wrote in
:

Baz wrote:
Question. What in hell is or was fippery?

It's just like frippery but where the 'r' fails to line up. ;-)

I kept the fly of the carrots by constructing a frame of timber and
cladding it with polythene. It works fine. You have to make sure that
you bed it all in, by that I mean between the frame and the soil
there are no gaps. There are sceptics but I have carrots, OK not
perfect, far from it, but I have them fly free.

Hmm. I'll see how I do, but we've had terrible trouble with all
attempts at fleecing and netting and framing and ... well, you get the
idea. The sweet potatoes were a nightmare of a battle between the
fleece and the elements.

I havn't done the maths but after buying seeds, compost and every
other thing a gardener has to buy, the crop has cost me more than in
the supermarkets. That expense is nothing when you taste the produce
grown by yourself and see the grandkids willingly tucking in.
Priceless.

Tbh, other than the tomatoes I don't really get the difference. I'm
terrible for that, really. Oh, and the strawberries. But it's the
convenient of being able to nip out and pick soemthing and not have to
go to the supermarket all the time - the local shop is a co-op but
they dont' tend to stock all that much.

Anyway enough faffing and fippery from me now.
(does this mean farting around?)

Kind of. It's the "growing things we're not going to get round to
using in time" aspect that annoys me most. We grew /loads/ of peas
last year, cos we've always had trouble with peas - then we didn't
harvest in time and they all went over, which was just maddening.
Same is happening with the potatoes. All that effort, then it just
goes to waste cos we're never home at the right times.

And add to that Nick and his increasing hobbies ...



Oh, er, frippery, never heard of that either(my ignorance is bliss)

I had a terrible time fastening the polythene to the frame, and I am a
joiner, so for someone who might not be as dexterous as myself it might not
be too easy. Its not just ok to staple the polythene to the frame, you have
to sandwich it with laths if its going to last a year or two.

As for the the rest, I think we have all done what you describe and felt
your frustration. Fact of life almost. With the pea situation to support
them I bought some pea neting and its quite expensive in relation, so when
they are exhausted put the net along with the spent plants into a plastic
bag and leave the lot alone until you need the net again. Its a mucky job
but you will have a bit of compost and a net to use again.

Also, not everyone in the world can taste the difference between home and
supermarket vegetables, but as you say all you have to do is go and pick em
or dig em. A convenience store at home. Well almost.

Baz