Hello from a newby with problems

[wheelysneakycat]

Hi, thanks for the link. I'm trying to get in touch with other blind gardeners to get their ideas/tips especially on telling the difference between plants and weeds. I do have people to help me, at the moment it's just working out what best to focus on now and how to do do things as cheaply as possible.

[begining at 40]

Hi Catherine, I new too, and have just had an allotment. I know how you feel. I'm not having much luck either, but everyone is so amazing on here, and always answering questions. Good luck, and don't give up!

[begining at 40]

Aw Catherine, I'm shocked they said you would have to vacate your allotment. I think your amazing with what your doing. Mine is in an awful state, but I havent had any pressure from others to speed up. Its a hard slog, the best advice u have been given is one bed or patch at a time and I think that is true. Wish you all the luck in the world

[wheelysneakycat]

Yes I felt it slightly unfair when I got that letter. On the other hand I know allotments are hard to come by and I'm lucky to have it so they do need these rules. And at least when he saw me in person he seemed to change his mind. I just have to make sure I improve it enough from now on.

[SusieG]

Well good luck wheelysneakycat! Tons of good advice from the guys on the Vine, as always.

[Bigmallly]

Hi Cat, this could be the perfect time to get hold of some Autumn sowing Onion sets. Last year I put mine in seed trays for a few weeks before putting in their bed & they did really well. This will then give you time to prepare the bed in time for planting on.

[Starling]

The programs which do this for me are called "screen readers". Depending on whether the person is using Mac or Windows they have several options. On Windows you have JAWS (pretty expensive), Window-eyes (free if you have a recentish version of Microsoft Office installed) or NVDA (totally free but comes with an awful-sounding voice, you can pay for a better voice). On Mac you have Voiceover. These programs don't make an audio file as such, but yeah basically they read the screen out in a synthetic voice and you need to learn certain keystrokes to interact with them e.g. "read the title of this window", "read the current line" etc. There are also other programs which will just read out documents if that's what's needed. Stuff like this is available on smartphones as well. Don't know what your friend's situation is, but I'd be happy to help give them info/point them in the right direction - send me a private message if you like.

Ok Catherine, will do.

Although the site rules do not permit to exchange seeds, it is not stipulated anywhere that I can't send you seeds Gratas.

Can you tell me a little about your growing zone--avergare warmest and coldest temperatures? I will also need to know about your space restrictions, and more simply what flavours you like. I have a few ideas for rare, very good quality fruits that would be suitable for your locale which I'm assuming is temperate--but if by chance it's sub-tropical, I could send you some truly incredible species.I collect exotic fruits and have a fairly substantial international network of fellow collectors that I trade with regularly.

Are you familiar with a species called Asimina Triloba? I'm thinking this would be a good choice for you and it will fruit even in a container, so long as said container is a good size, 65 liters or so.

[wheelysneakycat]

Hi Cat, this could be the perfect time to get hold of some Autumn sowing Onion sets. Last year I put mine in seed trays for a few weeks before putting in their bed & they did really well. This will then give you time to prepare the bed in time for planting on.

Good suggestion, thanks. I eat loads of onions so will do plenty of these.

[wheelysneakycat]

Can you tell me a little about your growing zone--avergare warmest and coldest temperatures? I will also need to know about your space restrictions, and more simply what flavours you like. I have a few ideas for rare, very good quality fruits that would be suitable for your locale which I'm assuming is temperate--but if by chance it's sub-tropical, I could send you some truly incredible species.I collect exotic fruits and have a fairly substantial international network of fellow collectors that I trade with regularly.

Are you familiar with a species called Asimina Triloba? I'm thinking this would be a good choice for you and it will fruit even in a container, so long as said container is a good size, 65 liters or so.

Ah thanks that's very kind of you.

