Grow your own dinner 2014

CAFCGirl

So today I have been sowing:

Climbing french beans
Courgette
Cucumber
Cauliflower

I fear I might be a bit late on some of them but the packets say sow in June. Heres hoping!

I've also thinned out my spring onions, and potted on my minibel tomatoes.

Planted out in our flower bed some poached egg seedlings too so will see what they do (if anything).

And a mini drum roll for me derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Harvested my first ever home grown vegetable - Radish!!!!!!
Its also the first time I've ever eaten one, and I wasn't all that impressed LOL

TallGirl

laurenpurdy123 wrote: »

I want to grow sprouts for winter... I am running out of space though well, I HAVE run out of space. Anyone grew sprouts in containers before? I guess that is always an option. !

I tried purple sprouting broccoli in pots no good did nothing and I suspect sprouts are greedy plants too. Could you not start them in pots and grow them on until you gave space in the garden eg some stuff is finished.

I'm loving my greenhouse already eating spuds and peas both standard and sugar snaps.
But behind with lettuce but coming along. Got lovely dahlias grown from seed almost ready to flower and over wintered fuchsia in full bloom.

All my fruit trees are doing well second year from Garden Bargains four for £30 I have grown them as espaliers looks fab. Lots of gooseberry, black current, blueberry and strawberries to come too.

Miss Mr BE but nice to see the thread going so well

Kantankrus_Mare

Picked my first strawberries of the season yesterday :T

They are from a few plants that I keep in the greenhouse and arrive a couple of weeks earlier than outside ones. Others are covered in flowers so looks like we will have a good crop. Covered them with netting.

Also vowed to never try caulis again!! Bought a few plants from b and q as I can never germinate them. put them in the ground. covered them and all but one are dead.

Must be my fifth attempt over the years and only ever had one lot work.

Happygreen

I'm giving caulis another go this year but except the brilliant self-seeder purple kale I've never been good with any of the cabbages. Maybe this year, there is hope My cheating lettuce is in full strength (I used Lidl's living salads picked apart instead of seeds to start with), the peas are about 20 cm high. Potatoes will be very late this year but better late than never....Tomorrow is another tomato-potting day and I'll probably put the first sunflower out and the sweetcorn in the end spot in the greenhouse. Won't even look at the mower, everything is still wet anyway.
K Mare, that last cauli will be a star!

sparrer

Badrick wrote: »

Make sure you secure or weight down the greenhouse really well, they've been christened blowaway greenhouses for a good reason.

I agree, mine was one of the many disasters, ended upside down at the far end of the garden and nothing could be saved. Best if you can tie it firmly to a building, downpipe, shed or whatever.

My water company sent me a little pack of seeds in 'matchsticks', 5 of the ten have grown well so they were potted on today. Will be interesting to see what varieties they grow into

rogueylawyer

I've been lurking for a little while on this thread, but you have inspired me.

I grew up in a house with a 100ft+ back garden and my mother grew organic veggies of all varieties: carrots, potatoes, peas, broad beans and the fruit, oh my! My parents would make their own wine and beer, and we would use red currants, white currants, blackcurrants, plums, blackberries, cherries...

That was 20+ years ago unfortunately and what little I may have learned has definitely disappeared. OH and I bought our first house 18 months ago and we have a 30ft garden over two heights. The area closest to the house is a lawn and raised flower bed and last year we just didn't get round to doing anything with the lower level.

Today we built a raised bed (very raised, it's about 2.5ft tall!) box bed from leftover pieces of wood from an old wardrobe we no longer need and dug over half of the lower level. I've ordered some seeds form one of the online catalogues and am interested to see what I can grow with very little prep this year. The whole outlay so far is about £35 so if it all goes wrong it's not the end of the world, but if it works then this year I should have a few courgettes, cucumbers, sugarsnap peas, perpetual spinach, spring onions, radish, little gem lettuce and (as it was one 3 for 2) I picked up some sweetcorn seeds. Nothing ventured...

Jazee

Another horrible day here weatherwise, so I'll be doing indoor jobs. I have put the tomatoes out though to get used to being outside. Will bring them in again tonight. I really must save for a greenhouse.

CAFCGirl

Utterly minging slug day of a day here today as well. So unless we have a 180 switch around with the weather, it'll be indoor only for me too

System

TallGirl wrote: »

I tried purple sprouting broccoli in pots no good did nothing and I suspect sprouts are greedy plants too. Could you not start them in pots and grow them on until you gave space in the garden eg some stuff is finished.

Yes that could work.. I'll work out when things are due to finish cropping and then work out when the sprouts need to be in for and go from then.

---

My strawberries have done really well this year, I've already eaten about 7 :O) I only have three plants though, I did have an Alpine but it didn't do so well (leaves were rusting and producing poor fruit) and I ripped it up yesterday. Next year I'm planning on growing them in a strawberry barrel. I read about them in a book and the ones I've seen online hold around 24 plants... so definitely going to give that ago as three plants isn't near enough for the amount we eat. I have some plants from seed in my conservatory atm for next year (the ones in the current trough are garden centre bought) which I have 11 of. So hopefully I'll have a selection for next summer :O)

Dizzy_Ditzy

I really must learn to not go to places like B&Q and homebase when they've got offers on

From b&q I came back with another palm, reduced to £10 from £25, and in good nick too, to add to the two that I've bought since I came back from my hols on Thursday

From homebase I came back with 3 terracotta pots for said palms and an olive tree...they had their 15% off weekend too

My garlic plants look like they're starting to droop, so I need to figure out a way of keeping the water off now for a couple of weeks (I read it somewhere, dunno if it's true though), so I was thinking just an empty compost bag with holes cut in for the stems.

Does anyone have any suggestions?