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

Landgirlinthelittlecity

Tabby_cat said:

Landgirlinthelittlecity said:

KajiKita said:

Hi @Landgirlinthelittlecity and welcome 😊

I have done some indoor sprouting in the past but the one I keep going back to, as it’s the easiest and nicest, is mung beans. Soak them overnight in water, drain and rinse lightly, leave them somewhere they will be out of direct sunlight but in good light and you will see them regularly (I have mine on a windowsill behind my sink). Rinse twice daily (breakfast time and when you get home from work say) and then start tasting them as they start to sprout. Once they are at a good texture for you (I like them when they have some root but well before they get to making leaves leaves), rinse one last time and put them in a container in the fridge. They will happily keep for a week.

KK

Oh thank you, I will have a look into them. I’m not the biggest salad eater but would like a more cheaper option of salad than buying a back and half of it going to waste, if that makes sense.

Hi all, can I join the discussion please.
I think the method KajiKita has described is for sprouting beans but microgreens are not the same thing. They are more like when you were a kid and grew mustard and cress but with different seeds. You just need a flat tray filled with compost. If I run out of proper trays, I use punnets that mushrooms are sold in, at the supermarket. Put one inside the other with holes in the base of the inner one. Liberally sprinkle with seeds, water and leave on a window sill. Soft herbs, peas, brassicas, chard and radish are all good. In fact if you have some out of date seeds you can just give them a try. Nothing to loose. Depending on how many you grow, you might not get enough for a whole salad, but, I find I can just buy a basic lettuce, and pep it up with the microgreens, which makes it cheaper, and you don't feel so bad if you compost half of it. Sowing a tray, or half a tray, every couple of weeks should keep you going for a while. I've been growing them for a few years and every salad is different, depending on what's ready to cut. Hope that helps.

Thank you, I’m actually hoping to do both, so both bits of advice are great.

starnac

Hi all. I would love to join in if possible?

We've been in this house for 12 months now and most of last year was keeping an eye on where the sun was at what time of day etc. We grew some things in pots.

We did well with potatoes and carrots, not so well with leeks though. 

We have spent the last few days planning and clearing the ground ready to build raised beds. Hopefully that can be done by the end of next week. 

We have mature pear, apple trees and a grapevine, as well as a young cherry tree, raspberry bush and blackberry bush. My sister gave me some mint in a pot too. 

The main priority is getting the beds and the greenhouse built. 

Thank you in advance for welcoming me

zafiro1984

My original plan starting on 2nd Jan was to devote just one hour per day to trying to get my plot back into some sort of order.
Yesterday did not go to plan - I'd forgotten it was a Bank Hol so no help with the animals, that meant Dh and I had to do it. At the end of the day not only was I fed up but just plain tired. 
I'll try again today but it's pouring down at the moment.

KajiKita

zafiro1984 said:

My original plan starting on 2nd Jan was to devote just one hour per day to trying to get my plot back into some sort of order.
Yesterday did not go to plan - I'd forgotten it was a Bank Hol so no help with the animals, that meant Dh and I had to do it. At the end of the day not only was I fed up but just plain tired. 
I'll try again today but it's pouring down at the moment.

Planning counts ..... Get into your seed boxes, see what you have, what's in date / out of date, decide what you want to grow and what the gaps are. I think it still counts as 'work on the plot', as without seeds you won't produce much 

KK 

droopsnoot

Glittering_M said:

droopsnoot said:

 I've also got potatoes still in the ground, some of the plants above the ground have died off in the cold but as they're all from potatoes that have been there several years I expect there's still something there to eat.

Can I please check my understanding with this please? Are these ones you planted a few years ago and left or do they come back every year like perennials? If you harvest some but leave some? Although I guess that's kind of the same thing!

