2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

sammy_kaye18

I am still desperate to get into the garden but we got a dose of snow yesterday and my garden is still covered so that looks like a no go for me at the minute although I did have a delivery of seeds yesterday for when I can actually make a start and my family and us have been saving popcorn tubs from Iceland. They are a fair size and last year I managed to grow courgettes in them sucessfully so Im hoping this year to try and do the same and maybe get some tomatoes planted in the greenhouse in some too so they are stacking on top of the fridge nicely too. Plus they have a lid so they make their own little greenhouses as well so I can get them started in their buckets. 

Its not dry enough here to rearrange the garden yet, the deck is still water logged and now frozen so that feels like it weighs a tonne so wont be moving that any time soon. I quite like where it is though so maybe I will rearrange round it instead and try to block the low wall off from the puppy so he cant make a quick escape over it now hes getting that bit taller! 

carinjo

Well, i just found this year's thread, will catchup over a warm drink. We spend a couple of hours this afternoon on allotment making full use of a bit of sunshine with ms C laying down some straw and me doing a very hard prune on blackcurrent. It went absolutely mad last year!

MissRikkiC

At the weekend before the snow arrived I gave 3 of my pallet collet beds a bit of a fork over and added some left over manure from what I sourced last year and added some compost. I also got rid of all the dead runners from the strawberries and gave the surviving ones some more compost too. 

I definitely put in chard and perpetual spinach last year but don’t think much happened as i was late and don’t think they’ve withstood the weather either. 

2 of my cabbages have survived the winter (this far) but they’re only medium shoots at this stage without any leaves and the kale plants have had it for now as they’re just skeleton stalks.  I’m hoping as someone advised me earlier that they might come back in the spring though and that the cabbages are better than last year. They never formed heads last year but we ate the leaves as spring greens and the flavour was SO strong I couldn’t actually eat them!

I placed a seed order with Su77ons last week whilst they had their 89p sale on. I didn’t think stuff through quite enough however got a good selection of the things I know we will eat. We had over wintered PSB (although I think it was white!) last year and we were eating it for weeks afterwards.  I’m hoping for the same this time although maybe I’ve missed the opportunity for it! 

droopsnoot

I put some cress and mustard seeds on top of some compost in a tray on the kitchen windowsill on Sunday, I've got two of each sprouting so far. I haven't tried these before, enjoying the quick growth. No sign of tomatoes coming up yet.

zcrat41

I've started off some seeds in our kitchen. Very lucky to have an Aga so it's lovely and warm. 

Tomatoes, cucumber and aubergine are already up. I normally only get around to planting them in March/April and then get frustrated we don't get fruit till the end of August so I'm hoping an early start will get me going!! 

alicef

Nearly end of week and I didn't do anything on my list, (other than plant the trees) - always next week though, (plus it looks like the temps will be better next week). 

I did sprinkle seed of a) loofah b) sweet pea c) peas onto wetted paper towel.  The pea have started to germinate so I will look to putting in a row of early peas - part of my hit & miss attempt at succession sowing...

Glittering_M

My mini greenhouse is going mouldy (it's just a cheap one that is really just a set of frames with a cover from A1di I think), I think next year I'll take it down for winter. I opened the door to let it air and hopefully I'll do the same tomorrow. I took the seeds that were there and went through them and they are now drying out inside.

I really want to get out and start planting but I also can't decide on what I want where, lucky the ground is frozen I guess! 

My coriander seeds I planted a few weeks ago got leggy and then have done nothing. I planted a fresh batch a week or so ago but they've done nothing. I wonder if it's too cold as the house can be anywhere from 7c-11c at the moment unless we put the heating on. I don't really want to plant more but I may have too if I want any coriander. These were seeds that I got from a supermarket grown coriander so hopefully it will grow.

carinjo

What do you like to grow?

Potatoes, tomatoes, chard, perpetual spinach, pumpkin, butternut, onions and garlic. Mainly using free and gifted seeds with the odd seeds bought on sale.

Are you going to try anything different this year?

Oh yes! Going to attempt growing squash up a frame. Funnily, planning on growing less this year. Want to focus on successional planting: lettuce, radishes, beetroot etc. 