I looked up some weather stats for my area. Below are the lowest-warmest temperatures for each
month and the precipitation figure (I must say I don't understand what that precipitation
figure means, maybe you do? I looked it up at
Weather statistics for Colchester, England (United Kingdom)). An alternative
place, where they have rainfall in mm, for the figures is
Colchester, United Kingdom Weather Averages | Monthly Average High and Low Temperature | Average Precipitation and Rainfall days | World Weather Online but the layout
there is not accessible for me.

Jan 1-7 °C; precip 10
Feb 1-7 °C; precip 8
Mar 1-10 °C; precip 10
Apr 4-12 °C; precip 9
May 7-16 °C; precip 8
Jun 10-19 °C; precip 9
Jul 12-22 °C; precip 7
Aug 12-22 °C; precip 7
Sep 10-19 °C; precip 8
Oct 7-14 °C; precip 9
Nov 4-10 °C; precip 10
Dec 3-7 °C; precip 10

This year we continued to get frosts up till the end of May. There's no shade on my plot.

Space - the containers I have are 244 cm long, 80 cm wide, 60 cm deep. They actually don't
have bottoms on them, just sit on the ground, I wanted it that way so hopefully depth doesn't make a difference.

Flavours - vegwise I eat anything, especially like pungent flavours like onion, garlic, ginger
and chilli. Fruitwise I don't like bananas, melons or pears; I'll try everything else and I
especially like pineapple, cherries and strawberries.

No I haven't heard of asimina triloba, well not by its proper name, just looked it up and yes
I've heard of the pawpaw but never seen/tasted one - it sounds intriguing :-)

[veggiechicken]

To be honest, I doubt that many, if any, of the fruit plants that are grown in Queensland would thrive here without greenhouse protection and probably additional heat in the winter.
I've tried growing lots of weird and wonderful fruit and veg from seed, because I enjoy a challenge, but there have been very few successes - certainly no edible fruit yet!
On your allotment, Catherine, you need to concentrate on plants that will grow reliably in our unreliable UK climate, if you are to show to the allotment manager that you are cultivating the plot.
Although the thought of growing pawpaws is very tempting, in my opinion, it is unrealistic to hope for anything more than an attractive house plant.
It is a kind offer that Starling has made but I don't want you to be disappointed.

[Starling]

Ah thanks that's very kind of you.

I looked up some weather stats for my area. Below are the lowest-warmest temperatures for each
month and the precipitation figure (I must say I don't understand what that precipitation
figure means, maybe you do? I looked it up at
Weather statistics for Colchester, England (United Kingdom)). An alternative
place, where they have rainfall in mm, for the figures is
Colchester, United Kingdom Weather Averages | Monthly Average High and Low Temperature | Average Precipitation and Rainfall days | World Weather Online but the layout
there is not accessible for me.

Jan 1-7 °C; precip 10
Feb 1-7 °C; precip 8
Mar 1-10 °C; precip 10
Apr 4-12 °C; precip 9
May 7-16 °C; precip 8
Jun 10-19 °C; precip 9
Jul 12-22 °C; precip 7
Aug 12-22 °C; precip 7
Sep 10-19 °C; precip 8
Oct 7-14 °C; precip 9
Nov 4-10 °C; precip 10
Dec 3-7 °C; precip 10

This year we continued to get frosts up till the end of May. There's no shade on my plot.

Space - the containers I have are 244 cm long, 80 cm wide, 60 cm deep. They actually don't
have bottoms on them, just sit on the ground, I wanted it that way so hopefully depth doesn't make a difference.

Flavours - vegwise I eat anything, especially like pungent flavours like onion, garlic, ginger
and chilli. Fruitwise I don't like bananas, melons or pears; I'll try everything else and I
especially like pineapple, cherries and strawberries.

No I haven't heard of asimina triloba, well not by its proper name, just looked it up and yes
I've heard of the pawpaw but never seen/tasted one - it sounds intriguing :-)

Your rainfall is good, pretty stable (earlier this year, I got 300--yes, 300 mm in two hours) but you're also in a proper cold spot. The highest temperature you'd experience all year would be about the same as the lowest daytime temperature I'd experience in winter. It hit 45 degrees in summer here last year...horrific.

