Topic: Filmwasters and Vegetable Growers - hand in hand?

[LT]

It's recently come to my notice that at least 3 of the 5 Filmwasters founders are as crazy about home-grown vegetables as they are about their love of creative film-based photography - by my reckoning, that's 60%, a comfortable majority.  I was wondering ... is this a true representation of the filmwasters community?  Are we all as much veg-heads as we are silver gelatine-nuts?

My two main passions in the veg patch are my chilli plants and my composting skills - to evidence this, here is a shot of a proud man next to his latest pile of steaming rotten kitchen waste (all tucked up safely in an aerobic compost tumbler, obviously).

Are you a veg-growing filmwaster?  if so, show us your well-tended patch (cough).





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[Andrea.]

Its that man again!

Ok, here's Eve doing something interesting in net hoopy things. And Cutting the peat. I took the snaps.
Can get a bit draughty here some can't grow anything too high otherwise it ends up in the nearby sea. Had a great crop of potatoes and carrots oh, and beetroot. I have helped in the garden a bit but get distracted by the views.
We don't eat the peat. Yet.

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[Heather]

Ugh, all my pictures of my allotment are awful. I have a very untidy plot, much like my flat and life  Also lots and lots of grass paths looks confusing in B&W. I have a 10 pole plot with a giant shed we bought off of ebay. We have 3 apple trees, a plum tree, blackberries, red currants, black currants, rhubarb... I've grown potatoes, carrots, beetroot, onions, sweetcorn, runnerbeans, wax beans (yellow french beans), and very small pumpkins as they're already going orange but they're quite small and cute still. Not 'jack be little' kind of small, just a few times bigger than a cricket ball though.

Before I got the allotment, I started container gardening on the roof terrace. I still grow strawberries and tomatoes here, and tree onions and accidently some horseradish i forgot to eat over the winter. I grow lots and lots of herbs too.

I generally try to grow the weird stuff. Blue salad potatoes, red potatoes (not as tasty though), purple carrots, yellow carrots, bulls-eye beetroots, scorzerona (which I've been told is an eastern european delicacy. doesn't seem to taste of anything to me though).

[moominsean]

it's tough growing vegetables and such here (hot), and i live in a condo, but i have like 20 plants on my patio. my mom has a huge artichoke in her backyard. gets bigger every season.

[beck]

Fun com'post and responses so far. I went out and took a shot. I used to grow tomatoes but failed to this year....but did manage to grow some red chili's for the hell of it because I like their color. I don't eat them though because I cannot afford to put the fire out....if you catch my drift. Gardening is something that has been in the family for years and years. Both sides....and the only one that has a garden left is my Croatian Aunt Milka. I am waiting for some elephant garlic as we speak....roasted and devoured, mind you. Please don't stop by....

I eat veggles every day too....but I am a true meat and potatoes kind of girl, though. Wait, are we talking about the same thing here?

Today I had some stir fry veg's with shrimp. Wild shrimp with farm raised veggies. I need meat to sustain an active life style, you know. What that life style is, is beyond me....

I cannot wait to see Gordon's patch....

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[This-is-damion]

im well into it,

Tomato's are the thing for me.   Love 'em.   





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[tijeras]

Herbal essences for me....
Cilantro, garlic, shallots, oregano, thyme...
no veggies just yet as the wild bunnies eat everything that's not fenced.
I have a few beans planted but no pix.
With you all's veggies and my herbs we could make a fantastic salad!

Here are a couple of shots from the garden plot.
Crown Graphic shot of the bloomin' Oregano
Sunflower with bee was done with a kids toy magnifier held in front of the Vivitar Wide and slim.
Not sure it would work but it did, so want to pursue this.



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[Francois]

I must admit to not being a very good gardener. But I usually like to go for weird veggies. This year was awful for almost everything. Too much rain. Tomatoes are rotting directly on the plant, we have very few yellow wax beans (they don't seem to grow).
We planted a type of tomato called "Brandywine" (the variety dates back to the 1800's). They are very strange looking but very sweet (we did manage to save a few of them). But carrots are coming along very well. We planted some carrots "de Nantes" which my dad says are delicious. Chives and garlic chives are surviving. We also have a giant bush of Rue (keeps the cats away from the garden patch). Rhubarb also did well this year.

But for me, the real thing is tending trees. We have two apple trees and a giant Horse Chestnut tree that I grew from scratch (with the help from a squirrel). I also planted a few Maples.

[al]

I think you might be onto something here, I'm another "dig for victory" nut, have been for years.  In the past it was always the subject of ridicule but it seems to be a bit trendy now so I'm right out of the closet.

