Grow your own dinner 2014

annie123

seemasfriend wrote: »

As I've mentioned before I have a half acre plot to plant this year. It is clear open ground - clay soil that has been heavily manured. I will probably only be able to work this two or three times a week. What can I grow that is fairly low maintenance? Potatoes? Carrots?

Potatoes will be fine. Root crops don't like manure.
I'd stick some butternut squashes in there too, along with courgettes, in fact any squash will be happy there.
There are lots of other things that could grow in, but it depends how draining you clay is. Can take a few years not to be making mud pies with it.
What are your long term plans for it? a fruit area? if so and you know where you want it, you could get rhubarb in too.

mansars

I'm a few weeks late...but it's that time of year again. Digging out the seed packets & look at what I'm going to do in the garden this year. Once again I'm on a budget, especially with the new manure producer arriving in November.

I downloaded garden plan app for the ipad, so I'll let you all know how that goes.

In the garden already I have blueberries, raspberries, tayberries, strawberries, wine berries, goji berries, cranberries and aroni berries....all of which were savaged by the birds last year. To add to this I planted 14 trees with a mixture of mainly apples with some pear and cherry. I also have 2 well established rhubarb and 2 that I put in late last year.

So I need to spend a bit of time protecting the berries in the garden.

What I plan on growing this year is a variety of herbs on the vertical planter. I also plan on planting some round carrots in this.

In the rest of the garden I plan on trying to grow as much of the wee mans veg as possible. Therefore, I'm going for carrots, leeks, sweet potatoes, sweetcorn, onions, broccoli and squash...I would like to grow potatoes, however, I'll need to find a decent supplier here in Northern Ireland as I begrudge paying and extra tender on top if the usual postage fees to get them sent across from the mainland.

I'm again trying to do it all on a nil budget, so I've bought all my seeds, manure and compost with me clubcard/nectar points

sparrer

Bought some Swift first earlies to grow in sacks and a Sarah Bernhardt peony for the one vacant tub I have left, ready for when the frosts are over. I promised myself no more shrubs/flowers, I could have grown a courgette in that tub, but...
No self control in the £shop, that's my trouble!

agreenmess

Hello all, can I join? Im amazed at what you are all doing

This will be my second year on the lottie, quite excited as really wanting to get as self sufficent as possible this year and really progress on last year. I'm using raised beds for everything apart from the fruit bushes which are just in the ground, most of it will be on my own version of Square Foot Gardening as the allotment is around a quater of the size of a "normal" one. Also due to planning I cannot get a greenhouse so am pondering ways to get greenhouse type veg up at the lottie.

Currently have garlic, some onion sets, strawberries, a couple of gooseberries, a blueberry plant and a blackcurrent plant.

Just recently planted some onion seeds in the conservatory in the hopes they are going to grow as thought I would try to do that this year. Will be buying more fruit bushes on Wednesday and am looking to see what I want to grow next year for what seeds to buy!

P.S I don't have any garden so the lottie is the only space I have

seemasfriend

Thanks Annie and Zafiro for the ideas.

I hadn't thought about the manure and root veg.

Squashes and courgettes sound promising. Will the rabbits be queuing up for dinner?

I've given up growing sweet corn at home as they take up so much space - why didn't I think of them for this plot. Perfect!

Has anyone any experience of using fresh manure to heat hot beds? Might be able to give my seeds a head start and grow melons as well as squashes.

seemasfriend

" This will be my second year on the lottie, quite excited as really wanting to get as self sufficent as possible this year and really progress on last year. I'm using raised beds for everything apart from the fruit bushes which are just in the ground, most of it will be on my own version of Square Foot Gardening as the allotment is around a quater of the size of a "normal" one. Also due to planning I cannot get a greenhouse so am pondering ways to get greenhouse type veg up at the lottie. "

How many raised beds do you have? I've been considering these for my new plot but would need quite a few. Any tips for how to set these up cheaply?

agreenmess

I have 9 3ft by 13ft raised beds and sadly they wern't done cheaply I think each of them cost around £35/40, my saving grace is that they are 100% manx wood so I'm really happy about that.

I am hoping to make a coldframe the same size as the raised beds very soon, hoping to have it done and dusted by Feb and that will be made from some glass windows we got a the tip and some pallet wood. Should be a fun experience.

zafiro1984

Seemasfriend In view of how much land you are going to cultivate you want to try and rabbit proof your veg. It's heartbreaking to spend a lot of time on your plot to find it all gone one morning.

I suppose I'm lucky because having quite a few hens my plot is fenced to 8' high and trenched into the ground by 18", however I can't put anything outside the green house or leave the greenhouse door open overnight (greenhouse is outside the plot) without it being destroyed. Rabbits love anything small and juicy. I have a Jack Russell, the ferret men come on a regular basis and we have a 'warrenator' as well, but rabbits are still a problem - just to add insult to injury - we also are plagued by deer.

Rabbits find it hard to get over anything over 2' high, suggest a barrier of good old fashioned chicken wire which you can step over may help to keep them out. Best if you buy 1 metre high wire and bend the bottom 12" along the ground at right angles as this helps to stop the rabbits trying to dig under it, and don't forget to spend time pegging it down. I have used wire coat hangers cut into the shape of hoops in the past.

annie123

seemasfriend wrote: »

Has anyone any experience of using fresh manure to heat hot beds? Might be able to give my seeds a head start and grow melons as well as squashes.

My grandparents used to do it in a greenhouse, oh dear, that sounds rude! :rotfl: It doesn't last long 6-8 weeks maybe from memory. It was used to grow lettuce in late winter/ early spring and yep he would grow melons in it. Had to renew it to keep the heat up if May/June were cold and damp.
There are probably better modern methods of building one than he had back in the 60s'70s And yes the smell was dreadful.

I've seen the most wonderful squashes growing on hot compost heaps, so decided to try it myself. The slugs and snails thanked me for the generous snack I had provided them with and ate it over night. So I didn't try it again.

Little_Vics

mansars wrote: »

I downloaded garden plan app for the ipad, so I'll let you all know how that goes.

Ooh - which app is that? I need all the help I can get!

Welcome to all the newbies too. The more the merrier!