The even bigger and better and hopefully not lower bits of growing your own in 2022! 30 December 2021 at 4:01PM edited 17 January at 8:42PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 474 replies 20.5K views

Dizzy_Ditzy

Welcome to the new ups and downs of growing your own!

Everyone is welcome. Come and tell us about your growing shenanigans

What do you like to grow?

Are you going to try anything different this year?

Did you try anything different last year? Did you like it? Would you grow it again?

Do you have any tips for growing?

Do you make anything with what you grow?

How much does growing your own save you?


I'll use this post for links that folks might find useful. If you want something adding in, please just let me know

There's a fab Facebook group called "Allotment Club - Mind your peas and cues" I'm not affiliated to it in any way but it's a fab little group. It's a closed group but is worth looking up if you're on Facebook. Or there is a fab group called "The allotment shed"

leftatthetrafficlights

I'm in for 2022! 😊 

2021 was a good year in lots of ways - Calabrese was my greatest achievement- it tasted fab!! 😍 

Lots to do in 2022 - garlic is in, broadbeans sowed in the autumn are doing well - going to get my seeds potatoes in the next couple of days to start chitting 😊

thriftwizard

Please may I play? I have lots to sort out up at my allotment, but broad beans, onions & garlic are in & up, leeks are finally bulking up, and kale & chard still going strong. I've been resisting the seed catalogues but have just fallen for some less-usual varieties & a couple of unusual plants (Japanese Ginger, Taunton Kale) online. I've been playing with growing things like ginger & turmeric in our conservatory & we ate our first stir-fry with homegrown ginger today! I was lucky enough to be bought some Grow-lights for my birthday in mid-December, which have been reviving a couple of neglected houseplants, and will be sowing some salad leaves under them shortly, as well as starting chillis and tomatoes. I do have a tiny (6'x6') greenhouse in the garden, bought at the start of lockdown, which has delighted & amazed me in 2021, is currently keeping various plants going over winter, and I'm keen to learn more about what I can do with that resource. I can't have one at the allotment, but have just been given a big glass coldframe which is currently plonked on one of my beds, mollycoddling the weeds; I'd welcome advice on how best to deploy that!

MovingForwards

I'm going to try this thread again for 2022 as things are settling for me.

The worst (growing) part of 2021 was losing all my tomato plants to blight. I had experimented having them in the gardens and not the pop up greenhouse. In turn I also lost my winter spuds as they popped up at the wrong time as the last of my toms failed.

My successes have been everything else I grew and I've ended the year with winter food too.

I also have two fruit plots with fruit trees, fruit bushes and strawberries. 

The plans I have are to:
- grow root veg; spuds, carrots, parsnips, turnips.
- onions; leeks, cooking onions.
- greens; peas, kale, spinach.
- annual herbs.
- garlic.

Christmas dinner was wonderful, all the veg was grown by me and the meat was locally reared.

I've still got enough seeds for 2022 and also have gardening vouchers, which I used to fund my fruit section this year.

carinjo

Yeah for another year of trying! Harvested chard, cavolo nero, leeks today. All the onions and garlic now germinated.
On way to work, so will do a proper list on another day.

Suffolk_lass

New year, still got visitors. simple food for the next few weeks after they leave and lots of last year's veg still to use (only four butternut squashes left though. Squashes were brilliant in 2021 and I will go again, no duff varieties. I can see from my inbox that the seed merchant is bombarding me with seed offers. They are local to me and I was very impressed with the seeds I had mailed to me from them last year. I may also use T&M for seeds, but never again for starter plants (if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all, as my Granny used to say)

Farway

Newbie to this thread but common visitor to the Green Fingers MSE

Been growing for over sixty years so have seen many phases come & go, from DDT the wonder insecticide to Irish peat the super compost ingredient that came in large compressed blocks.

Last year was a waste of time for me, it seemed at times every slug south of the M25 came along for a munch at my garden, lost all my beans to them, in the past like many I’ve been giving them away

I did plant some new dwarf apples & a pear, so 2022 should see me tasting them for the first time, 2022 will see me decrease my veg growing and increase the flower growing, mainly due to health I find the bending, lifting etc. difficult now so it’s easy maintenance items for 2022

Kantankrus_Mare

Weather is so mild that we are going to visit plot to drop off some compostable stuff collected from restaurant I work in. OH wants a fire......highlight of his year and I will do a bit of clearing and tidying.
Had a great year last year but disappointments were sweetcorn which never amounted to anything and butternut squash which all turned out to be pumpkins.......cany even remember where seeds were from.
Aims for the coming year are: grow more ginger.....which was a great success for first attempt last year and grow more peppers rather than cucumbers. Can only eat so many cucumbers but peppers get used so much in our house and will freeze.
Happy growing everyone!!

Friday1989

When I bought my flat the garden was a state. Last summer I removed brambles and weeds and planted grass seed. This year I want to grow vegetables and flowers and hopefully some plants that will encourage bats. I've seen them flying about and would love to see more. I'm a complete novice so plan to start small and see how I go. I have a lot to learn!

Farway

Friday1989 said:

When I bought my flat the garden was a state. Last summer I removed brambles and weeds and planted grass seed. This year I want to grow vegetables and flowers and hopefully some plants that will encourage bats. I've seen them flying about and would love to see more. I'm a complete novice so plan to start small and see how I go. I have a lot to learn!

For more bats try & grow flowers that open in the evenings, they will attract night inscts / moths which in turn will attarct the bats. Evening primrose & night scented stocks are two easy ones and no doubt many others as well

Friday1989

Thanks @Farway. The bat conservation trust has a leaflet with a list of some suggested plants but doesn't tell you which ones are easy! 

Here's the leaflet about how to encourage bats in your garden:
https://cdn.bats.org.uk/uploads/pdf/Resources/Encouraging_Bats.pdf?v=1541085349