Less potatoes, last couple of years been growing loads as a way to help clear some soil on second plot. 

More overwintering veg like leeks. And going to attempt parsnips. 

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

Dwarf french beans. Yes and yes! Not only was it the gift that kept on giving, due to it's low growth made it much harder for the weeds to take over. I also tried rows outside of first early potatoes, the idea being that once you earth up the potatoes, can grow beans on edges. Was a bit fiddly to harvest potatoes though, so probably won't do that again. 

Do you have any tips for growing?

Whatever you planning on growing, sow more seeds! Once again i only ended up with a handful of successful pumpkin and squash. You can always gift seedlings. For that reason am planning paperpots for some of the sowings.

Proper labeling: i thought was very clever and abbreviated on tomato pots, but forgot what MB stood for, minibel?!

Do you make anything with what you grow? 

Bottled pears, mum's awesome curried beans, gooseberry jam. Froze loads: chard, beans. 

Another tip: unless you have the time to work your harvest, leave it for another day if you can, i lost half my leeks due to not having the time. Cherry tomatoes can be open freezed and used later, keeps the sweetness intact!

How much does growing your own save you? Not sure, but still using potatoes from last year and saw chard for £1.45 in shop last week: i got 3 bags in freezer! I spend almost nothing last year except on seedling compost. Planning to spend a bit this year.

Suffolk_lass

I am late to the forum this year, with me finally testing negative for Covid after 17 days and DH recovering from two detached retina eye operations (he can't do anything). In perfect timing, I bought a self-assembly fruit cage that remains on the ground behind the hedge! Hard to believe how hard it has hit me after all the vaccinations.

To answer the questions:
What do you like to grow? We grow all our summer vegetables, and live on what crops well. We also grow premium soft fruits - blackcurrants, gooseberries, autumn fruiting raspberries, plums, apples, gages, damsons. And squashes. Hundreds of them!

Are you going to try anything different this year? I'm going to try and stay on top of the weeding a bit more, and not bother with many carrots as they are so cheap in the supermarket - just a few for summer salads I think. I might give strawberries another go. More bean poles in with the raspberries to grow the bindweed up and then treat it topically.

Did you try anything different last year? Did you like it? Would you grow it again? We did not go to Italy for a month so did much better with the greenhouse contents - I will grow fewer plants in there this year

Do you have any tips for growing? We grow things that are expensive in the shops, but also rotate four beds in the classic style, with potatoes grown primarily as a summer salad accompaniment and to clean the soil in the beds. Be diligent about removing potatoes. Left in the ground year after year you may well get the potato apples that are poisonous and we ended up with deadly nightshade at our old house (same family). Top tip is never to grow tomatoes where you had potatoes (and vice versa) and now is the time to feed your rhubarb and asparagus (but don't cover the crowns) - look out for pink tips of rhubarb and cover with a forcing pot (a big pot with no bottom works too) for a lovely early crop, but always leave two stalks on each growing clump or you will weaken the plants

Do you make anything with what you grow? I preserve tomatoes by making my own passata (over 50 jars last year) and we have sacks of onions, butternuts and pumpkins in the larder to help us through the winter. One of our raised beds is just asparagus too. I also bottle fruit and stew and then jar up apples, plums and raspberries to see us through much of the year.

How much does growing your own save you? I have never counted but hundreds of pounds really, and the opportunity to grow things like dessert sweet gooseberries that we don't see in the shops

Suffolk_lass

Somebody asked about Cuor di Bue variety of tomato - it is one of the Italian outdoor field grown varieties and grows well in a hot year. Rather than a beefsteak, it is more of a heart-shaped variety (longer) but similar in that it's great for culinary use.

We have also grown costaluto fiorentina, (and genovese) over the years. A ribbed tomato, we have stopped growing it as they are prone to blossom end rot (inconsistent watering or very high humidity is the cause of this).

I am just sorting out seeds this month, I start my chillies at the end of January and then the tomatoes in February, indoors, on the kitchen windowsill in pots on a heated propagator. We (me and a friend) will be removing a huge cherry tree (taller than the house) and getting the fruit trees pruned in the next month as well as composting beds and removing as much oxalis corniculata (creeping woodsorrel) as we can. Oh, and I hope to get my fruit cage built too!