Growing your own food!

Wahey! Another CLASSIC ZIPWOLF THREAD on YOUR DRAGONSLIST TODAY!

A rare oppurtunity to really go off topic awaits you!

So yeah, i am currently considering growing my own food out back in the garden. Not huge amounts as i cant afford it, but enough to provide me and my girlfriend with a few tomatoes, and leafy greens.

Does anyone here have any experience with it? As i have a few tips from my garden crazy dad (Though he never really taught me directly any of it, i did learn a fair bit from observation) but not nearly enough to know exactly what i'm doing in every respect. (The sprouting of seeds ive got mostly down though. Its what to do AFTER that, with keeping pests away without the use of dangerous pesticides etc.)

Currently i am thinking of growing Hemp (I really hope people dont think that i'm growing drugs), Edible leaf carrots, Celtuce, Tomatoes (preferably cherry toms), and possibly alfalfa (a whole different thing there.)

Any advice is cool, but also i want some general discussion on the whole gardening for the sake of eating what you grow!

TALK!

NOW!

Well, I have some advice for the hemp... grow it in your loft. Line the loft with aluminium foil, steal some sodium lamps (often used to illuminate signs, buildings, you can wear rubber so you're insulated and just yank them out of the ground) and then set up the lights in the loft so your hemp thinks its daylight 18 hours a day and grows twice as fast... Then after you harvest the hemp you can have hours of fun pressing the leftover sheets of tinfoil into your face and making sculptures.

It's a lot of hassle. Why not just head down to the local farmers market?

I have grown stuff - strawberries, cape goosberries, guavas, tree tomatoes, pumpkin, pawpaw, beens, taro... but only when the option was to live on sweet potato and fried pumpkin leaves with corn and mango at christmas.

Wait, your a martial artist. Isn't it traditional for you and your mates to either take food (and wine and women) at will until a solitary fighter wanders in to town and beats you all up or for you to be the solitary fighter awarded any food he wants by the grateful villagers?

__________________
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me

If i grow hemp in the loft, it looks very suspicious, i could do the 24/7 light thing however in my kitchen!

And i know its a fair amount of hassle, but the wimbledon farmers market likes to charge prices that can pay for each vegetable twenty times over. I mean fair trade is one thing... but they do like to charge lots.

It seems youve grown a lot! So any advice would be useful. I am a poor student with too much time

Also, london is too big for the solitary fighter thing. I'd need to move to Cornwall. :P

I have no more advice. Where I grew stuff it was stick it in the ground and watch it grow. Even our fence posts started sprouting leaves after a few weeks and turned into trees after a couple of years.

__________________
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me

lol, thats good advice to a point, but i wont be sticking things into the ground until they are healthy sprouts. The main technique i learned was to grow seeds before planting them :P

“	Originally Posted By: john100 Well, I have some advice for the hemp... grow it in your loft. Line the loft with aluminium foil, steal some sodium lamps (often used to illuminate signs, buildings, you can wear rubber so you're insulated and just yank them out of the ground) and then set up the lights in the loft so your hemp thinks its daylight 18 hours a day and grows twice as fast... Then after you harvest the hemp you can have hours of fun pressing the leftover sheets of tinfoil into your face and making sculptures.	”

I've still got a homegrow set with a hugelamp and timers etc.
my brother in law and his friend used to grow hemp here
after the harfest they had many hours of fun, but this suggestion is kinda weird John....

“	Originally Posted By: john100 I have grown stuff - strawberries, cape goosberries, guavas, tree tomatoes, pumpkin, pawpaw, beens, taro...	”

my advice is to grow stuff that either:

• is not found in all stores
• is really expensive is stores

tomatoes are easy to grow, but they're cheap and you can get them everywhere
get special tomatoes for variation and you'll enjoy your work much more....

“	Originally Posted By: john100 It's a lot of hassle.	”

that's right...

the planting is one thing
taking care of a garder is no fun (IMHO)

my wife has to do that

I suggest you find a woman who can do that for you as well

“	Originally Posted By: john100 Wait, your a martial artist. Isn't it traditional for you and your mates to either take food (and wine and women) at will until a solitary fighter wanders in to town and beats you all up or for you to be the solitary fighter awarded any food he wants by the grateful villagers?	”

LOL.....

