What next?

[Meanqueen]

Hello. I am seriously going to think about whether I want to carry on growing veg next year. My efforts this year were pretty dismal, I made a half hearted attempt which didn't produce very much at all. My compost in the beds is tired out and need serious work on it to bring it back into productivity. Can I be bothered to go and get a load of hoss muck and spread it on and dig it in, or spend money on commercially produced fertilizers? Can I donate enough time to tackle the extreme slug epidemic I have, the only way I can think of controlling this is to go out every night and pick them up. I am not enthralled by these ideas.

Yes it's nice to go out into the garden and pick the veg then cook it for dinner, but the trade off is that it takes a lot of effort to get to that stage. I have moved on, I can buy veg very cheaply, and my other interests have started to take priority. I am getting far more enjoyment now in the creative side of arts and crafts. To be able to make something out of scrap materials gives me a buzz, and encouraging others to think about widening their horizons and having a go as well, is the bonus.

I will have to decide what to do with the large veg plot I have. A may dismantle the beds and take it all to the tip, most of it is rotten wood anyway. But what do I put in it's place? Something to think about.
Ilona

[p.penn]

I empathise with you on this Ilona. Due to lack of energy, I wasn't going to do any veg this year and my daughter was going to utilise my little plot for her own veggies, then I was given a whole load of veg plants. I didn't get round to planting them, but my daughter did, but then despite my tlc it's all been a waste of time.

I had a very lovely butterfly farm on my sprouts and broccoli though, and there were a handful of tomatoes (most of which ripened while I was on holiday!) and now the sparrows are eating the chard My patch looks like a nuclear event has occurred

Next year just 2 Tom plants and some runner beans. That's it.

[Richard]

Hi

I would imagine there are a lot of like minded people on this dilemnia Ilona.

No offence to anyone but I think there comes an age and time where it is quite a bind plus hard work.
The muscles, bones and mind may be focusing on other things.

I've found my garden hard work this year, number of reasons outside of laziness I assure you!

Next year I plan to half the outside gardening, keep the Greenhouses the same (not so much bending down!).
I also plan on more growing from Pots.

This year hasn't been the best for many.

Many people at present are riding on a false sense of financial security - as in living off Credit Cards and Loans.

Like keeping Chickens, these things come in phases, the emphasis from the Media at present is food / cooking.
That's great but not much said about growing your own to cook with!

Even the Bible say's to not grow one season every seven years. Maybe that's the answer Ilona, give it a rest next year and see how you go in 2017 !

Richard

[lancashire lass]

Can I be bothered to go and get a load of hoss muck and spread it on and dig it in, or spend money on commercially produced fertilizers? Can I donate enough time to tackle the extreme slug epidemic I have, the only way I can think of controlling this is to go out every night and pick them up. I am not enthralled by these ideas.

Yes it's nice to go out into the garden and pick the veg then cook it for dinner, but the trade off is that it takes a lot of effort to get to that stage

My friend often used to tell me to give up the allotment because you could buy what you needed from the supermarkets and in recent years there has been a big push for healthier eating and bringing prices down. Tempting, especially as I can often find it too much like hard work (I was seriously considering giving the plot up earlier this year), and I know I would get on with all my other non-gardening projects especially the photography and crafts side. But it's also exercise for me - I'm naturally lazy.

If you still want a veg plot but with less hassle, maybe grow the vegetables which the slugs and snails are less actively interested in - admittedly, the vast majority are vulnerable at seedling stage but once they get going the pests seem fewer. And a crop which once planted doesn't need daily attention except perhaps for watering - something like sweetcorn. I grow Borlotti beans for the beans not the pods so I just leave them to it and harvest them when the beans rattle in the pod, and being a legume you can dig the plant and root to compost down into the soil (especially if the soil harbours natural nitrogen fixing bacteria which form a symbiotic relationship with legume roots so improve fertility) I love the garlic that I grow because the varieties I choose have bigger cloves than supermarket ones and because I eat a lot of it not only for flavour but for health reasons too (good for the heart, cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, colds etc), I grow loads for my own use and save the best ones to use again (so once you have paid the initial costs which admittedly are expensive (bulbs for gardens not bought from the supermarket veg stall), and by choosing the best ones after each harvest the garlic adapts to your soil conditions and are even better thereafter)

