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

Suffolk_lass

I have planted out the first batch of beans - they are Climbing beans 'Blauhilde' which grow over 2.5m if allowed to, and set purple beans about 25cm long - I also have some pathetic runners (seed was probably too old) and Borlottis to grow on frames, and three different types of dwarf or French beans to top up with - some in the greenhouse, some in the bed.

My sweetcorn (in toilet rolls in a pot) have got enough leaves to go out even if next week is better from a frost point of view. I will need to reinstate the rabbit fencing first or they will come to nothing.

DH asked if I would grow salad crops in modules so I have - I might get him to !!!!!! and plant them out as I hate that job.

My 5 banker tomatoes (3 sungold bought, 2 black Russian from a neighbour) are ready to put in 15cm pots, ahead of planting against the wall of the house. The rest are my home grown ones (about 50 two leaved shoots are still too small to !!!!!! out) of five varieties, three to cook with, two for salads. They will be my greenhouse crop this year, with six chilli plants (3 each of Cayenne and Apache).

I also have some brassicas starting to pop up in their seed trays - mostly broccoli (2 varieties of purple, plus Romanescu) so far, with Kale, chard, celeriac and cauliflower expected. After two weeks I finally have a few squashes - two melons, five cucumbers, 7 courgettes and three butternut squashes showing signs of life.

I have four trays with runner bean seeds and diddly squat happening - just 10 germinations, all now potted on. There is a lesson there.

I might not grow any broad bean seeds this year as that is what is in the field behind us but will call my neighbour to see if he has any leek seedlings at the end of the month.

I ordered strawberries and a boysenberry and they were delivered from Ken Muir (local to me). Just the asparagus crowns outstanding and I expect them next week - no hurry, they are for two years time onwards...

My outstanding plants from T&M are trickling in too - hanging begonias on their way it just leaves fuchsias and broccoli (an eclectic mix) outstanding.

My gooseberries have set fruit so despite no bees of our own this year (so far), something has been out pollinating. The apple trees are blossoming and the crabapple (my universal pollinator) is in bloom, next to the white of the cherry. Plums (opal, Victoria, mirabelle, gages and damsons) have all finished flowering with this wind.

Ooh sorry, sort of recording where everything is so I can compare in future

crv1963

Suffolk_lass said

Ooh sorry, sort of recording where everything is so I can compare in future

I like others news! I've constructed my raised beds- cost me £5.09 for a box of screws- recycled the timber joists and beams from the loft conversion and my neighbour is going to have the remaining timber and off cuts from the new roof for his log burner. So also saved the cost of a skip to dispose of the rubbish from the conversion.

Today I'm going to start filling the raised beds I have bags of manure from a friend, top soil, compost and soil conditioner I bought back in February in readiness for the new season, then when I clear the beds in the autumn I'll top up with the soil from the tubs growing my garlic at the moment.

I've got some Blackcurrents, a Whitecurrent, Strawberries I bought as bare root plants in November which have grown in pots in the cold frame over the winter to put in today.

I'll have to pot on the tomatoes and chilli plants they've grown at a faster rate than I had originally thought! Then to put the bedding plants into the cold frames to harden off by mid May.

Kantankrus_Mare

Well, seems everyone is very busy which is at should be at this time of year. As I have been furloughed and now not been at work for 5 weeks  I have spent sooo much time at my plot. Only thing is, things seem to not grow as quickly when you are looking all the time. Its the tidiest its ever been and lots going on in the greenhouse and the dining room table is groaning with growing plants. Even though Ive been at this game for years.....I never know when its safe to transfer from the warmth in the house to the greenhouse at the plot with its plummetting night temperatures.
Even my allotment shed is the tidiest its been!! Started a bit of a tidy yesterday and ended up pulling out everything that moved and sweeping it thoroughly. Never seen so many cobwebs and spiders but felt like Id achieved something at the end of it. Today we heard a neighbour making use of his time off by lifting all his slabs in his garden. Obviously got a garden project on and guess who could do with some more slabs at the allotment to go between a couple more raised beds?? Hopefully he will be out tomorrow evening for the Clap for NHS so will try and ask him if he needs disposal. 

zafiro1984

Great post Suffolk Lass, thoroughly enjoyed reading it .It was a record of where you are up to at the moment. I'm all in favour of recycling things crv1963. I try, but sometimes my efforts look very untidy to say the least.
here's my record for good or bad - I intend this year to grow only what we eat.

