The veg garden

[dave21478]

Anyone doing a veg garden this year?

 

why? [8-)]

 

"Maybe we should do a veg garden this year" she said. "think of the money we would save, and all that lovely fresh veg free of pesticides blah blah blah blah."   To be honest, I stop listening after her second sentance no matter what the circumstances [;-)]

Thing is...the tone it was said in... a simple intonation of voice and a certain looks transforms the phrase "maybe we should" to " we ARE GOING TO.."

"right, ok then."

So off I went to the woodshed, also home to an old motoculteur. Its been there sine I moved here, I assume its mine, but dont really know. I was secretly hoping it would prove to be knackered - "its a shame,but its just not repairable, a new one will cost 200€" then she would say "Im not paying 200€ to save a few quid on lettuce, lets just leave it" and order would be restored. I opened the fuel cut-off, gave two pulls on the string and it rumbled to life. Curse those Japanese and their reliability.

So, an afternoon was spent sweating, stumbling and cursing my way round a wee patch of the lawn. - I hate gardening, but I like grass. Its nice to look at and easy to keep. Im not fussed if its not smooth enough to play bowls on it, just nice and green will do, and this area of the garden had been bare earth before and the grass was coming along nicely, yet here I was churning it all up again. I stood back to admire the handywork, parched, sweating and tired. The old dear in her 80`s down the hill does a garden tripple the size of this by hand with an old hoe. The shame.

Time for planting. We went to the market, where I went to the first stall and asked for tomato plants and a few lettuces. She over-ruled, then spent the next five minutes pondering and posturing as if she really knew the difference between the different breeds on offer. Eventually the selection was made and we were homeward bound. Small holes were made, plants were planted, water was applied, and all was well. Apart from the weeds which had sprung up in the intervening couple of days. "we will have to weed this every day or two" I said. "You wanted the garden, I dont have time to weed it, you will have to do that." was the reply. "But I never...it was you who... you said...but...but...I dont like...." Whining was useless. I was on weed duty.

So here we are several weeks later. The weeding has been neglected a bit, but you can still tell what was planted deliberately and what wasnt, which is good enough for me. The old dear down the hill is out there with her hoe every day and her garden is spotless. In between morning pleasantries, she casts a dissapproving eye over my efforts. More shame. Yet despite the odds being slightly against them, the lettuces and tomatoes have prevailed. The onions are a lost cause, but the herbs are fighting back the weeds. We had the first "fruits" of our (my) labours a few weeks back....With almost reverential solemnity, we went to the garden and cut our first lettuce. I shook the earth out, and retired to the kitchen to wash it. Then I washed it again, then a third time, yet was still finding earth, slugs and various multi-legged entities. A complete strip-down and leaf-by-leaf wash took a long time, these lettuce are huge, far too big to eat before it goes off. hmmm. I hoped it would taste good.

Thing is...all the effort would be worth it if it tasted sublime, if it was noticeably fresher, crisper or tastier than a supermarket job but.....to be honest it just isnt. The disappointment was palpable. And in reality - we eat maybe 3 lettuce every 2 weeks, what the hell were we going to do with a dozen of these monster giganto-lettuce?

I just cant be bothered with it. Its a hell of a lot of effort to save maybe a couple of euros on lettuce over the summer period, even then, Im not factoring in the cost of petrol in the motoculteur, or the time invested in the work. Every time I cut the grass around the garden patch, I consider having "steering linkage failure" and accidentally mowing the lot into oblivion. Back to supermarket mass-produced lettuce, but it tastes just the same anyway, and at least I dont have to spend 20 minutes washing one from the shop.

 

I hope the tomatos turn out better.

 

[Chassaing]

Hi Dave,

Loved your post, read it 4 times to see if there was anything I could disagree with - I couldn't.  I laughed and smiled many times.

For 3 years the trials of the veggie plot have challenged me and if it wasn't for the sweetcorn, courgettes and the tomatoes it would have cost us money too.

We go through the fuss of collecting seeds for the following year, it is like stealing from the garden centres but very work intensive.

Why do I do it? 

Well.......  I have this mania, it makes me believe that the harder I work at growing our own food the better it tastes!  :)

                When we have guests we give them HGMS (pronounced 'Hugums')  Home Grown Home Made.

                The guests tell us the food tastes better therefore reinforcing my mania.

So there you go, we are mad and we enjoy doing it.  :)

Regards

[Panda]

Hi Dave

You should be on the stage, you conjure up such great images, I loved your gite post too!

I agree, had a veggie patch once and that was enough for me, I don't even like my friends giving me those huge dirty lettuces, shame on me I know but there you are!

Do as I did get some goats and accidetally let them free range, goodbye all that needs watering! 

Panda

[Russethouse]

 We grow a few veg in containers, I tried lettuce and won't bother again, we are not that keen on them, not as keen as the pests are anyway ! We have 6 pots of runner beans, 2 of 'Hestia' beans', 3 of courgettes, 3 of toms, 1 of carrots and 1 of beetroot. We also had 3 potato bags for new potatoes which were good.

