, and your neighbours might be in to talk to you too!

I wouldn't just surprise him with a gift - for starters it'll eat the tender plants before going on to nibble just about everything else...!

Makes sense. You never see them in muck. Think about where they live in the wild - basically on the sides of rock cliffs. Saw a couple on Inis Mor in people's gardens. Think they were roped (?) to keep them out of flower beds. Think about the terrain. A bit of grass on top of rock. No real soil depth to speak of. Only speculation, but it appears as if people lend and borrow them as lawn mowers. There's been no petrol for sale on the island for years now - only diesel - so it's a bit of a pain if you need to run a 2 stroke or a Lawn mower. Still goats sound like a real pain of the Ass

[masterchief]

From what I've been reading, all goats may butt, but in the females it is usualy just playfulness. Males goats are probably a different story. Goats I've read make very good pets? As regards keeping the Porkers as pets, it really is cruel, they are by all accounts a very socialised animal and really need the company of others (same for goats), must admit I find them fascinating creatures the more I read about them. Won't stop me from eating sausages though. Love 'em

We had goats when we were kids. Minimal maintenance, kinda boring. The highlight was when they ate my sisters favorite clothes off the line!

[99_oK?]

Had a few own spuds this evenin', lovely when smothered in butter, but I basically used half my crop for 1 dinner. They got mullered by the blight and really never developed (biggest about the size of a chicken egg), but still v. tasty.

Anyone here try any of the blight resistant vars? I tasted Sarpo Mira but thought it wasn't great; Earlies I'll eat almost anything, but for mains I prefer a floury spud (e.g. queens round now, pinks, edwards or golden wonders later on).

Most of my stuff has suffered from the weather this year. Only late raspberries now producing, and my shallots haven't bulbed properly yet - i.e. 1 month late. I expect they'll be tiny too.

[mr chips]

I have about fifty tomatoes on the vines, all still green. Might end up making green tomato & crab apple chutney.

[trixie]

Mr chips, stick them in a brown paper bag in a dark place (don't forget about them mind) a drawer will do nicely, and they should ripen up. My toms are still producing flowers there cherry bush type toms haven't grown them before, but will definitely be growing them next year, as they need no stakeing, seem to endure drought quite well and are soso sweet. My lettuce is still flying picking it daily, as for the rocket great stuff. Planted some oriental leaves a week back and they germinated really quickly, will post as to their progress anon. Had one our few surviving chillis there last night with shrimp and mother of divine jesus was it a blaster! Can't remember the poor shrimp and my sinuses are clear.

[mr chips]

Cheers trixie, will try that with some of the bigger ones if I don't see any change by the weekend. The smaller ones (about half of what's growing) are about the size of big blueberries, so I dunno if I'll have any joy with them. Maybe taking the bigger ones off the vine might help to bring them on a bit. I did some radical pruning about a week ago, as there was still too much foliage for the size of plants - I'm still learning my way with this stuff!

[McCloud]

My tomatoes recovered after a slow start and I take a couple a day to work to go along with my sandwich. Cracking taste. Have a fair few Chile peppers I need to harvest anyone got a suggestion on how to preserve them? Red peppers are about the size of a small orange no sign of them turning red yet. Aubergines have flowered but little else, cucumber was tasty but not many to pick. Have some lettuce in the green house ready to plant on outside. Will do that but put them under glass. ****e summer in fairness for growing your own.

[munstermog]

Being a farmer here it was a disaster to try and grow anything this year. Its not just the wet but the lack of sun prevented growth and the ripening of crops. Most potatoes, tomatoes, veg and corn have yielded very poorly.

[mr chips]

It's bright & relatively warm up here in north Antrim and due to remain so through until Sunday, so I've taken my tomatoes outside to sit on the wall in some direct sunshine for the day in the hope it might help to bring them on a bit. Will have to bring them in by 7pm though as the clear skies mean we're going to have our first frost of the autumn tonight.

[99_oK?]

mr c, I'd leave the toms on the vine for a while yet if they're indoor/potted, at least while they're still growing. Ripening takes longer now the days are shorter and the sun weaker. But the bag method works, small ones may shrivel a bit.

McC, you can dry or pickle chillies. I've dried whole plants with chillies attached, just start cutting back on watering as growth dies down, then hang by roots in the greenhouse to dry as plant dies back. Could also dry branches or individual chillies. Type I did were small (Apache methinks) but quite hot. Don't have recipes for pickling, but have seen it done, think u can freeze too. I'm sure you can goo-oogle.....

