Being selfsufficientish in 2016

[Flo]

Some frozen, some eaten, some in chutney and someone is going to try Chinese plum sauce.

[Flo]

Cough splutter and been buying new clothes - new as in new and not as in new to me! It's having a steady income called a pension that does it.

Have been using tubs from someone else this year for tomatoes in the greenhouse. With a promise to return them end of season which is any week now at least all the replacements have been either from a neighbour turning out her back paved yard as she is moving or from the pile at the allotment which haven't been used this season.

I'm querying stuff in the allotment shed at the moment and wondering about things that haven't been used in a few years. What seemed good ideas once upon a time are now collecting spiders so I'm looking at them with interest and consideration about them going to the tip at some point. Allotment holders can be people who say "I might just use" that if it's being given away free and then years later they retire leaving the incoming tenant with many interesting items that are called junk.

[bonniethomas06]

Plum cheese? How am I 35 and have never tasted plum cheese!!
Funnily enough have recently found a hawthorne cheese recipe which I might give a try.

[Odsox]

Plum cheese? How am I 35 and have never tasted plum cheese!!

You've lived a sheltered life
Damson cheese is better.

[Flo]

Yes I've heard damson cheese is good too but never had any.

I've given the daughter the last courgette and asked her to make some of her courgette chocolate brownies for me. She did get a generous offering of the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse which is now empty (cold nights, very all of a sudden).

I've acquired enough tubs for the greenhouse for next year's tomatoes - some spares from the allotment and some from a neighbour who is moving from a downstairs flat with a gravel/paving garden into a bungalow with a proper garden. So I've washed and returned the borrowed ones. Now I'm self sufficient in tubs for next year's tomatoes and so is the neighbour who lent me some for this year. We found they do better in tubs than in grow bags.

There was an over supply of herb on the allotment so the grandson has some cuttings in his rented accommodation in Scotland and there are more in tubs to go to the daughter's front garden next year.

[Green Aura]

We use tubs, too, Flo, finding them much easier to deal with than either raised beds or grow bags (our tubs nicely contain one bag each). The plan was that we would grow tomatoes in them one year and then beans the second - getting twice the use from each bag. In practice the roots spread so far throughout the tub there's no compost available for next year, although it all goes back into the compost bins.
One tip we have discovered to cut down on the amount of water we use has proven very useful (which I've almost certainly mentioned before). We bought a small (9-10 cm ) terracotta pot and saucer for each tub. We plugged the hole with some silicone and sank each pot in the compost to neck height, filled them with water and cover with the saucer. The water seeps out of the pots and waters from below - it only needs filling (here anyway) a couple of times a week.
A Tagetes in each tub also seems to stop aphids quite successfully and looks really pretty too. I like a pretty polytunnel.

[Flo]

It's a good thing that plastic plant pots breed like weeds innit?