Grow your own dinner 2014

the_worm

Romance is not dead..for Valentine's day I had a small heater for my greenhouse.....so sowing starts in ernest now..sowed lettuce, onions, radishes and gardeners delight tomatoes...also bought metal shed for the allotment....someone giving up their plot..picked more sprouts for dinner tonight.

seemasfriend

Making good use of tescoclubcard points. Ordered seed potatoes ( different varieties of earlies, second and main crop) from T & M. Did two separate orders so only had postage to pay. These will keep me busy

suzeesu2000

I would love a proper big garden with a lovely big greenhouse, raised beds, a mini orchard....oh to dream. Sadly, I am in a rented house so can't actually plant anything into the ground. I am having to grow everything in containers - it's quite a challenge to find ones big and deep enough. Mind you, on the up side, rarely get weeds in containers!

icontinuetodream

I'm a bit late to the party but would love to join!!:D

I have grown a variety of different veg over the years via raised beds and containers with varying success...but after a re-vamp of the garden over the autumn/winter season, I will be growing veg and fruit along with ornamental plants and shrubs!!:j:j:j

I am really excited about it, just over a year ago we had patio doors put into the kitchen which overlook the garden, ds has dug out a huge flower bed for me and we turned the greenhouse yesterday to gain even more space.....I want the bed to be really pretty and productive I just need to get a couple of panes of glass and sort out the floor and shelving in the greenhouse and its ready for action too!!

I have two damsons to put in, five globe artichoke plants, a rhubarb crown, a kiwi plant, a grape vine, strawberries, broad beans, purple climbing beans, courgette, rainbow chard and a variety of salad leaves (just gone out and bought butternut squash and beetroot seeds too!!! ) ..... I also have some potatoes chitting in the kitchen but will be growing these in sacks....I grow a variey of herbs too...rosemary, mint, thyme, oregano, basil, sage and parsley...I may have a go with some tarragon if I can get hold of a plant this year, but we will see how it goes!

I am going to get myself some tomato seeds today and I also want to invest in some raspberry canes although I may have to wait for a few weeks to get them depending on my transport situation....(no luck with either of these..not the transport, just couldn't find what I wanted)

Happy growing everyone!!:D

ETA - bought seeds today and couldn't find some things I wanted!!

suzeesu2000

Getting seriously excited now as my huge order of garden stuff is due to be delivered, hopefully, on Friday!!! Saturday will see me putting seeds in propagators, measuring and deciding exactly where to put everything and loving every second.

It was lovely weather on Saturday and Sunday. Today was a tad cool but no wind or rain.....until about 17:00 when it started raining again Grrrr., now the wind has picked up as well. You wait, once my water butt arrives it will never ever rain again!!

annie123

Gosh it feels cold here compared to Thailand!

However now I'm back, growing my dinner can now start for me.
Went outside first thing this morning and the soil is very very wet, so nothing going in there until it's dried out enough that it doesn't stick to my boots.

Put 7 types of chilli seed on kitchen roll to get going and dug out seeds to sow this weekend.

Nice to come back to daffs, snowdrops and crocuses all in flower and busy frogs in the pond notice the birds tweeting like mad at 4am too.

moments_of_sanity

I managed an hour in the greenhouse today so planted my potatoes after chitting them, this year I have planted them in the large blue Ike& bags, not sure if they will work well but worth a go.

I have also been saving my large 2l fizzy drink bottles and planted my parsnips in them today, that is my first 10 started, just need to get more bottles!

icontinuetodream

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

I have also been saving my large 2l fizzy drink bottles and planted my parsnips in them today, that is my first 10 started, just need to get more bottles!

I'm intrigued!! Do you cut the tops off, fill with compost and just plant the seeds direct?? Assuming you do but thought I should ask before I try to do a similar thing and completely mess it up!!:rotfl:

I don't have any parsnip seeds but really love them so may be tempted......;)

Never a problem getting bottles as I drink shed loads of fizzy water!

moments_of_sanity

icontinuetodream wrote: »

I'm intrigued!! Do you cut the tops off, fill with compost and just plant the seeds direct?? Assuming you do but thought I should ask before I try to do a similar thing and completely mess it up!!:rotfl:

I don't have any parsnip seeds but really love them so may be tempted......;)

Never a problem getting bottles as I drink shed loads of fizzy water!

Hi icontinuetodream, I have attached a link (which I hope works) which explains what you need to do but basically, you cut the end of the bottle off, leaving the lid on the bottle, fill with soil which you push down tight (otherwise it shrinks over time) and then plant your parsnips it it. We did 8 last year as a test and they were so easy and really tasty that I am going to try to do about 50 odd this year:D

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4780340

suzeesu2000

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

Hi icontinuetodream, I have attached a link (which I hope works) which explains what you need to do but basically, you cut the end of the bottle off, leaving the lid on the bottle, fill with soil which you push down tight (otherwise it shrinks over time) and then plant your parsnips it it. We did 8 last year as a test and they were so easy and really tasty that I am going to try to do about 50 odd this year:D

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4780340

I watched the video showing how to make a stacked bottle garden, would think that would be brilliant with strawberries.

All my stuff was delivered this morning, including one of my new fruit trees: a lovely Victoria plum and she is gorgeous! Lots of lovely healthy buds too, fingers crossed.

Spent a good few hours this afternoon setting seeds into trays and propagators, have spoken nicely to everything so am hoping that i get some growth.

Is it an age thing, that when you get to 50 you suddenly develop an overwhelming desire to grow stuff? I REALLY want a forever home with a garden so I can do it better than I am doing now with just containers.

Forecast for the weekend is good though, should help to dry things out a bit.