Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 12:49:47 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Gardening thread 2021

Started by Ferris, April 05, 2021, 02:26:54 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ferris

It has never occurred to me that roots I use in food are literally roots that you plant in the ground.

One thing I've really enjoyed about all this is making those (banal and terrifyingly obvious) connections between food I use in cooking and how it is produced. Mad really, but very satisfying nonetheless.

Ferris

Mini harvest from Saturday - made a stir fry "but we're out of carrots/garlic/onions... hang on a sec..."


Buelligan

How utterly satisfying is it?

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on August 02, 2021, 05:19:13 PM
It has never occurred to me that roots I use in food are literally roots that you plant in the ground.

One thing I've really enjoyed about all this is making those (banal and terrifyingly obvious) connections between food I use in cooking and how it is produced. Mad really, but very satisfying nonetheless.

It is, I'm growing several different types of ginger (from shop roots) and have plans for a kaffir lime tree, the donor lime is resting by my keyboard as I write.

Ferris

Quote from: Buelligan on August 02, 2021, 05:21:42 PM
How utterly satisfying is it?

It is, I'm growing several different types of ginger (from shop roots) and have plans for a kaffir lime tree, the donor lime is resting by my keyboard as I write.

Jealous!

We'd love some fruit trees to espalier against a fence (and eventually replace the fence entirely) but I understand they're difficult to keep alive? Might be beyond my skills at the moment. I doubt we have the climate for citrus trees anyway (unfortunately) so it would be apples or pears or something.

Ferris

Quote from: Buelligan on August 02, 2021, 05:21:42 PM
How utterly satisfying is it?

Tremendously! Great for the nipper as well so he understands what food is and how it all works etc. He tells me off if I don't water them every day.

Buelligan

That's really good.  My lovely grandfather was a plant pathologist, his wife, my grandma, knew every plant and its ways and uses.  My earliest memories are in their garden hearing all the names and habitudes of our green friends.  One of the greatest gifts you can give to child, a connection with their own Earth and a small understanding of it, IMO.

Ferris

Yes absolutely. He's a terror with the hose, frankly, but it's been very rewarding to have the space and time to show him this kind of stuff. He was baffled by the difference between moths and butterflies. They are sort of the same, but some only at night? And frogs just live wherever they like in ponds and things? Crazy when you think about it.

A million miles away from how we used to live, and several orders of magnitude better.

Quote from: Buelligan on August 02, 2021, 07:36:38 AM
Feed (cheap  liquid tomato food) and water them like crazy, watch for slugs and snails, when you start to get fruit, check to make sure they're not resting on anything too waterlogged, maybe make them a little place to lie and fatten, like a flat stone, that stops them getting too damp and rotting.

Thanks for that. It makes sense now one of the tiny pumpkins fell off during the storm. Must have got a good soaking.

I've assembled a growhouse this morning. Quite small but hopeful I can get a few things going. I watched an Australian Youtuber grow lettuce from the stumps bits that you usually bin. Is it possible to really grow from scraps like that?

Buelligan

Yes, it would probably be fun to experiment with different things like that but lettuce and leaf salad things in general are easy as hell to grow from seed and I think, nicer, when they're picked quite young.

Ferris

The hops have gone ballistic



That's just one bine, but the whole plant is covered with the fuckers. I read somewhere that the hop-generating phase is particularly resource-intensive for the plants so I added some additional compost/mulch as well as some plant food a week or two ago and it seems to really be doing the trick. I'd guess I have 150-200 cones developing and they are just starting to smell a tiny bit like hops which is tremendously exciting.

I said at the beginning if I got a single hop I'd be delighted, but I think I'm going to be weighed down with them. Magic.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Now you need to grow some malt. Mix them together, you've got beer.

Ferris

Honestly, I'm considering it for next year - the malting process probably won't be flawless because I'll be doing it on a sheetpan in a commercial oven but I'm learning from first principles and experimenting so why not keep pushing the envelope and see?

Worst case it's a disaster and I get 0 grain which is where I am already...

Buelligan

Do it Ferris, do it!  Post pics too, this is incredibly exciting!

Was thinking about your terrain, must be fairly damp - given the hosta thing.  Could it be like Herefordshire (a great county for hops)?  Do more next year.

Ferris

Yeah it's very damp here and stays humid all year round. Nice in the winter (it gets cold and moisture freezes without clumping into snow so the air glitters at night), punishing when it is 30c like today!

From a brief scan it looks like I only need 3 months of growing time to get a crop ready and it starts about the same time as my hops for next year so I'll give it a try if I have the time to set it up and source grain next spring.

They reckon "starting small" is 10' x 10' which I reckon is pretty flipping large. I could probably spare 4' x 5' which would yield a few lbs of grain (it's a weird bit of land which is south facing and cut off from the rest of the garden, and conveniently next to my intended hop locations). 2lbs would be enough for a gallon of beer (back of envelope calculations here) so I reckon that would be alright. If I got less I could brew something lower gravity I suppose.

Having gone without for a very long time, I'm loving having a bit of outside space to muck about with and try new things. It's been great!

Buelligan

30c's like a soft spring day, old chum.  Deary me!

It occurs to me you must oust all trace of mouse if you're planting grain, same with peas and beans, the buggers dig it up.  You can't blame the poor wee things, it's food, but still, looks like you're gonna need a bigger lebensraum.

