A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

lizzyb1812

Gailey - I don't grow some stuff - carrots - never turn out well, peas - ditto, plus v cheap frozen, herbs I'm already growing lots. Basil is easily increased by putting sprigs in water for a week or two to grow roots.

I never grow stuff I don't like, unless it's just one or two plants to try out. I had two little plastic greenhouses that I did bush tomatoes in very successfully. You'd need to be able to anchor them to a fence, wall or house as they blow over very easily but they are quite good if you can pick them up cheaply - mine are now in my greenhouse without the covers being used as shelving.

mardatha

I would like to know what coddle is too
I never know what hell to plant, they say plant things you like but I dont like any of them really But found kale indestructible and easy and most went into the hens but some went into soup. I make a lot of soup and throw green stuff in it.
This year tho I need grow stuff for hens as they costing me £2 a week in asda spring greens - they love that
Wondering how early I could go with lettuce inside on bedroom windowsills. Got 2 big huge south facing windows and one huge north one, plus kitchen smaller.
Baltic outside sun is out but nothing thawing. Was -7 at 8am.

katieowl_2

We do grow some carrots, although they are cheap to buy, home grown taste better.

Don't grow ordinary onions as the are cheap, we were saying this morning that the 10k bags of onions I got BOGOF from Bookers, were actually cheaper than buying a packet of onion sets. We grow some red onions and leeks and salad onions, and I am hoping to get a crop of the cuisse de poulet shallots that grow in one year from seed this season (yes that is chicken thighs!)

We grow the stuff that isn't cheap to buy mainly, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, exotic saalad leaves etc. along with chillis, tomatoes and lettuce. We like to do a few salad potaotes, charlottes and pink fir apple. Courgettes because they alway do well, and I try some pumpkins each year, but they don't grow well here in Wales.

Kate

katieowl_2

My chookies like kale, and they like the rainbow chard when it goes to seed. I buy them reduced cabbages, cauliflowers and spring greens, which they like, but when I chucked them a brussel sprout stalk I got reduced they looked at me like I was mad they did peck at it eventually, but I got the message it wasn't acceptable!

Kate

mardatha

LOL! Nothing worse than a miffed chicken! I did grow onions funnily enough and found them far far nicer than shop bought - but I forget what kind they were. I wanted to grow more cos I love onions (not green !!) My hens are dead picky, but they seem to love cauli leaves. Not tried wi sprouts cos we dont eat them, I wish I could get old cheap stuff for them I can only get Sainsbugs lol

kidcat

Gailey - I stuck with fairly easy stuff that we eat, I grew loads of potatoes, they were really easy to grow in the grow bags, tomatoes took ages to grow but again were quite easy, we grew them in bags took with sticks and had loads of tomatoes. Courgettes were really good too, more problematic - slugs seemed attracted. We gifted my parents a grow bag and three tomato plants for Easter, kept them in tomatoes for weeks.
This year I am aiming to get a proper landscape guy in to rip up the gravel path and put a smaller paved path in, add a water feature and build the flower bed we put our grow bags onto, up into a raised bed or two. Bearing in mind we moved half way through the growing season last year I think we did well, this year I am hoping to achieve more knowing we are stable here. We have a large strawberry bed at end of garden already as DD was given a dozen strawberry plants at end of season.
Like Sammy I would like an apple tree but persuading OH may take another year!!

Have been up since seven as the sky engineer was due any time after 8am, he has now been and dropped the bombshell that all the wiring is fine, it was the box which had burnt out!! We are so lucky it didnt catch fire. He has replaced box and whilst here took a look at the other box(OH was given it for DD and its never worked properly), he says that needs replacing too, so will be back later with a replacement!!

DD5 went to a birthday party yesterday and I had the opportunity to chat to other parents - I find that I rarely get the chance at DD school as I am always rushing having dropped others off first.

Am paying the eldest two to sort littlies rooms out today, theres no way I have the time to do it and they are really bad, so its costing me two cinemas trips.

