Grow your own dinner 2014

JellyBox

So, I'm yet to manage to do anything so far, despite all my good intentions. I have set aside some time this week to get pots going (intending to dig out beds and stuff for next year, but want to do something this year first), I have quite the selection of seeds, but what sort of thing can I start now, and get fairly good results from in a north facing garden where the pots won't get huge amounts of sun (the beds will be at the end, where the sun is able to get in a bit better). I suppose I want 3-4 big pots, and would be happy with some more little ones for herbs and that, just don't want to spend lots on stuff I might only use for one year?

I am going to read through the rest of the thread again later, once I've stopped being so sleepy, so apologies if someone has already gone over something similar.

Oh, and to make things just that little bit harder - I am a total newbie gardener, never had a garden before and so am starting totally from scratch, I have no tools, no compost, nothing!

suzeesu2000

Fingers crossed, will get the potatoes into the sacks tomorrow morning. Have potted up the dwarf French beans who have gone berserk!!

The plum tree has gorgeous little buds so I MUST get her into a bigger pot also - hopefully Monday mornng too.

Am learning as I go: No need to start beans in a seed tray; three beans into a good size pot and then onto forever place - never grown before so I am also starting a notebook on what varieties I have grown and tips to make it easier and succesful. Am sure this will help in time.

Hoping the weather stays like this for a good few weeks.

Little_Vics

mrsscattercushion wrote: »

sunny Yorkshire....


well sunny for once, round this time last year we had 2 ft of snow fall in 2 days ;-)

Me too! I remember the snow well.

I did some today - cut back dead things and generally pottered. More shall take place this week if the weather holds.

I suppose I should decide what veg I want to grow this year.

C_J

Busy day for me in the polytunnel today : I've sown 200 pots of seeds (several different types of tomato, chilli, sweet pepper and tomatillo; butternut squash, courgettes, patty pan and spaghetti squash; okra, crystal lemon cucumbers, bite-sized mini cucumbers, three different kinds of melon, and some aubergines). I also discovered I had a couple of packets of alpine strawberry seed, so I've bunged those into a big pot to see what'll happen.

The garlic, elephant garlic and broad beans which were overwintering in the tunnel are really romping away now, and I've got salad leaves, carrots, cabbage and peas growing very nicely in the raised beds. I am however quite knackered and my back aches so badly. I think I'm going to be paying for all this activity tomorrow

suzeesu2000

Oh my word CJ you have been busy!

I have managed to get the first early Winstons in this morning - found getting the compacted compost into the potato sacks the hardest thing - especially when you are not very able-bodied. I need someone to invent me a thing - like a concrete mixer has, which can be wheeled around with, perhaps, two sacks of compost in and then a sluice that can drop down to release the compost where I want it.

mothernerd

45 sets of seeds on the go (3batches,around the start of each month). 2 lots of potatoes, 3red onions and 2 white onions (all in 'potato' bags).Box plant into large container and 3 shrubs in the garden.Lots more to do but back really hurting so today alternating between little jobs (harvested remaining spring onions and brussels sprouts - tiny but not increased since Christmas so it was eat them now or leave them for a tiny snailfest) and sitting down to recuperate tasks - charity shop and rubbish piles increasing (am currently in the smallest bedroom - sorting gets easier when stuff is threatening to fall on top of you).

Lifes_Grand_Plan

C_J wrote: »

Busy day for me in the polytunnel today : I've sown 200 pots of seeds (several different types of tomato, chilli, sweet pepper and tomatillo; butternut squash, courgettes, patty pan and spaghetti squash; okra, crystal lemon cucumbers, bite-sized mini cucumbers, three different kinds of melon, and some aubergines). I also discovered I had a couple of packets of alpine strawberry seed, so I've bunged those into a big pot to see what'll happen.

The garlic, elephant garlic and broad beans which were overwintering in the tunnel are really romping away now, and I've got salad leaves, carrots, cabbage and peas growing very nicely in the raised beds. I am however quite knackered and my back aches so badly. I think I'm going to be paying for all this activity tomorrow

CJ, that sounds like a very productive weekend and some great variety of produce. Where do you get all of the strange items / varieties from?

Kantankrus_Mare

Well what a productive day!! Been to the allotment and with help from my OH we have moved the fencing that had fallen down, cut down all the overgrown brambles growing round the outside and had a bonfifre getting rid of all the odd bits of wood and cuttings hanging around.

The rhubarb which I split last year is doing better than I expected as I didnt really know what I was doing. Looks better than it ever has to be honest.

Got the majority of my beds cleared of weeds and will go tomorrow to do a bit more.

I have my onion sets....as we are having a lovely week weather wise (and I'm on a weeks holiday)..is it too early to plant them? Think I normally do them a bit later?

My over wintering ones dont look like they are growing much but think I should have put them in a bed which gets more sun.

Itching to get more seed planting going on now.

C_J

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

CJ, that sounds like a very productive weekend and some great variety of produce. Where do you get all of the strange items / varieties from?

I'm using tomatillo and chilli seed from a place I found through Amazon - Premier Seeds Direct, I think they are called. The seeds arrive in simple little plastic ziplock bags with no real sowing instructions, but I have always had extremely good success with anything I've bought from them. They have lots of unusual types, and they're cheap too. The crystal lemon and lunchbox-sized cucumber seeds, and the mini aubergine seed, just came from my local garden centre.

annie123

Little_Vics wrote: »

I suppose I should decide what veg I want to grow this year.

Potatoes

C_J wrote: »

tomatillo; butternut squash, courgettes, patty pan and spaghetti squash; three different kinds of melon,

I grew tomatillos a few years ago and was very disapointed with the crop, I hope you get more than I did. Not that I have a poly tunnel mind, that may help a lot.

Have you grown squashes in the poly before? I only ask as it seems early to sow even under cover.