The great, good and not so good bits about growing your own dinner 2017

zafiro1984

So much planned for this afternoon but visitors arrived so I have done nothing. I'm now getting behind and quite panicky.

I need to take stock of what to do and prioritise - I'm another one who must plant their outdoor onions this weekend and I've just realised I didn't plant my shallots so those need to go in as well.

There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day for everything, either that or I'm slowing down.

tibawo

Before I got my allotment I had started the potatoes off in one of the bags. This might sound thick but do I literally just take the bag and plonk it on the ground or do I have to put it somewhere more sturdy?

smeeinnit

tibawo wrote: »

Before I got my allotment I had started the potatoes off in one of the bags. This might sound thick but do I literally just take the bag and plonk it on the ground or do I have to put it somewhere more sturdy?

Hi Tibawo, you can do either or, the advantage of putting bags or containers directly on the earth is that the roots can grow down into the soil and get more nutrients and water. Will do no harm at all

Fruittea

Hi Tibawo Your potatoes should be fine just on the ground in the potato bags. Depending on how far they have gone on and the state of your soil - you could transfer them into the ground. I started a few off in pots inside a cold greenhouse - just so I have some very earlies. So I have some that are just showing the haulms at the moment. So if you have a greenhouse I would be tempted to pop them inside - you might get a really good start.
I feel for you Zafiro - it's always the way. Yesterday one neighbour popped and then another whilst she was here and they had a catch up. Where did my afternoon go?
We have to remember it's still very early for most things - this time last year work started on my house and I had very little time to grow things and no front garden but I did alright. So don't beat yourself up. I'm still sticking to doing a little something everyday but not too much.
I'm just watering the greenhouse this afternoon, cutting some more rhubarb (to sell) and then going mushrooming again. I have big plans to dry some for later in the year - just love mushroom. Anyone get any good ideas for drying large mushrooms? I don't have an airing cupboard and was just going to string them up on an indoor airer.
Smeeinit sounds as though you're really cracking on - my toms are out in the sunshine to but just watch they don't got too bleached if there's no cloud at all - mine are still quite delicate.
All the best for the weekend growers.

MissPop

Quick question - last weekend I was away and asked my other half to not let my seedlings die (tomatoes, peppers, butternut, flowers) and he did a grand job of watering them, but I evidently didn't make it clear that they needed to be brought back in from the mini greenhouse at night :$

The butternuts don't seem to have minded at all possibly because they're much bigger than the others, but I'm not so sure about the rest, as they are still VERY small - do we think they'll recover from the chilly nights or would I be better off starting again?

Fruittea

[QUOTE=MissPop;
The butternuts don't seem to have minded at all possibly because they're much bigger than the others, but I'm not so sure about the rest, as they are still VERY small - do we think they'll recover from the chilly nights or would I be better off starting again?[/QUOTE]

Plants put up with an awful lot MissPop - no doubt it would have checked them a bit but if they look ok I think you will be alright. I'd give it a go and stick with them. Most seedlings if they have too much of a shock will die straight away. It wasn't too cold last week either. Good luck with them.

Kantankrus_Mare

Most of my seedlings have been started on table in front room window and are doing brilliantly.
I started some spinach and gypsophelia at the allotment in the greenhouse and though they germinated nicely.......the few sunny days we had last week seems to have frazzled them. (the greenhouse is in full sun.)

Guess I will have to do some more and start off at home.

On the plus side.........all my strawberry plants left in the greenhouse are starting to flower so hopefully some early strawberries will be had.

MissPop

Fruittea wrote: »

Plants put up with an awful lot MissPop - no doubt it would have checked them a bit but if they look ok I think you will be alright. I'd give it a go and stick with them. Most seedlings if they have too much of a shock will die straight away. It wasn't too cold last week either. Good luck with them.

Cool, thank you! Lets see if they survive me going away for a week later this month...! :rotfl:

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

[creeps in to new area and risks a long first post]

Hello!

This is the first year I've really made much of an effort to grow food, as I moved in six years ago into a house built on what was a scrap yard (literally), so have spent the intervening period trying to get something resembling a living ecosystem going first. I even had to bring in worms (British ones!) as it was completely barren and devoid of all life.

The garden is very small, but I must have done something right, as it's now full of bugs and beasties and I appear to have the National Collection of specimen dandelions in the [strike]lawn[/strike] patch of grass, red and white clover and random wildflowers. They're good for the bumbles. I've got an L shaped bed edged with wood, giving me about 4' x 8' and 3'6" x 7' against an old brick/pebbledashed wall, mostly in sun from dawn - 1pm and then from 3.30pm onwards. The other side of the garden is almost constantly in shade, so I use that to grow mostly wildflowers/woodland adapted stuff - and the only things in the garden which are poisonous or inedible are over there, against the fence in full shade. Over the top of the fence is a rambling rose.