The other thing to look at perhaps are "permanent" (perennial) crops - fruit bushes, raspberry canes, maybe semi-dwarf fruit trees. So one year you can't be bothered and have a non-gardening year ... well at least the bees have benefitted from the pollen and nectar and the birds have had a feast and there's always next year. Or plant rhubarb or asparagus - sometimes a spring harvest is more exciting than a summer crop because you've had all winter to think about eating some fresh food straight out the garden. And asparagus is one of those expensive seasonal vegetables in the supermarket so is nice to pick your own (you can get a slug attack but I've never found it a problem) Jerusalem artichokes are not everyone's cup of tea (I like them sliced and deep fat fried as chips) but they can be left to get on with it too - the downside is that they can get tall so best grown in a corner out of the way and sheltered from strong winds, and yes, slugs can munch the tubers in wet years (and although not necessary to dig up every year, they do grow bigger tubers if lifted and harvested and just replant a few back in the bed for the following year so maybe some effort round about November after the plants have died back) Oca aka New Zealand yams actually look pretty and could easily be mistaken for flowering plant and virtually pest free (maybe a little slug damage on the tubers) - plant the tubers and harvest when completely died back a few weeks after the first frosts (important as the tubers keep getting bigger as the leaves die) Replant tubers for the following year. And then there are the herbs like sage and thyme which you just need to trim back once a year.

As for compost / manure - you could leave the plot to go fallow or better to grow a green manure that year instead - see the RHS list - some are actually pretty flowers like lupin or phacelia and then you dig the whole plants into the soil to rot down (no lifting up and putting into compost bins). And a forgotten useful plant is the nasturtium - it can attract cabbage white butterflies as it contains similar compounds and also blackfly but the roots extrude compounds that eelworms (nematodes) don't like. The downside are the seeds - it can readily self seed in abundance but not too difficult to remove (and leaves / flowers are edible too for the salad bowl) Another useful flower to get rid of soil pests is tagetes / french marigolds (that's my plan next year if I get my act together - I'm planning on growing these in the proposed 2017 potato beds)

Anyway just a thought if you are undecided about totally giving up the veg plot especially if the pests and effort required don't seem to be making it worthwhile

[Spreckly]

We also have discussed packing the veggie plot in. Over the past ten years OH has used our own compost, and the soil is now in good condition, the weeds just love it!

The cold weather this year has affected our crops, potatoes finished a couple of weeks since, peas did very little, etc.

I don't know either what we would do with the bare earth, and this year OH has used pallets to fence it all off, to prevent Angel running loose in the mud.

Friends have started buying supermarket veg, and discontinued their gardening. Other friends are still using their allotment, and like I said in another thread, using the veg for homemade soup.

Until OH becomes permanently unable to maintain our plot, we shall continue.

Interesting to read all the views on this thread.

[Mo]

I sympathise. Like having my own, but don't always get good results.

When we moved 44 yrs ago here I spent ages digging and planting - dreams of self sufficiency.
Then after a 6 yr gap DD2 arrived and I said I wouldn't bother - OH took it over, sort of, but I ended up doing the spuds.
The last few years most things have been eaten by rabbits or choked by weeds. except spuds and runner beans.
I agree with LL. For me runner beans and fruit. An orchard, once planted isn't much work. This year (and the last few) I've put an ad on Freecycle for PYO after I've got enough. Blackcurrant bushes need thinning each year, so those branches can be picked indoors. And I do love my own fruit - much better flavour than supermarket apples. And I know what it hasn't been sprayed with.

Life does go in cycles.

[mardatha]

I struggle to grow much apart from tatties and leeks and salad leaves- I'm at 1000ft. But I love doing it. Tried turnip this year and the ones that survived the pests were lovely.

[billnorfolk]

It is a fact ,to grow your own is a labour of love ,what you get out of it depends on what you put in .Over the years i have worked hard on my veggie garden and like yourself sometimes wonder if its all worthwhile .When things go right it is always yes but invariably things tend to go wrong more often than not ,with supermarket veggies at an all time low price growing to save money is out of the question .The reason i grow my own is that i need something that forces me to get off my backside ,it would be oh so easy to sit in front of the telly all day or spend my time on the computer ,but having a garden to maintain makes sure i don't do that (well maybe a little through the winter). Another factor is i know what my veggie have been fed on never to sure with supermarket veggie as most are grown to look better than they taste and that is the thing home grown doesn't always look so good but i find the taste superior to supermarket veggie.Farmers and commercial growers use an array of chemicals to kill bugs ,stop disease and different weed killers to kill the weeds in-between the crops so while i can still do it i will grow as much of my own as i can .I can certainly understand though when crops don't live up to what is expected i know how downhearted i feel when crops fail ,i find micro mesh nets will keep most bugs large and small at bay ,rotating crops every year will stop most diseases ,slugs as LL says not all crops are prone to them and usually healthy plants do survive slug attacks.At the end of the day though its an individual choice ,i get a certain satisfaction in the autumn covering my beds after forking in some compost ready for uncovering in the spring as we start all over again ,plus if i didn't grow anything i wouldn't be able to write about it on Down the Lane

