Planting Plans For One Person

Sylvan

That sounds OK. We don't like rocket anyway - too bitter. How does corn salad taste?

RAS

very much like homegrown butterhead lettuce (rather than boring shop bought butterhead on which I refuse to spend money).

mardatha

Ok, ta. I will look it up in my herbal

Karmacat

Ooh, cornsalad sounds better than landcress then, if landcress is hot and cornsalad is ... not.

ceridwen

Hi

Well - I've just been having a re-read of this thread and making copious notes.

Rather fancy the sound of that hairy bittercress - if I can get a hold of that reckon I'll try that....prolific sounds good to me.

Queries I have come up with (ignoramus as I am about gardening):

1. What are brassicas?

2. How do I tell if plants (lettuce or whatever) are bolting?

3. It would be v. much appreciated if anyone could give further suggested quantities to grow for one person purlease (I guess the most important thing to me is I want a nice big plate of salad of some description every day throughout the year and fortunately I seem to like pretty much all salad veg. - what I'm not keen on is turnips/swedes/parsnips/squashes).

So - my progress for the day is I've been counting up how many "square feet worth" of containers I have in total and figure I can manage to get in about 25 square feet worth in the sunny bit out back and a further 25 square feet worth in the shady bit - so I'm hoping that will produce a sizeable contribution to the larder when I start off "properly" - as opposed to throwing loads into everything and seeing what happens with darn all planning, which is the state of play at present.

Still trying to remind myself of just how much food one is supposed to be able to produce with a bit of determined permaculture....

Yategirl

brassicas - broccoli and i think (i have a headache so can't think!) cabbages count as a brassica too.

when plants start to bolt - they develop flower heads - basically bolting is when the plant feels stressed (i.e too hot) so it rushes to 'reproduce' asap rather than putting energy into leaves for photosynthesis...

make a list of what you like to eat first of all -there is no point growing what you don't like to eat.. so if you don't want to eat parsnips.. then don't grow them! Salad stuff... well.. pretty much only I eat salad leaves, radishes.. and I have help to eat spring onions... so I would suggest based on my experience that you need to decide a) whether you want lettuces or salad leaves to eat - I found mixed salad leaf mixes better for me - I get more variety with less growing space and sowed little and often - so maybe sow half a square foot at first then 2-3 weeks later sow the other half - this will give you one half producing while the second half is establishing and then you can pick from the second half, sow another half and pull up the first half (that make sense?!) don't forget you can use plastic boxes for salad stuff - you know those plastic bedboxes such as you get from IKEA - just drill a few holes in the bottom. Spring onions/radishes - sow a few seeds little and often.. if you find you don't have enough then sow a bit more. You can also use modules to sow seeds little and often (maybe 3-4 modules a week?) and then as the seedlings reach a good size, slot them in wherever you have space.

i think it is a little trial and error to start with - keeping good notes will help you in years to come!

Yategirl

another thought to containers - have you wall space? could you put some window boxes up or dot a few wall pots/hanging baskets around? you can grow salad stuff (and tumbling toms) in these - this will free up your larger containers/sqft beds for other stuff...

Sylvan

Yategirl wrote: »

brassicas - broccoli and i think (i have a headache so can't think!) cabbages count as a brassica too.

Also cauliflowers, sprouts, turnips, swedes, mustard, wallflowers and stock.

ceridwen

Wall space - yep I do. I have a wall that I've got some of those sturdy type wooden trellises fixed to - so was wondering what type of containers I might be able to attach to those trellises and how. (I'm vaguely thinking along the lines of summat akin to those long bag things that people can hang up and grow flowers poking out at intervals from the sides IYKWIM).

As for what I like to eat salad-wise - I'm thinking more along the lines of assorted green leaves - rather than specifically lettuce so much - I like plenty of variety in that respect. To me - 'tis true that I will eat the vast majority of vegetables raw at least sometimes. The only ones I don't eat raw are potatoes, onions and aubergines. The only ones I dont ever cook are lettuce and beetroot.

I always want to have potatoes, onions, tomatoes and garlic in.

I often eat aubergines, courgettes, peppers, broccoli, spinach and mushrooms.

Occasionally eaten - peas, cauliflower, carrots, leeks, baby sweetcorn, mange tout, green cabbage, brussels sprouts, beetroot, spring greens, kale, radishes, cucumbers.

I've got 3 of those potato-grower bag thingies - so am wondering whats the best routine to get into with them to produce as much of my own spuds as possible. My containers consist of 1 four square feet raised bed in shady space and 1 four square feet raised bed in sunny space, my 3 potato growing bag thingies, an assortment of various containers 12 inches - 15 inches in circumference, 4 troughs 23 inches long and 4 of those plastic storage containers in a similar size to washing-up bowls.

JenniO

HI Ceridwen
May I recommend you get this book from your local library:

Sufficient: A Modern Guide to Sustainable Living (Hardcover)

by Tom Petherick (Author)


It's very good at talking about different vegetable families, etc. I learned a lot from it.

RE:; you know something has bolted when one day it looks like a normal vegetable stalk and the next day it's about a foot taller! I'm actually not kidding! However, you can let it progress and go to 'seed' if you like and keep the seeds.

HTH

Jen