The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2024!

kimwp

Hmm, my cat becomes hyper and aggressive when she has catnip, it's not something I'm going to be planting!

ArbitraryRandom

Silvertabby said:

sammy_kaye18 said:

Gardening websites have a lot to answer for!

Thompson and Morgan sent me discounts and offers. 
I thought I was done with my seed buying for the year but no......
apparently I needed........

Dwarf Lupins 
Chives
Parlour Palms
More lettuce
More spinach
Courgettes 
Pumpkins 
and Sweet Peas. 

Then another site I use sent me a free postage discount so it was rude not to buy...
white winter cabbage
2 types of sweetcorn
cucumber  seeds 
and catnip. 

I don't even own a cat. But family members do and I have dogs and I read that you can diffuse some like a tea and it makes a calming drink for them for things like fireworks etc. 

@goldfinches well done on your allotment clearing. I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I move up the allotment list quickly. 

I you plant catnip in your garden/pots then you will soon be the proud slave of more than one cat!  My own pampurred puss is an indoor girl, but a couple of the local moggies have found my potted catnip plants.  One, in particular, rolls home stoned - good job he only lives a couple of doors away. 

I've only tried to grow catnip once - and I made the mistake of sowing it outdoors in with some other plants... which did not survive the cats then rolling on/sleeping on/crushing everything in the area  

kimwp

Some of my tomato leaves look like this, any ideas? The white bit is like thin paper.

-taff

They've been scorched by the sun

PipneyJane

alicef said:

@kiss_me_now9 I wouldn't worry too much about it.  I tend towards sowing early because a) we have a village plant sale end April time, which I grow as much as I can for, and folks pay more for a bigger plant!  and b) I have a polytunnel so can plant out undercover earlier than planting out in the open.

I invested in some fibre long pots and potted on the peppers & chillies - these will have to survive now on the windowsill.  Have a bowl of early peas soaking and I think I'll  soak some more broad bean seed. Tomorrow I shall renew my annual £1 membership at the village gardening club and buy some onion sets.  

< press “de-lurk” button >

@alicef, please explain what you do re soaking peas and broad bean seeds.  How long, what other things you soak (?sweetcorn?), etc?  Many thanks.  (I’ve wondered about soaking them, but I have no guidelines to follow.)

Hi Everyone.  I’m only 200 posts behind and hope to catch up soon.  We live in your typical outer-London 1930’s semi, with a 50ft back garden.  At the moment, we have 3 raised beds (one full of garlic), a couple of strawberry planters full of plants, 3 tomato planters, two blueberries, a loganberry and a raspberry.  I’m struggling to get vegetables to grow this year.  Our kitchen is west facing, so this year we tried raising seedlings in the fibre pots, in the kitchen window.  Despite watering and the warmth, only one in 3 seeds came up:  just 5 sweetcorn, one broad bean, and 3 tomatoes out of 9.  None of the peppers (I planted 6 pots of fresh seeds), nor any of the mangetout (again, 6 pots).

- Pip

alicef

@PipneyJane!  So lovely to 'see' you over here!  I haven't posted so much as my OH had a small stroke and we are dealing with that at the moment.

I soak peas (including sweet peas) until I can see the radicle emerging - I find if one leaves the seed soaking too long then there is the risk of the seeds becoming mushy.  I soak peas because I like to think the voles aren't so interested in them once germinated.   I soak my broad beans because some of my seed is very old and I don't want to waste compost on something that isn't going to germinate.  The only other seed I do a trial germination on is parsnip.

I did purchase a mass of fibre pots this year but still prefer my old year on year out washed plastic pots and modules. I've sent out a request asking for old unwanted 7-9cm pots as the plant fund raiser has depleted my stock. 

Germination can be a fine balance - certainly age of seed is a factor but also temperature - my earlier sowing of onion seed all germinated fine - later trays - not a thing.

goldfinches

@sammy_kaye18 and @ArbitraryRandom - thankyou for your kind words. 
@PipneyJane -  waving hello and nice to meet you over here too.

Is there a Guinness world record for the highest number of thistles pulled in an afternoon because if so, I feel sure I'm in with a good chance of winning. I must have pulled out at least a couple of hundred this afternoon in lovely warm sunshine with all the birds twittering away so overall it was a pleasant experience but I shall be glad when I get to the end. Anyway I've stopped panicking about our Sunday open to the public session as the weather forecast is saying there will be a horrible thunderstorm with a torrential downpour right at the time we're due to be open so either no-one will come because of that or it'll be lovely and we'll all make the most of it. Either way, I've decided to stop worrying and just let whatever happens, happen.

Hope you're all enjoying the good weather and having a lovely weekend, goldfinches.

ArbitraryRandom

alicef said:

I soak peas (including sweet peas) until I can see the radicle emerging - I find if one leaves the seed soaking too long then there is the risk of the seeds becoming mushy.  I soak peas because I like to think the voles aren't so interested in them once germinated.   I soak my broad beans because some of my seed is very old and I don't want to waste compost on something that isn't going to germinate.  The only other seed I do a trial germination on is parsnip.

For me, beans and peas take such a long time to germinate and show themselves in soil (10 to 21 days!) and those I didn't germinate almost all failed (no idea why, they just didn't like the conditions and rotted). I prefer to know if they're viable sooner so that I don't waste the time/space. 

I've done something similar in that I soak for about 6-8 hours (as you say, too long and they split or rot), then I use a seed germinator designed for edible seeds (like this but I got mine from a charity shop for a couple of quid: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404274112861)

It works like a mini humid greenhouse - you rinse the beans/seeds once a day and otherwise leave it lid down on a sunny windowsill (careful during heatwaves that you're not cooking the seeds). Cuts germination time in about half. 

You can sprout any seed, but the smaller the seed the more difficult it is to then transplant into soil (it's very easy at the germination stage to damage the new roots/stem), so I wouldn't recommend it for anything smaller than a nasturtium seed size.  

Mustard etc are good to sprout in a couple of days to add a peppery protein hit to salads etc and mung beans are a very cheap way to have unlimited home made fresh beansprouts for stirfry  

kimwp

Thank you @-taff for the diagnosis!

I remember the first time I sowed peas, when I saw they'd risen to the surface, I thought something had gone wrong and pushed them all down again! Thankfully they survived!

alicef

@ArbitraryRandom - I would be very interested to hear of any success you have with pre-sprouting, then sowing, smaller than peas size seed.   

In spite of sticking in a matrix of peas sticks - something has enjoyed a dust bath amongst the pea plants.