Asimina can handle that kind of cold though, it really is an exceptionally good fruit and one of the few non-commercial types I'd recommend. Planting space is fine if you wanted to grow one in one of your planters.They are as tough as nails, and you could plant it in the ground if that's an option and it would produce with pretty much total neglect.

I also have a type of garlic that is single clove, which is a godsend as you don't have separate the nodes and peel individual pieces. It's a thai variety, can be peeled like an onion. I don't have seed, only bulbs and it could be a quarantine issue, I'll look into it. I can also send some saskatoon berry seeds which will handle subzero temps, can be worked into an edible hedge and produce masses of berries (well, they're actually a pome, making them more closely related to apples) which taste kind of like blueberries mixed with almonds. They make absolutely superb jellies and pie fillings if they make it that far.

So yeah, I can help with the exotic stuff. I do have some chilli plants ( carolina reaper death strain) but it's over 2 million scoville units, which is insane and I really only grow it to use as a pest deterrent, but you're welcome to it if you like. Cherimoya might also be an option for you but I'll have to double check, I think your locale might be slightly too cold for them but I could be wrong as they are a very cold hardy annonacea as far as annonacea go.

Something else you can grow, believe it or not, is passionfruit. Well, one in particular--Passiflora mollissima, or banana passionfruit. Not quite as good as P. Flavicarpa, but still extremely good--doesn't taste like banana, it's just shaped like one. Especially elegant flowers. Yellow pith, orange pulp. You'd need to grow it against a wall, preferably brick or stone, which would act as a kind of heat sink providing warmth into the night as well as a partial wind break, but they're a great vine and not dofficult to maintain.They do tend to defoliate at 6 Degrees, but they will bounce back and fruit well for you in spring/summer. A full grow vine can yield 300 passionfruit per season.

If any of the above interests you drop me a PM
And I'll get some of it off to you.

Other things you might consider growing:

Blueberries--you get huge amounts of chill hours going by the graph, you could grow pretty much any variety in existence and they don't take much room. Ditto Cherries--lucky you, one of my favorite fruits, but totally unfeasible to grow in my climate. There are several dwarfing varieties available that would suit your needs to a tee, trixie comes to mind. Peaches are also a good option, also available in many dwarf varieties. If you can find a local source, or online one for a variety called 'Angel' (high chill) it's worth buying as it is a very productive tree that stays very small.

[wheelysneakycat]

To be honest, I doubt that many, if any, of the fruit plants that are grown in Queensland would thrive here without greenhouse protection and probably additional heat in the winter.
I've tried growing lots of weird and wonderful fruit and veg from seed, because I enjoy a challenge, but there have been very few successes - certainly no edible fruit yet!
On your allotment, Catherine, you need to concentrate on plants that will grow reliably in our unreliable UK climate, if you are to show to the allotment manager that you are cultivating the plot.
Although the thought of growing pawpaws is very tempting, in my opinion, it is unrealistic to hope for anything more than an attractive house plant.
It is a kind offer that Starling has made but I don't want you to be disappointed.

Point taken. Maybe an idea for the future, or a very small part of the plot while focusing on more reliable crops immediately.

[Starling]

Point taken. Maybe an idea for the future, or a very small part of the plot while focusing on more reliable crops immediately.

I agree veggie--but I haven't offered any fruit species that would feasibly grow in Queensland. It's too hot/humid in QLD for A. Triloba, saskatoon berry, and banana passionfruit--these are temperate species. In fact saskatoon berry grows in Canada--If it can handle the Canadian winter, it can handle whatever the UK can throw at it!

Also, the term 'pawpaw' is confusing to a lot of people. Some people use it in reference to A. Triloba, whereas others use it in reference to carica papaya, which is a completely unrelated species not even in the same genus. There would be absolutely no possibility of this fruiting in Catherine's location, obviously--but A triloba might be worth a shot.

Offer is always there, anyway