Your Questions About Gardening

Do you grow your own fruits & vegetables?

Grow your own – 9 floors up in a tower block?

Dear Yahoo!Answers

I heard about you on my local radio station – www.bbc.co.uk/3counties – a few days ago and as I have had a Yahoo! ID almost as long as I have had an email address – since 04/2000 – I thought I would give you a go – and pass on feedback to my local radio station so that ‘the word gets put around’ about you, so here goes:-

I live 9 floors up in a tower block in South Luton, Bedfordshire and have no garden, but I have become so interested in ‘growing your own‘ vegetables that some years ago I did just that. I had a go at growing runner beans on the balcony. I used ‘spent’ 3 & 5 litre squash cartons with the tapered top cut off, some small drainage holes in the bottom and grow bag material along with a tomato feed alternated with ‘Miracle Grow’. I got great plants that grew all the way up and beyond the 8ft long canes but only tiny beans barely 3 inches long and the thickness of a biro’!

My question is why is this? Why was my yield so small? Is it that because I am so high above the ground the plants just do not get the polynation from bees, fly’s and other insects such that the growth is ‘stunted’ and I am doomed to failure as a result?

I am currently having another go having seen the any 3 for £1.50 offer on seed packs in my local ‘Wilkinson’ store in the Arndale Centre. This time i’m growing Cauliflower, Peppers and Onions using ‘spent’ plastic 2 litre bottles and cartons, alongwith other sizes of ‘spent’ plastic carton and ‘Wilko’ multi-purpose compost along with the two feeds mentioned above which I still have from my previous attempt some 15 or so years ago.

Any information / tips on how to get a good yield this high up would be gratefully received – i’m sure i’m not the only one living in high-rise flats that wants to grow their own vegetables, Luton has 9 or possibly 10 of these 14-storey tower blocks. What about other larger towns/cities in the UK?

My Yahoo! email address is davebeetham@yahoo.co.uk

Kind regards.

David Beetham

Would you grow your own lamb ?

London, Nov 28 (ANI): Taking cue from growing vegetables for own consumption, a Brit farmer is offering a “Grow Your Own Lamb” service that allows meat lovers to see the animal being conceived, born, butchered and delivered to their door.

Brett Varker from Rowhorne Farm in Exeter, Devon, charges customers 176 pounds to be “completely involved” in every stage of the lamb’s life.

First they choose the parents of their lamb from six breeds of ewe and four breeds of ram. The pair are then placed in a field and the buyer can watch them mate and return to witness the ewe giving birth.

And then they are allowed a monthly visit to see the lamb before it is slaughtered at six months old and delivered to their door.

“Many of us grow our own vegetables but we’re going a step further and helping people grow their own meat,” the Daily Express quoted Brett, 48, as saying. “Farming seems like a dark art to people these days, so we want to show them what is involved and how much we care for our animals.

“This is no petting zoo – it’s about great quality meat,” he added.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20091128/882/twl-now-see-your-lamb-being-conceived-bo.html