Hello Camacho....where are you gardening?

We have allotments here in England....so that people who live in terraced houses with no gardens can grow stuff.

My son is very keen on the Allotment Society.....and he grows 'Heritage Seeds' which are seeds kept going from Victorian times. Peas were very hard then....
Not, hard to grow...hard as in like bullets.....not that I want to complain....

I've got a nice back garden.....and I've got a new strawberry patch, which I am just doctoring because we've had sustained and very hard frost.....below zero in double figures over Christmas.....killled all my geraniums which were under glass. Not really done much for my strawberry patch either. Even the chives look like they might give up the ghost.

I do like to grow herbs. I have wonderful sage....it is like 'Deep in the heart of Texas' here in this Cheshire Garden. I grow wonderful Rhubarb. And and also have spectacular 'bronze fennel'......xx

Hey Penelope!

Yes, I've seen some youtube videos of some of the English allotment gardeners and their gardens. Some of them even take their vegetables to shows. I've seen some of the onions they've grown in those allotments and they come out pretty huge. Unfortunately, they're of the variety that won't grow here in the south.

Heritage seeds are pretty popular here but mostly tomato, I think. There's been a big push for organic gardening but I think that's something people have been striving for forever. It's just so much easier for the hobbyist to buy fertilizer than to try and find someone with poop for sale.

I've tried strawberries once, but to be honest, the next time I try them it will be in a hydroponics setup. I see they grow quite well in those systems.

I'm happy to hear you're a fellow gardener. I've just got started, really. I'm still in the learning process.

Today I finished setting up most of the shelves and the lights and am just waiting for the heat mat and the trays to arrive. I think once they arrive, I'm going to go ahead and start the leeks. Then in Feb I will start all the lettuce and the broccoli. I'm not sure if lettuce can be transplanted. I'll have to find that out.

Then I think in March I will put in all the Tomato and anything else that can be transplanted besides the onions which will have to wait until October.

LOL - You are so funny and I do love you Camacho!!

We have signs out by the roadside saying - Free Manure.

Some have a tin grit box by the gate with bags of manure and you are expected to put a £1 coin in the postbox to pay for it. I buy my hay like this...for my ferrets. Help yourself to a bag, put a £1 coin in the postbox.

But where are you? Just generally.....not specific. What is your climate like?

I wish there was a place here that offered free manure that was close by. I live in Hampton, Ga. It's the state right above Florida and I'm sort of in the middle of it. There are cow farms around here, I just need to try and get a phone number to see if I can get some manure. The last time I paid 40 dollars for 4 bobcat load fulls and that's a bit of money for poop. So I'll need to do my homework to see if I can get some cheaper.

The climate here is very hot in the summer but it snows occasionally in winter for like 3 or 4 days out of the year. So I can't have tropical plants outside but the growing season is pretty long. The last frost date here will be the end of March and the first fall frost should be early November.

Well, from the looks of it, there are definitely some comments on the NT discussion that fall into this category

Seriously, have you tried a horse or chicken farm? We are "lucky enough" (???) to have both near here and both are very happy to oblige, free of cost, if you provide the transportation. There is even one very nice and accomodating horse farm that dries the stuff a year or two in advance, making it much more pleasurable to pick up (and scent-free). I have no chance of planting anything until May. We can still have a frost the beginning of that month.

The climate here is moist....and that is putting it mildly.

But I think we have the most flavoursome strawberries.

Nothing much is happening in the garden here yet.....when the snowdrops appear next month...I'll post a pic.

We have apples, and damsons....much later in the year.

Puts some pics on Camacho, of your harvest, yes?

I can't figure out how to put pictures on here....but I'm going to put some on my blog....although, I've only got ferrets at the moment....adorable, but useless, you can't even eat them......

oblivion....I've just seen your post - so I'm editing this....LOL -

Transport manure overseas? I'm sure that's got to be illegal. If not, it should be. Thanks for the offer lol.

P, I like the word Flavoursome very much. I haven't any pictures just yet but I will post some if there is a good quantity of plants. I have some pictures of previous gardens but I don't know how to post those pictures from my phone. I saw the ferrets and I love'em. Very cool pets!

No tamaters or peppers? Leeks take such a long time to mature that starting indoors even in the south is prob. a good idea. But what I do is buy a a little peat pot of leek seedlings that the Southern States store sells for about $3. There's 50 0r 60 little leeks in there and I just transplant each one into the garden. I've never bothered starting lettuce indoors, though. I'd think it would be a challenge to grow broccoli in your climate. It never works for me. The weather gets too warm, and unless you keep the plants covered with row covers, the cabbage moths get to them and they get chewed up by the larvae.

Leeks are so hardy though. We've been for a walk in the park this morning with grandaughter, and the path runs along by some allotments. About the only thing left growing are Leeks. They look magnificent and we have just had a really cold snap. It went as low as -12degrees - but the leeks are still doing OK.

There will be parsnips too, but I just couldn't see any today. I always think parsnips are better and sweeter after they've had a frost.....but I'm told this is a fallacy.

We are just digging over the soil right now, to prepare it for the spring plantings. Although if you read books on permaculture, it seems you just chuck straw over the beds and don't dig. It don't look so pretty but it is an easy way to keep down the weeds, keep the soil moist and deter those birds and caterpillars from savaging the seedlings.

The way we start leeks here in Germany (which grow very well over here, btw) is to plant the seed in the bottom of a toilet paper tube or paper towel tube (which is better). They grow to a nice height and stay pale. Then when you transplant them, just dig the whole paper tube with leekling into the ground and let it begin trying to reach the surface again. They become strong and stay white this way. Plus the paper tubes disintegrate in the soil.

That's a good tip, thankyou oblivion.

We live near to the Welsh Border and the Leek is the emblem of Wales, along with the daffodil. Did you know that the older Welsh people, eat leeks fried with rhubarb? It sounds unlikely, as we always have rhubarb as a sweet dish. But I tried it as a savoury fried with leeks, and really liked it. I served it with gammon.....although I can't think what else it could accompany.

I've changed my mind about starting the leeks. I think it's going to be best to start them in the fall so I'll save them for that time. It takes 2-3 months for the seed to germinate from what I've read. WOW that's a long time.

As for the broccoli, I've already had great success with it!!! Just need to be planted as soon as possible. I'll start the broc and lettuce next month. I need to do the lettuce because it just bolts so fast - before it has time to develop a head. You're right about the cabbage. I've never had any luck with cabbage at all.

I'll show some pics of the broc once it's formed a head - it's pretty awesome but you're like.... all that plant for that little bit of broccoli??? hahaha. Well, the fun is in growing it I guess...

I've made this thread the Featured Article on our Home page at http://www.BookTalk.org.

Just make sure you check them regularly for long green caterpillars. I didn't the first time I grew them. Instead, I proudly picked the broccoli, washed it, cooked it, made a salad of it. At dinner, my 2 daughters, who normally loved vegetables even as children, started screaming and refused to eat. Turns out the salt vinegar and oil washed dead green caterpillars outside of the rosettes which were not to be seen otherwise. I had served my daughters broccoli salad with caterpillars. Since then, I have learned to soak freshly picked broccoli in salt water for ten minutes before cooking and then pick out the live caterpillars (these may then be served separately as a meat dish).

You cruel Mummy!!! LOL -

Have you ever grown garlic? It is great to grow. I buy garlands of garlic from France and then, before I use the whole string, it often starts to sprout green shoots.....which I then divide into separate cloves and plant in the garden in a sunny, sheltered spot....and it grows into love garlic bulbs, but I often leave it to flower because it's gorgeous.

Peas are my favourite thing to grow. They are delicious and pretty.