The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

Happygreen

zafiro1984, well done on making a profit on eggs! I also sell surplus eggs to friends but I'm glad if I break even with the feed prices where they are Still, I would not want to be without my own eggs!

Once the ground softens a bit I want to start the year with growing a living fence with willow cuttings to keep the hens out of the plot, the plastic fences have been battered to death in the last storms....

zafiro1984

Got my seed pots from the local garden centre, 4kg Red Duke of York and 2kg Swift. They worked out cheaper than buying on line by using my 10% off card. I've spread them out in egg trays to sprout. Just need to find a cold but frost free place. Feels like this year is starting to happen.

Jazee

Ground still too frozen to continue digging my plot unfortunately. Still getting lettuce from the greenhouse though, and garlic doing well. Also peas and broad beans planted early in the green house are doing ok so will plant those out soon.

Dizzy_Ditzy

I've got a bit of a hangover today so have been sitting down and working out what I can do in the next week or so, and there's actually quite a bit!

I know what potatoes I can start chitting and when, including some now , I can start sowing sprouts, cabbage, peas, carrots, beetroot and briar beans! I'm going up to 6A tomorrow to get a few cloches down, lift the last two cabbages and hopefully get that plot dug over ready for potatoes.

Weather permitting on Wednesday next week I can go to 6B and carry on clearing around the gooseberries and raspberries and try and get the onions in that I've been trying to get in for the last month!

I finally found a chicken house at the price I wanted, and it's being delivered on Monday, so if they turn up early enough I'll do that on Monday instead of Wednesday

zafiro1984

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

I know what potatoes I can start chitting and when, including some now , I can start sowing sprouts, cabbage, peas, carrots, beetroot and briar beans! I'm going up to 6A tomorrow to get a few cloches down, lift the last two cabbages and hopefully get that plot dug over ready for potatoes.

I finally found a chicken house at the price I wanted, and it's being delivered on Monday, so if they turn up early enough I'll do that on Monday instead of Wednesday

Queen of Cheap:- Can you share how you are going to sow carrots at this time of the year. We love carrots and the sooner I have a new crop the better - we're still picking carrots from last year. Think I may follow you and start off my sprouts and also sow some leeks indoors.

I'm working my way through clearing out the greenhouse (15' wide x 20'long), I've done about 20% so far, I should have a good growing space when I've finished and the broken glass replaced. Unfortunately the greenhouse stands on a concrete base and there are no soil beds in it so everything has to be grown in containers - I do have quite a lot of containers but that's going to be a big cost in compost.

Dizzy_Ditzy

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Queen of Cheap:- Can you share how you are going to sow carrots at this time of the year. We love carrots and the sooner I have a new crop the better - we're still picking carrots from last year. Think I may follow you and start off my sprouts and also sow some leeks indoors.

I'm just gonna wing it and stick some in the propagator and see what happens I read that Nantes 2 are an early variety and can be sown under cover so I'll get them started off at home then transplant them in their compost when the time comes. It might work, it might not but if I don't try, I dont know

The fact that we've not had a single snowflake here works in my favour too :cool:

Dizzy_Ditzy

How are we all doing?

I've got my early potatoes chitting along nicely and today have been and dug over one of the beds for them and put some manure in. While I was there I put a cloche over some of the strawberries, cut back last years blackberry canes and came up with a plan for getting things sorted up there in the next few weeks. There's more than I thought to keep me busy

Brought home the last cabbage too

Jazee

Morning all. A quite productive day yesterday. In the mini propagators I have planted some ailsa craig tomatoes, some red cherry tomatoes and little gem lettuce which is now on a warm windowsill in my living room.

In the greenhouse, I repotted the parsley and the peas and put supports in the peas. The broad beans are ok as they are at the moment.

Today I would like to think that I will finish digging the new plot and put some polythene on it to warm the soil ready for planting at the end of the month.

StressedSteph

Hi all

Can I join in please :j

I live in Dorset on a smallholding. Last year we splurged on a 40ft polytunnel and i currently have 5 raised beds. Need more but run out of wood & money .

We have the luxury of being down south so have more chance of success with veg BUT my soil is super heavy clay. That's the main reason why i try to only plant in raised beds so I can have free drained soil and also no need to walk on them so stops any compacting.

Last November I took the risk and planted Broad beans, Pea, Onions & Garlic in my polytunnel. So far all seem to have survived the cold and are doing very well.

I also have a large Strawberry section (kids favourite), and have got lots of babies from the runners which I plan to replant in hanging baskets (when i can afford some).

Outside I only currently have some of last years Chard still growing.

All my raised beds are covered with old carpet to prevent a big weeding job in spring.

Can't wait to get started.

I want to grow all the usual stuff, i don't usually bother with Brassicas as the battle against caterpillers proves more expensive than the odd cabbage from the grocers.

I want to plant some Asparagus this year in one of the beds.

Looking forward to joining in and reading about all our success's and failures.

I never really know when to start sowing seeds in the spring? i hate the idea of lots of seed trays on window sills and the seedlings go leggy so quickly when grown this way .

In the ideal world i would have a separate small heated greenhouse for seedlings, but that will have to wait until my lottery win

Take care all. xxx

StressedSteph

Some of you guys have mentioned starting carrots off early.

I have wondered about (but not yet tried), planting a carrot seed in an empty toilet roll tube. Stand them all together in a seed tray, then when they have started growing and the weather is warm enough, just plant the whole thing, toilet roll tube included.

This would prevent the soil around the carrot getting disturbed and also be cheap seed pots?.

Only slight issue is, if the toilet roll inners got too wet would they unfold themselves?

Has anyone tried using them in the past?. xx