HariboJunkie

I have two problems with growing my own up here in that I have limited space and a short growing season. I have 3 6'x4' raised beds and this year I will only grow one thing in each bed as I'm fed up only growing enough of one veggie to do a couple of meals. I have lots of pots and fruit bushes too and grow tomatoes in the greenhouse.
I think this year I will stick to spuds (in a huge bin), salad in pots as usual, broad beans and mange tout in one bed, broccoli and greens in ones and maybe some garlic and leeks in the other. Have to squeeze courguettes in somewhere too.
I'm giving up my soft fruit area for a new shed for OH so and using another 6'x4' bed to transplant the currants and gooseberries to. The beds are in meshed cages to protect from the hens so hopefully that will keep the birds off the fruit as well.

As others have said, grow what is expensive and that which you like but be wary of growing small amounts of each unless you just want to try them out. It can be frustrating to only have grown enough peas for one meal.

Byatt

You've all been so busy this morning I feel like a slug! My get up and go has gone, I know not where. I never understand it...it's like there's a switch in my brain and suddenly I can feel well or sad for no particular reason. I have my SAD lamp on again and hope it gees me up a bit.

I am excited about DD coming home next week though. This is the longest we've ever been apart. :T

All this talk about the sea and coastlines reminds me that we are an Island, and are so lucky to have such a diverse and beautiful seascape. I am transplanted in the South West and have access to Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, oh and Somerset coastlines and couldn't choose which one I prefer. I love the Welsh coast too of course being Welsh (if I haven't mentioned it before:rotfl:). My ex is from Norhumberland but back in the day when courting, I saw many beaches, windswept and lonely, but beautiful.

The sea is balm to my soul and I particularly love it when it's at its wildest. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to live a 2 minute walk from the sea.

Did anyone watch the programme Coast? Fascinating.

I'm encouraged to grow onions this year with all your talk; my salad onions grew really well. I may grow toms but the Jamie Oliver ones last year were not a success. No beans sadly as the flowers dropped off :eek:...and the peppers got blown over in the wind. I only had 6 ruunner beans out of 3 plants! They were delicious though.

Possession

I wish I could grow something, but 2 jobs has me so busy and my fingers are so far from green they are like the fingers of death. Mind you last year some courgettes came up in a pot and I swear I didn't plant them. Possibly they were from the year before. We don't have an expanse of soil any more so anything must be in pots, and it must be the absolute minimum of maintenance because gardening just doesn't get done. Any recommendations?

westcoastscot

Mar we're a little further south - Loch Fyne - but have beautiful west coast beaches. We get loads of surfers but the beaches are so vast there's always room for more. Mostly really windy and chilly though!! great for flying the kite.

Haribo your garden sounds about the size of mine, and I totally understand the frustration of growing a small amount of a few things - makes you feel like you've not achieved much doesn't it???? Also a lot more work imo. This year i'm trying something along those lines also, as I don't have the free time I had. Going to try broad beans, runner beans and peas on one bed - french beans never come to much here; winter greens in another, salad leaves and perpetual spinach in another and new potatoes somewhere! I'm moving my few fruit bushes out from within the flowers into a patch of their own - lost loads to the birds last year as everything has grown in the flower patch, making it hard to net. I have a shed with a sloping greenhouse window - seemed a great idea at the time but in fact makes it neither use nor ornament really - as a greenhouse it's too dark except when sun is head onto the window, and as a shed it suffers with damp!!!! Was planning a lean-to on the end, but having suffered the gales even worse than usual this year am going to go with one of those green plastic ones I can put away in winter. Hoping to grow tomatoes, wee old-fashioned cucs and maybe peppers and courgettes somewhere.

Anyone know anything about growing pea sprouts to eat? Has some recently while eating out, they were stir fried, and would make a welcome addition to winter dishes. Do you just grow peas as usual and eat them when big enough?? Shouldn't take long on the windowsill. Or do you need specific/special seeds????

WCS