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

Bluegreen143

I’ve just read this thread from the start and would love to join in if that’s OK 🙂

Firstly would like to say that although I didn’t “know” him how sorry I was to read of unrecordings passing after having just read this thread - it was evident how much a part of this community he was and how missed he is.

As for growing. We have a reasonable sized garden, a decent part of which is taken up by lawn and children’s things, but plenty of room to grow to. We moved here 5 years ago and have been a bit constrained by layout, following where the previous owners put the veg patch, greenhouse etc though we were lucky the garden came with lots of mature fruit trees and bushes as well as the greenhouse. Of course I don’t know how old the fruit bushes are or what varieties they are but it’s lovely to have them. We put a wooden frame around the existing veg patch and added extra soil to turn it into a large, low raised bed which I marked off in square feet. However in the subsequent years I realised it was far too big to manage. It’s about 8 ft x 10 and we put planks of wood in the middle but it was far too narrow a path so by the middle of summer we could never reach the interior to weed or harvest. It would turn into a jungle each year and we would basically waste all our time planting in spring to then hardly harvest anything later. 

This year I put paving stones across most of 1/2 of the patch to make a 4 ft x 10ft growing area and set it out in rows rather than square feet and it’s been a revelation. It’s been so much easier to manage. So far in the bed we’ve grown potatoes, broad beans, salad and radishes, mangetout which are all almost done. The first two were quite small harvests but we’ve had masses from the last three and we have another row with baby salad in now. And still in there we have carrots, beetroot, yellow French beans, borlotti beans, rainbow chard, just planted spinach babies this week too. I also have purple sprouting broccoli starting in modules in the greenhouse which I hope to overwinter and harvest in spring (never grown this before). And in big pots we have two courgette plants but one looks like it has a fungal infection. We never seem to successfully grow courgettes!

In the greenhouse we have lots of tomatoes and we have 2-3 chilli plants as that’s all that survived this year for some reason. 

As well as veg, we have harvested rhubarb, lots of blackcurrants & redcurrants, a handful of both strawberries and cherries (all got munched by various creatures unfortunately along with the gooseberries). A handful of blueberries as ours don’t seem to fruit well. Our raspberries are mainly autumn fruiting but we’ve had a few from one part of the garden that must be summer fruiting. And herbs, especially chives, bay and rosemary. 

-taff

With raised beds it's usually advised to keep them as wide as you can reach across half of it, so no more than four foot usually. And don't worry about the stuff on the courgette, they get mildew from a lack of water [ it sounds mad but true] and they like lots and lots of feeding. SOunds like you're having quite a good though, well done!

Bluegreen143

@-taff that makes a lot of sense. Since I made it into a 4ft wide area it’s been much more productive than when it was double the size! I’ve put paving stones on most of the other half and left a thin strip at the edge which is my 4yo’s patch. He has beans, sunflowers and mixed flowers in there and is so proud of it. The tallest sunflower is 10ft which we are very happy with 🙂 Forgot to mention I have four lovely chickens too so am always overrun with eggs.

Bluegreen143

Oh and thanks for the reassurance over the courgette! Hopefully we will get some. I always hear how they are easy to grow and productive then we always manage to kill them 😂

carinjo

A mild case of whiplash have put paid to all my plans for today, did manage to water everything a bit this morning since had to do go get pain killers anyway. Harvested a small courgette and loads runnerbeans and broadbeans. 
The second cropping seed potatoes arrived yesterday, only expected them in 10days, so now have to attempt a big dig asap. Ms c has been laid down with a bug the last few days, but she said she feeling better and will try and help tomorrow. 
Also got 2 golden plums from the new plot! Yummy.
Welcome to the board @Bluegreen143, and good luck with the courgette. Taken me 3 tries and only since i got gifted a few plants (and then managed to kill half!) Have gotten 2 from 4 plants so far. 

MysteryMe

So sad to learn that unrecordings has passed away. Such a helpful and interesting contributor to the thread.
Harvested my first three cherry toms of the year and I have two courgettes growing at long last.

Suffolk_lass

Welcome @Bluegreen143 - it's a friendly helpful bunch on here. That pic looks great. We have ten raised beds that are all too wide for me to reach the middle - built by the lovely 1.98m husband and I definitely suffer from stuff growing outside its bed to make access difficult. I might post a picture (it is absurd).

Ooh @-taff I did not know it was lack of water. I am going out to feed mine in a minute having read that advice! The one on the end might be missing out!

Bluegreen143

I too have a tall husband @Suffolk_lass - he’s 6ft 4 and I am a diminutive 5 ft nothing! He also tends not to factor in my height when building things 😅

Decided in my wisdom to turn my extremely over full compost bin today on the hottest afternoon for ages (luckily it’s in a shady spot - I was still knackered by the end!). It’s one of the ones where you dissemble the panels one at a time and rebuild next to itself to aid in turning, but I foolishly started taking off the wrong side first (it’s on a slight hill and I took off the side leaning down) and as it was so full it all collapsed everywhere and I had to shovel everything out to have room to rebuild the bin, then shovel it all back in again. However I did empty out a heaping wheelbarrow of lovely, rich, full-of-worms garden compost 😁 I need to work out how best to store it til needed - I used to just leave it in the bin but since I’ve taken composting seriously it gets too full - perhaps I need a second bin, but where to put it? 

Do you think you can use homemade compost for starting seedlings? I know it’s probably not the best but I have no shop bought seed or potting compost left and am quite skint this month. Wanted to start some greens in modules to make plug plants & fill gaps in my veg bed.

-taff

Normally, you'd nuke it in a microwave to kill any seeds left behind but if you know what you're growing, just pick anything that doesn't look like  out

Kantankrus_Mare

Welcome Bluegreen  Sounds like you have made a fantastic start! If you lived near me, Id give you some courgettes. The last couple of years havent been great courgette wise but this year Im picking four or so a day and have reached saturation point. 
I also have grown purple sprouting broccoli for the first time. My plants are quite big as started sowing earlier in the year but not sure when I get anything off it? Thought it would be next spring but we will see.
I am pretty annoyed with my husband!! He is one of those that moves things and tidies away all the time. The other day, I begged some tomatoes off a fellow allotmenter to save the seeds as they did well for me a few years ago. 
I took them home......cut open and saved seeds onto a piece of kitchen roll. I placed this out of the way in the spare bedroom to dry out and guess what? They are no longer there!! I'll kill him!! He is in bed at moment as on nights so will have a go later on. Men!!! (Present members of the species excluded.)