Self-sufficient vegetable growing...

couple of acres lol

One allotment plot is more than enough. Plenty of people cope with half a plot

Yes prioritise higher value crops first, or crops that are harder to get, such as different chilli varieties, different lettuce etc
You need to plan plan and plan. You need to cycle plant seeds for things you will consider staples. So lettuce for example quite a long time from planting to picking. No point planting 40 seeds and getting say 30 lettuce that all need to be eaten within 2-3 weeks. You need to plant 10 a week, thin out as you go, and have a constant trickle of lettuce coming through.
The more you try to grow the more you need to keep on top of. Its the thing the less experience of us allotmenteers always talk about, the old hands seem to do way better.
Its also a time thing, way easier to control if your growing at home, or can go daily.

The problem with growing yourself is mainly just the its boom or bust on crops as when they are in season they tend to produce lots, when out, obviously nothing. Get a freezer, learn what can be dried etc
Putting all your eggs in one basket. The weather will affect some crops, spuds and onions for example were poor this year, too hot and dry. My spuds however I left in, and they did grow eventually just about 1 month behind schedule.

@Sonny if your hab got too big but no fruit it maybe had too much access to nitrogen, they will tend to go bushy with that, or too much food in general. The UK season is a little short for the hotter varieties if you haven't got a greenhouse etc.
 
I don't think I could be self sufficient all year on my allotment but I could come close if I really tried, but it would be more like a second job. Last year was excellent down here on the South coast for many crops, Peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergine, sweetcorn and Squashes really thrived in the heat, but lack of rain from April until September took its toll on others!
 
@RedvGreen as has been said aim for higher value crops where you will get more enjoyment for your effort. Tomatoes are always my first suggestion because home grown and picked tomatoes are substantially better tasting than supermarket ones for a whole host of reasons. Chillis, one or two plants will give you loads and you can try some different varieties and they dry really well. Courgettes are good and easy, heavy crop for little effort, same with green beans (avoid runners unless you really like them). Salad leaves are all pretty easy and perennial herbs like bay, sage and rosemary are always nice for cooking.

Buy or borrow John Seymour's Self Sufficient Gardener to give you inspiration.

edit for a wider variety of seeds try Victoriana Nurseries in Kent their website is pretty good and they sell more of the unusual tomato and chill varieties than your local DIY barn.
 
Just starting to plan out our crops this year as I've built some climbing plant troughs to go down the side passage of your property, should get some runner beans and peas in there this year.
 
RedvGreen said:
How long do the vegetables that you harvest keep for?
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All depends on what it is and how you intend to used them. Most can be frozen fresh from the field meaning they stay very fresh for a good 8-10 months without issue or loss of quality. Some like onions and garlic need to be dried or hung to dry and will last for a good 5 months that way.
 
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BigBoy said:
All depends on what it is and how you intend to used them. Most can be frozen fresh from the field meaning they stay very fresh for a good 8-10 months without issue or loss of quality. Some like onions and garlic need to be dried or hung to dry and will alst for a good 5 months that way.
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That’s incredible - from a pure novice perspective, Garlic from supermarkets seems to last 3 weeks tops regardless of being in fridge or hanging up in kitchen!
 
RedvGreen said:
That’s incredible - from a pure novice perspective, Garlic from supermarkets seems to last 3 weeks tops regardless of being in fridge or hanging up in kitchen!
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Fresh from the garden garlic has a very different flavour, it needs time to sweeten or it ends up being very bitter, its hung to dry and improve the flavour.
 
RedvGreen said:
That’s incredible - from a pure novice perspective, Garlic from supermarkets seems to last 3 weeks tops regardless of being in fridge or hanging up in kitchen!
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There is soft-stem garlic that last longer. We're just down to the last few we harvested in the Autumn, and none of them have sprouted. When they are young, they are more "wet" and have a somewhat different flavour. I think the supermarkets sell them as "young garlic" or somesuch and charge triple the price.

We also did a few elephant garlic, which goes well with roasts, and you can roast them, mash them up and turn them into garlic mayonnaise.
 
