Growing own food

Is it worth it?

I'm not sure but I like to give an update about my garden en growing my own food.

Last year I decided it wasn't worth the try. The last time I had a great harvest if it comes to tomatoes, cucumbers and so on was in 2015. That is a long time ago and I still have syrup and some other food saved in jars. Since that year growing own food was a disaster. No matter what people say about what is easy to grow it is not if you deal with low temps, high temps, a huge lack of water (no water at all) if you are sick or weeds grow faster than any seed can pop up. Another big minus over here is the huge amount of birds and of course, health has to be fine if you want to spend entire days outside plus doing repairments and keep your place clean. Like I once said: summer holidays have way more in common with a working camp instead of a relaxing time. It's the price you pay for living in the country and keeping animals as well

I tried to start early with the seeds inside.

At this very moment (June 3, 2022) the house is still cold and the seedlings hardly grow. What I did sow in April is by now not taller than 1-2 centimetres and in a way that eats me. Why? Because the same plants are for sale on the market and are taller, about 40 centimetres! How can my plants have ever fruit if it takes so long?

By now I have two kinds of salad and I can still not eat them because they are not big enough. So I buy one salad at the market each Friday. It's good for 3 days of food for our family. I really hope from next week on I can eat my own but I don't think so.

I have 3 species of tomatoes.

Four plants I bought in the marketplace. They are tall. Two I planted in the garden and they nearly died because of the heavy rain. I dug them out and planted them in pots. They slowly recover.

The other two I bought later and kept longer inside. They are way taller and by now planted in pots too but I placed them at a different spot (more shadow).

I sow Tiny Tim which is a small tomato plant (it's possible to keep inside). It won't be much taller than 30 centimetres or so. Some are about 8 others smaller. It doesn't look like a plant yet. I kept three inside and the rest in pots outside.

I found some old seeds which turn out to be small tomato plants too. They are still small but today I replanted them in bigger pots. Let's see if they will grow. Frequently if I replant something it dies.

Potatoes

I started early with a test of a part of sprouting potato. I just put the peel in a pot. Later I planted it in a bucket. The plant grows but it feels as if it won't grow any higher plus I have no idea when to water it. I tried to keep it partly out of the sun and placed it in the doorway of the shed. So there's sunshine, light but if it rains it won't affect the plant too much. Later I planted parts of the potato in plastic bags. It took look before they were shown but today the plants are taller than the ones in the bucket.

I made a small potato field with (carbon, soil, potatoes, soil, and mulch) and they do well (today I will water them). Here I planted small potatoes meant for planting. Those few potatoes left I planted at a different spot (more shadow). I try not to invest too much time in the potatoes just when I think they need water I water them.

Dill

Out of my seedlings and those I planted outside only a part of the ones I planted in two buckets are doing well. The birds ate two plants (overnight) and some others died. The new seedlings I replanted today and one container I will keep inside. I read about dill today. The plant can grow high and I wait till it will bloom. I notice I do need to water it frequently although dill seems not to like wet feet.

Anise and Maggi

Both grow slow, very slow and I find it hard to keep them alive. It's careful watering. Perhaps I should keep them inside but I placed all the pots outside because I believe these plants are stronger.

Strawberry - forest strawberries

This goes really slow and is one of the first seeds (very tiny) I started with. The plants are still so small and again I find it hard to keep them alive. These plants are smaller than the lumps in the soil. I have had these strawberries years ago and back then they grew like weeds. I hope they look more like a plant before the winter starts.

Cucumber

I bought two plants. Both I planted in a container. I did sow cucumber (the Chinese one) and within a week I had small plants but after that not very much happened. Since today I planted all my tiny cucumber seedlings in small containers. Fingers crossed they won't die.

About those two I bought... one looks great the other one looks very pale and not healthy. Still, both already have very tiny cucumbers (partly flower). I wonder how I can sow and grow plants faster. Everything I planted is still very small and the Summer won't last long. I really hope I can harvest from my seedlings too.

