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Post by Fi on Apr 27, 2007 12:01:38 GMT
Today I found a farm, not too far away, that's selling it's own asparagus - bliss. All I need now is to get them to sell me a few crowns and, in three years time, we'll be cutting our own - double bliss! Judging by the nigh on £8 per Kilo charged in Tesco, I'm tempted to give it a go myself. I don't have much garden given over to veg so I use the few metres I have on sprouts, and grow lettuce in pots and cherry tomatoes on the window sills. When I had a greenhouse I grew peppers, and the taste of fresh pepper and cheese sarnies still makes me drool. Grow it in among your flower beds. The foliage is pretty and a great foil for things like roses. But start with crowns - it's at least two years before you can start cutting from them, but it's like decades before seed grown plants are productive. It's not diffficult to grow - it needs lots of manure and good compost because it's greedy, and double digging and incorporating lots of compost is recommended when you first plant the crowns, especially given your description of the soil at your home. After that, all it needs is consistent water and the odd splash or three of plant food. About 6 - 10 plants should satisfy a small family within two to three years (unless you want to eat the stuff morning, noon and night, and, after a few years, friends. One other thing you might like to consider is putting some runner beans in among the flowers too - a lot have attractive flowers, pink, white and red, and look lovely growing up either an ornate obelisk or a cane 'tent' - my brother in law used to grow them up a trellis arch he made in front of his greenhouse door. They're as greedy as asparagus, but the double digging isn't necessary, and when they are done, leaving their roots in the soil adds nitrogen.
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Post by cheesygrin on Apr 27, 2007 12:25:23 GMT
If space is a problem you can grow most vegetables in pot too.
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Post by faeryboots on Apr 27, 2007 12:28:35 GMT
I grow herbs at the bottom of my runner bean plants, they seem to thrive.
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Post by michaelesterol on Apr 27, 2007 12:55:47 GMT
Ah nice one Fi.
This house was built on a slope, so when they cut into it to level it off the front lost all the top soil down to more than 3ft. Which is why all the plants at the front are snuffing it I think !!
The back garden is still firmly attached to the farmers fields, though seperated by a hawthorne hedge, and is amazingly fertile. Drop a seed anywhere, ignore it and it will grow.
I'm confident, now, about growing asparagus and I will certainly give it a go.
I put a couple of runner bean plants by the shed, and they always do well, but as the PMC doesn't like them they often get forsaken in favour of sunflowers...though the seeds are worth it.
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Post by Janglers on Apr 27, 2007 16:07:55 GMT
I had dinner at a friends house last saturday evening. We ate wonderful asparagus that she had planted as seeds 3 years ago. Mmm...
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Post by carlott on Apr 27, 2007 16:12:22 GMT
Intersting bit here from the Radio 4 website (please forgive the sexist comment it is not my opinion but the experts) - Question from Penny Kenny: I have an asparagus bed which was planted in 1998 and the plants produce smallish spears. I'm now moving house, can I dig up the asparagus plants and take them with me?
Bob: If you planted your asparagus in '98, and we're now 2001, they've been in for three years. They're getting a little big to move, the asparagus plant is not very happy about being moved, it's got very fleshy roots and if they're damaged they don't re-grow unlike a lot of other plants. It's probably going to be better to start with new stock in a new bed, young ones, as young as possible. I don't even like two-year-old crowns, I'd rather have one-year-old crowns to plant out any time.
Nigel: I think I'd do both, I'd risk moving part of them, so that they would probably produce a few spears for a year or so, and that gives you a little bit of continuity while you wait for the new asparagus beds to develop. Also I think it's better to grow asparagus from seed. I used to grow asparagus commercially and I grew it all from seed. It takes about four years to get into production, so it's a long-term job. We weeded out all the female plants and kept all the males, and they were strong, vigorous growers, on not particularly good soil, for a long time. Eventually we abandoned the asparagus beds - not because of the plants losing vigour but because the weeds became such a problem that eventually they were almost impossible to control. www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/gqt/fsheets/11_03_01/fsheetsq6.shtml
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Post by Fi on Apr 27, 2007 23:02:34 GMT
I was going to say 'who wants to wait for four years before cropping?', but I googled and came up with this which looks like a winner (among other things). Note it is an all male cultivar, so the picking out of females is unnecessary. The RHS gives a guide to cultivation here which is somewhat different to Bob and Nigel.
Just a thought, but would a TOG's seed swapping group be a good idea? I'm thinking mostly of vegetables, but even flowers etc wouldn't be that difficult to manage. Basically I get fed up of getting a packet of seeds with maybe 200 seeds in it, when all I need is two plants. It's a waste, but could be turned into a shared resource. It would simply involve listing what spare seeds are available and posting them to whoever wanted them, and could include seed collected in autumn from that year's flowers/crop.
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Post by Lord L on Apr 28, 2007 6:14:46 GMT
I was going to say 'who wants to wait for four years before cropping?', but I googled and came up with this which looks like a winner (among other things). Note it is an all male cultivar, so the picking out of females is unnecessary. The RHS gives a guide to cultivation here which is somewhat different to Bob and Nigel.