Our onions from year before last we kept in the garage they went from Aug to about April last year.
Last years crap are already used as they were so much smaller, we did freeze some though.

Interestingly we found that frozen onions break down a lot more when cooked so are better in some dishes if you want the flavour but not really the texture.

Again with garlic, if kept outside in cool temps it lasted a year. In fact it was still fine, but decided to want to grown almost a year on from picking.
We grow around 30 bulbs.

We froze tomoatos as well this year. They are fine for using in dishes and for sauces. Next year I would probably aim to make them into sauce first as it takes up less space.
I need a freezer the size of a shipping container!

i am deffo drying a good portion of my chillies in 2019, rather than freezing. Frozen are great, but again use up a lot of space. I have about 5kgs of chillies taking up about 30 litres of space in the freezer.
Will freeze some for slicing and using in stir frys etc.

I am trying tomatillos this year, aim is to make fresh salsa once the chillies come online. Salsa verde : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_verde
 
After last years warm weather I had an incredible crop of Butternut squash, stored in the garage they are still perfect and much bigger than you buy in supermarkets here. I had 4 plants which grew huge, it was like a jungle.
 
Grrr dont mention squash, I messed mine up, left them too late to plant out, and then they got eaten over night by the slugs
By eaten I mean I knew where I had planted them the day before, but there was no trace at all.
If ever I need to dispose of a body i will cover it in squash leaves and let the slugs dissolve it ;)
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Grrr dont mention squash, I messed mine up, left them too late to plant out, and then they got eaten over night by the slugs
By eaten I mean I knew where I had planted them the day before, but there was no trace at all.
If ever I need to dispose of a body i will cover it in squash leaves and let the slugs dissolve it ;)
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Squirrels are particularly fond of squash, and I have seen them do things like bite the heads off sunflowers and run away with them so they can eat the seeds at their leisure. I imagine the tree rats could have rolled your squash away. The thing with all those veg like squash or courgettes, you need to check when the varieties should be picked. If you let them get too large, then can get watery, bitter, or just lose their flavour.

We had some yellow and green courgettes that were round like little melons, and they were amazingly sweet, and I can highly recommend trumbocinos. They originate in southern Italy and are grown there a lot. In the summer you can use them just like a courgette, and if you leave them longer they become more like a winter squash, so you treat them as a squash.
 
We have quite an active garden for wildlife - birds of prey, squirrels, hedgehogs, cats (Grrr), butterflies and bees too.

There's only so much you can do to prevent infestations though - raise the beds, use natural deterrents and use impeding walls/trellis etc. Any other tips?
 
RedvGreen said:
We have quite an active garden for wildlife - birds of prey, squirrels, hedgehogs, cats (Grrr), butterflies and bees too.

There's only so much you can do to prevent infestations though - raise the beds, use natural deterrents and use impeding walls/trellis etc. Any other tips?
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Nets over stuff seems to work quite well. Organic, food/bird friendly slug pellets. We also grow a lot of plants in between the veg. Some are meant to discourage pests, others to be sacrificial as they are preferred by the bugs. The last couple of years we've had a lot of stuff in tall bags, and nasturtium and basil around the tomatoes, and that seems to have discouraged all the things that eat them. Little windmills around the garden seem to discourage things just because they are colourful and moving on the raised beds, so they act like scarecrows. I dunno if the birdfeeders help by giving bird and squirrels something else to eat that's easier to get to, or encouraging birds into the garden where they can then eat slugs and the like.
 
RedvGreen said:
We have quite an active garden for wildlife - birds of prey, squirrels, hedgehogs, cats (Grrr), butterflies and bees too.

There's only so much you can do to prevent infestations though - raise the beds, use natural deterrents and use impeding walls/trellis etc. Any other tips?
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I also have an abundance of wild and not so wild life, lots of cats in the neighbourhood, a family of foxes live under the decking at the back, badgers, squirrels, pigeons, and a family of deer that like to stop by for a break....

To have any chance of things surviving I've put some 4' wooden stakes and run wire mesh around and netting over the raised beds - it's worked a treat.
This year I'm adding insect mesh to keep the butterflies out :mad:
 
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