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

Primrose

Scotboy - that's very discouraging and I can't immediately think of anything you're doing wrong. I presume your patch is not in shade and gets a reasonable amount of sunshine. If things are bolting, it's obvious they're growing too quickly, rather than steadily, and I wonder if you possibly have too much compost and manure if you've ensured everything has been watered regularly and deeply. I occasionally grow the odd self sown tomato, potato or courgette plant on the top of my oldest compost heap. They seem to grow twice as quickly as plants in the veggie patch, but do generally bear a crop, which would disprove my theory of your soil being too rich. Sorry - that wasn't much help, was it? But please don't give up yet. Sometimes the weather is against all of us when it goes from one extreme to another and then even the long term veggie growers don't get it right either.

juneg46

Dont give up! Last year was bad news fror a lot of people, too cold and too much rain, my strawberries were a waste of time, birds ate any that grew. This year, i put straw down, and covered them with fleece and they have been great. Get yourself a good veg gardening guide from the library and follow the rules. Gardening is just like cooking, follow the rules at first, then when you've got the hang of it, you can do your own thing. I sowed seed on my allotment, and only one or two came up, mice were probably the culprits, so now I sow seeds in pots and transplant. My carrots were a disaster, they got carrot fly, so now i have to cover them with fleece before they grow. Sounds like you can grow cabbage well, so grow them. All gardens are different, soil, climate, even ones that are near each other. So just keep trying, and good luck.

GraciesGran

Instead of buying pots for transplanting I use clean tin cans (we have a dog) after used they get recycled. I've even found myself collecting the inners form loo rolls at work. Part of the fun is seeing how much I can 'not spend'. Unnfortunately our deeds say no chickens but if/when we move who knows

RichyRich

I'm loving this thread; only a shame I live in a flat with no garden, but one day I hope to be a fully-fledged veggie plotter!

One question though, from someone with little experience, what does the phrase gone to seed mean? I've read it a few times in the thread but am none the wiser

Thanks
Rich

Primrose

Gone to seed. When a vegetable has grown beyond the point where it is fit for eating, it will produce seed and no longer be edible. Similarly, when a flower has finished flowering, the petals will die or drop off, and it then proceeds to the stage when seed is produced to enable the plant variety to reproduce itself. So "Gone to Seed" effectively means that all its main purposes have effectively finished and it's no longer fit for anything.

lyndorset

Paced_Out wrote: »

Top tip here is to got to www.omlet.co.uk and maybe book onto one of their hen keeping courses.

Real poultry keepers do NOT use those omlet things,they are an exspensive way of housing poultry and not ideal. Also, the types of hens sold by those types of place tend to be overpriced. This is meant to be a money savig site!

To house poultry I recommend a house from Forsham Arks and build your own run. It is essential for their pyscological wellbeing that they have a perch to roost on at night.

For good egg laying hens look at www.Cyril-Bason.co.uk and enquire about your nearest stockist. Best for low priced high egg yeilding pretty hens!

For help and advice the Practical Poultry magazine and their forum are both good for novice or wannabe keepers. Or buy any book by Katie Thear (Ebay or Amazon!).

Oh and the resulting pooh is great fertiliser for the garden too and is a homemade compost accelerent!! I love my chooks!

bilbobaggins

Our garden produces lots of windblown leaf and grass-cuttings, pulled weeds and dead-headed flowers, and the still-expensive Council-subsidised 'Dalek' composters proved too small for the volume. We really don't want to pay to have garden waste taken away.....
... so we acquired 3 commercial wheely-bins for free, which do a really great job. Every Council has dozens of these stored away, partially-broken and no longer capable of being lifted by the refuse trucks - and my Council's Waste Manager was delighted to get rid of a few, which are used productively. This years clippings, etc, goes into Bin 1, next year's into Bin 2 - and Bin 3's stuff is being used right now. It's perfect compost, saves buying it at B&Q, saves petrol 'cos I don't get sent to get any - and it saves my back lifting the darn bags!

We also utilise a stretch of close-board fencing by having some 'remaindered' 4" plastic rainwater downpipe slung horizontally from the arris rails ( a couple of 6" nails ). I've cut a series of holes ( just like a big flute ) blocked the ends, filled each pipe with compost and planted greens. Enough water, and they come on just great. No problems with slugs, either.

I've also slung some spare plastic carrier bags from nails hammered into the upright fenceposts, filled those with compost-soil mix, and grow strawberries and some dangling flowers, a la 'hanging baskets'. Again, enough water, and a dull fence is brightened for close to nothing.

schoolfundraiser

jaquivander wrote: »

Just thought I'd mention Mare... had a bit of a problem with using the toilet roll inners , they act just like expensive root trainers which is great, however, I have had quite a few sprout fungi, actually quite attractive toadstools. Seemingly, according to hubby they have the spores as they are mostly untreated paper waste. Just to keep an eye out for the little blighters, especially if it's a food crop.
I must say though, pea seedlings love the tubed root system from the loo rolls

I used to have this problem too until I started making my own paper pots using the loo roll inner as a guide. I use old credit card statements etc turned ink side in ripped to just about an inch or so more than the desired length then wrap it round the loo roll inner a couple of times and fold/scrumple the overlapping part inside. Ease out the loo roll inner and press down the scumpled bottom bit with a wooden spoon or similar. To keep it together tear down a bit at the top and fold the corner over . Make lots while watching TV fill with compost plant up and put in a seed tray. Water of course. The ink seems to inhibit the mould or it might just be the better quality paper. They biodegrade just fine when planted out in the soil.and roots have no problem getting through the damp paper (tried them out with onion sets)

You can do any size you want. Pringle tubes make useful size ones too.

schoolfundraiser

I bought some on the vine mini plum tomatoes last year "Sunstream - sold in Sainsburys as Sundream" sowed the seeds from one and got nice tomato plants from which I again saved seed and due to a) a better year generally and b) knowing that it is a tall slightly spindly plant and giving it some shelter and enough height to grow in I have a lovely crop developing from just 3 plants and a midi plastic greenhouse. I have let them go to 4 trusses of about 10 mini tomatoes per plant so soon will have well over 100. And yes I know you aren't supposed to do this as they aren't certified virus free etc but I grow my tomatoes in pots filled with growbag compost on the patio so there is no soil to be contaminated. And at least I know I like the taste of what I'm growing. There's nothing worse than putting in the effort and getting a bumper crop of something you don't like and won't eat.

I also (tip from my old dad this one) put the pots in cheap washing up bowls filled with pebbles and water the bowls so the plants never get dry. Plant food is watered in via the pots but their water comes from below. So you don't get problems such as blossom end rot or split skins due to erratic watering. (And slugs and snails find it a bit harder to get to the tomatoes.)

I also leave the plastic greenhouse door tied up to ensure proper ventilation as soon as the weather gets nice enough and it also means the insects can get in to pollinate.

What I do buy seeds of are Shirley which is a lovely normal sized tomato with a thin skin which crops really well given a bit of protection. Sadly it is an F1 hybrid so I have to buy the seeds every year and which is why you will never see Shirley tomatoes on supermarket shelves

nodwah

Nellgwyn wrote: »

This is a first post for me. although I've been reading quite a lot.




The butternut squash was bought at my daughters school fair & cost me 30p. They are a good source of cheap plants because there's always someone that has too many seedlings.

Just maybe watch out for the school thing - I took a lot of plantlets into the summer fair and sold them as Chilli peppers. When I got back home, I thought 'where's my bell peppers gone'. Ooops! So quite a few people may or may not be growing chillis. -I must pay more attention to labelling!