The even bigger and better and hopefully not lower bits of growing your own in 2022!

sammy_kaye18

Well after yesterdays gust - me and the kids ventured out into the garden to move the greenhouse and I think it is now in a much more stable place. Its anchored down to a wall, under breeze blocks and we have some big patios slabs inside to hold down bars and outside to hold down the cover too. Also have tied two guide ropes down and through two old metal tyre rims that husband hasn't been using so we have the guide rope through the middle and tied down. He wants to be careful what he leaves in the garden as I might just grow things in it! 

Just waiting on the velcro now to fix the door. Hoping it will be here soon though and then it will be secured properly. 

we got our radish seeds yesterday too so I think we might actually use old compost bags to line the wheel rims with, and then we will fill them with compost and plant our radishes in there. 

Also where we put the greenhouse has left me with a little square suntrap patch right by my back door with the greenhouse on one side and 3 walls on the other so Im thinking maybe some grow bags might find there was there for tomatoes, peppers etc. 


 

Suffolk_lass

I left the covers off the propagators in the greenhouse for the first time last night. I might need to unplug the two electric ones too now!

carinjo

Finally done a planting session at home: courgette, pumpkin, marrow, butternut, squash, sunflowers, nastursium, marigolds. 

MissRikkiC

I have spent another hour on building the plastic greenhouse today and then once my little was in bed, I’ve been to the veg garden and picked our first cauliflower and pulled some of the spring cabbages. I tasted the leaves (more inner leaves than outer) of some of the spring cabbage and actually they were okay and didn’t taste the same as the initial leaves I picked! Not a single one had a head though however not to worry, we have enough greens now for about 12 meals. 

Granted, I did plant 6 cabbages so would have been nice to get at least 1 head but not sure it’s been the weather for it. 

Need to look now how to safely separate my tomatoes as they’re quite close together and many are getting their true leaves so imagine their roots are all going tj be tangled

I also planted carrots and radish over 2 weeks ago and they have germinated and have the tiniest little whisps 😍 

Suffolk_lass

I think last year, Monty Don did a session on potting on tomatoes. He said:

• don't water them too much as you want the roots to go looking for water
• don't pot on until you can see the roots under the pot
• when you do pot on, hold them by the seed leaves and not the stems or new real leaves
• use a dibber (plastic name label) to move the soil around
• if they are leggy, bury part of the stem and they will root below the surface of the compost
• water from below so the roots come searching
• when they subsequently need potting on again, use an empty pot the size of the one they are in to make a well in a 2-3cm bigger (destination) pot so when you remove the empty one and unpot the plant, it just pops in the hole with no real disturbance to the roots or compost.

I hope this is helpful - it worked better for me with the well thing

droopsnoot

Thanks for that, some interesting stuff there. I have always wondered whether, when transferring something to a new pot, there's a need to "free off" the roots from the old soil / compost.

MissRikkiC

Thanks @Suffolk_lass using yours and MDs instructions above I have repotted 9 tomato plants. Here’s hoping they survive the relocation! 

MovingForwards

A couple of my tomato seedlings have snapped in half. I covered part of the upper half stem by shifting the compost round and they've produced the true leaves and I'm assuming the hairy stem parts have grown into full roots.

Fosterdog

Things are really starting to take off here now. 

First and second early potatoes have some nice healthy looking leaves just peeking through the mulch, maincrops  went in last weekend. First row of peas have been planted up, first row of runner beans direct sown today. Dwarf and giant sunflowers started last weekend are starting to germinate. 

Lettuce and salad leaves all starting well, beetroot, carrots, and parsnips not germinated yet, longest they've ever taken for me but still not past the stage I need to worry. Bell peppers have been moved outside today to harden off and will go into the mini greenhouse instead of back in the house. 

This afternoon I need to pot on my sweetcorn, it's a bit too early to plant them out but they are getting too big for their pots, I'm hoping they will just about fit on a shelf in the greenhouse because they are too big to come back in the house. 

I'll also be potting on my first cucumbers, starting the second lot, and potting on my tomatoes. My salad and plum tomatoes have done really well but not a single cherry tomato germinated, the seeds are in date and did well last year so not sure what went wrong there. I went to a local ish garden centre today and picked up three different cherry toms rather than starting again.

Over the weekend I'll also start my butternut squash, more spinach, melon (forgot the variety they were harvested from a supermarket melon), radishes, possibly plant up my Red Baron onions, and maybe start more marigolds because none of my first batch germinated, again like the toms they were strong seeds last year, still in date, but nothing at all from them this year. 

I'm still undecided on whether to buy some sweet potato slips, I really want to try them but they are quite expensive and I've read and heard they are not the easiest to grow but we do eat a lot of them, no luck at all getting my own slips from supermarket ones and none available at local farmers markets or farm shops that are less likely to be sprayed. Anyone here had success with them before and have any tips?

MissRikkiC

When repotting my tomatoes last night, I noticed that of the original 20 seeds I sowed, only 9 had germinated into actually seedlings with leaves on their way but did also see another 4 tiny shoots. The 9 had poked through about 3 weeks ago, I think I sowed them 2 weeks prior to that but the other 4 have only just poked through the soil almost 5 weeks later. Maybe give them a little longer just in case @Fosterdog

I had also sown a further 6 prior to seeing these 4 thinking that it was the 1 type that’s not done so well, however now I’ve no sides which are which 😖🤷🏼‍♀️