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Sunday, 17 August 2014

Autumn in August?

Hello. Thanks for all the comments.

The weather has been almost autumnal at times here. Which if it was Sept/Oct I would accept and enjoy

Apart from tomatoes and some late planted spinach my gyo experiment is over. The tomatoes are showing signs of ripening and the ones that dropped off (football miss hit) are now on a sunny windowsill in the hope they may ripen. I am trying to keep some of the compost I used, as all my growing was done in containers and the compost was the greatest expense. I am wondering whether to buy a decent compost bin to put it all in. The one I have is a material one and the foxes ransacked it. I have used some of the used compost to pot up my Christmas pine into a larger pot as it was in a tiny.
The whole growing thing started because I wanted some tasty tomatoes and they cost too much in the shops. So far the few I have eaten are delicious.
The main things I have learnt are:
  • I need to learn to stake the beans a lot better
  • I do not need 10 courgette plants
  • I know nothing about growing tomatoes
Will I do it again? Definitely. Probably in pots again as I feel we will still be in rented accom next year. I considered an allotment but I don't think I will have time once we get back to our regular routine. And hopefully I will have work soon. Although it is tempting.
I have my tomato books on order from the library and I have my eye on getting some decent seeds next year. Has anyone used the real seed company before? It looks interesting.

Cannot wait to do it all again.
x

10 comments:

  1. Hi Hazzy,
    Sounds like you've had fun, learning myself here but I'd too be tempted to keep the compost but perhaps freshen it up with some organic material whilst its being stored or even mix in something basic like bonemeal?

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    1. Hi, was wondering how you was. That's a good idea. Will do that, thanks

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  2. I've tried the Real Seed company. I like their ethics and the fact they save all the seed themselves but I found (perhaps because we are in the dry east and they are in wet Wales) that the seeds didn't do well here.
    Seed compost will need lots of UMPH added to it to use another year, what about cheap grow bags or as John says add something like bone meal. If you want to use it next year it's probably not long enough for adding vegetable waste etc. Our compost bins usually go over a year before we use it.

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    1. Thanks. It does look an interesting company. Maybe I will just give a few packs a trial run.
      Still not decided what to do about the compost. Do not think there will be as much as I anticipated. So maybe not worth the expense.

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  3. We grow a lot in containers, we use grow bags to top of containers and raised beds and top it off out of the compost bin which does need to have been in there for about 12 months or so.

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    1. I may look to see if some of the supermarkets sell the grow bags off cheap. Thanks

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  4. Well, at least you were growing something on your own. It seems I have completely given up on a garden... past two years I haven't even tried. Reading your post has brought me around to thinking about getting back at it next spring.

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    1. That's really good. It's been so good for me and especially doing everything from seed.

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  5. I'm no expert but I've repeatedly heard not to re use compost. I know it feels like a waste but it can contain nasties that you recycle. And it's used up it's oomph.Might be ok for mulching though?

    Jean x

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    1. Since posting this I have read a bit more and some say that. So not sure at the moment.

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