The great, good and not so good bits about growing your own dinner 2017

mardatha · 27 February 2017 at 5:09PM

Looking for info on polytunnels please. I'm in a windy location at 1000ft but thought if I positioned the tunnel east-west then the wind would blow right through. Are they hard to put up? Are they tough? And are they all enormous? lol plenty questions!

smeeinnit · 27 February 2017 at 11:46PM

Hi all

Well I've made a small start, now chitting some of my potatoes (rocket and kestrel), prompted when I checked them in the garage and a few had white sprouts. Fortunately they were only small and have greened up nicely after a couple of days in a cool but bright spare bedroom. I have sarpo mira and setanta to chit soon, and charlotte when they arrive any day now.

I've also ordered my compost from Wickes for delivery (16 bags, no way will my dodgy rib cope with hauling that lot in and out of my car). Its not the natural choice for compost but having heard lots of stories about cheap compost containing green waste that was contaminated and therefore ruining crops, I came across this tip from a youtube allotmenteer (allotment diary if you want to check it out) that this compost is green waste free.

I may have a go at planting a couple of very early potatoes to grow in the spare bedroom and see what happens

tootallulah · 1 March 2017 at 8:33PM

My compost was delivered from Wilkos today, the van driver remembered delivering last year! Every night I plant a set of seeds, the kitchen looks like a commercial greenhouse, all the Cosmos are through-the simplest plant to grow from seed. Some new raspberry and tayberry canes arrived today I will need to get them in tomorrow. Next stage is clearing everything out of the greenhouse so some plants can transfer into there soon. It's March now so my plan is everything in seed trays by the ed of next week.

determined_new_ms · 2 March 2017 at 8:08AM

whoop I finally got round to my first sowing :j 18 broad beans seeds, 2 varieties; aubergines, rocket, basil and coriander

windowsill in lounge looking good! Oh hates this time of year

have 2 types of potato seeds chitting - earlies not sure of the variety they were just from the £shop and sarpo mira as they are disease resistant and apparently the allotment struggles with this.

Annoyingly when I have freetime over the next week the forecast is raining

and I had got my son, who is a fittness king, to agree to come and help me out clear the lottie. So frustrating as I know we would get so much done and he rarely has time off of work... Oh well back to the drawing board!

MissPop · 2 March 2017 at 11:25AM

Morning! I've been lurking and am feeling very inspired by you all getting on with getting your seeds going!

I'm a bit stuck though; last year I started loads of seeds on my kitchen windowsill and just inside my patio doors in the lounge, which was great. This year though, I have a puppy who likes to knock things off windowsills and absolutely guaranteed would not leave propagators in the lounge alone

:doh: Any ideas?! I have one of those small Wilko plastic greenhouses but it's still in the shed as it's so windy at the moment! And it's definitely not warm enough to start seeds off outside

I waaaaant to get staaaaarted! *stamps feet* :rotfl:

unrecordings · 2 March 2017 at 6:49PM

No news here other than on the ratty front - I've not seen any evidence (of a rat in the compost bin) for a good few days now, so fingers crossed. Meanwhile this is what I learned, apart from the usual advice (no cooked food, meat etc)

Rats apparently love eggs and potato peelings, so both of these have now been banned from our regular parcels for 'Mr Peelings'

Rats hate mint, cat urine, daffodils and citronela, so i'm hoping to remember to regularly dose the bin with mint cuttings (and maybe grow some nearby) and hope the cat gets her act together. I've also some citronela tealights, so maybe rubbing the wax around the bin might help

(all a lot more plausible than Plan A which was to leave an old alarm clock in there with the alarm set at 3am)

MissPop · 2 March 2017 at 9:09PM

Does anyone know if a blueberry plant will make a comeback after being "pruned" to nearly soil level by a naughty, naughty dog? :rotfl: She literally bit the whole damn cane off to about 2" above soil level and I'm wondering whether it may make a miraculous recovery or whether I just just bin it off? It looks like there are three bits of cane left, two look to be last year's and one looks much greener.

determined_new_ms · 4 March 2017 at 6:34PM

Sorry to all those asking questions I still consider myself a novice so don't have the answer to any! I have to google almost everything to work out how to grow them. currently trying to get my head around crop rotation and what grows in what groups!

Whoop whoop went to the lottie and got loads done today :j my adult daughter came and gave me a hand for a couple of hours and dug over a bed probably 2.5 x 1.5 mtrs

This whole piece I had had covered with membrane for the past 9 months and oh my it was water to wine! All those hours I slogged digging & weeding to do 2 beds of a similar size! I'm now about 1/2 way through clearing it

sooooooo good

was given several kilos of artichoke tubers. Never tried them before so looking forward to knocking up a soup :T

dig for victory guys

CAFCGirl · 5 March 2017 at 8:22AM

MissPop wrote: »

Morning! I've been lurking and am feeling very inspired by you all getting on with getting your seeds going!

I'm a bit stuck though; last year I started loads of seeds on my kitchen windowsill and just inside my patio doors in the lounge, which was great. This year though, I have a puppy who likes to knock things off windowsills and absolutely guaranteed would not leave propagators in the lounge alone :doh: Any ideas?! I have one of those small Wilko plastic greenhouses but it's still in the shed as it's so windy at the moment! And it's definitely not warm enough to start seeds off outside

I waaaaant to get staaaaarted! *stamps feet* :rotfl:

Have you thought about building the greenhouse indoors, you could use at least the two top shelves for seedlings then? If you put it in front of the window, you could then posily use the windowsill behind it as it would be guarded against naughty puppies

I have a naughty 3 year old 'puppy' too :rotfl:

CAFCGirl · 5 March 2017 at 8:26AM

Havent made it up the allotment this weekend (naughty naughty me).

My indoor seeds are all coming up so thats good. My sweet peas, tomatoes, brussels and beetroot need potting on now though mind you!
I went through my seed box to discover I have no beans or peas!:eek:
So trip to the garden centre for me.

As an aside, whats the latest garlic or onion sets could go in?

The great, good and not so good bits about growing your own dinner 2017

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