My sanity is restored.

I never had Steely down as a tree-hugging-hippy-earth-child.
Good on you Steeks, it will just be like shacking up with Felicity Kendall in 'The Good Life'.

You can't beat home grown - we've got spring onions out the back, and they are top notch chopped up in a fresh salad.

They easy to grow Sparky?

I don't know, I'll find out from the missus and let you know

They taste lovely mind.

Nothing beats home grown food, I can cook up a complete sunday dinner from home grown veg and it is superb.
Don't forget to feed regularly either, go to a local garden shop and you can pick up food for pennies.

There's no need to spend a lot of money on special strawberry plant pots , mine when in an old recycling box and they've come up great. Plant pots or plastic boxes are fine and do the job just as well.

I did put the tomatoes in grow bags and they got top heavy and fell over , I've since had to stick them grow bag an all in the garden now attached to a stick so it won't fall over.

I got the strawberry plants from Wilkinson months ago but garden centers and the two you've named should do them. Not sure if they will have them now this late on though.

Price wise would depend want you want and where you get it from. Most of my stuff I got from Wilkinson as it's cheaper. All the seeds and pots / compost I got from there. Blueberry bush was got from a garden centre. Roughly I would say I spent £30 or just under.

To start with it's bit trial and error , but when you get it right it's really worth it.

excellent.

im glad we all have reached intellectual levels far beyond sweet young floodington. how are those gcse's coming along little scamp?

ive got chili peppers and tomato seeds at the moment. planted 12 in total. 6 of each of differing types of pepper and tomato.

you appear right about the strawberries smithy, couldnt find them anywhere. must be out of season. i will save that for next year. im gonna see how these ones go and if successful will branch out and add more. although i imagine winter must be a bit dead in the home growing world?

im a man of many mysteries sparks.

its just a new idea that come to me now my new place has a nice little garden.

Sparky , where did you get your spring onions from ? I couldn't find them anywhere.

Nice one mate, sounds very nice.


I just checked, they were from the local garden centre - but don't ask me about when or if they're in season as I wouldn't have a clue sorry Smudger!

the little babies are looking good. coming along nicely.

i have all the tomato plants in pots now and they are sprouting up and getting stronger. i have some vegetable compost and tomatorite to aid the growing which i am caking on them. next year should produce some great toms!! im gonna be knocking up some authentic italiano style pizza with my tomato base methinks.

the chili peppers are taking slightly longer and appear about 4-5 days behind the tomato plants in terms of growth. they are peeping out of the soil and will shoot up over the next couple of days.

progress is good and steady!

I am going out today to buy some herb plants. Going to be growing Chives, Rosemary and Thyme. I personally would prefer to grow Garlic, Coriander and Mint, however these are supposed to be complicated to grow. Aparantly Mint takes over the garden, killing other plants lol.

Anyone else have any experience growing herbs?

how big is your garden Dogg?

do you leave things out in the open and stuff?

i dont know anything about herbs sadly!

Garden isn't that big really. Ideal for me though as I am way to lazy to have anything bigger. I absolutely hate cutting my lawn - which is why most of the time I just neglect it!

Whilst out today getting herbs, we decided it would be a good idea to buy a blackberry bush. We have planted this now in the garden. The blackberry bush is like a weed, so it should last in all conditions. Means we get to pick our own blackberrys then to make crumbles. We have an apple tree in the garden which was planted in spring. It has rooted so hopefully will continue to grow. It is still small, but should be fully grown in 10 years aparantly lol. Ill be moving from this hellhole before then though. Unfortunately due to house prices rocketing, I am living in a council estate in Swansea. Some of the neighbours really are scum! I have just paid £1700 to have a 6ft fence put up right around the garden.

With the herbs, they are supposed to be pretty easy to grow - not sure though as I have never grown them before.
They are going to be planted straight in the garden. I am digging a herb patch now then will place weed control fabric down, and plant the herbs. It is all experimental to be honest mate - could go pear shaped, but worth a go!

yeah well im in pretty much the same boat with my veg. its all hit and miss. i dont really know what im doing or if im doing it right, i will live and learn.

yeah ive had my fair share of scum neighbours! luckily im in a lovely area now so i dont have that problem anymore!

that kind of investment is far too long term!! someone else will end up reaping the benefits or your hard work and quite literally enjoying the fruits of your labour!

my lawn is pretty damaged. i put some stuff down to help the patches grow through and all that and the constant rain has drowned it all and damaged it even more! im fuming!

Exact same thing with our lawn, really bare and patchy so we kept putting seed stuff down but it kept being washed out by rain or being eaten by swarms of birds!

In reply to the bold part, it won't take 10 years before we get fruit, it just takes 10 years to become fully grown. We got 2 apples from it this year, so that number will increase throught he years.

ah nice!

what did they taste like?

I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and go with................... Apples?

These ones are cooking apples.
It was a little small this year so we didn't use them. As the tree gets bigger, the apples will also.