Don't think I have a speciality, I always try to grow way to much on too small a plot for anything to be that spectacular! All the usual stuff, spuds,toms,beans,peas,lettuces,carrots,onions etc etc. Oh yes, and I do get excited about a good, well aeriated compost heap. 

heck I even do my own little private garden blog just to read back to myself and get excited when at work or it's too dark/wet to go outside.  Not a lot of interest unless you happen to live in my house but fellow garden geeks are welcome to look http://weedsandseeds.wordpress.com/

[kuru]

The garden was pretty scary this year, with a lot of fungus problems due to a lot of rain, but we're finally getting tomatoes and peppers.

[Nicole BM]

Not too many vegetables but various herbs and orange/mandarin/lemon/pear/apple trees and strawberries - takes care of the kids recess snacks at school.

[Sandeha Lynch]

Now I'm really feeling guilty.

(I used to garden a lot.)

For next year I'm planning 3 square meters of rice ... chances are there'll be enough water !!

[LT]

we did really well in the early part of summer, but the august was really wet and grey, so things haven't ripened very well - for the first year ever I've managed to grow chillis outside (Pretty in Purple and cayenne - next year I'm going mad - Dorset Naga, Bih Jolokia, Fatalli, Bolivian Rainbow, Joe's Long, Mini Scotch Bonnetts etc etc).  Good toms so far (Tigerella, Black Cherry, Money Makers, Bush Plum, Gardener's Delight), parsnips are looking good, Chard is amazing and keeps coming no matter how much we cut it, We've got a few squashes in but most of them are setting fruit then shrivelling - probably too wet for them, Courgettes have been amazing - but dying now,  Carrots, Potatoes, Trombocini Courgettes, Cucumbers galore, Runner beans are doing well and keeping us fed still, beetroot is streadily growing  - will pickle that ready for xmas to have with nice cheddar, leeks (yum).  I'm sure there's more, but I always forget.  Not bad for a 20 x 15 foot garden though (it is a bit difficult to move out there!.

and a giant Horse Chestnut tree that I grew from scratch

Francois - you need to look after that as best you can. All of our conker trees are slowly dying from a strange disease called Weeping Canker. It's a possibility that the whole UK population fo HC's could die out in the future.  You could make a killing selling conkers to all our school children (www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/conkers.html
)

here are some snaps of my patch for your delight:

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[LT]

sorry everyone, but I had to quote something directly from the conker site I linked to in my previous post ....

Hints on how to make your conkers harder.

You could try one of the following, although it is considered cheating:

    * Soak your conker in vinegar.
    * Bake your conker in the oven.
    * Use an old conker from previous years.

tears are rolling down my face.

[beck]

How the mind wonders. Oh god, not another morning of salaciousness. I actually induced my moons cycle yesterday from laughing so goddamn hard...

Back on topic. I planted an oak tree in the playground where I went to grade school some 30 years ago. Yep. And it is still there today. I will have to take a picture of it tomorrow and show. And it is a lot bigger than Mark's ladder. Pics soon...and digital ones. Nya...

[moominsean]

seriously, it's way too early to read "here are some snaps of my patch".

for my delight, even.

i really can't stop laughing...

[LT]

it's good to hear double entendre is alive and well on the other side of the atlantic.

[gothamtomato]

Every time I hear someone refer to their allotment, I think of Arthur Fowler.

[david b]

That conker in vinegar thing never worked for me ... it was one of the perennial disappointments of my childhood ...

Hopefully I'll move somewhere with a bit of room to grow things soon - all I've managed this year are herbs and a few varieties of potted chillies, most of which have suffered from the truly awful summer we've had up here.

[Francois]

That conker in vinegar thing never worked for me ... it was one of the perennial disappointments of my childhood ...

That's because you need to keep them in the freezer and use them before they thaw

Leon - I never played conkers when I was a kid. The game is not known in my region (possibly due to the fact that the squirrels are much faster at hiding them than we are at collecting them )

[david b]

Funnily enough there's a picture of some schoolboys playing conkers in the new Black & White Photography that came through my door this morning.

The freezing thing doesn't work, by the way - too brittle!

[gothamtomato]

What exactly is conkers?

I've heard it mentioned on British tv shows, but have no idea what it is (though it sounds like some sort of game).

[moominsean]

everybody keep talking about their conkers... beck's gonna feel left out.

[david b]

What exactly is conkers?

I've heard it mentioned on British tv shows, but have no idea what it is (though it sounds like some sort of game).

Wikipedia has a page to answer all your questions!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conkers

I like the factoid on there that Michael Palin was disqualified from a competition for cheating ... think on you vinegar-soakers!