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

MovingForwards

The second lot of French dwarf bean and borotto beans are starting to sprout. I'm going to get some more on the go tomorrow plus other seeds.

My OH and I 'earned' an old metal barrel and surplus slabs for weeding a neighbours garden (No1), it's now in ours and holds a lot of water, the slabs we are using in another neighbours garden (No2) where we're doing a near-full makeover.
We've had branches from a hedge / trees and plastic pipes (No3) for what has been done so far. We keep the grass for our compost and SIL guinea pigs when mowing a lawn (No5).
- We are bartering our time for working on our neighbours gardens in swap for things we want for our garden. 

Ganga

Suffolk_lass said:

Found it! - The mouse nest was in the almost empty bag of seed compost in the greenhouse. Very cute. We do go live and let live so tipped it out in compost corner. The other end of the garden. I just love it so much when my seeds start to germinate and today is the day

Hope the mice do not have a map otherwise you might find them back home in a few days

Caitykinss

Potatoes are finally in! Also managed to !!!!!! out aubergines and pot on a few of the bigger tomatoes. 

Tomorrow’s priorities are beetroot, lettuce, carrots and leeks. 

The ‘potato’ bags I bought a while ago turned out to be ‘vegetable’ bags in an assortment of sizes after opening the packet. Most are fine for the potatoes, but two are wide and shallow, so I think I might give beetroot a go in one of them, instead of taking up precious space in the raised bed. Undecided what to put in the other one - maybe lettuce. 

Suffolk_lass

We plan to plant carrots, beets, brassicas and salads outside today as this is the start of the warmer spell. We need to inspect the bees to make sure they have what they need and a nearby swing-seat that has rusted through needs moving, ready to take to the dump, which will free up the space we plan to put another hive, in case our home hive needs to be split. We will also visit the empty hive to see if it needs baiting with lemon grass oil (which apparently acts as a bee attractant). Meanwhile all the squashes on my kitchen windowsill are making a bit for light and with the exception of last year's cucumber seeds, all are germinating - 2-5 seeds to a 10cm square pot they are all lined up (8 different kinds)!

@Ganga I don't know how far a mouse can travel back but as the nest went with it I am hoping it stays that end. It was a field mouse and the babies were with it.

carinjo

Finally sitting down with a cold beverage after a full day. Ms C gave me a hand this morning putting up a large netting cover for the brassicas. First time building one, but just copied a neighbours idea, so worked out fine. Although using my sewing skills with a piece of wire and garden twine to sew together 2 pieces of net surely raised a few eyebrows on the site! 
The mini propagators need careful watering btw, the water just runs over the holes i made! Switched to a water bottle, a bit easier. 
Put in the corner posts for gooseberries cage, leaving 2 bushes outside it for the birds. 
Ms C put up shelves for me in the allotment shed. 
At home done some flower and herb seeds: borage, nasturtium, calendula, sunflower. Tomorrow is the turn of the pumpkin, courgettes and germinating gifted parsnip seeds.
Leaving the window open during the day seems to have slowed down the tomatoes a bit.
Time to stick the roast in the oven, a good day indeed.

MovingForwards

@carinjo I use a spray bottle for seeds, line the base of the propagators with tissue or card and put them on a bag or cardboard to prevent escape.
How big were the holes you put in? I heated a small nail to melt the hole.

My seeds sprout quicker if they are in plastic pots compared to the ones in the toilet roll tubes. It was a good idea but now I trace the base of the pot on the unfolded toilet rolls, cut the circles out and pop them in, saves finding stones.

I've sown a few more borotto, dwarf french beans and runner beans. All under a homemade propagator.

My gooseberry bush is full of flowers and now I need to urgently find and set up my frame and netting!

C_J

I've been having terrible trouble getting squash seeds to germinate - it's never been a problem before!  My courgettes (green, golden and 'black beauty' which is also really just green) have performed well and now have at least four leaves each, but none of my other squashes have germinated at all. I'm probably not too late to start again, am I?  It's Uchiki Kuri, Pink Banana squash, Muscade de Provence, Blue Hubbard and two types of pumpkin. Grr.

In other news, I have a Hotbin!  This is to complement the six other compost makers + wormery I already have. I have wanted a Hotbin for yonks but could never justify the steep price tag, but I bought a second hand (never been used!) one yesterday for 75% less than the new price so I am very pleased. I loaded it up with a base layer this afternoon (twiggy bits at the bottom to aid air flow, then a mix of droppings and bedding from the chicken coop, some fresh grass clippings, about 30% ripped up corrugated cardboard, and a few handfuls of the bark chippings which are supplied with the bin.  It started at 10 degrees, and is already up to 30 degrees, after just a few hours. I am beyond excited!

Fosterdog

Busy week in my garden, my bulbs from Farmer Gracy arrived yesterday, they were recommended by a friend who's been buying from them for a few years so I got those potted to add some colour. I've also thrown some bee bombs and sprinkled some wildflower seeds to keep the pollinators happy, I've been trying for a few years with them and never get any germinating, it must be the heavy clay soil because I've tried everything and nothing works, I sprinkled some compost this year to hopefully help them.

Fruit and veg wise everything has now germinated except my parsnips but they haven't been in very long yet, I've potted up my tomatoes (and gave most of them away as I'm only growing a dozen). First wave of runner beans and peas have been put in the ground, I'll direct sow the rest in a few weeks. Still need to pot on a fair bit and get my ginger and maincrop potatoes in the ground (well tubs). I've decided to not plant any asparagus this year, I'd rather get a dedicated bed for them and I've got too much I want to grow in my main bed to sacrifice so much space to it. Despite building my main bed 16" tall and in an out of the way corner of the garden that the dogs have never bothered with before they have suddenly decided it's the best place to be and keep jumping in and trampling the few things I already have in there so I'm constantly on the hunt for scrap I can build some makeshift barriers to keep them out, if it doesn't work does anyone want two dogs?

greenbee

@C_J - be warned, hotbins are picky. If you don't feed it enough, or chop the waste up finely enough, or add waste in the right proportions, it sulks! Having said that, I've had some good compost out of it. It's just VERY high maintenance for a low-waste household. (I have it mainly to be able to compost food waste, and forget that I need to add garden waste to it to keep the volume up). It's mostly happy when it's almost full. 

C_J

Thank you, greenbee - your feedback is very helpful. It does seem that it is going to be quite high maintenance - but there again, so is my wormery, and I get comparatively little out of that apart from the worm tea!

I've been reading a number of gardening forums (and Hotbin's own one too) so I think I have an idea of what needs to be done. We have quite a large garden plus chickens so there'll be plenty of garden waste to shred up for at least three-quarters of the year (but I do worry that I might not be able to sustain a Hotbin over winter). I'm very much looking forward to experimenting with it though