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

skull

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. YvonneYesterday 4:26 PM

Hi Yvonne, Depending on what you grow, the veg plot need not take up too much of your time.
To start with set aside your weekend to get the planting done, a little hard work now can pay dividends later. Growing through black plant fabric cuts down on hours of repeated weeding over the whole season. I haven't had to weed my onions and shallots once all summer, just mow the grass at the edges.

Then just watering if necessary in the evenings (especially during very dry spells) but not when the sun is on the plants, as it is likely to make them burn. Then just the time you spend to harvest the crops you grow.

As for hens it depends on the hen really, they have personalities just like us! They wake up early in the lighter months of Summer - mine get me up about 5.30 a.m. or a little later at the height of Summer. That is about the earliest in my experience.
I was interested to hear TV presenters Fern and Philip (Schofield) and actor (drat I can picture his face but the name is gone, he was in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, married Denise from Loose Women) anyway they all discussed the fact that they kept hens and how easy it was. " You just open up the door and let them out in the morning, and close it when they go in at night", was the general consensus.

Of course they also need to be fed before you leave for work and when you return, and cleaned out as necessary, more often in bad weather usually, and also more often if they are kept in one place or indoors most of the time. Especially bad weather in Winter.
Ensure you have somewhere to dispose of the muck and bedding, compost heaps are ideal, but get a spare one or two compost bins as it builds up in volume until it has time to break down, if you see what I mean.

If you decide to let them free range your garden, make sure it is secure as cats/dogs/birds of prey etc., may decide they are an easy meal. Also once the hens have had a taste of freedom, they want it all the time, and will be noisy until let out or they realise that they are better off kept in where they are, due to extreme weather conditions/prowling animals.

Try not to spoil them too much (as I am afraid I have done) as they can become a little like demanding children, but with less sense! That said they can be trained a little and are more intelligent than given credit for at times, and if it is in their interests. But then again they can be very silly.

Hope some of this helps.

A few minutes (OK up to 10 or 15 depending on how awake you are, and if you can get down the stairs without falling over your own feet like me!) early morning to let them out (unless you can afford about £125 for an automatic door opener), another few minutes to put their feed out and give them a quick visual check to make sure there are no problems, then so long as they are secure, you can leave them until the evening. Oh, make sure that they always have access to water, it dries up very quickly in hot weather.

In the evening, check for eggs in the nest boxes, (or get your children to do so) feed them a little grain if the weather is cold, it is a warming food, (not too much, it is like ice cream or sweets to them and will make them too fat to lay) or give them poultry feed pellets or potato mash, and later on when it starts to get dark they will go in to roost and you can close the door.

Hang up some greens during the day for nutrition if they don't have access to grass or for interest if they have to be kept inside because of very bad weather. Oh and maybe ask a stay at home neighbour to look in on them from time to time, train them up to look after the hens if you go on holiday, or become ill.

Hybrids are best for laying and I have read that Black Rock hens are "Bombproof". Hope this helps.

aandpsclare

I obtain FREE coffe grounds from JD Wetherspoons , but guess it is available fom many other places. Also get free manure (stable sweepings) from local horse stables (not totally free as a car and trailer is required to collect).
7 Pallets from plumbers merchants are free, and have been used to make 2 composting bins (after first bin has been filled it is moved to the other, first is then filled with fresh nanure. A further bin will allow a third move which I hope will complete the composting process prior to be put over the ground latter this year).

Larumbelle

aandpsclare wrote: »

Also get free manure (stable sweepings) from local horse stables (not totally free as a car and trailer is required to collect).

Hi aandpsclare from a fellow Coventrian!

Have you seen about aminopyralid in manure? Have you been lucky with yours? Which stables do you go to?

rizla01

Hi, I haven't had time yet to read all of this great thread but just wanted to chuck a suggstion in for my twopennysworth.

Get a large plastic sack and roll it down like you used to do with your socks??