Outside Veg I have already planted red onions, white onions, main crop potatoes (I have some more to go in) My asparagus bed is small so I ordered some more which are potted up at he moment ready to go in a new bed once it's finished. 

Fruit in the cage are raspberries, loganberries gooseberries, blueberries, enough plants for us if I manage to harvest everything. Outside the cage are 16 bushes of blackcurrants, 6 redcurrants, 6 whitecurrants, rhubarb, the usual apples, 1 pear that doesn't do well, I also have a medlar tree. I never knew what to do with the fruit but last year I found a utube video on making jam, it was delicious. Hazel trees but the squirrels usually get there first, Sweet chestnuts, I'm always careful about using them as I found some little grubs in them one year and it put me off. The usual blackberries and sloes and a couple of hedges of rosa rugosa, their hips plus bought oranges make really good marmalade.

Greenhouse This is my work station early in the year but once it's cleared of growing plants i use it for tomatoes in pots as the floor is concrete with no soil beds. I've got 8 x chillies but will only plant out 6,  6 x snack peppers, about 30 tomato plants in four different varieties all blight resistant,  I've recently sown mangetout, aubergines kohlrabi, Hursts greenshaft peas, beetroot, fennel, celery, cucumber, melons and a host of flower seeds, not to mention sweetcorn, runner and french beans, alderman peas, and squash.they are either germinating or at the stage where they need pricking out 
Polytunnels I love my tunnels, we bought solar tunnels rather than ordinary tunnels and DH made me raised beds inside about 30" high using concrete blocks. Good if you have dodgy knees, or hips. One is 20' x 12', The other is bigger 40' x 15' I try to fill every bit of them. At the moment I have carrots, overwintered fennel, mangetout, salad things, radish, kohl rabi, and new potatoes. Also - my pride and joy - 2 apricot trees

My main problem is I'm not too good at keeping things too tidy as I go along, I tend to concentrate on the growing so I have days where I do nothing but catch up with spring cleaning. I need such a day soon

Today I aim to get the parsnips out which are happy in their toilet tubes in the greenhouse. Their bed is ready but I'm wilting from the heat at the moment. I think I'll also sow some carrots outdoors

Suffolk_lass

zafiro1984 - I just read that to my husband - "that's a farm, that is" was his response. Sounds epic.

crv1963 - I love repurposing stuff. Even the part-rotted pallet wood from our old compost bins is being used in the new bins where it is anything other than disintegrating. 

Err, anybody know how to repurpose beer and wine bottles? We seem to have quite a few here...

Charly27

carinjo said:

had a unexpected stroke of good fortune come my way today. the neighbour is updating his garden and gifted me his small shed! so i knocked on another neighbour's door and offered him some work to dismantle and reassemble it on the allotment. it the same size as my allotment neighbour's, so won't affect his sunlight and access if we install it directly opposite. i will hopefully be able to attach a small gutter system to it and collect rainwater now too. Possibilities!

My marrow and sweetcorn seedlings growing like crazy, so will need to dig double time to get the beds ready.

That is a great bit of news. The gutter is on one side of my 8ft x6ft allotment shed and in a good autumn/winter in dry Norfolk that pretty much 3/4 fills a 1000l IBC. Saves me a ton of work walking to tap. I hope you can fix some.

Charly27

suffolk_lass , crv1963 and Kantankrus_Mare I am loving reading your posts. Very inspiring. I’ve not got to painting and cleaning Lottie shed but if this carries on I hope it won’t be too long before I do.
Quick update before I hit the desk and fire up the PC. Very late today. I think it’s because DS and partner should have been getting married today and I had a day’s leave booked which I then cancelled. Can’t get backside in gear. 
Very excited to report I have more seeds germinating.  I’d all but given up hope but parsley, sweet corn, sweet peas, peas and nasturtiums  are finally emerging and the Wilko sunflower seeds sowed direct have a pair of leaves each. I can’t tell you what a huge buzz that is. Leeks and tomatoes nothing. I’ve chucked out the trays and compost into the raised bed. So no tomatoes at all this year as I’m out of seed. Unless I can get to Wilko soon.
On Saturday I took delivery from YouGarden of chrysanthemums, pinks and Erigeron plug plants. So healthy, now all potted on and in my mini greenhouse. Pricked out Cosmos - Wilko again - excellent germination. I have Dahlia tubers to plant in pots and some summer bulbs to plant out. At the allotment I have spent between an hour or two at the end of each day mostly weeding and digging. I have two rows of first earlies (rest still in shed I’m afraid), onions sets, red and white, poking through, some flower seeds sown direct (cornflowers, marigolds and mixed flower seeds), apple trees, pear, plum and cherry trees all in bloom, gooseberry and red currant flowering. My current campaign is war against grass and nettles among autumn raspberries. I am winning but it’s taking its toll on my knees and wrists. I took a break yesterday. I want to feed them and then mulch. I have a big bag of bark chips in the shed which I could put over some weed matting. 
Not there yet. Have a good day all.

bluesooz

There must be so many tidy sheds and greenhouses this year - with lots of evicted spiders!