Weeding isn't a problem, watering has to be regular but we really do it for the pleasure and because nothing beats freshly picked runners beans, in my opinion

The pots will have bulbs in them in the winter (probably a slightly smaller plastic pot, slipped in the terracotta outer)

 

[Anton Redman]

Funnily enough we are in the opposite state. This year about 20 square mnetres and two half days stolen from the renovation. We will do it properly next year with more protection from the snails. Not sure about more protection from the deer rather like watching them steal the straw berries

[Gastines]

I must admit to my veggie patch getting smaller each year. Two reasons,water and weeds. The only easy crop seems to be Runner Beans but they all crop at the same time,even if planted 4 weeks apart and my neighbours don't like them. We get bowls of Strawberries/Raspberries and Haricot beans brought in so no need to grow my own and the farm about 500 metres away has lovely spuds and each time we buy some we get offered a Lettuce or Cauli FREE. On offering my granddaughter runner beans from our plot last week I was informed "I prefer sweet corn". As corporal punishment is now a No-No I decided I might be wasting my time. Whilst away ,my neighbours son watered everything and emptied all my storage bins,today in about two hours they all got refilled,about 600 litres.I'm trying to be water aware but think it'd a losing battle between drought and storm  and the weeds,OH the weeds.!!

Regards.

[Patf]

Good description, Dave and very evocative.

We have a veg garden this year for the first time for 3 years. We are really pleased with our produce, the main reason for the good quality being the soil, which is rich,crumbly and full of humus. A neighbour told me that years ago this plot was lovingly prepared and planted by previous owners. In our last garden, not far from here, we had pure clay, which was fertile but difficult to work.

We had to fence it off as we have free range hens and ducks.

So we're enjoying spuds, onions beetroot strawberries, courgettes lettuces, 3 kinds, cucumbers and broad beans. Tomatoes not yet ripe. At the moment the weeds have taken over in some parts and I think you have to just about live in the garden to keep on top of them. This is one of the big differences from gardening in the UK ie the rate of growth.

I think it's a myth that you save money by growing you own. But it's still worth it.

[mint]

Pat, you have now given me veg plot envy.  Soil that is "rich, crumbly and full of humus"?  It makes you ill the way some people like to brag, really it does.

Our soil is sandy and full of calcaire and, after months of digging in veg peelings, etc in trenches, this year it remains .....well, sandy and full of calcaire.

Thank goodness it's not my responsibility as I wasn't too keen on the veg plot in the first place.  However, it does have many functions, some of which I list below:

It keeps the OH out of the house and happy for hours on end.

Ditto the dog

It's one more thing that enables our French neighbour to feel superior about.

It's yet another factor that gives said neighbour the opportunity to tell these anglais where they are going so wrong in their lives

Said neighbour also brings us spuds, tomatoes, squashes, strawberries, etc, etc, thus being able to demonstrate to us how much better the produce of his veg plot is to ours

It's a good excuse to offer when showing people how neglected the rest of the garden is because, as you know, the veg plot takes up a lot of time.

Come winter, you can forget about the damned thing for a few months. 

[Callie]

I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts - and Dave, you had me in stitches.  You echoed so much of what goes on here ! ! !

OH says "Right, I'm going to plant ...... ...... and ......".   So he gets out the rotavator and sets to work.  Next, having smoothed off the soil, he plants the seeds in neat little rows, with a label on a stick at the end of each row.  Then we wait.  At the first green sprouting, we get excited until we find it is groundsel.  And so it goes on, weeds and seeds competing to see who can grow the fastest.

Now, the crunch comes when I say to OH "I think you need to weed YOUR veg patch"......."Oh, you can do that, just go round with a hoe and loosen the ground".  So Callie ends up doing the weeding and watering while OH stands back and surveys his work, pointing out the bits I've missed.

We did peas twice and in spite of the enormous number of plants and the few peas we reaped, they were the most delicious, sweetest things I have ever tasted.  Really worth it, but you need to plant a lot.  We have never worried about the economics of growing our own, but for taste, you simply cannot compare home grown with commercially grown.  Plus the satisfaction of saying "Everything on this plate comes from our garden".[:D]

[valB]

I agree totally, Callie, as I have a veg plot and I do most of it on my own as OH thinks it is a waste of time and reluctantly digs it over for me. He then goes into raptures of glee when I have hundreds of Strawberries, pounds of Runner beans, my first Broccoli was eaten last night at dinner, pounds of onions ( French onion soup for lunch today ) amazed how many carrots we had when the area was dug over and so on. I would have planted so much more but could not get OH to finish the digging as he was " far too busy " doing .....what ? He is not a gardener and thinks all it involves is cutting grass so I do not know who he thinks does all the weeding and taking cuttings  etc. Yes, I will still do it next year and I hope to grow Corn on the Cob and watch  him slap the butter and lemon pepper in it whilst bragging to friends how " we " grow our own.

[dave21478]

Yikes, I turn my back for a few days and the lettuce evolves.

[IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc297/dave21478/DSC00048Small.jpg[/IMG]

The tall one in the middle is the ringleader. He demands more water and better slug control or they will sabotage the swimming pool.

 

[Bannon]

Our veg garden is great for knowing where the chcikens are..... usually having a go at the tomatoes.

[plod]

Churchill described the joys of vegetable gardening - blood, sweat, toil and tears!

[Keni]

Dave, you can use lettuce and blitz it with other veg for soup - which you can then freeze. In our veg patch here in uk I have managed to freeze the broad beans, caulis and broc. I break them into smaller florets and use them in stir frys and other things. Courgettes can be cut, blanched and frozen as well, or added to soup mix.

The lettuce though is really great for soup - any old veg you want to lose, plus poatoes etc. It really does freeze, then when friends come you can just get it out freezer, warm it through and by adding a bit of chicken or something to the basic veg soup, have anything you want! Summer veg = winter freezer stuff!