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

Farway

Christianne1957 said:

De-lurking to ask if anyone knows when Lidl will start stocking seeds this year please?

If you're sharpish, T & M, Fothergills & Browns have free  P & P this weekend.

I know 'cos I just bought some, T & M have some seeds at 89p, so easier & cheaper than Lidl inc free P & P

sammy_kaye18

Farway said:

Christianne1957 said:

De-lurking to ask if anyone knows when Lidl will start stocking seeds this year please?

If you're sharpish, T & M, Fothergills & Browns have free  P & P this weekend.

I know 'cos I just bought some, T & M have some seeds at 89p, so easier & cheaper than Lidl inc free P & P

Why Farway! Why! 
Dammit - guess ill be having a nose on there in a minute then. Although I think besides potato seeds and onion sets - I have all my seeds.......but sure I need something else - the site will tell me I'm sure.........

Has anyone ordered potatoes online anywhere? I use to get ours from our local Wilkos but thats shut down now so Im a bit stumped where to get them. 

ArbitraryRandom

sammy_kaye18 said:

Farway said:

Christianne1957 said:

De-lurking to ask if anyone knows when Lidl will start stocking seeds this year please?

If you're sharpish, T & M, Fothergills & Browns have free  P & P this weekend.

I know 'cos I just bought some, T & M have some seeds at 89p, so easier & cheaper than Lidl inc free P & P

Why Farway! Why! 
Dammit - guess ill be having a nose on there in a minute then. Although I think besides potato seeds and onion sets - I have all my seeds.......but sure I need something else - the site will tell me I'm sure.........

Has anyone ordered potatoes online anywhere? I use to get ours from our local Wilkos but thats shut down now so Im a bit stumped where to get them. 

Topcashback are also claiming to give 6% cashback and have some codes for above 60 and above 100 spends (should anything catch you eye). 

I believe you can only use one code at a time and cashback is not guaranteed to track. 

DD265

@sammy_kaye18 @KajiKita I've ordered my seed potatoes from Potato House. They have a lot of varieties to choose from and you can schedule delivery. I've ordered scab resistant (had problems past two years) varieties this year; Charlotte, Jazzy, Record, King Edward and Maris Pipers. We lost most of our main crop to slugs in 2023.

Still no sign of my garlic, but the onion seeds I sowed in heated propagators on the conservatory windowsill are coming through. Redrover making a good showing, with Red Baron to follow. Figured I'd try a mixture of seeds and sets this year.

I have managed a productive few hours at the allotment this weekend. OH did indeed fetch me a pallet collar, so three of the raspberry canes are now permanently housed. I have two "spare" which I may or may not keep. I need to pick up a bag of bark at some point to top that off. We used left over compost from a bulk delivery we'd had to the house last year, and then half of the soil from the raised bed that held the sweetcorn last year. Will have to top that bed up again at some point, but we don't need it for a while. I've also put my duo plum tree (two varieties grafted onto the rootstock) into a permanent home on the banking. I used a scavenged scaffold board, with some metal stake type things, to support some top soil; the banking is heavy clay so it needed building up a bit.

We still have two hedgehog visitors; I believe the two I named Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Not that I can recognise any of them, though, except the one we called Chonk because it was huge compared to the rest (haven't seen him/her in a couple of months now). The fox(es) have also returned and I did the RSPB birdwatch today.

ladybird1106

Spent a couple of hours separating lettuce seeds from the heads which I dried last year.
Love 🐞

KajiKita

Thanks @DD265. I’ve ended up buying some today from the local garden centre. But will bookmark that supplier for next year 😊

KK

Cas

Hello, may I join in too please? Hoping to learn lots from the folks on here! 

I have a small area in the garden where I started growing fruit and veg in containers last year. Soil is heavy clay and prone to flooding in some areas. No propagator or anything like that, just a potting shed and a sunny windowsill. I use the compost you find in garden centres although sometimes I can get my hands on some free seaweedy sandy stuff from a local ranger service.

My borders were mostly planted by the previous owners of our house snd the shrubs are wildlife friendly. It's hard work trying to keep them under control! We've had to take out some poor performers over the years so we have a few gaps which I'm going to fill with pink elderflower, dog rose and some berberis and hebes which were saved from the front garden and will continue the wildlife friendly theme. There's also a female goat willow tree which is covered in bees in the late spring. We released some ladybugs and larvae into the garden last year and spotted one today whilst pruning back the clumping bamboo.