Poke a few small holes in the bottom (To let out excess water) Place earth/compost in the bottom and put 4 seed potatoes in a square shape and earth up (Cover with earth) and place in a sunny spot in the garden (Partial shade acceptable)


Water every night to keep earth moist ONLY!! Dont drown 'em.

When about 4" tall, earth up (About 2"). When the growth reaches ANOTHER 4" Earth up - again and again and keep unravelling the sack as you go and keep going til fully unravelled and, by now, half full of earth.

After flowering and after leaves have stared to wilt, pull the plants and empty out about 12- 15 Lbs of lovely spuds, having taken up no more room than a sack.

YOU CAN experiment with potato peelings. (They have eyes and will produce spuds)

Anyone else had much success here?

Primrose

I've had small successes with potato peelings. I've occasionally forked them into my various borders instead of putting them on the compost heap. When left to their own devices they will sprout and I've reaped a few small potatoes from them. j However the main problem is that they sprout very quickily and rapidly swamp all the other plants around them so do really need their own growing space.

saintwarwick

I have found growing vegetables very easy and it's easy to utilise space to it's maximum. I don't have a massive garden but I have a couple of plots which I mix veg with flowers. Also use various pots and tubs and I have a small portable greenhouse which I purchased 3 years ago for £20.00, my biggest outlay. This year has been my biggest crop of veg and will save me literally hundreds of pounds. I have had plenty of broad beans, runner beans, radish, carrots, potatoes, lettuce and plenty of herbs and spices with plenty of veg still on the go like more runners, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, radish, beetroot, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, chillis, herbs and spices, cabbages, cauliflowers and swedes. The secret with some veg is to grow in stages (lettuce, radish, carrots, potatoes, cauli's etc) so you get a continuous supply. Also when you do have to buy potatoes the ones that start rooting can be used and will produce several pounds of potatoes from one spud that you probably would of chucked out. Anyway enjoy growing your own, I do and the taste of home grown is far greater than supermarket supplied.:beer:

gardnersdelight111

I have just harvested my lovely carrots today ! was so excited I have given them to my mum just to show off! But yes we are getting ripped off in the supermarkets - take a close look and you will find all your regular buys have gone up big time over the last few months.

This is my first year and I have carrots, beetroot, spring onions. I have loads of tomatoes and I have also planted 2 strawberry plants (£1.50) (i have also planted the cuttings for new plants next year) a raspberry bush (£2.75), an apple tree (that was a tenner but my luxury) and 2 runner bean plants which were given to me.

If you are canny and grow your seedlings on or swap with others really your own cost is a few bags of compost, watering can and some seeds - about a tenner in all!

Then you will reap your own rewards and really get to see what veggies should look like and not what is for sale in the supermarket.

rizla01

Also look/post on FREECYCLE for people getting rid of their greenhouse.

Thats where I got mine from.

BigDonut

Linguistic_Chimp wrote: »

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

I have outdoor windows sills so have been using them for a few things but indoor
have so far grwon some basil succesfully and corriander not so succesfully.

HAve a very healthy looking pepper plant at the moment.
Also got two tomato plants that have not been doing so well but first signs of fruit have appeared recently.

First time trying growing my own this year but its worth it. I picked up a couple of tomato plants and the pepper plant from B&Q in late may whacked them in a pot and have since been adding water and more recently tom feed.

Only thing I would say is that you need plenty of space as those small plants soon grow to become very big plants.

On the outside window sills I have some cut and come again lettuce. Picked some that were markled "Speedy seeds" wheich gave me lettuce in about 3 weeks. Excellent for a quick salad when you feel like one and much mich cheaper than the supermarket.

katyk_2

Can anyone advise me how to 'save' seeds from this years crops to use next year? I have chile peppers on windowsill and dwarf broad beans in garden, as well as blackcurrants, redcurrants, blueberries. Also have potatoes, onions and red cabbage but assume they would be harder to gather from.
All are grown from seed packets this year
Many thanks
Katyk