Just a thought, but would a TOG's seed swapping group be a good idea? I'm thinking mostly of vegetables, but even flowers etc wouldn't be that difficult to manage. Basically I get fed up of getting a packet of seeds with maybe 200 seeds in it, when all I need is two plants. It's a waste, but could be turned into a shared resource. It would simply involve listing what spare seeds are available and posting them to whoever wanted them, and could include seed collected in autumn from that year's flowers/crop.
I seem to remember that the Hardy Plant Society (among others) runs just such a scheme. Here: www.hardy-plant.org.uk/That's no reason, of course, why it shouldn't be done here. In fact, it is a reason why it should be - shows it can be done.
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Post by lily on Apr 28, 2007 9:47:08 GMT
I was going to say 'who wants to wait for four years before cropping?', but I googled and came up with this which looks like a winner (among other things). Note it is an all male cultivar, so the picking out of females is unnecessary. The RHS gives a guide to cultivation here which is somewhat different to Bob and Nigel.
Just a thought, but would a TOG's seed swapping group be a good idea? I'm thinking mostly of vegetables, but even flowers etc wouldn't be that difficult to manage. Basically I get fed up of getting a packet of seeds with maybe 200 seeds in it, when all I need is two plants. It's a waste, but could be turned into a shared resource. It would simply involve listing what spare seeds are available and posting them to whoever wanted them, and could include seed collected in autumn from that year's flowers/crop.
What a great idea...I too think it's a shame that I end up throwing seeds away...I've just done it with lettuce as you get about 200 in a pack.
Maybe we could have a seed swap pinned thread and Togs could list what they have...then others could pm them if they want some?
xxx
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Post by Fi on Apr 28, 2007 13:09:25 GMT
I was going to say 'who wants to wait for four years before cropping?', but I googled and came up with this which looks like a winner (among other things). Note it is an all male cultivar, so the picking out of females is unnecessary. The RHS gives a guide to cultivation here which is somewhat different to Bob and Nigel.
Just a thought, but would a TOG's seed swapping group be a good idea? I'm thinking mostly of vegetables, but even flowers etc wouldn't be that difficult to manage. Basically I get fed up of getting a packet of seeds with maybe 200 seeds in it, when all I need is two plants. It's a waste, but could be turned into a shared resource. It would simply involve listing what spare seeds are available and posting them to whoever wanted them, and could include seed collected in autumn from that year's flowers/crop.
What a great idea...I too think it's a shame that I end up throwing seeds away...I've just done it with lettuce as you get about 200 in a pack.
Maybe we could have a seed swap pinned thread and Togs could list what they have...then others could pm them if they want some?
xxx I've got a few ideas, so I'll speak to Mick and see what's possible. xx
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Post by faeryboots on Apr 28, 2007 13:20:02 GMT
fantastic idea Fi, I've got left over beetroot and sprouts because not everyone eats them so, like you, I only need a few. Just a thought Lily, are you sowing lettuces a few weeks apart, that way you can have them all summer long.
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Post by Rose Tinted Glasses on Apr 28, 2007 13:34:23 GMT
I've got loads of left over haricot, runner and broad bean seeds, also onion seeds which I can't use cos I'm allergic to them.
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Post by lily on Apr 28, 2007 13:49:27 GMT
fantastic idea Fi, I've got left over beetroot and sprouts because not everyone eats them so, like you, I only need a few. Just a thought Lily, are you sowing lettuces a few weeks apart, that way you can have them all summer long. Certainly are, but there's only us two ;D
I've also got dwarf french bean, sweetcorn, pak choi, courgette, peppers and chilli peppers!
xxx
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Post by Froz on Apr 28, 2007 13:57:58 GMT
I was going to say 'who wants to wait for four years before cropping?', but I googled and came up with this which looks like a winner (among other things). Note it is an all male cultivar, so the picking out of females is unnecessary. The RHS gives a guide to cultivation here which is somewhat different to Bob and Nigel.
Just a thought, but would a TOG's seed swapping group be a good idea? I'm thinking mostly of vegetables, but even flowers etc wouldn't be that difficult to manage. Basically I get fed up of getting a packet of seeds with maybe 200 seeds in it, when all I need is two plants. It's a waste, but could be turned into a shared resource. It would simply involve listing what spare seeds are available and posting them to whoever wanted them, and could include seed collected in autumn from that year's flowers/crop.
fi - I've loads of Antirrhinum and livingston daisy seedlings that need transplanting - if you want some give me a ring/pm etc and lets see if we can get things organised. The farm I presume is Charleston on the Montrose Road Froz
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Post by adamzappel on Apr 29, 2007 6:27:40 GMT
I think the answer lies in the soil.
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Post by scoo on Apr 30, 2007 20:01:40 GMT
I grow all my herbs in pots, apart from the oregano. It refused to grow in a pot, so now it's taking over the garden.
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