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

GunShotResidue

Thank you -taff, I'll do that today. Other than that and a bit of watering I think it will be a fairly lazy day!

carinjo

Both the potatoes and the tomatoes got some frost damage. The potatoes should be ok, only few leaves were sticking out here and there. The tomatoes, not sure if they going to make it. Tidied up after the shed building, then spend time hunting for someone's pet rabbit and ran out of time. The rabbit wasn't found, so good luck to him!

zafiro1984

I thought it was going to be cooler this week but I've just come in from working in one of the tunnels and I'm exhausted and hot. I think 6am would be a far better time of the day but I'm still in the land of Nod then. 
Planted out dwarf beans and sowed some more for succession, sowed carrots, planted the remainder of the garlic that wouldn't fit outside. made space for cucumbers x 2, chillies x 4, sweetpeppers x 10, aubergines x 4, I'll plant them out in the next few days. harvested the remainder of the fennel which were leftovers from last Autumn's planting, they were just starting to bolt but still usable. (I'm doing fish tonight so they'll go well with that)

Still plenty to do including all the pricking out of bedding plants. I want to fill a raised bed alongside the lawn with a nice colourful display of bedding. There are 2 sacks of daffs and one sack of tulips in it at the moment so I'll have to wait until they die down before I can plant it out. The idea is to eventually have perennials but I'll have to do cuttings, raise plants from seeds or do swaps to get enough to fill it at a reasonable cost

carinjo

zafiro1984 said:
I think 6am would be a far better time of the day but I'm still in the land of Nod then. 

harvested the remainder of the fennel which were leftovers from last Autumn's planting, they were just starting to bolt but still usable. (I'm doing fish tonight so they'll go well with that)
There are 2 sacks of daffs and one sack of tulips in it at the moment so I'll have to wait until they die down before I can plant it out. The idea is to eventually have perennials but I'll have to do cuttings, raise plants from seeds or do swaps to get enough to fill it at a reasonable cost

I am currently waking up at 4:45am along with the cat, Ms Marple. So am on the allotment at 8:30 most mornings. I forgot about fennel and how much i love it, will add it to my list of "posh veg" i would like to grow. Had a chat with OH today and would rather do the perimeter of plot with artichokes instead of the few raspberry canes there at moment. zafiro1984, i might pick your brain on perrenials. The second plot i want to take over is actually a lot smaller than i thought (usable space is roughly 7x 8 (lady) steps) and the big fruit tree and shed casts a lot of shade till just after midday, so will need to have to educate myself first on what is possible to grow in semi-shade. I will also visit Sarah Raven's site as suggested by suffolk_lass. Any
 suggestions will be welcome. 
On a side note: the rabbit was rescued by a work colleague and is now awaiting for it's owner to come forward. 

[Deleted User]

My veg beds have been built and hopefully by this time tomorrow the area will be finished and they'll be full of compost!! 🙌 The seeds I have planted have started to sprout- most of the sweetcorn poked through within 2 days and some of the brassicas too - it will be a couple of weeks probably before any are ready to get into the beds but I'm going to sow some beetroot, carrots, black kale, salad leaves and parsnips directly as soon as the gardeners have packed up 😁 all very exciting!!! 
Glad the rabbit was found! 😁 

carinjo

A very busy morning on plot. The OH cleaned out the new shed and went through all the buckets and boxes to decide what will stay. She also finished giving oil feed to the garden chairs gifted to us by same neigbour that gifted shed.
I spend a bit of time levelling out the paths, trimming grass and putting down pallet decking around shed. 
Also used some plastic cladding to frame the broadbean bed to help against crouch grass. (And 3 of the 19 seeds have germinated! Fingers crossed more to follow)
A bit more soil over potatoes and fleece over tomatoes will hopefully help against cold couple of nights to follow.
At home this afternoon repotted runner beans (Mr R said they can go into plot by end of this week), leeks and chives. Also painted a doorstop for shed and a letter that will go onto door of shed. A bit of creativity between the planting and growing a lot of fun! 

[Deleted User]

Ordered my compost bin this morning! 🙌 we currently have one but it's old and broken plus it's been infiltrated by stinging nettles and a variety of other weeds 🙈 I looked around for the most suitable one for our situation and decided on a hotcompost  bin - expensive outlay but will save an absolute fortune in the long run, I can situate it in the best position for us without having to do any work and will give me veganic compost and liquid fertilizer so for me it's worth every penny! 😁 Hopefully it will arrive within the next month which means I can move the old (still structurally sound) stuff out into the new bin straight away, then any compost the old bin has produced can be added in a handful at a time so that any weed seeds will be destroyed 🙌 
Leek seeds have started to sprout - not sure if they will work properly with planting so late but I think that may be the case with lots of my stuff this season 🙈😂

-taff

You could put the stinging nettles in water to make a nitrogen rich feed for leafy greens. Stinks though.

Jealous of your new bin...I'd like one but can't afford it until I win the lottery

Suffolk_lass

DH went round with a bale of barley straw last night, building protective nests around the potatoes, courgettes, outdoor cucumber and salad crops. I can see from the window he did not go for the beans. If they are terminally frost damaged I am going to have to send him for more seed now that the wonderful local nursery has reopened. I might even consider going myself. I have not been out out for eight weeks. Finally completed my admin so after a quick read on here I must get out to check.

[Deleted User]

-taff said:

You could put the stinging nettles in water to make a nitrogen rich feed for leafy greens. Stinks though.

😂😂😂 I did that years ago -taff, dh decided never again due to the stench! 🙈 I'm planning on getting a couple of comfrey plants to make additional liquid feed - do you know if that has a similar smell issue?