Ferris

Shit, hadn't thought of that. You're absolutely right, that might be the end of the endeavour because I'm not opening a new front on the Mouse Wars.

Bollocks.

Chedney Honks

Get a load of mouse traps off ebay. You can get fifty for a hundred dollars. They ain't fancy but they do the job!

Buelligan

Just speak to them, honestly, I'm not lying at all, I've done it twice.  First time, I was so fucking angry, found a lace tablecloth, handmade by my great great grandma, turned to a pissnest, I just threatened them, right from the soul, that I'd kill them all if they didn't leave immediately.  And they went, immediately.  Next morning, tumbleweed.

Next time, different place entirely, I remembered that and finding another disgraceful example of their lack of concern for beauty, I mustered all my piss and vinegar, no little quantity to be sniffed at, I'd add, and told them again.  Same thing, gone, the next day.  I swear I'm not lying.  Try it but mean it.

Chedney Honks

As they say, you get further with a kind word and a mega rat trap than with a kind word alone.

That said, I agree with chatting to the beasts.

badaids

Quote from: Buelligan on August 02, 2021, 05:21:42 PM
How utterly satisfying is it?

It is, I'm growing several different types of ginger (from shop roots) and have plans for a kaffir lime tree, the donor lime is resting by my keyboard as I write.

Buelligan, is it possible to make a lemon tree, or a lime tree grow in the south of France?  How far south would you have to be do you think?

Buelligan

Very possible.  I have a smallish tree outside now with a huge orange hanging on it.  Had a beautiful big old lemon tree here when I arrived but it died a few years ago when we had an outrageously cold winter.  If you live on the coast, it's easier, here, next to the big mountains, we get some chilly times sometimes.  Not sure how far south you'd need to be, I reckon I'm about on the limit really (Spanish border).

ETA, remember staying in Saint Paul de Vence once, house was surrounded by orange groves, the smell of the blossom would fill anyone's heart.

Brian Freeze

Does anyone know why a random hydrangea might not be flowering? We picked it up unlabelled and looking bedraggled and sorry for itself from the chuckout shelf at a nursery, stick it at the back of the garden three years ago and since then its grown lots of greenery but no flowers. Its got a bit of space, light and water and looks generally happy with life. Have left old wood on it too.

Any ideas please?

Ferris

Quote from: Chedney Honks on August 14, 2021, 04:52:43 PM
Get a load of mouse traps off ebay. You can get fifty for a hundred dollars. They ain't fancy but they do the job!

We had that sabre rattling phase, now we've thawed to a strategic Cold War. I clean the house, and I deploy the odd trap here and there from my Cupboard of Death which is stuffed full of the bastards, but we avoid large-scale confrontation. I've voluntarily demilitarized.

We're settling into an entente now - we stay in, they stay out and I overlook the odd crumb that goes missing[nb]though my wife thinks she saw one go into the fireplace (that I spent a week restoring and re-hanging on the wall with fire cement and it's cast iron so weighs a fucking ton) so don't know what to do about that. I'm not taking it to bastard pieces again just to re-seal the flue... anyway I digress[/nb]. The idea of opening a new "hot" theatre on our cold war... no thank you.

Brian Freeze

This is the hydrangea in question. Looks quite happy doesnt it? Still no flowers though.


Dex Sawash

I've had potted ones take a few years to bloom once put outdoors. They're one of my wife's favorites and have bought a bunch of them at grocery store over the years, some bloom next time and some don't.

Buelligan

I'm not a huge hydrangea person because they like moisture and gentle sun, here they get fried, but it doesn't look over the moon with happiness - difficult to judge without understanding the scale of that pic, but to me, it looks like it's got rather a lot of spindly growth - obvs this depends on the species and habit and whatnot but if it's a bog standard one, it does look rather yellow and a bit thin - does it have enough root space/food/water?  I take it you didn't cut out all of last year's growth (which will normally be where the flowers develop) but maybe it was so buggered by whatever happened to it before you bought it, you'll have to lavish it and wait another year for flowers.  Did you check the roots when you planted it (was it dreadfully pot bound?).  If it was, maybe the roots are not going out into the soil, just continuing to circle. 

I reckon feed it a general feed weekly and see how it goes...  ETA, like Dex, a person who obviously knows his hydrangeas, unlike me, says.

Dex Sawash


I just chuck them in the ground within hose distance since they need almost daily watering here in July-August (done blooming mostly by then but they shrivel up terrible when too dry)

Brian Freeze

Thanks both, roots were teased out and it gets fed and watered ok. It looks much better in real life I promise.
Its come a long way from the scrawny effort we brought home. Will carry on being patient.

We're hoping for good things from the climbing hydrangea in scuttling up the wall in that photo too. That at least flowered this year.

Still waiting to try our tomatoes. Did some in hanging baskets for a laugh. Couple of days off ripening. Greenhouse ones still green.

Ferris

Harvested the hops, had hundreds of the fuckers. The harvest weighs in at 141g, so it'll end up being about 2.5oz after I've put them through the dehumidifier. That's about in line with what I've read about first year harvests so I'm chuffed with that.

That's one decent dry hop addition in a 5 gallon beer, so that's I'll do. Apparently next year it goes barmy and people can get upwards of 2lbs per plant or 7x what I grew this year. God have mercy.

Buelligan

How extremely exciting.  Please take (and post) photos of the whole process if you have time.  I would like to see it all.