How Much is Growing Your Own Worth?

We grow our own. Not on a large scale and certainly not enough to be self sufficient. Its essentially something to keep me occupied and for fun. However, I’ve always kept a record of what we harvest and tried to assign a value to that. My better half (frequently) gets cross because when there’s a…… Continue reading How Much is Growing Your Own Worth?

Tomatoes starting to finish – 2022

Ok, so the tomatoes are still producing a reasonable quantity (2.5 kg today) but it’s obvious that it won’t be going on for much longer. Unusually it’s the beefsteak that are turning off first. Today we picked the last of the Aunt Rubies German Green and Black Krim. It’s a few weeks sooner than other…… Continue reading Tomatoes starting to finish – 2022

Tomatoes Ripening Early (2022)

The hot spell we had a few weeks ago seems to have brought everything earlier than other years. This is possibly good or bad. We are about 6kg of tomatoes ahead of what we would have expected to pick by this time in an average year and it seems to be mainly down to the…… Continue reading Tomatoes Ripening Early (2022)

Today’s Harvest (August 2022)

The family have been here for the past week so it’s been difficult to know exactly how things are going. We had a heavy thunderstorm which broke the hot dry weather and, hopefully, will mean that some of the beans and courgettes will set and grow. It doesn’t affect the tomatoes because I have been…… Continue reading Today’s Harvest (August 2022)

Effects of Dry Weather

The weather this week has been hot, dry and windy. As a result, whilst the plants in the greenhouses are doing well and the tomatoes are starting to ripen in quantity, all the outside plants are suffering and need copious amounts of water. Even so, the runner beans have lost all their flowers and no…… Continue reading Effects of Dry Weather

Harvest – Mid October 2021

The days are drawing in, the evenings are darker and the weather is significantly cooler. However, there are still green tomatoes, some of which seem to be ripening others of which are succumbing to blight. Since the last harvest post we’ve picked another 9kg of tomatoes, four cucumbers, 2kg of carrots, half a kilo each…… Continue reading Harvest – Mid October 2021

Harvest- End of September 2021

The season is beginning to come to an end. We’re still getting tomatoes (another 9kg since our last post) but the plants are looking decidedly sickly with botrytis/grey mould killing off the ends of the plants, the leaves and (more frequently now) the fruit. It looks like the problem has affected even the fruit that…… Continue reading Harvest- End of September 2021

Mid June Harvest (19th June 2021)

Ignoring the tomatoes for a while (they’re growing strongly and beginning to set fruit), I’m looking at how everything else is doing. Lots of plants are in the process of strengthening, growing and beginning to set fruit & vegetables but the harvest is a bit slow. Some of the difficulty is down to the weather…… Continue reading Mid June Harvest (19th June 2021)

Home Gardening – June 2021 Update

Despite the cold and wet May, the tomatoes are all planted up unto their final containers. I haven’t done as many different varieties this year (not really sure why) nor have I as many plants as usual. However, a good mix of indeterminate (cordon) and determinate (bush) will see enough tomatoes for the year (unless…… Continue reading Home Gardening – June 2021 Update