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The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

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  • rosie383
    rosie383 Posts: 4,981 Forumite
    Oh no! I feel your pain.
    That's one of the perils of having your precious seedlings on the floor by the back door. Hopefully more will survive.
    Father Ted: Now concentrate this time, Dougal. These
    (he points to some plastic cows on the table) are very small; those (pointing at some cows out of the window) are far away...
    :D:D:D
  • Primrose
    Primrose Posts: 10,699 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    Bad luck Jazee. Know how you feel. Once had a violent and unexpected gust of wind blow over my mini plastic greenhouse which had all four shelves crammed full with tray and pots of seedlings. I lost virtually everything and was gutted. Had to re-sow and go out and buy from garden centres.

    Greenhouse is now firmly and permanently strapped through bolts into the house brick wall! Some lessons are hard learned!
  • rosie383
    rosie383 Posts: 4,981 Forumite
    Is it worth getting one of those wee greenhouses?
    Does that mean I could start seeds off earlier and not have them cluttering up my indoor space for months on end?
    Or would I still have to be bringing them in at night?
    Father Ted: Now concentrate this time, Dougal. These
    (he points to some plastic cows on the table) are very small; those (pointing at some cows out of the window) are far away...
    :D:D:D
  • I've planted out today having hardened off the seedling over the last 2 to 3 weeks. I've planted out:
    Beetroot
    Chard
    Cavolo nero
    Lamb's lettuce
    Pak choi


    Anyone think I've been a bit foolhardy? I needed the space in my greenhouse!


    I'm going to wait til the Brussels are a bit bigger before I plant them out, ditto the French beans.



    Courgettes have just sprouted. Tomatoes will be staying in the greenhouse, ditto cucumbers.


    Still to sprout are peppers and aubergine (also to stay in greenhouse)


    This is only my second year of gardening, worried I've gone a bit crackers with the planting out
  • Primrose
    Primrose Posts: 10,699 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    edited 23 April 2019 at 9:01PM
    rosie383 wrote: »
    Is it worth getting one of those wee greenhouses?
    Does that mean I could start seeds off earlier and not have them cluttering up my indoor space for months on end?
    Or would I still have to be bringing them in at night?

    Rosie I still start many of my seeds, (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, courgettes etc off indoors in March or April but then move them out into the mini plastic greenhouse when they're 1 - 2 inches high. I have a mini greenhouse with the green mesh type plastic cover which is slightly thicker heavy duty than the see-through transparent cover and so far haven,t suffered any frosted seedlings, even on frosty night. Occasionally if it,s forecast to be cold at night I throw an old woven cover of some kind over the structure's roof at night as double protection. .

    The benefit of a greenhouse like this is that you get light coming in from the top and both sides rather than just from one direction on a window ledge so your seedlings benefit and are often less leggy as a result.

    You can buy these mini greenhouses via Amazon an on the Internet. i think mine was a Guardman. You can also alternate the type of cover and have a transparent one for summer usebut if the structure tubes which hold it together are metal rather than plastic, be sure to wrap a fabric "bandage" of some kind around the top tubes on which the plastic cover rests. In very hot weather these metal tubes get so hot that they can melt and split the plastic cover resting on top of them! You can repair the splits with Duct tape but it obviously weakens the cover and looks a bit unsightly !
  • Suffolk_lass
    Suffolk_lass Posts: 10,229 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 22 April 2019 at 8:31AM
    We have picked up the greenhouse I had my eye on, on FB Marketplace. It is rather more rotten than the description implied; and we are down £67 cost of the van we hired to collect it. The woman was very gung-ho moving pieces (I think she thought she was helping) and bits kept falling apart before my eyes - someone else had already disassembled it badly, meaning some of the very valuable 4mm toughened glass had suffered.

    We will use the frame as a template and bolster it with HM additions to brace it and make it stronger - the joys of being married to an engineer who now teaches Design and Technology Resistant Materials (that is Woodwork and metalwork to my generation!).