Chief108

__________________

“	Question Authority. Question Society. Question Reality. Question Yourself. Question your conclusions, your judgments, your answers. Question this. If you question everything thoroughly enough, the truth will eventually hit you upside the head and you will know. But here’s a warning: It won’t be what you imagined. It won’t be even close.	”

all hail Martyr Fakka

lol, chief, my girlfriend is perfectly willing to help me out with doing a garden of food, but she would NOT do it all :P.

I see what you are saying with stuff thats not availible in all stores, so in that case i am going to be growing some harder to find leafy greens (supermarkets like to sell Cos and Iceberg lettuces, but they dont like to sell ones that have any REAL nutritional value), i may try and grow some awkward to grow things, or some cool wasp coloured tomatoes!

By the way though, strawberries ARE expensive. As are all other berries, so it would be worth me growing them, but they take up a LOT of space. Whereas tomatoes etc, i can grow up bamboo.

And chief, i bet you were the guy who tormented the town, not saved.

“	Originally Posted By: Zipwolf lol, chief, my girlfriend is perfectly willing to help me out with doing a garden of food, but she would NOT do it all :P.	”

just bring it like it's *her* idea and she'll do more than you will imagine...

“	Originally Posted By: Zipwolf I see what you are saying with stuff thats not availible in all stores, so in that case i am going to be growing some harder to find leafy greens (supermarkets like to sell Cos and Iceberg lettuces, but they dont like to sell ones that have any REAL nutritional value), i may try and grow some awkward to grow things, or some cool wasp coloured tomatoes!	”

good one....

“	Originally Posted By: Zipwolf By the way though, strawberries ARE expensive. As are all other berries, so it would be worth me growing them, but they take up a LOT of space.	”

strawberries are easy...
biggest problem with those is that they tend to get wild and pop up everywhere...

I' thinking about growing LOTSA berries next year tho...
we also have an appletree and cherrytree (although the birds enjoy them more than we do... )

“	Originally Posted By: Zipwolf And chief, i bet you were the guy who tormented the town, not saved.	”

never...

I'm the nicest guy in town... :

Chief108

__________________

“	Question Authority. Question Society. Question Reality. Question Yourself. Question your conclusions, your judgments, your answers. Question this. If you question everything thoroughly enough, the truth will eventually hit you upside the head and you will know. But here’s a warning: It won’t be what you imagined. It won’t be even close.	”

all hail Martyr Fakka

lol, i dont think she'll buy it that it was her idea, at least not entirely. I WILL have to do some work for this. But i'm not too concerned about that, i'll make some time. I just have to get through my procrastination problems.

And you suck with your apple tree, i would love an apple tree! Or a whole ORCHARD!

If you do do berries, do some loganberries. I'll buy a portion of your crop.

And nicest in town? lol. Yeah... i believe you... you with your sysadmin kung fu ways. :P

for tomatoes, try paste varieties like roma or the like, small plants that bear lots of fruit. i have lots of nursery experience, so let me know if you have any specific questions. painting the floor and walls white works better than foil. most importantly, everyone knows the three most important nutrients for any plant are........?

__________________
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than to open it and prove it so." KungFuTze
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." T. Geisel

umm... umm... water, sunlight, and... beer?

wow, very good, as the last one should have been co2, and beer is carbonated, ill give you an a- for that, creativity is worth points with me.

__________________
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than to open it and prove it so." KungFuTze
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." T. Geisel

Most awesome, would you recommend a heat lamp for germinating seeds? Or would you recommend natural sunlight?

well, ambient heat usually equates to better germination, but the blue spectrum absent in most heat lamps, is best suited to green foliage production, so given your latitude, most temperate and tropical stuff would do best with heat lamp, plus flourescent for blue light, unless you could guarantee the consistency of the sunlight. not something i think you can do in london.

__________________
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than to open it and prove it so." KungFuTze
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." T. Geisel

lol, definately cannot say there will be constant sunlight in london. A heat lamp it is. Any suggestions on any i could buy?