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

MissRikkiC

Potatoes were placed In egg trays last night and they’re in the spare room window, I also did some reading on earthing up. 

I’m curious as to something, October time I planted some seed potatoes that had chitted already and I didn’t read correctly when I did so, so the foliage grew but they were well under the soil as i had really deeply planted them rather than a little and then earthing them up. The foliage grew and died back which I’m lead to believe is a good thing so it’s likely I had(have) potatoes still in that container. However, I don’t hold out much hope as it’s rained a lot and I think they will have rotted to not much or worse become green. But with a single dry morning I may have a dig around in there and see if there are any treasures. What are your guys thoughts? 

carinjo

I would definately have a go @MissRikkiC. And if you do a careful dig (without breaking the potatoes from their stem) you could even push them back under the soil to grow bigger! It all depends if you need the area for something else, so dig up half and leave the rest, or clear it all. If you having a dry day, it will also help with firming up the skins. Win-Win! 
It has been absolutely tipping down here, so no allotment, but prepared a long planter (donated by neighbour) with soil, warming up in front room, ready for leek seeds tomorrow. 
Has anyone grown celeriac? I found a pack of seeds, and i have some space it can go into. Is it difficult to grow?

Suffolk_lass

@Fosterdog I got two Aldi Cold frames in March last year that I prefer to the mini-greenhouses. They were great for keeping the mice out of my seedlings (I lost all my first pots of beans to mice in my greenhouse in 2021!)

Raincoat

I'm keeping my fingers crossed @MissRikkiC for your potatoes!
I had a compost delivery today for a new planter that will be put together this weekend. My garden just had grass when I moved in last year and I'm slowly chipping out some borders and growing space - a lot of digging, so much so I actually managed to snap my garden fork in half on Sunday. I guess I just don't know my own strength  

carinjo

Came home tonight and a 3rd of the shallots were in the garden. The plastic greenhouse almost got blown away. Wondering if replacing the plastic cover (one side's zip broken) will make a difference. *sigh*

MissRikkiC

It’s supposed to be drier today but thinking I might just put some long gloves on and go prodding around. I’m keen to know! And tell! 

Sorry to ask all the questions on here and not provide much back but I’m such a beginner, I’m also off to the library tonight with my little to pick up a few grow your own books so that should help however, I wondered if the spring cabbages I have don’t amount to a head, can I just trim the leaves and have those as greens instead? If so, when do I do that? Do I wait for the frost to see if it helps the heads or can I snip away some of the leaves now and it still grow okay? Tia x 

Kantankrus_Mare

Well my attempt to get bell peppers and chillis on the go has failed for the first time ever. Not sure if the compost I bought is not good......was a bit coarse....or I should have bought new seeds. I was using up some old seeds that were still just in date. Only one has germinated after 3 weeks. Think I will have to start again along with the tomato sowing.
Sweet peas in allotment greenhouse are looking really strong though and I have bulbs popping up all over the plot so spring is on its way even if the weather isnt saying so at the moment! 

Farway

MissRikkiC said:

It’s supposed to be drier today but thinking I might just put some long gloves on and go prodding around. I’m keen to know! And tell! 

Sorry to ask all the questions on here and not provide much back but I’m such a beginner, I’m also off to the library tonight with my little to pick up a few grow your own books so that should help however, I wondered if the spring cabbages I have don’t amount to a head, can I just trim the leaves and have those as greens instead? If so, when do I do that? Do I wait for the frost to see if it helps the heads or can I snip away some of the leaves now and it still grow okay? Tia x 

Yes, you canjust eat leaves, like "Spring Greens". Thye may be a bit tough tough after the winter so if you are one for lightly steamed style you may need to cook for longer, trial and error

No harm to the plant, in fact you can cut the green top off, leaving the stalk, and the stalk will reshoot with fresh greens. More of a stop gap while getting ready to plant fresh stuff, not a long term harvest solution

Indigo_and_Violet

Hello all! Joining here to get all the help I can get. This will be our second season growing, but we only moved in in April last year so we were playing catch-up a bit. We have a bit of a difficult plot - north facing, in a dense urban area with lots of other buildings to steal my sunshine and therefore a bit boggy. Two raised beds went in one of the few sunny spots in December, which we hopefully chucked some green manure seeds on to but it was too late and they failed to take off. Should have delayed filling the beds for a bit as they're going to need toping up with compost now. 

We are also trying to renovate the ornamental part of the garden at the same time - we inherited a garden that clearly had been cared for (some interesting planting and in irrigation system fitted) but not for a good few years so we're trying to work out what's salvageable and what's just too far gone. 

Already planted:
Sweetpeas, leek seeds and aquilegia got planted last weekend. 

To do this weekend:
Bought some guttering last weekend to get my first peas sown on a long windowsill this weekend
Big decision time, got to decide where to plant the rhubarb. Knowing that it doesn't like to be moved and wants one of the precious sunny spots means this needs careful planning. 
Weed and mulch under the apple tree, ready for some new planting to go in once it's a bit warmer. 

To research this weekend:
Look into getting some storage boxes or other 'greenhouse alternative' for the front garden. We have a paved area out the front which is a sun trap and would be ideal for growing except...the lease says we can't put any permanent structures out there and last year next door had some high-value plants stolen. I tested the waters last year with 4 trugs (mostly fuschia as they were cheap in Lidl) and no-one complained so I'm hoping to make a bit more of the space this year. A proper greenhouse/cold frame I think would be too tempting (even if bike-locked down) but am thinking some plastic boxes might be okay, even if they end up costing as much to buy. 
I also need to look at 'aerial strawberry growing'. Have worked out the back fence gets good sun from about waist height up and am thinking of hanging some strawberry bags/baskets from it. 

My hope was the with a quite cerebral job gardening would be a change of pace, but I'm finding there's a lot of reading and research to be done before you can confidently get your hands dirty. 

Suffolk_lass

Welcome @Indigo_and_Violet
A friendly, helpful bunch on here.

Personally I would put brackets up on the fence at the back - you could attach a scaffold board flat against the fence and attach to the posts (straps if they are concrete, beg screws if they are wood) to reinforce the fence. Then you could put up a shelf or brackets attached to this. I would also put up some guide wires or trellis before you start growing, so you can grow against the fence but treat it first. Your peas might like it there.

I would put your storage in the shadiest place in the garden, rather than out front. You could then put up window boxes that sit in a frame or on a shelf, attached to your wall and grow sunny herbs interspersed with flowers (marjoram [aka oregano], thyme, basil, maybe rosemary) and put a couple of trug-type planters on the ground (thinking builders trugs with holes in the bottom, not expensive veg trugs). You could companion plant maybe put sweet peas and runner beans on a frame in one, and under-plant with marigolds to distract pests, mixing flowers (annuals) with veg like salad leaves in different colours is good (add some breakfast radishes which grow quickly too) they will look pretty, are inexpensive and your neighbours might like the smell! Potatoes grow well in these too (from experience!)

I've just ordered some sweetpea plug plants (from Kings Seeds) as they are very popular seedlings with the mice here and I plan to grow on in my cold frame and then interplant with beans to attract pollinators (evidence suggests bees increase yields by 10%+). 

My rhubarb does grow under an old apple tree but another clump in more sun does do better (but is in danger of being too assertive) so I would say don't worry about the shade, just provide a bit of shelter and it will help contain it. The most important things are not to cover the crowns with compost but do enrich the soil as they are greedy.

Good luck, keep posting