Planting Plans For One Person

ceridwen

silvercharming wrote: »

Speaking of seeds, I know we're not allowed to seed swap here, but I'd love to be able to, I've never understood how anyone could possibly need 5000 lettuce seeds all in one go!


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But there's nowt to stop people offering to gift surplus seeds on here......

For actual seed "swops" per se - perhaps people might like to join the Nonnymouse Forum and they could then barter away to their heart's content. This is a Forum that some M.S.E. members have set up and run ourselves - with rules of our choice - ie the whole idea is gifting and swapping to our heart's content. The redoubtable Mrs McCawber from M.S.E. is over there thoroughly enjoying herself organising seed swapping.

http://nonnymouse.forumotion.net/forum.htm

Karmacat

There's some brill stuff on here. I've taken a quiet day today, I think this might be the day I get back out into the garden - RAS's description of what can be planted *now* is really inspiring.

mardatha

Yes, until you poke your nose outside ! Its like minus 40 up here !! (oh ok, well maybe not quite ...:) ) but my hand stuck to the rail at the back door , and it looks like freezing fog is coming down. So I will garden in my imagination ...

Karmacat

I'm *so* pleased I saw this thread. I managed to get out into the garden today, haven't even marked out the planting area, but from bitter experience I've learned to cut back the stuff thats growing on walls, very destructive. And there was dog poo on the grass which I also managed to get rid of. I pruned my sage plants, so I can walk past them easily. I also cut back a little bit of a conifer thats shading my prospective plot for a bit too long. I'll do more of that, but I really feel like I've made a start. I collected a *lot* of garden waste, and dealt with it too, which I'm sometimes bad at doing immediately.

This morning, I made a map of a 3' x 3' planting area. That'll do for a start, and fits nicely into the area I'm thinking of. If I do any more, it'll almost certainly never get done, and I'll end up abandoning the whole thing again.

So thank you all - ceridwen for starting it, and everyone else for posting!



EDIT: even more determined now. I bought a few salad bits for over the weekend, and am only now opening the lettuce - 88p for 4 helpings!!!! Appalling, I'm definitely going to start some lettuce off inside.

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

I would like to try the salad leaves & maybe kale for soup, if you think there is enough light up here for them on the windowsill... we havent got double glazing though.
Re the veg patch, I doubt I will try anything outside as we get a lot of snow and very cold winds. Plus the son hasn't yet appeared to dig it.

I may be down south compared with you, but my plot is desparately exposed to the east wind. Friday was freezing fog, yesterday was a non-starter as far as humans go and the ground has been frozen for several days.

My cornsalad is late this year. I will probably put a piece of glass over it next time I go to the plot. But this is the first time in years that i have not been able to pick from November, going through to March or April depending when the weather improves.

When it is freezing, the far end of the plot usually gets the sun for a while and the plants thaw just enough for me to pick them. They, kale and landcress and welsh onions all cope with freezing and refreezing all winter and still crop, albeit they grow slowly. Hairy bittercress actually runs to seed in March here, and is a brilliant and totally hardy sallet.

So you could start a tub of seedlings, harden them off and plant outside if you can find a bit of glass, or enough bricks to hold a piece of plastic down over them.

Sylvan

Will they cope with temperatures down to -12C?

mardatha

One year we had -17 Hope we dont get it again - the bath froze half full of water, the toilet froze, the milk in the kitchen froze, and I was terrified the hot water tank would blow up ! (coal fire and I wasnt going to put it out )
Today we have 6" of snow & its very dark so we might get more. I got some seeds on ebay--Kale- and as soon as I can dig out the compost I will plant these on the spare room windowsill.
Ras, tell me about hairy bitterweed...wwotisit/wot eats it/wot does it taste like/wot do you do with it ?

Yategirl

suegoo wrote: »

Just wanted to say that you need at least 2 sweetcorn for pollination.

that is true - a "block" is better - try and stagger them like .'.'.'. to squeeze more in than if you do them like ::::

Sylvan

-17! :eek::eek:

We woke to snow yesterday. I was so relieved because the temperature rose a bit. We had been down to -6.

-17 just doesn't bear thinking about. Even at -12 I was almost crawling inside the Rayburn. Wait till I tell DH. Just might dampen his dream of moving to Bonnie Scotland... <evilgrin>

I haven't dared go down the garden to look at my broad beans but the spring onions in troughs by the back door are still OK and the lettuce I brought inside is doing well.

RAS

Not sure about minus 12 or minus 12, it was -11 at night a couple of years ago and then stayed about minus four for days and everything looked awful. Cos the ground was frozen the plants were effectively deprived of water. A week later they thawed out although the Swiss chard was a bit battered in the tips, just took them off and cooked the rest. Think I lost the rocket but the corn salad and landcress were fine.

Re bittercress, you really need to look in a wild flower book or possibly Roger Phillips book. It is a small (50-60mm) diameter rosette that is best eaten when about 25mm high, before the flower stem breaks. Pick the whole rosette and wash well. Flavour not quite like watercress or landcress, a lot less hot than land cress. I picked a whole load and put it in a pot luck salad with onion and chickpeas last February and the people were asking what it was because they wanted some.

It appeared in my lawn, so i started harvesting it and have let some seed ever since. Have been trying to transfer it to the plot so I can bulk up supplies there. I generally want to cut the lawn before the seed is ripe and really would rather it seeded elsewhere.