Hi all just found this section just a short hi and what we do , we use to have 2 allotments but moved to a house with a large garden and due to health issues well i have to go slow , we have a 5 mt x 3 mt polytunnel and a large garden the wife got the top by the house for flowers and fruit trees and a bbq i got the bottom end by the canal for large 8ft x 4 ft 2ft high raised beds and a 15 ft x 35 ft piece off ground i turned over and plant ground crops there , we have 2 large rows of raspberries and 2 thornless blackberries to , 2 large beds of strawberries i will try and do pictures but as i am new not sure how yet lol .
We have nee growing fruit and veg and jarring and bottling since well year dot really , i would liek to ask does the site allow swaps ie seed swaps or plant swaps if local , just i always grow to many plants the fruit and veg we can ship out to neighbours in the street ,
right now i have 50 plus sweet pepper plants over
You sound like my perfect kind of neighbour! Shame we are so far apart. I'd love to swop plants and learn more about bottling and jarring .
I can follow you tube stuff, but often have problems with knowing exact techniques, as I've mentioned here before about doing salted runner beans. (Used table salt... what a yukky mess I ended up with!!)
I tend to dry veg with my dehydrator, but with the price of electric now, just gone up yet again this April for me, that may not be viable any longer. I'm thinking of building a solar dryer, but that's fine if we have a hot summer, not so good if we get a wet one, and there is the hassle of bringing stuff in each evening on top of trying to get water up the hill of a garden that can take an hour of hard labour as it is.
Lost a lot of veg last summer in the heatwave, cauliflowers and lettuce bolted overnight tomatoes stopped growing and just wouldn't ripen, everything wilted in the heat which reached a blistering temp in my south facing sun trap.
So what's good temperature for solar drying, is bad for the plants and twice a day watering of the poor wilting veg. Last summer I was watching the giant sunflowers visibly wilting by the minute!
Have now installed two water butts , but doubt they would last a week in a summer like last years!
I need a fruit cage too, as the birds get most of my redcurrants, I'm working on that now, as gooseberry and currants are in pots(which need constant watering) so I'm trying to find a place I can make a new bed and a small cobbled together cane and netting fruit cage of some sort.
I'd love a bigger (and flatter) garden!