Last year's main successes were rhubarb, potatoes (especially the charlottes and pentlands) plus strawberries. My pot of thyme went crazy and needs repotted this year. Mint and lemonbalm continued doing their own thing in their space under the goat willow. Fennel herb grew well and was great for attracting insects as well as producing seeds. I cut it back to the base after I collected the seeds and have got lots of frilly greenery on it at the moment. Chives did well as usual despite being neglected and I haven't yet harvested my jerusalem artichokes. The wild garlic produced enough to make some pesto and the spring onions grown from scraps are still looking healthy. Blackcurrants got infected with scale bugs so didn't do very well, tayberry didn't produce anything and the slugs got to the salad leaves. I have some hazel bushes which were planted by the previous owners but the squirrels got to the nuts before I did!

Dad is greenfingered and is going to help me this year. His specially is tomatoes and I want to grow more potatoes. I've looked through the seed tin and we have kale, broccoli, sprouts, beetroot, radish, carrots, peas, runner beans and cauliflower. I also have a cranberry, gooseberry and honeyberry to add to the mini apple, pear, cherry and plum trees I bought last year. Rhubarb is starting to poke through so I've put upturned pots over them.

Aside from that I go foraging in the nearby countryside. Wild garlic is rampant in the spring and there are both crab and eating apples, blackberries, haws, rosehips, rowan berries, garlic mustard,  elderflower/elderberries and meadowsweet to supplement the garden.

Dry but windy afternoon today saw me pottering around pruning and tidying up, checking the pots and persuading DH to move a japanese quince out of the bed behind the potting shed where I'm planning to put a fruit cage. I have a to do list a mile long so I'm hoping for some dry days this week to let me continue tidying up and if it's raining then I'll be planning! 

kiss_me_now9

Hi all, I am determined to make this year a good growing year. Last year was a write off as we had a newborn and absolutely no time or energy to garden (though did manage to get some courgettes, squash, tomatoes and beans in the ground - barely any produce off them though). 

I plan to do no dig this year and am sourcing as much plain cardboard as I can. Our soil is awful, really heavy clay and I am fed up of breaking my back trying to get the clumps out to make it plantable. Hoping that this solves that problem and maybe makes it easier in years to come. 

The greenhouse unfortunately has been completely ignored since August last year and now has some... ahhm.. very mouldy plants in it. I need to get in there and clear it out but it's tricky as I've been so busy doing a local panto my weekends have been completely filled, and I can't guarantee LO will stay asleep long enough to do it during his nap times. OH has been very busy at weekends either looking after LO when I'm out at rehearsals or doing things he actually enjoys like running. 

I did manage to plant some garlic in late October, which is growing nicely. I'm considering shallots this year and maybe just one or two types of courgette. Probably won't bother with squash as it never ripens and we only get tiny ones (I think they don't get enough sun). I'd love to do tomatoes and cucumber in the green house again but it is such a state at the moment. 

Other than that... I'm a bit lost. We're vegetarian so eat most vegetables but I always end up growing the same things and I'd love to try something new. South facing garden but there's a huge (and I mean huge) fir tree in our right hand neighbours garden that covers the sun most of the day - the sunniest spot is where the green house is and that gets sun around 70% of the day in summer. We've got a medium sized veg plot at the back and were trying to make some new ones in front of it but as I'm planning to do no dig I could expand this very easily. I'd like to try carrots but because the soil is so tough they never grow well. Have done potatoes in the past but find them a bit of a pain to keep earthing up and I'd prefer a patch that is largely low maintenance. 

Farway

kiss_me_now9 said:

Other than that... I'm a bit lost. We're vegetarian so eat most vegetables but I always end up growing the same things and I'd love to try something new. South facing garden but there's a huge (and I mean huge) fir tree in our right hand neighbours garden that covers the sun most of the day - the sunniest spot is where the green house is and that gets sun around 70% of the day in summer. We've got a medium sized veg plot at the back and were trying to make some new ones in front of it but as I'm planning to do no dig I could expand this very easily. I'd like to try carrots but because the soil is so tough they never grow well. Have done potatoes in the past but find them a bit of a pain to keep earthing up and I'd prefer a patch that is largely low maintenance. 

You don't mention fruit, sounds like you have space for some. 

How about some apple trees? Mini orchard kind of thing. Trained blackberries, thornless type for the LO on surrounding fences, shade not a major problem with those.

Good old rhubarb, of course

KajiKita

@kiss_me_now9, the greenhouse will come back with one morning’s focused effort, to clear it out and give it a scrub with a hose and a soft hand brush. Top dress with fresh compost. After that, buy young plants from a garden centre, grown them on a bit inside and then pant out late May. 

Well done on the garlic 😊👏
Shallots are pretty bomb proof - just keep them weeded and reasonably well watered 😊
Have you come across Charles Dowding’s books for no-dig? 😊

KK