[Arthur Guinness]

Arthur,
Raspberries - Autumn Bliss is a good var (& it should be coming into fruit now, and will go to Nov . frosts), but flavour isn't quite up there with MJ. However, MJ does require more TLC and has a totally different care and cropping regime. It is an old summer-fruiting variety, so you prune out old canes after fruiting (early Aug), mulch and feed well then and tie-in in Sept-Oct. AB is a perpetual or autumn-fruiting (I get 2 crops usually - Jun and end-Aug to Nov) may not need staking and if you do prune it should be in early spring. Glen Moy should be widely available (probably the most widely used early commercial variety) here, Lidl had it last year and you could try any good nursery for it. Flavour isn't quite as good as MJ, but it's far more robust and vigorous.

Bolting pak choi is not uncommon if there is any strain on the plant. Don't sow too early, make sure there is plenty of nutrients and soil has plenty of humus and doesn't dry out, should mature in about 2 months from say a May sowing. It grows well for me but I use F1 seeds from a good supplier like T&M or Unwins. They don't transplant well usually, but I know someone who grows 'em well from plugs and transplants out with 2 real leaves.

Thanks 99. Autumn Bliss are getting better as time goes on. I'll keep an eye out in Lidl for the Glen Moy.I'd like to have the different varieties to try and stretch the season as much as I can. I have late strawberries,Ostara I think,which are producing very strongly even now.Trouble is the slugs are getting a lot of them despite my best (non-pellet)efforts. I may have to resort to that yet.

[McCloud]

Some gob****e came into my garden and nicked all my apples

[99_oK?]

Some gob****e came into my garden and nicked all my apples

Sorry to hear that McC, but it's not unknown. Had most of mine nicked a few years ago, eventually learned the culprits IDs (my neighbour's little nephews and nieces....). Had some pears nicked the next year, but they aren't edible off the tree, that's when I found out the truth.....

Were there many nicked or could you spread the rumour that you had sprayed 'em with a poisonous substance.....?

Oh this little fella has 'nicked' most of my apples for the past 2 years:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/images/cache/...-139734_v3.jpg
Haven't had the heart to carry out justified retribution (yet....).

[99_oK?]

Slightly off topic, Vincent Cleary (Glenisk founder) is on RTE1 now. Small bit about his startup (from next to nowt) and vision of organic production.
Real program about poverty in the Deise.

[Waterfordlad]

It's excellent so far

[McCloud]

Sorry to hear that McC, but it's not unknown. Had most of mine nicked a few years ago, eventually learned the culprits IDs (my neighbour's little nephews and nieces....). Had some pears nicked the next year, but they aren't edible off the tree, that's when I found out the truth.....

Were there many nicked or could you spread the rumour that you had sprayed 'em with a poisonous substance.....?

Oh this little fella has 'nicked' most of my apples for the past 2 years:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/images/cache/...-139734_v3.jpg
Haven't had the heart to carry out justified retribution (yet....).

3 trees stripped of all apples. I doubt it was kids.

[mr chips]

How long can I leave my carrots in the soil? Been enjoying just pulling a few out and eating them raw or cooking them fresh, but I don't know whether they'll be ok to stay out there or if frost etc might damage them. They're in a variety of containers/planting boxes anywhere from a foot to 20" deep.

Still a few strawberries slowly ripening in the sunroom - had one the other day and it was one of the most intensely flavoured strawberries I can ever remember having! Ditto tomatoes, maybe 20 left with about 8 of them red at the moment.

I'd like to expand the range of homegrown food this coming year, and I'd like as much as possible to keep a steady supply rather than end up with a short-term surplus, half of which I end up giving away. In terms of indoor stuff, the plans include tomatoes, lettuce, aubergines and courgettes - hope to try for peppers again too, as I got nary a one this year. For outdoor stuff I'd go for the carrots again (by far my biggest success this year), plus sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and maybe get one of those mushroom logs.

Couple of questions -
1. In terms of keeping a steady supply, would I be able to plant onions & garlic now for the spring?
2. I'm a bit wary of re-using the same soil & planters for carrots this year. Would this still be ok for e.g. a mix of sweet potatoes & onions or some other below-ground crop, or should I use it for something else entirely?

[99_oK?]

Carrots will keep better in the soil, but heavy frost might damage 'em somewhat. They'll be in more danger from slugs until end Nov; if twas me I'd leave 'em a few weeks more.... Don't wash 'em if you want to store 'em.

Sweet potatoes and butternuts could be risky here in this climate, never heard of anyone being too successful. Re. planting again - ideally you should have a rotation schedule both in terms of nutrients and pest/disease issues. You can plant certain vars of onion now for picking next Summer, see here: http://www.allotment.org.uk/grow-you...wing-from-sets
Same for garlic.

