The great, good and not so good bits about growing your own dinner 2017

Niv · 2 May 2017 at 9:31AM

I had a decent weekend.

Put the kale out under my homemade cloche's (pop bottles with the bottom cut off!)

Tomato's are growing well in the greenhouse, need to re-pot them when I get chance.

Had a massive bonfire and got rid of the trees along my back boundary which has opened up the bottom of the garden which I am clearing to install two bee hives.

Garlic and onions growing well and I swear the chard is coming through, will be nice when they grow bigger as they have a variety ofcoloured stems which will brighten up the veg patch!

Strawberry seeds have been a complete failure - I wont be bothering with those again!

Cayenne peppers not grown very big at the moment which is a disappointment. Hopefully they will get a growth spurt soon as would be nice to have a few spares to sell at the front door.

Jazee · 2 May 2017 at 5:37PM

Another one here whose strawberry seeds were a failure (only one germinated) so I'm glad I bought 30 new plants. They all seem to be doing well.

Yesterday, my lovely neighbour and my DH cut the grass back and front for me so today I could concentrate on all the other stuff.

Threw out anything that I planted in March which hadn't germinated and potted on everything else. I've put the peppers in grow bags in the greenhouse, so hoping they will survive. I'm keeping tomatoes indoors for now.

Still have some lettuce planted last autumn and the chard is looking fantastic. Along with chives and parsley, it just seems to keep coming up year after year now.

I've finally got a couple of cucumbers germinated and today I planted thyme and beetroot.

smeeinnit · 2 May 2017 at 6:52PM

Hi all

Hope all the poorlies are on the mend

Well now the snooker has finished I have no excuse not to go into the garden

Potted on some spinach seedlings and sowed some red lettuce (variety escapes me) built some more of my vertical garden and filled 3 towers with my baby lettuces, can't wait till they start fattening up. At the moment you can see lots of the frame, hoping that once its all growing madly it will look like a wall of green.

Tomorrow I am likely to be staining the new decking we have put down, and the rest of the week should get lots of time in the garden. Too many little things to do to decide what order I will do them in!

Have a good week all :j

tibawo · 4 May 2017 at 7:39AM

I keep seeing the vertical gardens and keep wondering whether to invest in one for in front of the fence at the top of my new allotment.

Still chipping away at my new plot. Met another allomenteer and i apologised that it looked horrendous but she just chuckled and said 'it just looks like someone is working on it' so she is happy as it means less grass/weeds/ brambles will be heading her way to deal with.

I now keep changing my mind with the layout. However, the two baby baths have small drainage holes in the bottom so i have filled with soil with weed suppressant underneath them and half sunk them with the view to put strawberries in. Around them will be some bark chippings [free] and have edged the metre square with red bricks found underneath grass. In front of this i am hoping to flatten it and put the potato sacks currently in the backyard and a chair to rest in-between digs!

hope to get up tonight!

CAFCGirl · 4 May 2017 at 8:38AM

Ankle recovery is going well so far - bar twisting it falling out the backdoor step after being bowled over by the dog LOL

Its not wet and windy all week so I guess thats a small blessing as I dont feel so bad about taking Dr's orders and resting.

Hopefully come the weekend though it will have cleared up and I can get back to it.

LoveKnittingSocks · 4 May 2017 at 11:08AM

Good morning! Its coffee time at work so time for a sneaky catch-up.

Its a beautiful day up here today, everything seems to be bursting into life!

Here's a progress report so far:-

The mini apple tree we planted last year has started to blossom so here's hoping for a few apples this summer.

The mixed lettuce I planted in pots on the kitchen window have already germinated and so has the beetroot tub - still no sign of the carrots. The leeks sown at the weekend are just starting to show and my potatoes are going mad

I have 5 more seed potatoes chitting and I'm hoping to plant these out in bags at the weekend. I'm happy to say that the greenhouse is still standing as is the wigwam around my runner beans but no sing of germination here yet. The four sprouts seedlings that survived are now about 3" tall and have 3-4 sets of leaves - not sure when I should plant these out?

Mentioned to my DH and sons that I may put my name down for an allotment - this was met with rather a lot of laughter!! I'll show 'em

:p

zafiro1984 · 4 May 2017 at 7:07PM

DH has kindly dug me a pit 5ft long x 3ft wide and 3 spades deep, he's also filled it with good old fashioned rotted manure and compost, just to make 2 rhubarb plants happy

I on the other hand had to supervise all this and give encouragement when he was flagging.

londonlydia · 5 May 2017 at 12:51AM

Going to visit an allotment for the first time ever tomorrow, as they have free plots. Only known one person who had one so I'm a bit clueless ... Reading up like crazy though! I do love gardening though, but have only ever grown flowers apart from a tray of lettuce on the balcony of my flat growing up. Not planning on attempting to plant straight away as I want to plan out properly, but has anyone got some recommendations for a beginner? In particular, is anything like growing roses, or uses similar stuff? Probably sounds strange but I love roses as I've grown over ten varieties since taking up gardening ten years ago

CAFCGirl · 5 May 2017 at 9:17AM

londonlydia wrote: »

Going to visit an allotment for the first time ever tomorrow, as they have free plots. Only known one person who had one so I'm a bit clueless ... Reading up like crazy though! I do love gardening though, but have only ever grown flowers apart from a tray of lettuce on the balcony of my flat growing up. Not planning on attempting to plant straight away as I want to plan out properly, but has anyone got some recommendations for a beginner? In particular, is anything like growing roses, or uses similar stuff? Probably sounds strange but I love roses as I've grown over ten varieties since taking up gardening ten years ago

One thing I would say is you might have to ask them about the rules/terms and conditions regarding growing flowers.
Our site has a contract which states that only a certain percentage can be used to grow flowers and fruit trees. I think the idea being that they dont want people just planting up trees and never visiting bar to harvest them. They want the plots tended regularly.

I'm sure they wont be adversed to some space being used for it though but just best to check in beforehand.
One chap near mine has 3 plots and he has an agreement that he could use 2/3rds of one plot for flowers - should say though he is there every day for at least 6 hours and winner of best plot for a number of years and all round good chap who helps everyone out a lot.

londonlydia · 5 May 2017 at 12:42PM

Thanks CAFCGirl. I'm not intending to grow many flowers on the plot, I do want to grow veggies and some fruit... But I've not done it before so am a bit overwhelmed! So I'm pleased to find this thread on mse.

You mentioned a restriction on fruit, is this just trees or does it include berries? This is something I want to grow as we currently buy berries every week when available, and it's so expensive. Especially the blackberries, and I object to doing so having spent hours with my friends as a kid picking them from the edge of the estate to make blackberry milkshake with.

One of the things I'm confused about is whether you have to grow brassicas? Every book I've seen puts them in the rotation plan. But I'm not really that much of a fan... I'll eat them but there are other things I'd prefer to use the space for...

The great, good and not so good bits about growing your own dinner 2017

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