In greenhouse

I've repotted my cherry tomatoes into bigger pots, the othes are still in their first sized pots
aubergines, peppers and chillis are all pricked into their first pots - they're about 4- 6cm tall  but growth is very slow
Squash and courgettes are growing well - hope to get these out soon
only growing 3 greenhouse cucumbers - seeds all sown at the same time, with one of them germinating and showing within 3 days.  So i have one growing strongly with new leaves and the other 2 just showing their seed leaves above the surface.
french beans, runner beans, outdoor cucumber all geminating  
more seeds planted - lettuce, coriander, more spring onions, oregano, red cabbage 

In veg patch

harvesting - rhubarb, asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and the last of the leeks
broad beans, sown in Autumn, are growing well - lots of flowers and regularly visited by the bees
also growing/planted out - cavelo nero, spinach beet, chinese cabbage (first time growing this), lettuce, winter peas, strawberries, red currants and raspberries.  

Also have a fig - not grown one before as the plants always seem so big!  Bought one that said it would grow in a pot, but the poor thing got far too big for a pot, so I've found it  a space in the garden and planted it out.

i need some rain though - have emptied 3 water butts and nothing due to fill them back up again


Had a surprise visitor in the greenhouse.  Had been in there a while, sorting stuff out and potting seedling up, when the cat came in to say hello.  She suddenly rushed over to one corner, when i went to have a look there was a snake behind some shelving!   Decided it was time to go indoors and have a cup of tea.  It had gone (I hope) when I went back later - it was only a grass snake and that would explain why we have had no frogs and tadpoles this year.


zafiro1984  and others - how easy is it to grow celery and how much room do they take?  I'm the only one in the house that likes celery so not sure about growing it if it takes lots of room and then all needs harvesting at once

crv1963

Good morning all, Mrs CRV Birthday today so I'm not waking her up this morning we had a party for two with a music channel on TV until 4 am, I was up again at 6 for the dogs, then my local Nursery has just dropped a further 19 bags of soil off for my raised beds.

Yesterday I managed to fill 2 of the beds with the soil I had, planted one bed of Strawberries interspersed them with onions, put my 3 Rhubarb plants in. Today the plan is to finish filling the raised beds plant more Strawberries, Onions and Broad Bean plants. Then move bedding plants out of the Greenhouse into the then empty Cold Frames, ready to set up my Chilligrow and Quadgrow systems- an expensive luxury and so not really MSE but my justification is I work away and so the self watering system will not place a burden on Mrs CRV and we'll still get a harvest!

I'm already finding I've too many plants! If they all survive I'll have Tomatoes to spare and more onions than we eat! I don't even like fresh Toms, I hope to give some of the plants away if they survive, although Mum wants a few how do people get rid of spare plants? I'm garden growing not got an allotment- work full time+ extra hours at the moment so getting an allotment even with the current 5 year waiting list isn't going to happen any time soon!

I'm hoping that Jack Frost doesn't visit us in the next few weeks as my bedding plants- all grown from tiny plug plants and seed may not survive. However if I don't get the Chilli and Toms set up they won't survive my working away- I never had this problem when I didn't have a GH! 

carinjo

Happy Birthday to Mrs CRV! I'll catchup on everyone else's posts on my mealbreak tonight. Back to work today.
Finished breaking up the big clumps for runnerbean bed and put a bit of cladding in front to make it tidy. Finished breaking up the big clumps for sweetcorn bed and gave it a good raking too. Just need to work through some fish, bone, blood now.
Thinned and weeded 2 rows of lettuce and 1 or radish. One row lettuce didn't germinate, will plant a different packet of seeds next time on plot.
All my first row of 2nd earlies have stuck their heads through now. 
Most of seeds at home have germinated and doing nicely, just going to wait for last frost date to pass now.