Growing fruit on trees is easy these days with fairly cheap young saplings for sale even at supermarkets, isn't it? Answer - no!
While purchasing such young trees and planting in a suitable spot in your garden is not rocket science managing to get any good fruit growing on the tree and fit for eating is not so easy. Some years fruit trees, such as apple, are dogged by pests. In the end they may strip your tree bare and or result in stunted fruit. Then there are young and older birds that may pick of the best of the fruit while it is still too small for you to select. The bonus is though those birds will also sometimes feed on the insects on your tree's leaves. In June 2015 in the UK a mixed weather bag gave our fruit trees a bumpy ride. Our garden is fairly small but we have managed to plant one cherry, one plum, a pear and an apple tree. They have been in situ a couple of years now. In 2015 the cherry and apple trees had a good show of blossom in spring. Sometimes that leads to nothing but we were lucky and a fair amount of apples and cherries growing fatter each day and slowly ripening followed. The problem however in 2016 was pests or bugs especially on the plum tree. We noticed one evening that the leaves of this tree were sticky. That was the first sign of infestation. We tried the old and tested method of spraying with soapy water liquid but that did not clear the problem. Ultimately we had to use a pest killer against better judgement. That improved matters but meant no plums this year. The cherry tree remained in good health and we received a bumper crop this year but the apple tree was problematic. This time we spotted leaves turning in on themselves and sure enough checking the underside of leaves we found a variety of bugs settling in. Taking a couple of photos in the garden to accompany this report a nice group of small animals looked bigger than they really were as two medium sized snails had attached themselves. Mother Earth news offers some good information about growing fruit trees What is your advice for getting a good fruit crop from a small garden? Let me know in the comments below as we all look forward to spring 2017 and beyond.
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Radishes are one of the easiest and quickest salad vegetables to grow. Not only that, they taste much better than shop bought ones.
First let's make sure we all know what radishes are. They are those small round red, pink or white, slightly peppery tasting salad vegetables. Good radishes are firm and crunchy to bite into. If you have only eaten radishes bought from a supermarket this description may amaze you. Those ones pale by comparison to home grown radishes. Well let's get started As with most vegetables radishes have quite a few different varieties. What all radishes have in common though is that they are all quick and easy to grow. You do not need a large garden as they can be grown from seed in trugs, troughs, planters and the like. Convinced? The seeds You can buy a packet of radish seeds fairly cheaply from garden centres or supermarkets. As a rough amount a packet of seeds containing 500 seeds will cost you about 45p. We opted for a packet of seeds from Asda (UK) for £1 that contained lettuce, spring onion and two different varieties of radish seeds. Containers You can grow vegetables such as radishes even if you do not have a garden; they do not require a massive amount of space. Plastic round trugs which retail from between £2 to £8 are perfect for the job in hand. Remember to drill a couple of drainage holes in the bottom though before planting. Compost Radishes grow so easily that a basic multi-purpose compost will be fine. Buy a huge bag as it works out cheaper. Best location Radishes will thrive in a sunny spot. Summer in the UK can be a hit and miss affair so choose an area that has the most sunlight. Ensure though that they will not get too much sunshine on a daily basis. Radishes might like sunshine but they do not want to get too hot. Planting Ideally plant in rows at a depth of around 1/2 an inch. Cover with soil or compost. Aim to leave a space between each seed. Some radish seeds are a fair size and so this is easy to do with these seeds. Helpful advice
Harvesting Take care not to disturb any surrounding radishes that are not yet ready to harvest. Gently put your hand around the radish under the soil or compost. You will be able to assess if the radish is large and mature. If it is gently pull it up. Snap the top leaves and bottom root off for washing and eating. Throw the discarded leaves and roots into your composter. Overall As radishes are so easy and quick to grow they are perfect for beginners and children to grow. http://www.fullcircle.com/goodfoodlife/2012/05/14/9-reasons-to-eat-your-radishes/ With ever increasing grocery prices in supermarkets growing your own vegetables could save you a bundle of cash. However tight the growing area around your home is, there is always space to grow a few vegetables. Lettuce fresh from your own "plot" is tasty, convenient, cheap and easy to grow.
Good Old Lettuce Having written an easy to follow article, How to grow radishes from seed, I thought I would share my knowledge of growing lettuces. Lettuce is a fairly easy vegetable to grow. They may not grow quite as quickly as radishes but they are not far behind. In the UK when I was a child in the fifties and sixties most salads consisted of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onions and some protein such as meat and or eggs. The lettuce was always a plain old common or garden lettuce; no such thing as iceberg lettuce for us. But these days we all tend to enjoy raw peppers, mushrooms, celery and various varieties of lettuce, plus a multitude of other veg in a salad. So grab a cheap packet of seeds and let's get going We decided to grow a small selection of salad vegetables in our tiny back garden. Due to the lack of space we decided on radishes, spring onions and lettuce but later added a few potatoes. These potatoes were ones that had been left in the cupboard too long and had sprouted. All of these vegetables have been grown in medium or large plastic trugs and a couple of wooden boxes. The cost has been minimal. One problem with the seeds was that we purchased them late in the UK growing season. We had some carrot seeds but have left those for next year. Remember, if you buy a packet of seeds, to check the best-before or use-by-date. Out of date seeds may still grow but there are no guarantees. Usually this season's packet seeds will be fine for a couple of years but it is best to check. Our seeds were bought cheaply from a local supermarket and so was the compost. We do have two composters in the garden but we decided that in general the compost in these was too strong for seeds. If you have never grown any vegetables before choose the easiest version to grow. This may be a Cos variety of lettuce. Once you are more confident try other varieties. So you have the seeds, what now? What we found with our lettuce seeds was that they were tiny and fine. This can mean that the seeds will be unevenly distributed in the soil or compost. If you are careful though this does not have to happen. If this does happen you will need to prick out and separate the seedlings when they are strong enough to move, discarding any that look too weak to survive. On the whole though lettuce are not happy being moved. The best plan is to sow the seeds very thinly in the first place and avoid the need to prick out or move seedlings. Cover the sown seeds with around a 1/2 inch depth of compost or soil. Additional Tips
Depending on the weather, lettuce takes a couple of months to grow from seed. Varieties of lettuce |
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