I've got an L shaped bed of about 3'6" x 8' and 2'6" x 7 which is in sun from dawn - 12pm and 3.30ish - dusk, against an old 10" pebbledashed wall.


So far, we have

Raspberries & two roses along the back wall. OH will add his one request of sunflowers back there. I knew I shouldn't have told him about the day I dropped a full sunflower head on the lawn and promptly ended up with a mini field out there the following summer - it's only gone and given him ideas.

In front of those - broad beans, beetroot, salad onions.

Side wall - thornless blackberries (I've dealt with the suckers so far), more beetroot, herbs.
Miniature cherry tree (snapped by intruder in previous pot location, so now consists of one twig in bloom in west facing/full sun in the bed. It seems to like it).
Broad beans. Just in case they decide to grow.
Another rose.
Onions.
Garlic.
Spring onions. It's very warm and free draining, so I'm hoping they'll like it.
Peas.
Dwarf beans.
Chives.
Radishes.
Salad leaves in troughs. We eat a lot, so a glut doesn't worry me.
A sprouted celery head rescued from the bin. If it's stringy and bitter, fine, I'll make soup.

Pots facing west.
Rainbow chard. Two big pots, seedlings appeared after 7 days and seem to be happy. One set is open, one set has glass placed over the top to warm it and I'll see which is happiest.
Potatoes. They'll work or they won't.

North facing windowbox (1-2 hrs of sunlight in evening). Sacrificial nasturtiums and, for some reason, wheat (thanks, birds).

A hanging basket with 3 strawberry plants, one of which is wild strawberry. For some reason, I seem to have wild strawberries (or at least the leaves look the same) appearing from between the paving slabs. I have absolutely no idea where they came from, they've just appeared. Or even if they are strawberries.

A half barrel. Currently contains a black ant nest and has a pane of glass over the top. They like it warm, but I was hoping to chuck a courgette plant in there at some point (got 3 in the kitchen, currently 5 inches tall and thickening up nicely). Will I have to evict them or can they coexist? I know ants farm aphids, but I don't use pesticides and usually get herds of ladybirds rampaging over my plants and half the town's birdlife.


The rest of the (tiny) garden is almost constantly in shade, so consists of poisonous, nectar rich or just plain lovely scented plants and wildflowers. Because I like them. And so do the bugs and beasties that pollinate stuff or eat things that want to eat plants.


Out the front is fully block paved on a 3' sandbed, other than a 3" strip along the house. It's in full sun from dawn - dusk and acts like a storage heater. That's got lavender, rosemary, mint (in a pot - I'm not that stupid), ivy growing up the shadiest bit of the house, honeysuckle growing up by the door and a windowbox of forget me nots, violas, geraniums (red cultivated and flowering year round as well as Herb Robert), Wild Carrot and anything vaguely associated with the South of France because it's too hot out there year round to be bothering with constant watering and babying of stuff.

OH is mercifully tolerant of my bringing in random wildlife to show him. He's now fully conversant in several species of wild bee, leopard slugs, baby snails, pill woodlice, caterpillars (woolly bears are a speciality and he put up with a cabbage white cocoon in the house on the door lintel last year) - and he's already experienced in recognising the sounds of the toothless, disabled, wobbly cat managing to get something between his gums, so is adept at retrieving slightly soggy and extremely irate wildlife. The only things that don't get to stay are wasps in the shed. It's just that bit too close, so any nests are knocked down at the ping pong ball size stage - over the wall is fine, as then they come in and deal with the caterpillars, but not within six foot of us, thanks.



I don't know if anything is going to work or make it, but it's not bad for a tiny patch in the city centre. .

determined_new_ms

jo your garden sounds a delight

boo my sprouts have karked it! It's been really warm here in the south and I came home one day and most things were wilting everything except the sprouts and 1 sunflower have survived. So I will be sowing some more today - I have a dream of eating home grown sprouts at Christmas!

I was planning on going to the lottie for a couple of hours this morning while oh took madam to football. But she has just announced she wants me to take her today so looks like I'm going to go shortly so I can be get back in time to take her. Still battling marestail at my plot - I can see my neighbour who doesn't cultivate her plot has a major colony of it I'm going to email her and ask her to let me put weedkiller on it. "one year's seed equals 7 year's weed"!

Need to start hardening my broad beans to sow - I didn't bother with the first lot and they are doing fine but then saw someone else was!

will go through the seed box and see what I can plant today