It's frustrating if there's nothing to harvest but at least I have cherries!

Last year the birds ate them all. This year they stay away from the tree. I have no idea why. The bird nets I bought are way too small. I used both but it only covers about 10 per cent of the tree. At the moment we eat cherries daily which means the only other fruit I bought are apples. I'm not sure if I will buy them next week since there are three left. I will use them to make apple pie for this weekend.

I planted onions and garlic and yes, I know it's not the right time of the year but I still want to give it a try and see what happens. I keep a garden journal and hope it's helpful for the future. Although, I'm not happy if I can't harvest anything I tell myself I have to test different ways (just like the farmers around here they plant the entire year and do not invest much time in taking care of weeds, watering and so on) because my soil, the temperatures over here are not the same as with other people.

I would be happy to have potatoes and salad to start with.

With some luck, I have cherries, currants, blackberries and mulberries, and who knows, maybe walnuts at the end of the year again (one tree died). I no longer count on almonds. The tree is not looking so good. The hazelnut tree that I planted last year and looked dead has grown some leaves again. I hope it will survive this year and grow bigger. I read that it can grow to 5 metres high, but it's not that far yet. At the moment it is more like 20 centimetres.

This year I have planted 2 peach trees and a grape since almost all the fruit trees I plant die for some inexplicable reason. I suspect that there is something in the soil because the sweet cherry tree is not doing well and the apple tree looked dead but fortunately got some new shoots at the bottom of the trunk. Not the fruit trees only but the previous blackberry bushes and grapes died too just like some rose bushes.

Recently I bought another grape and I hope it will survive. _Every house should have a grape_ I read a while back on the site of a gardening company. I used to have a grape bush that, after much hesitation, did well. Unfortunately, the grapes were not tasty but the young leaves were good to eat (stuffed grape leaves are very tasty).

By the way, not much has become of reusing kitchen scraps.

The leeks did grow again and the spring onions did well for a while, but the carrot and onion pieces did not turn out well. Two of the lettuce stems are still growing, but I don't think they will get very big. By the way, I have discovered that such a lettuce stalk can also be cut into a number of pieces and from each piece a head will grow. However, these stems do not need nearly as much water as the sown lettuce and you should definitely plant them in time, as they will rot in water alone.

I have sown carrots in bags.

I did not find that very successful myself. The problem is that I can't easily tell the difference between carrots and weeds. Maybe I have pulled the wrong 'weed'? I also think the bags are too small to plant in and watering them is a bit more difficult. Perhaps they should be in a different place?

I bought two melon plants at the market. I have never planted melons before, but I have grown pumpkin plants from my own seeds but the fruit came too late for harvesting.

The melon plants have started to flower and I am curious to see if I can eat my own melon this year. I have no idea how long it will take for a melon to grow, but I do know that there are people who already have melons from their own harvest. I suspect that these people all have greenhouses because otherwise I don't know how their seedlings can be so big already and they can sell all their harvest.

I would like to have some strawberry plants but I can't find them anywhere. Too bad, because strawberries would be a nice addition to our menu.

Two of the peppermint plants I bought last year have survived the winter. They have come out in the shed. I planted them in containers and they are growing well now. In a week or two, we will be making peppermint tea, and with a bit of luck, I will be able to take cuttings from the plants. You can never have enough peppermint. In any case, I will keep these plants in containers so they do not get overgrown by weeds.

Growing my own food isn't easy and no matter how hard I try it's time-consuming. Way more food is needed to survive and most likely I won't be able to grow that much.

The chickens I bought nearly stopped laying eggs. They don't need too well so I hope it's just because they need time to recover (new feathers and getting used to life over here).

It's a pity I can't keep a tiny cow like the Irish Dexter for my own milk. With a cow and chickens, we would always have something to eat and drink (I make my own yoghurt). Keeping a cow, and some animals yourself trust me it is worth it. I believe I'm better with animals than plants.

June 3, 2022

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