The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

misspickle_2

Please help folks! I'm so excited and off to the garden centre at lunchtime and want to make sure I get all the right stuff.
Any tips would be very much appreciated.

StressedSteph

misspickle wrote: »

I am one of those that trys hard to grow things and I love it but I'm just so useless at
it all I was hoping you could all help me so I can actually produce something this year!
I think I literally love anything I plant to death. Where am I going wrong?
I only want to do a few simple things like lettuce and herbs. I think I maybe over water at the beginning. Is it better to spray water on them or just pour it on?
I live in the south west and the garden gets a lot of sun but its all concrete so I have some raised wooden beds.
I wasn't pleased with the compost last year. It was all dry and clumpy when I bought it and not what I used to have I'm sure.
What compost should I use? How often to water? Do I start them off indoors?
My big herb pot ended up more weeds than herbs! It was all mixed up and in the end I didn't know what was edible and what was weed still ate them though. My chives kept going brown at the ends and straw like at the ends but they had lots of water so why?
My lettuce just didn't look that healthy.
Please help. I know I'm useless but I am very willing.
Is there anything I can do today? To prepare? I have the day off so would like to get cracking.
I'm sooooo determined this year! Last year was a disaster. Nothing grew in the grow bag last year either. Just a very long strange looking unidentifiable thing. God knows how I managed that! How can you go wrong with a grow bag? I forget what I planted in it :think: tomatoes I think. I like radish too. And spring onions. How deep is the compost supposed to be? Sorry for the long post.

Hi MissPickle


Not too sure what to suggest without knowing how big your growing pots are. But I wonder if maybe adding some real soil in with the compost and also some chicken manure pellets or some other organic fertiliser may help give the soil more body and nutrients. If you use some real soil and also fertiliser then you shouldn't have to replace the soil every year.


Make sure the area you have the pots does get a little bit of shade as well as sun, because otherwise they will get scorched and the soil will dry out very quickly on the hot days.


Watering direct into the soil should be all you need to do, just not too water logged.


With the weeding, just do a little whenever you have time, but some herbs will die off if they have too much weed competition and some are too tender to make it through the winter (Basil, Parsley) and will naturally die off anyway.


It this helps, I am no master gardener either but keep trying. Definitely some sort of fertiliser will help keep plants healthy through the growing season. xx


Good luck

misspickle_2

Awwww thanks Steph that all sounds great! That's where I've been going wrong then!
Shall I start the lettuces off indoors?
Can I plant my herbs yet? Or too early yet?
I'm in the south west so quite mild.
I'm off to buy it all now :j
I do this every year. I get so excited and then everything dies:D

StressedSteph

misspickle wrote: »

Awwww thanks Steph that all sounds great! That's where I've been going wrong then!
Shall I start the lettuces off indoors?
Can I plant my herbs yet? Or too early yet?
I'm in the south west so quite mild.
I'm off to buy it all now :j
I do this every year. I get so excited and then everything dies:D

I am in the South West too, North Dorset.


I would start them all off indoors as even with a greenhouse tender plants like basil would get frost damaged.


It is a little early, but if you have a very bright window sill or a conservatory then you could get away with it.


I have just bought Dhalia seeds, parsnip, carrot, cabbage and lettuce and plan to risk planting them in the polytunnel soon.


You could also plant some seed potatoes now in bags or large pots etc.


Have fun xx

Bee70

I've had a productive weekend, as the in laws were over to babysit/help. I've sown the peppers and tomatillos in a heated propogator, as I had zero success with them last year without heat - if nothing happens this year I'll just leave it. The big thing we did was to dig out a wildlife pond at the lottie. It took us all afternoon, damp clay soil is hard to work with especially when riddled with massive weeds. I'm hoping that some frogs will come and live there, eating all my slugs. We have so many, and nothing else has worked - so any frogs will quickly be fat! We sorted out the shed as well and found loads of packs of seed, so now I'm going to have to find some more room to grow them too!

ally18

Hi,
Could I join in please?
I was lucky enough to get my allotment this time last year and have to admit, I did not get it sorted out properly. I only dug half of it over because once I had planted my onions, I seemed to be weeding them constantly and so never had time for the other end of the plot. In the end, I gave up and covered it with tarpaulin and just concentrated on the onions. I did however, produce onions the size of turnips and had everyone gobsmacked asking me how I had done it. I still have no idea and have to say it was down to beginner’s luck and the fact that the plot had not been used for the previous 12 months, hence fantastic soil.:D
This has come back to bite me on the bum though as I appear to be in ‘friendly’ competition with my brother and neighbours now! I did also manage to grow some runner beans and the rhubarb already there just seemed to go mad by itself and became the image of the plants out of Jurassic Park!
This year, I really want to be more organised and be in control of the plot instead of the other way round. Being scared of what you will find when you turn up at the allotment is not the way to go!
Since October, I have put up a shed with no floor (however pallets do the trick), rigged up guttering and started on creating paths. I have produced my 3 year plan (whilst at work – I work full time) and sectioned the plot into 8 sections, so I know where everything is going.
Last year, I planted 2 gooseberry bushes, a blueberry, a tay berry and a goji berry and my flower section was divided off and daffodils, lavender and wallflowers were put in. Most importantly, my seating area in the sun was marked out!
So, yesterday was my first visit back and I was so chuffed that the shed was still there. (My plastic greenhouse at the bottom of my garden returned to OZ in the last lot of wind so I have given up on those in future). Weeds were not too bad and the soil is looking great, it wasn’t frozen at all despite some ice lying around so I managed to complete the rest of the digging over.
My dad is giving up his allotment this year after 30 years and so I have been given wood and useful bits like some old window panels. I set up some metal poles yesterday and made the beginnings of my cold frame come greenhouse. I tied up the raspberry canes my dad gave me and made sure they were secure.
Inside my home, I have a heated propagator with my red onion seed in, planted on Saturday. I have also my white onions already germinated and on the window sill. In two weeks, when the red onions come out the propagator, the tomatoes go in.
Sorry for the long ramble. I absolutely love my allotment and plan to conquer as much of it as possible this year. That’s if the beasties let me!

misspickle_2

Wow you've been busy ally! Awww I would love an allotment.
I've just bought my compost and grit and some herbs and seeds.
I have to repot my money plant tonight. Been meaning to do it for ages!
I'm also going to try growing some lettuce on the kitchen windowsill. It gets a lot of light there.
Its been such a gorgeous day today where I am.

zafiro1984

Sold enough eggs at the gate over the last few weeks to have over £40 profit in the gardening pot. Must go and buy some compost as I need to pot up some raspberries.

Must make a note to myself to 'get a move on with clearing the greenhouse' I've lost a bit of focus in that department but by the end of this month I want it up and running, all DH stuff - out, all spare pots etc in storage, all windows mended and clean and the electric tested and back on so I can get my heat mats working again.

Then its growing time :j :j :j

grassgirl

Used my left over poundshop veg seeds messed them up last year, left them on their own too long, however the onions stayed strong for over a month! My lad wants an allotment, my nan has one with her house but 20 odd years back someone started using it, she's unsure if it's still hers hmmm

Happygreen

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Sold enough eggs at the gate over the last few weeks to have over £40 profit in the gardening pot.

You must have super hens! I barely get enough for ourselves, never mind passing any surplus on yet:(

Had a backbreaking afternoon on the plot yesterday, this is the most painful time of the year for me but I found some potatoes digging up the future bean plot, lol. I've started potting on some herbs and young fruit bushes. Then I tidies quite a lot of dry stuff into the incinerator, phew...lettuces in the tunnel are looking good - the outdoors ones not so much :rotfl: