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

greenbee

My milk and yogurt come in glass pots - I've even had to ask my brother to save me plastic bottles this year to use for watering in the summer. I've been eyeing up anything in the house that can be repurposed either temporarily or permanently!  I'm not sure going through my neighbours bins is a good idea... 
Prunings get shredded for the hotbin and compost heap, so I don't get quote so sentimental about those. 

Suffolk_lass

Sowed my squash and sweet corn seeds yesterday - using some 5 inch pots I found in a box I sowed five squash to each pot, and my final tomato pots (probably 6-7" (15-20cm) were used to support sweetcorn toilet roll holders. I still have a few small pots but it is still the forst week of April and there is plenty of time. Beans will be the next thing and I do put them in bigger pots or sow direct in the ground when things are warmer. I might build on @ancientmum's idea with milk cartons (ours are glass) and use plastic boxes that once had ice cream in now I don't need lunchboxes!

MovingForwards

I'm helping my OH do a garden makeover for a neighbour, then we get to maintain it for him. He did say we could turn it over and use for more veg, which was really nice, but I place a lot of value in our private gardens and didn't want to be pottering around while he relaxed after a long day.

Saying that, he has a couple of apple trees, which we have been told to help ourselves to when it fruits, and I'm going to skip a few other fruit plants and bushes in. The rest will be low maintenance flowers. I did check no allergies to plants and bugs.

While ordering a few packets of sweet pea seeds for the makeover, and our garden, I happened to add squash and melon seeds. I definitely have the sun and heat for it up here. Time to read up on how to grow them!

carinjo

Fosterdog said:

I only ever directly sow root veg outside, I tried starting indoors a few years ago but didn't find it made any positive difference to the end plants and added a whole extra stage of work and took up space for seedling that did need starting indoors.

This reminded me that last year i started half the runnerbeans in pots and half direct sown. After awhile couldn't tell the difference. Think i might adjust my planning accordingly for the brassica bed. My leeks are very slow so might try a seedbed on the allotment too.
I am in the enviable.position that all.my tomato seedlings are doing well. The advice about damping off here has been great. If all goes to plan will be able to pot them up next week...and then have no space for anything else! 
For ideas regarding alternative containers: coleslaw, grapes, lunch box salad, coffee cups. I find a heated metal scewer (or screwdriver) better for making drainage holes and helps the cheaper plastic not to split. I use mince and chicken fillet trays for standing the pots in to water from the bottom.
On the allotment the promised rotavating hit several snags, poor chap tried several times to fix the thing and kept breaking, so told him not to stress about it. All the onion and most of the broadbeans have come up now. The gooseberries, pear and plum all in full bloom. Started on the leek bed, but that is about it the last week.
OMG, just started snowing! So glad decided to rest this morning instead before work. 

bluesooz

We had snow here too - about 10 seconds worth!  Currently 7 degrees - so i think that's it for the snow here.

carinjo

Ms Marple, our lovely cat, who features in my avatar, managed to get onto the windowsill with the leeks and destroyed most of the seedlings...
  

the_cross_rabbit

Off to the plot today to sow early peas and take up our gifted (given in exchange for labour) water butt.
CRx

Suffolk_lass

carinjo said:

Ms Marple, our lovely cat, who features in my avatar, managed to get onto the windowsill with the leeks and destroyed most of the seedlings...
  

Ours is a stealth cat - despite a bell round her neck, she manages a completely silent approach. Her speciality is water in glasses (my avatar) but she sits in seed trays, given the chance.

Plenty of time to re-sow

MovingForwards

Do sow more if you have them.
Mine is too comfortable with the sofa to move / knock things.

Having more tomato seeds sprouting each day. The outdoor veg and fruits are coming along nicely.

carinjo

Thanks everyone, will have a go at more. Started on the second dig for potatoes, ended up soaking the big clumps (boulders) of soil to break them up, very satisfying. 
The second tray of aubergine all formed true leaves now and the last of the tomato seedlings now catching up with the bigger ones. First of the sweet pea have germinated. On the plot a row of cornflower has started coming up too.