The all new good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2020

orangecrush

Thanks @silverwhistle! I’m hoping to go down this weekend and get some measurements and some photos - I’ll maybe put them up here!
I have grown veg in the past in our garden, but last year was a complete and utter disaster as everything got eaten by pests. I think my mistake was planting too much too close, so I will make sure I space everything out on the allotment!
I love a good book so will see if I can get a copy of that one - thank you! 

orangecrush

P.S. I had no idea about cardboard! Does it have to be plain, in other words not painted or printed? 

jammy_dodger

bought  myself a  cheapy  heated  propagator  from  b n Q and  sown  some  tomatoe seed  bought  from  Lidl..  see  how they  get  on.  the season up north is so short  so always hoping  to  extend  the  season . I do have  a greenhouse  to  grow  them  in if  they come up 
Ive  transplanted  a  chunk o  rhubarb  that  my  neighbour  has  given me . it  was  looking  neglected  so hoping I  can  revive  it .  dug  in plenty of homemade  compost

the  tatties  I  have  chitting  are  shown  some  sign of  swelling  eyes  too I  have  dug over  the  bed  inprep  for  them  to  go  in next  month . heres  hoping it  warms  up a  bit x 

silverwhistle

I think plain cardboard is best, a bit of printing doesn't matter, but I pull off any tape and some with that glossy stuff on the outside. I've put down under manure and over manure and both work well in suppressing weeds (it depended on when I got hold of it!).  Also used on top of the compost heap in winter to keep it a little warmer, and down the gaps in the pallets to stop stuff falling out. Never throw decent sized bits of cardboard  or wine cartons away!

ancientmum

I've just invested a  hefty chunk of allotment money on a shed.  When I took over the plot the shed was missing, apparently the last person had sold it to a neighbour.  Having seen that some sheds on our allotment had been sent flying by the recent high winds I've  gone for a high spec that will be installed from scratch by the shed company.  I'm hoping it will last at least 10-15 years with care, after which I will probably be giving up the plot. 
I'm looking forward to being able to keep my tools on site and have somewhere to shelter, rather than having to use my car. 
As for planting, I'm chitting potatoes, in the spare room and this weekend I'll be sowing some seeds to germinate on the kitchen windowsill. 

zafiro1984

Time to start growing again with determination. Everyone on here seems to be doing exceptionally well. I've spent the last few weeks finishing off all the jobs I didn't do over the winter. I've chitted earlies and will put them in the tunnel shortly but I must make sure this year I keep the vermin away and that includes rabbits and squirrels. They even ate my sweet potatoes before I managed to dig them all up.. I've decided to net the beds in the tunnels - so that's my next job. All my beds outside are netted but I need to check for holes (deer are also a problem here and I have a suspicion we were visited last year by a badger or a wild boar on one occasion)

I've got my tomatoes growing in the utility room plus chillies, sweet peppers, and onions. They're on a heat mat and under grow lights. Three  varieties of tomatoes, that was until I saw the T&M seed offer of £! a packet, I've now another 4 varieties coming. Why I grow so many tomatoes is a mystery, the greenhouse is absolutely full of them in the summer, but sadly my DH is allergic to them. Next to be sown indoors are leeks. I'm also going to sow carrots, early peas, kohl rabi and beetroot in the tunnels once netted.

My enthusiasm has come back after all the rain. Mornings are taken up with livestock so I only have a couple of hours in the afternoon if I'm lucky for growing.before it's back to the evening jobs for the livestock. I'm just hoping the weather has turned and the enthusiasm stays

orangecrush

Managed a few hours on the allotment today. Previous tenants left a LOT of rubbish. Probably half a skip worth of rubble... not sure where it all came from but apparently it was in the ground, and they dug it up (then got sick of it and abandoned the plot).
Today’s task was just to get weed proof membrane over as much as possible. We went through two 14m rolls and ran out, so have ordered some more and will go back next weekend. 

We did do a bit of weeding and underneath mats of some kind of climbing thing were loads of parsnips! Have pulled them up and will roast them for soup  

unrecordings

Been busy with final preps for youknowwhat with the odd splash of rain just complicating things.Hope to be out in the garden tomorrow. Job number one is strim a path doen to the bottom of the garden so I don't keep tripping over the tufts, then set fire to stuff, then play it by ear

euronorris

Finally was well enough to get out in the garden and do something this weekend!

Gave the blueberry and blackberry plants a feed, sowed some basil, and some courgettes, cherry tomatoes, beetroot, salad leaf and runner beans. Was hoping to do more yesterday, but it rained heavily all day!

crv1963

Hi I've not posted for a while, things are seemingly coming along nicely- I've been busy!

Onions and Leeks from seed growing but still in the Greenhouse, not had any luck with trying Chilli from seed so had to order some plug plants yesterday. Garlic planted in my large tubs seem to be growing okay as are the onion sets I planted in the late winter. I ordered what I thought was a few different plug plants for summer bedding - this past week 680 turned up! So have spent the weekend planting them all up and filling the Greenhouse up! Promised Mum she can have quite a few of them for her garden.

I've sown some perennials for the flower beds and have planted 900 snowdrops in the green and 7 dwarf flowering cherry trees. I have bought 7 more to try down our sloping garden on the East facing side of the garden- it has pretty much been left to its' own devices until now apart from Snowdrops that I planted a few years ago which have clumped up quite well.

Not made any progress with what will be my Veg Plot yet as the builders are still working on the loft so it is covered in junk! I have created a Rockery on a slope next to the Greenhouse and started planting that up. I've weeded the borders and put a two inch layer of mulch over them all. Sprinkled ground bone meal over them first. 

I'm going to have quite a bit of wood to make my raised beds- the rafters from the loft are more numerous than I thought, so I'm toying with the idea of making a smaller cold Greenhouse covered with plastic sheeting for the Tomatoes and so giving them a bit more room- I thought when I had my Greenhouse put up I'd have more than enough room but I seem to have ran out of room and need somewhere else to fit everything in. I've made my Cold Frames and filled them too.

Today I'm going to potter sow some Dahlias, Cosmos and Veg. A bit early for lots of things here as we had sleet and snow last Thursday and Friday and we get frosts until late May as we're perched on the highest point of town some 900 feet above sea level. When Durham gets rain we get snow! My spring bulbs are about three weeks behind my mothers- she is at sea level but only 35 miles away I never appreciated the difference height made to the growing season until I moved here! My snowdrops are still in flower hers have finished, my Bluebells and Tulips are just showing through the ground now. The Daffodils have just started flowering whereas hers have been out for weeks.

I haven't really been able to work out if keeping the Greenhouse frost free with an electric heater is expensive or not as the builders use so many electric tools it's hard to keep track, and we're having to keep the central heating on more because we have plastic sheeting as a roof until they get it all water tight and insulated. Another 3-5 weeks depending on the weather and the loft will be finished then another 3-4 weeks and the Conservatory will be replaced with an extension and then finally we can get the house and garden sorted properly- I'll get my shed back and be able to have free rein over the garden, get the bedding plants in and try and grow my Veg!