Revisited! Great 'Grow Your Own' Hunt: share your top tips on home cultivation

Primrose

Thanks Skull for a very helpful post. Just wish the covenant on our house allowed us to keep poultry, which sadly it doesn't.

sevlow

My advice would be to start by buying plants & concentrate on those items which are expensive to buy, taste better fresh or are a personal favorite.

I use a company that provide a monthy vegetable selection pack which costs around £15 inc postage. You get between 60 - 70 plants and you can split the cost with a friend or neighbour.

Try and establish an area of fixed planting where the initial investement and work will reward you each year. Here you can grow herbs, asparagus, fruit, strawberrys etc.

Cut and come again lettuce is great as is rocket and chard. New potatoes are great fresh out of the ground and esay to grow.

skull

Primrose, sorry you can't keep hens at home. If there are allotments near to you - and the waiting list isn't 3 years long like it is in my area - find out if they allow you to keep hens there. Alternatively if you have a neighbour with a good sized garden who perhaps can't manage it as well as they'd like ask if you can rent it from them to keep your hens there. Perhaps in exchange for gardening (in places fenced off from the hens) and eggs.

I often think hens or ducks should be kept at residential homes/hospital grounds as they would give the residents/patients something else that is interesting to see/care for. Those more able residents could help the staff to care for the animals and I am sure many folk would get enjoyment from them, show them to visiting grandchildren etc. Poultry can be very amusing at times, sometimes clever, sometimes very silly and they provide eggs too. Of course they would need to be housed within site of the windows but far enough away not to wake people up too early!

Good luck with your search for a place for keeping your own hens Primrose.

swanee_2

reply for Kate - give your kiddies a small spade & fork which you can pick up at the pound shop (they usually have little gardening sets). Give them a plastic pot each and let them put some compost in. Buy some cress seeds and let them plant their 'own' garden and tend it. cress comes up in about 5 - 7 days and they can eat it. Hopefully it will get their interest and then you can move on to lettuce - nice smelly herbs and there are lots of flowers easy to grow from seed. You could take them to the shops and choose their own seed. (You can also collect seeds in the garden), it tells you on the packet how to grow them Look for the easy ones that will germinate quickly and maintain their excitment, all this of course in the hopes that they will respect your area and not do any damage. Once they get the bug there is no stopping them. Why not have a word with the nursery or school to see if they can start a small gardening class. good Luck:j

Linguistic_Chimp

Hi all on this thread - I'm a newcomer here and having read all the posts so far, I can't really find any specific advice about what to grow in a 3rd floor flat with lots of sunlight but no balcony, only indoor windowsills.

We currently grow herbs in pots on the windowsills (basil, rosemary, mint, parsley) and have about 10 chilli plants which we grew from seeds given to us by a restaurant. we are planning to give away a lot of the chilli plants and I thought it would be good to grow other things.

Can anyone suggest what else we could grow on our windowsills?

Primrose

Linquistic Chimp - you could try mixed "Cut & Come again" salad leaves, and the old favourites, Mustard & Cress (together or separately). Virtually all the other vegetables unfortunately need lots of light and deep containers for their roots.

Linguistic_Chimp

I had never heard of 'Cut and Come Again' until now - after a bit of research, I can see it sounds like a good idea.

Where would be the best place to buy some seeds from?

competitionscafe

Linguistic_Chimp wrote: »

I had never heard of 'Cut and Come Again' until now - after a bit of research, I can see it sounds like a good idea.

Where would be the best place to buy some seeds from?

There are some suggestion/recommendations for seed suppliers here:
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/vegging-out/seed-companys_2963.html

I have used Tamar, Nicky's-Nursery and Organic Gardening Catalogue - very happy with all of them.

Also check places like Wilkinsons, B&Q, garden centres etc for half-price offers and sales...

You could also try Lidl, Aldi and pound shops...although they may not have the more unusual varieties.

Get a mix of leaves so you have a varied (tastes and colours) salad. I like green oak leaf and red oak leaf or green/red salad bowl as the basic salad and then I spice it up with one or more of the following: mizuna, leaf radish, mustard golden streaks, rocket etc.

See this article for cut and come again salad leaf tips:
http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/jamie-oliver/jamie-at-home/matt-james-cut-and-come-again_p_1.html

Money_saving_Diva_2

Hi there!

It's my first year at growing vegetables but I have always grown at least 10 to 12 different herbs in pots on the patio, as I love how they look and smell. I also grow radishes and lambs lettuce in a deeper pot.

This year I have tomatoes 'Hundreds and thousands' which are cultivated to hang down so I have them in two hanging baskets and three 3ft planters so they have room to dangle. Each plant has over 500 flowers at the last count so I am going to be inundated with cherry tomatoes soon!! They have been very easy to grow, I made sure I put water retention gel in the soil and am watering them twice a day on warm days and now the fruit is setting, I feed them once a week too.

I am also growing peppers and chilli peppers indoors on the window sill. The chilli plant is Apatche F1 hybrid and it is bred to be smaller and more compact than the usual chilli plants that take over the world! The pepper plant is likewise Redskin and on my plant that is no more than about 12 inches high, I already have 4 green peppers growing - over 3 inches long each. Found them amazingly easy to grow too, just a bit of love and water, a strong stake and a warm windowsill.

I am also growing strawberries in a hanging basket as an experiment. Seems to be working, I have 8 strawberries so far just ripening up! And I have taken the runners off and planted them up for free plants next year!

I also have a goji berry tree and a fig tree both of which are due to fruit next year so that will be exciting! I am going to take cuttings of the goji berry plant and see if I can cultivate them - they are expensive to buy and I could sell them somewhere hopefully and make some money! (in true MSE form!)

I also have baby carrots in a deep tub on the patio too.

I bought my plants/seeds mostly from Dobies/Suttons, but was also given other peoples 'dying' seedlings which I nursed back to health!

I love my patio gardening, can you tell??!:rotfl:

yvonne763

Hi, just joining this thread as a newbie. I've wanted a veggie plot for ages and have a sufficiently large garden to accommodate a small plot, but as a full-time working mum, have v little spare time. Can anyone tell me how much time I'd need to devote to a) a veg plot and b) looking after chickens? Thanks ever so. Yvonne