My Dad planted a vegetable patch. When he passed away I took it over, and didn't do much with it for a year. Last year I "cleared out" the vegetable patch, but it seems that I didn't do much of a job because, although I only planted a couple of rows of potatoes, there were plants popping up all over the place. I lost focus with it last summer, cleared parts of it again later on last year, and while clearing out a section for onions found a lot of potatoes still in the ground, some of which I re-planted in a more logical layout (which I've largely forgotten).

It's not an intentional way to have potatoes, just laziness really. If it wasn't raining I might have gone out and tried to clear a bit more of the patch today, get rid of some of the weeds. I have also found some potatoes that have just rotted away, so they don't all just carry on going if I leave them. I was surprised how many seem to survive despite me, though.

The patch at the moment is two rows of onions, a couple of random patches of potatoes in no particular order (or at least not that I can remember), a lot of weeds, and an increasing amount of cat "leavings" as they find they can dig the soil up now it's warmer.

zafiro1984

Thank-you KK - good plan. I'll do a 'see what I have' against 'a wish list'. I'll try hard not to be too ambitious.

Glittering_M

Thanks for explaining @droopsnoot

KajiKita

zafiro1984 said:

Thank-you KK - good plan. I'll do a 'see what I have' against 'a wish list'. I'll try hard not to be too ambitious.

If you manage that, please, please tell me how! 😂😂😂😉

KK

thriftwizard

I've just gone through my seed boxes and "culled" all the duplicates & things I don't particularly want to grow this year. The "seed swaps" will start on 21st when my son & almost-daughter-in-law come down from their half-acre in Wales; different things work well where they are (halfway up a hill, ex-livestock farm, well-drained & fertile, 20 years a garden) and where our allotment is (ex-pastureland, 6th year of growing, solid clay, was heavily compacted, also full of archaeology) not to mention the stuff I grow in buckets & pots in our garden & tiny greenhouse!

I wanted to get down to the 'Lottie and sort out my beds & assorted bits of hardware this week, but have had this heavy cold right over Christmas. I'm still snorting & don't want to make it worse again, which I did by overdoing things last week. However there'd be nothing wrong with popping a few chilli seeds in, would there...?

Fosterdog

I'll be joining again this year, good to see some new faces here too, the more the merrier. 

I really hope we get more reasonable weather this year, it was my major downfall last year and coupled with the poor quality compost that was available I had more failures then ever before but it's not enough to put me off. I've had bad growing years before and always bounced back from them.

I've had a sort through of my seeds and found I only need to buy 4 types to grow my usuals and I might look at one or two new things to grow too. This year my initial growing plan will be apples, pears, cherries, plums (if I can find some decent new trees), raspberries (summer and autumn), strawberries, blueberries, figs, and some type of melon. Then for veg it will be garlic (7 varieties already in), red onions, yellow onions, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, green beans, runner beans, peas, butternut squash, cucumber, Brussels sprouts, spinach, lettuce, radish, beetroot, tomatoes, maybe sweet potatoes, ginger, and pumpkins if I get around to clearing a new bed, I think that's about it but I usually make a few changes.

I do need to find an area to put a little herb garden, I have an area in mind but it won't be done until we get a new patio laid, I might try a few in pots for now though, I have another spot I could put quite a few pots.

What I probably won't be growing again this year are sweetcorn because every year they get invaded by earwigs and the measly crop is not worth the effort, and peppers, most years they don't do too well in my garden because we don't get it warm and sunny for long enough but last year was the opposite and it got too hot for too long and they overproduced early fruit that remained bitter even when ripe, which I read can happen if it gets too hot too suddenly.

Going forward I'm definitely going to concentrate more on the crops we will actually eat and that produce well with just a couple of novelty crops instead of wasting space on thing we eat there won't eat much of or that never do particularly well meaning valuable growing space has been wasted. The novelty crops will just be to keep it interesting and to try new things. I really want to try growing loofahs but don't have space yet, that's maybe a next year crop.

My immediate plans are to plan my planting dates and get it all added to my calendar to keep track and to clear a new patch in the garden ready for cardboard and compost as soon as we get a dry enough day.


I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's progress again this year.