[KarenE]

This is an interesting thread. I don't have an allotment but 3 veg patches in the garden and 2 in the greenhouse. My dad has always grown his own in a tiny plot in his garden, even when on a council estate in Liverpool, and I must have got it from him. It gives us something to talk about each week, we compare each others crops (his are always better than mine!) and we swap seeds and seedlings.

I tend to grow things which are expensive to buy (pak choi, strawberries, certain tomatoes) or hard to get in the shops (red gooseberries), things we eat a lot of or that taste better than shop bought - tomatoes and sweetcorn. I don't spend a lot of time looking after them once they're planted up apart from watering and occasionally hoeing the weeds.

I'd love a little orchard but don't really have the space. I'm lucky that I live in a village now where we swap our surpluses, and any that I don't swap or eat I use to make wine, jams, liqueurs, sauces or chutneys which I love to give as Christmas presents.

At the moment I love having my little patches even though I usually have a few disasters, but I guess there may come a time when it's less satisfying. And anything that does go wrong goes to the chickens, so it does me fine.

[Meanqueen]

Interesting replies, thank you. I'm still pondering. The beds need dismantling and the old pallets taking to the tip, after that who knows? Maybe go down the flower route, the ones that slugs don't like.
Ilona

[mrs boodles]

I used to have allotments some time ago in Sussex before work too over and I had to give them up. Now I am living with my daughter and she dug over the top section of the back garden for me to have a veggie patch. I went bonkers, planted lots of tomatoes (didn`t ripen) lots of beans (still picking) and courgette (what can you say about courgettes apart from that they grow very very big if not picked). Its all `got away from me' so definitely having a rethink for next year. I don`t want to stop having a veggie patch but am thinking along the lines of halving it and making a nice quiet sitting area with a flower border or two. It is all being strimmed again while I am away so that will be a start.

I do think that there comes a time in life when circumstances, health or other interests take over and you have to consider other possibilities or how to work round any problems. I did find it hard doing the veggie patch and have to take my time with doing manual stuff but I know that with my health condition just sitting around is not an option.
So while I can I will keep the veggie patch but smaller.

[Richard]

I agree with Karen, very interesting.

I like the idea of just growing the easier stuff such as Runner Beans. Leave the Veg that need lot's of attention etc.

It's like many things, give it up and miss it when you have !!!!

Nothing to beat home grown though.

Richard

[Freeranger]

It's great to hear the views of the more knowledgeable gardeners, and I just think - as someone at the other end with all of the work still to do - that it seems such as shame to waste all that hard work getting you garden and soil in shape. For me, the first year I tried, it was wonderful to taste the things I'd grown myself, and that tasted like my childhood memories said they should. Freshly picked carrots, snappy mange touts, tender sweet swedes and turnips.....all a million miles from supermarket cardboard. If I had all of that, I don't think I'd easily let it go.
If you're not enjoying it, then fair dos. If it's about the work and the ageing, then maybe there are low maintenance things that would make it easier. Mulching or newspapers over the soil with cuttings on top to crowd blank out the weeds, or the proper fabric? No-dig methods? Or earthing up to keep weeds under control? Deep beds for no bending? Pots/tubs/hanging baskets/rubble sacks as planters? Or even cutting flowers instead of veg.
I probably sound like Polyanna, and maybe I just haven't got tired of it yet. I think I'd do the green manure idea and think about it a bit. But enjoy whatever you decide.

[Meanqueen]

I gave away some of my compost from the raised beds the other day. My neighbour had dug out all the weeds from her front borders and removed some of the soil as well. It looked a bit like a moat around her lawn. I offered to fill it in and she gladly accepted. Now she has planted flowers, don't ask me what they are, but they take a long time to grow and bloom. As a swap she gave me three fleecy tops which no longer fit her. A good deal I thought.

Ilona