(no subject)

[rimturse]

Yesterday I cleared out half the green house. Way too many snails in there for my liking, but luckily no "iberians", just your regular garden snail. I put them in a pot and flung them out on the field, the gulls were watching, so hopefully they took care of the unpleasant job for me.

The green house and kitchen garden will be my responsibility this year. Last year I did almost no gardening because of the house renovation, puppy-Lia and the flu/MS combination that had me more or less knocked out for 3 months. This C is way to busy with his new business to do all the planting and harvesting he did last year.

So the plan is:

Greenhouse:
- various tomatoes
- grapes
- various chilis

I'm not sure if I should plant bell peppers and aubergines, the aubergines are quite prone to fungus and the bell peppers take time to turn yellow and red. I'm not keen on them when they're green. Melons are out of the questions. I planted them once before, C planted them last year, my mother plants them every year and they just don't get large enough or sweet enough. I think it's just too cold and too short a season here.

Outside:
- strawberries (we have loads of strawberry plants from last year and will probably have more strawberries than we can eat this year)
- herbs (loads of herbs from last year as well)
- peas
- potatoes
- carrots
- parsley roots
- onions
- salads
- leeks
- maize

C would like beans, but I tend to find them either boring or a hassle to cut and de-string. I also need to look into traditional plants, seasonal planting and food preservation. It would be cool if the kitchen garden could provide us with greens way into winter, but no...don't mention kale. I hate kale.

What I love is digging up potatoes. There's a sort of a treasure hunt element in it.
Other plans for the kitchen garden includes putting down a traditional stone path. We have the stones and I've seen it done before and the kitchen garden is a non-offensive place to experiment.

Comments

[darkspires.livejournal.com]

Have you thought of trying a cold frame or a cloche over your melons? That would give you a longer and hotter season for them.

Also, instead of growing runner beans (string beans), grow the bush beans. They are an identical flavor only they are round intead of flat and don't have a string to cut off.

Therefore (here speaks the person who loathes cooking and stives to spend the minimum time in the kitchen), what you do is gather a large handful of beans, making sure the ends are level. Take a sharp knife and de-end them. Discard ends with a brisk sweep, and still holding multiple beans in hand cut down in short increments until the other ends are achieved and so discarded. Two handfuls, and I have small hands, too, will be enough for two people for one meal and will take less than five minutes to prep.

I am in the process of growing on cascading tomatoes so they will be convenient to harvest from my deck. R I Lazy? Uh huh.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

*lol*

Nothing wrong with being a lazy gardener!

I have the materials for it, so I could try and early start the melons...hmmm, not a bad idea.

I like the round beans, I use to buy these at the supermarket, so it should be possible to find them to plant as well. Thanks for reminding me of them. :)

[navicat.livejournal.com]

Piccies? Purdy please? Mmm strawberries... more than you can eat? Does not compute :p

I'm starting, slowly. I ordered seeds the other day, and a propagation kit thing.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Right now there's not much to see, bare earth, maize stems and weeds, weeds, weeds. :p

But I'll take some pics so I can follow my progress. :)

What seeds did you order?

[navicat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I ordered tomatoes and broccoli and carrot and onions :)

It's a start.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Broccoli! How could I forget those? *writes broccoli on list*

And it's a nice start!

[navicat.livejournal.com]

Well, lets see how they grow :p

I'd like to be a better gardener than I am... but I decided practice makes perfect. Right?

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think practice simply makes experienced.

Perfection, alas, is dependent on Mother Nature. .. who has her own definition, and will hand you perfect tomatoes with one hand and a deluge of slugs with the other.

Experience provides the answer to the slugs, of course, so eventually it all works out, right?

The Foot of Doom makes me laugh.

[navicat.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll very happily settle for experienced :)

[frigg.livejournal.com]

heh, me too. I'd also like to be a more muscular gardener. :p

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

My mom's neighbor does melons, cantaloupes mostly though occasionally watermelons, and they are a bit tricky here, too.

He uses black plastic around/under the plant (with a hole where it goes into the ground, of course) to help it gather more sunlight and heat. They come out small but sweet.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

hmmm, also worth a try, I think. :)

[rabiagale.livejournal.com]

I love garden planning. Possibly even more than actual gardening. *grin*

Your plans sound great.