The even newer good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2021!

MovingForwards

Going for the whole hog in 2021!
Root veg, greens and salad, with some strawberry plants and my gooseberry bush, if it behaves over winter.  

My garlic and onions have been in a little while.

I established my herb garden this year, some are sleeping over winter, others still very much out and growing, some slowed down. 

My OH has prepared the rest of the garden and green manure is currently doing it's thing. Doing no dig growing, where possible, have a few hugel mounds for long-term soil goodness and while things take me longer to do due to health issues, I get there in the end.

I've been collecting seeds since moving here, got gardening magazines tucked all over the place and have learned enough from 2020 to know what not to do again.

I'm also in Scotland, but my garden has good sun / daylight; my roses are still budding and blooming.

I'm hopefully confident at nailing succession planting, using every available space as my garden is 11x8m 🤗

Jjah

Thanks for the warm welcome, peeps.

Suffolk_lass, your crop rotation method sounds interesting.  I know very little of this other than it helps avoid repeat pest problems.

Another bindweed victim too, aaargh.  One upside to the other weeds you have are that they are all edible .  I have tried to  unsuccessfully grow wood sorrel as I enjoy the burst of flavour from those little leaves.

I guess you can also eat bindweed and even Japanese knotweed (I have actually eaten a jam from knotweed when we did a foraging lesson for some home edders). 

I wouldn't eat my bindweed though as I curse it so often that I am sure it would give me indigestion...


This cold spell is hindering my newly found mojo. 

I have had to content myself with some greenhouse repairs so now my door can close again and the polycarbonate panels that were sliding out have been pushed back in. 

I also fixed up the wormery as this had split on the base so the tower had fallen over months ago and I hadnt seen to it.

Miraculously the bottom 2 layers were still full of castings and I found a few tiny inactive redworms which were still alive.

Yesterday I moved it into the greenhouse on my repurposed potting table (a rotting garden table) so I am hoping the food scraps and fresh bedding will get them going again.


Hey peeps, I was (am) listening to a podcast and Morag Gamble mentioned aa different type of worm tower which she puts in situ in her productive beds.

It's basically a wide pipe imbedded into the bed into which she just adds food scraps.

She covers them with an upturned flower pot.

She doesn't harvest the liquid or worm casts but just does it to enrich the soil and reduce kitchen waste.

Has anyone tried this??

If so, what did you use? 

I am reluctant to buy new plastic pipes but prefer to repurpose if possible.

Also, anyone here grow perennial kale/cabbage?

If so, which types do you recommend that has been prolific and hardy?

My collard green plants have not met my expectations.  I am considering buying Taunton dean cuttings but they are really pricey.

Thanks in advance

Suffolk_lass

The four crop rotation:

1. Potatoes - to clean the earth you might get lucky and not have any problems. At the end of the season when you harvest, the soil will be what they used to call friable - a bit like a worm cast, all crumbly and open textured and easy to work. Add your spent tomato compost from any containers to this bed unless they got blight as they are the same family

2. Roots follow potatoes - logical if you think about it - the nice open soil will stop your carrots or parsnips growing wonky

3. Brassicas - I add rainbow or ruby chard to purple sprouting and don't worry if the cabbage white butterflies share (though they and pigeons can leave you growing stumps) They like nitrogen rich soil so if you have lots of (chicken or) nettles, chances are brassicas may thrive

4. Legumes - for me it is Blauhilde black beans and peas with a few runners - be sure to leave the roots in the ground for a few months so the nutrients fix for the potatoes

This is the traditional rotation that relies on the goodness of the previous year, setting you up for the next crop.

We grow squashes, onions, sweet-corn and salad crops in the other beds and a fixed bed of asparagus, surrounded by fruit canes, bushes, trees, and rhubarb. Tomatoes in the greenhouse and on the patio - always too much but our pleasure to share!

Jjah

Thanks so much, Suffolk_lass

That was a very helpful explanation which shows there is more to it than pest control

I only have one official veg bed left which is quite large. 

I've removed the smaller packing box beds from the front part of the back garden as I'm making it look easier on the eye as a more formal garden but kept all the fruit trees.

The large bed usually keeps to the same format so I could certainly improve it. 

It currently has collard greens, dwarf curly kale, sorrel, perennial spinach, chard and chives and the beans usually go in the same spot where the canes are still up. 

This was it a week ago before the snow:



I want to add another bed in the back of the back garden as I have to dismantle the gazebo which is at the point of collapse and also the summerhouse which which is also collapsing (being kept from leaning any further forward by the open doors wedging it) so this should give me a chance to have a rethink at changing the layout.



It looks hideous at the moment but it can only get better

The new bed will definitely be potatoes as its first crop so thanks for that

Oh, speaking of potatoes I just saw a Morag Gamble vid who was extolling the virtues of the humble sweet potato. She said that the greens make a great crop.  Not just the tuber.

She said you can even stick a sweet potato in a hanging basket for the purpose of harvesting the greens.

Maybe a suggestion for you, flippetybunny?

zafiro1984

Catalogues dropped through the letter box yesterday, put to one side and not to be touched for 3 days, then I shall have fun planning what is needed, bearing in mind all the unsown seeds from 2020. Hopefully the spend will be less than usual.

droopsnoot

I'm very new to this, but having cut up a red pepper for some sandwiches last week I have now (perhaps optimistically) put some of the seeds into a seed tray on the back bedroom windowsill, after first drying them out for a couple of days.

There are some potato plants in the garden, which are in various states, some of which have been left on the surface to go bad, or whatever they do when you don't dig them up. I intend to dig over that section, remove any plant material (and cat, er, leavings) and perhaps stick some of the less bad-looking pots back in to see if they do anything.

the_cross_rabbit

can't wait to start again this year. Itching to get the heated propagator out and start the onions, this will be the first year I've grown them from seed. Going to give celery another go, failed last year.
CRx

Kathy535

Black_Cat2 said:

Having a go at sweet peas this time around.  Work colleagues tell me it's easy to grow them so I'm putting my faith in their advice and looking for tips from you kind folks 🐈

I love sweet peas. I grew them last year in pots, just pushed the seeds in and left them to it.  Probably only had 70% germinate but they flowered until very recently and I was picking some every few days for the house.  So pretty and scented.  Definitely one for this year

Kathy535

Last year I took advantage of being at home more and grew in pots:

• green, yellow and purple beans
• cucumbers
• courgettes
• Sungold and gardener’s delight cherry tomatoes 
• potatoes (in bags, supermarket ones that sprouted)
• Chillis - jalapeños and poblanos
• Kallettes (not a great success, they still haven’t cropped possibly because I haven’t fed them enough)
• Cima di rape (Easy to grow, v tasty but you have to grow such a huge amount to get one meal from them!)

This year I’ll definitely repeat the potatoes, purple and yellow beans (seemed to get much better crops), chillis and potatoes.  I’ve got some Sakura tomato seeds as I seem to recall they were really prolific and some San Marzano seeds as I’ve not grown full size ones before.  I prefer mini cucumbers so will do some of those instead of full size ones.

I love courgettes but didn’t get a very good crop last year - I grew Defender, can anyone recommend  a variety that will produce way too many fruits?

Has anyone got any ideas for anything else I can grow in pots? I have a battered greenhouse and a south facing patio for pots.

Hillbilly1

Oh! Excited to join.

move to a new place in Sept.
120ft south west facing garden. Established Apple and plum tree that I’ve had pruned last week.

building 2 cold frames. 

Planning pea shoots, salad leaves and not sure what more?