    Anyway, we won't be using it this summer but hopefully it will be up and in its' new location over the winter, allowing my 6x6' little twisted-frame aluminium job to be dismantled and disposed of responsibly.

    I also have my back door being replaced on Friday so will have the old glazed (wooden DG that has started to fail) to make cold frames from. DH is going to be busy!

    The point of sharing all this is that these nearly free things offer us frugal-types an opportunity, as Primrose describes, to move our germinated seedlings out of the house to grow on in that stage between starting and planting out.

    I am back to path clearance today, and nurturing my squash seeds while DH makes me more rabbit-proof screens for the veg garden to protect my precious babies from the baby buns. I also have some rhubarb and a couple of flowering perennials to plant out (gifted from the houses we visited to and from Scotland) and some ginger mint to split up, ready for the Village plant stall sale in May. I must re-weed a couple of paths and possibly dig the former leek bed ready for speedy (the variety) dwarf beans to be planted too. Best I get dressed and out there really!
    Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
    OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
    I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
    My new diary is here
  • euronorris
    euronorris Posts: 12,247 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper PPI Party Pooper
    Wowee, what a glorius weekend!


    Thinned out some carrot seedlings, tended the tomato ones, my bean got partially eaten by something (no slugs or snails in sight). I have now sprayed it with garlic infused water (at the recommendation of my brother) and am keeping my fingers crossed.


    The strawberry plants have some flower buds on them! The blueberry bushes are going nuts and attracted some little bee visitors. I got some herbs from the garden centre and planted them out (rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme and oregano - all things we use).


    Hacked back a bush in the garden. I don't know what it is, but it is so hardy and grows prolifically! Want to keep a better control of it this year as it became a major job last year due to neglect!


    Weeded the borders again, found some worms, which delighted DD no end and she happily carried them over to their new home in the vegetable planter. Also dead headed (think that's the right term) the hydrangeas, and hacked them back a bit (spilling out onto the lawn they were).


    Weed killer achieved very little on the lawn. It has made the dandelions look a bit unhealthy, but they are still alive, still flowering, still growing! lol. DH gave them another go last night. We shall see!


    Spent some time with the neighbours in their gardens, where DD had so much fun and didn't want to go home (cue half hour tantrum once we were home). And I got some brilliant yellow sticker food bargains in morries :)
    February wins: Theatre tickets
  • -taff
    -taff Posts: 15,321 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I strimmed and mowed the lawn, de weeded the rubbish bit that has concrete blocks, levelled the new bed, covered it in cardboard and strategically got OH to place some bits of wood and pots around the place.
    Plans for this week are sow the cucumbers and squash and beans, decide whether strawberries or a water feature is going in the half barrel, paint said barrel and garage door, remove paint from another door to make a table, fill bed with stuff at hand.

    Also at some point, make a new compost retaining feature, move it to one side to plant the rhubarb in the corner out of the way and lop a few more branches off the overhanging tree.
    That's the plan. No idea what I will actually achieve though...
    Non me fac calcitrare tuum culi
  • CAFCGirl
    CAFCGirl Posts: 9,123 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Monday saw me up the plot.
    Picked off about 1\10th of the dandelion flowers, and had them drying out in the sun all day yesterday and collected t his morning. They'll be infused in oil for soap making later next week.

    Allotment work moving along steadily. Looking forward to cooler temps end of the week for 'proper grafting' days of clearing. I just can't manage it when it's above 16 degrees LOL
    Wealth is not measured by currency
  • unrecordings
    unrecordings Posts: 2,017 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I'd be interested in hearing about the soap recipe
    I can't get above around 20˚C, so the weekend was hard going, but I've a clean potting bench now, and pretty much up to date (apart from peas...)
    Managed to get the salt glazed feeder in the ground without injury, but did fall out of my chair when Mrs Un excitedly pointed to a bird of prey flying low overhead

    Why am I in this handcart and where are we going ?
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