I love gardening now, its a fact. But when me and Gemma went to do this, I had grass, weeds and Gemma thinking it would not work to contend with. But its easy to do, in the climate we face, once you have the kit, home grown is cheaper, healthier and better for you.

I know I sound like a hippie but its true, the first thing is that once you grow it, you eat it. I hate tomatoes and I now eat them! dont like them much, they taste ok from backgarden but to be honest, if we had not grown them, I would not eat them. The biggest cost is pots, properagators, plastic greenhouses and cains. Once you have them, the cost per yeild will be lower and lower till you break even and even make profit, it will happen. Seeds are cheap if you pick the right places to buy them. I would suggest B and Q for the packets of everything that means you pay 33 pence a packet. That or the pound shop. This year I got plant food for 99pence and wish I got loads more as it works, cheap and most of all every penny counts, these cost alot less than the big chain versions and miricle grow.

Pick the plot, make sure that you give the plot good time to grow weeds, de-weed then carry on till it gets the normal amount if its a really grassy or weedy part of the garden. Then plant away, feed and away you go. There is loads more to it but I am just trying to say, I can do it, it was poor ground and it still works. Just give it love, care and attention. If you dont enjoy it then dont do it again, try it with herbs and potted tomateos first. A little tip, grow the tomatoes in small pots in doors first. Once about 24 inches tall, transfer to a bigger pot, 7 or 8 inches and put outside. Once they grow some more, transfer the plant and pot to the lawn or soil. Use canes to prop up the plant and support with ties as it grows. Dont tie it too tight but enough to hold it up. The roots should go via the pots holes in the bottom, into the ground and blossom without planting them at all. Its what we did with the cherry tomatoes thise year. I did my ones late and they did not grow like the money makers but they are really going some now. Its the mistakes that I do now that will help me and the reader of this blog get better results.

So with all that I thought that some pics from my garden. well more artistic ones in this post will go nicely. I do have loads of other pictures of the crops in my other posts but to be honest these ones are testing out my new camera to see what it can do, plus develop my picture taking skills.

Enjoy:

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So, another type of drink for me to drink! I love the stuff! I will be doing, red, white and may be beer too. I have just done my rose wine, it looks like vinto but its really great. Its easy easy easy actually, wine consentration, water both cold and hot, sugar, yeast and a couple of other little packets of magic. It started bubbling yestserday and today its gone a little bit madder but by Friday I can add the other bits to take the wind out of it and then Saturday put it in bottles. Thats right just seven days, I get proper nice wine, home made! Cant wait.

So this is the home brew wine:

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This week has been a mad one,  loads of hours overtime, lots of back and forth and a ton of vegetables. I have got a load of potatoes, still loads to go, a carrot, 2 bowls of tomatoes, green peppers, dwarf bean and runner beans. We have some red perppers growing too, I knew that peppers change color but seeing it happen is really cool! Gemma made chili con-carny from our tomatoes, chillies and peppers so is a true homegrown dish! Lucky work colleges will get a few cucumbers as I am sick of them / cant eat them all!

I have given alot of stuff away but I think its time to work out what we have got back in value so far! my workings out will come soon.

Any way for now here is this weeks offering:

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This post is just a few pictures or whats happened so far, I will on my next batch do a proper how to. I did start one this time but I have learnt alot since doing my first lot of cider. Cider is hard, well, its not but, if you do not follow the clean, slow, nothing hard and fast rule you will be ok.

So please enjoy my pics and be aware that a rule proof guide is on its way! well, if it works for me its got to be

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Another successful pick, I have had a few mid week picks but I should think that our costs to yield ration must be getting very close. I hope that all the stuff we now have will support us for the next few years to make our grow your own crop money saving. Will work out how much I have got from the crop in the next few weeks.

This is what this week has to offer me:

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Thats my new phone, had it for a only a week and its broken! lets hope that the new one lasts longer! o2 life is not so good, so far, insurance is a must do on my must do list. Along with EDF letter to get £50’s for about £3K of damages they should be paying! thanks guys! lol, still manage to moan about it in a completely different post!

Big thanks to my cousin, following this up with an email but being a lovely cousin, she bought me some winter veg for me to plant out now! Which was really nice. So a public thank you first then follow it up with a nice email.

PS, next year I will be doing a veg box for some family and friends if I am as successful as I have too much food! I am turning green and actually liking tomatoes! well, get sick of them now! might look up how to make your own Tommy K!

I have just bottled my cider, fizzy as fizzy pop, spilt a bit, tasted, oh boy, kick, but very nice and lite. I hope the bottling has not oxidized it as it was not as easy as it looked! Got a couple of how to posts to do yet. Will add more details later.

Well thats the last Bank holiday for 2009, spent doing the lawn, getting annoyed with the rude neighbors and making cider.

So I had little bit more in between but thats the round up. My parents popped in after getting back from holiday Friday to say hello, give us some tasty Belgium choc’s and to receive a great big bag of veg (cucumbers, tomatoes and dwarf beans). As mentioned today I made my cider after going through the various steps and waiting hours for the apple juice, hot water and sugar to cool down so I could add yeast to start my fermentation process. I popped into Ruxley manor to check out the plants and to see if there was any fruit trees me and Gemma could buy. The trees where slightly too expensive! so we are going to buy some online and get them delivered to house instead.

Lastly and the bit I wanted to forget was working on IE6 issues for a work project and then onto my special CodeIgniter extension to create a light weight fast version of CodeIgniter. The plug in is going great and is really working well so far which is great, but, there is always a but in life, I have loads of little features to go which will take ages but the foundation is what I was mainly interested in to be honest.

Well another manic week ahead me thinks……..

Gemma’s proper coffee!