[mr chips]

Well doesn't time fly - here we are in late February and it's time to start planting/sowing again if you haven't already started. I have an orchard planted now with a variety of fruit trees - various apples & pears (including a few conference pear trees to fertilise the others), damsons, plums and now a couple of cherry trees about to go in to hopefully finish it off for this year. Over 20 trees now, in varying states of development - a couple are still at the whip/sapling stage, many are about the same height as me and I have six or seven that are over 2m and branching out. Looking forward to seeing a bit of blossom this spring, but not expecting much in the way of fruit yet. Might expand it next year to put in some fruit bushes like gooseberries, raspberries etc.

I decided to just leave the carrots in the soil over the winter, and it didn't harm them at all, despite the periods of snow and frost (it's due to drop to minus 4 or 5 tonight, brrrr!) - even when I had to break the frozen soil apart to get at them, they were just as tasty and delicious in late January as they had been back in August. There's still a couple of clusters in there, maybe 8-10 carrots altogether, although that's partly because it was too wet to go out and pull them the last couple of times I thought about it! I'm thinking of using that planting container (roughly 6'x2') for a mix of dwarf beans and peas - it's a mix of clay, compost and sand. Since I hardly ever eat kale, I'm gonna remove the rest of it from another planter that's just over half the size, and use that one for the first set of this year's carrots, but will have to get on and build another couple of decent-sized containers for more carrots and other vegetable crops. Have bought loads of seeds this year, but it remains to be seen if they'll all get sown!

Hurry back to health McCloud, we need you in this thread to keep us greenhorn gardeners on the right track.

[redherring]

These two links may be help to people.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow...and-Veg-A-to-Z

http://www.teagasc.ie/publications/v...licationID=889

The second link is to a pdf file and is a booklet called a Guide to Vegetable Growing. The link may not work.

[Huwie]

I've dug out a patch for the outlaws over winter. Shoved up a few treated planks to create a raised border and have dug the whole ground up to remove buckets and buckets of nasty roots. So its now sitting ready for planting.

Gonna throw in some second early and main crop potatoes and other roots + a few cabbages. I dont think they'll have the patience for anything else, and they wouldnt know a dwarf bean from a broad bean, so no point going all 'fancy' for them.

Pruned the apple trees about a month ago and they are looking well. All the other fruit trees are too young like yours Chips.
Blueberry bush has been great over the last few years and would recommend one if you have a warm wall to plant it up against.

[mr chips]

Works for me RH, thanks for that.

[redherring]

Works for me RH, thanks for that.

I've never gone through it but the author really knows his stuff and has a vasty knowledge and experience on fruit and veg growing.

[99_oK?]

Yep, 'tis that time of year again. Was out around the ranch earlier today and there's loads to be done and the weather is great for this time of year, ground workable too so get all that digging done in the next week or 2. Great time to get fruit trees and bushes in too (both Lidl and Aldi have extremely cheap ones at the mo.....), and finish off pruning any growing/established ones.

It's a tad too early to sow most stuff, but shallots, broad beans and garlic would be about right for now. If you have cloches, a tunnel or a greenhouse you could get in a lot more - e.g. carrots, lettuce, radishes.

And best wishes for the new growing season...

[Valencia]

Jaysus I've so much to do. Have been really slow off the mark this year. Lots of digging to be done

[trixie]

Tidied up all the beds today, my wild rockett kept going all through the winter, as did the mustard leaves, I have become addicted to these in my salads great fire in mustard leaves. But then it started sleating so I retreated to the fire. Hopefully there will be a lot less wind and rain this year and a lot more sun. Oh forgot to report last september right under the bird feeders I found random crops of carrots they were only gorgeous small and the sweetest ever, omitted to add I never planted those carrots must have come form the bird seed.

[99_oK?]

Here's a site I found had good tips and advice.....

http://www.allotment.org.uk/month-by-month/february

For those with a tunnel or greenhouse, you can do so much more at the mo., including starting off seedlings (trays or pots). Enjoy the lengthening Spring evenings.......

[Pride in the Jersey]

Complete novice here!! I just dug up potatoes (roosters & British Queens) from last year that failed to thrive...is it ok to use them as seed and set again this year?

[Huwie]

Complete novice here!! I just dug up potatoes (roosters & British Queens) from last year that failed to thrive...is it ok to use them as seed and set again this year?

Are these last years seed potatoes or last years crop?

Seed - no
Crop - yes

People dont tend to do it because you have to store them in a cold dry place and also they tend to carry any diseases that the previous years crop had. But saying that, if all was ok then go for it. Chit them first to see whether there is any go in them. My grandfather and the older generation uncles etc used to do it year after year with main crops and favourite earlies. Probably a habit stemming from wartime. I've heard that you can even grow potatoes from potato peel.

Saying that, I'd take a cautious approach and split them new seed with crop to avoid disappointment. If there was any hint of disease of last years crop then dont bother.