Brexit Cupboard : Grow your own

[BrexitGarden]

Share your tips, from window sill herb pots to crop rotation and champion planting.

I champion a companion plant.

Champion planting

I ordered some of these last night ~ admitedly I have 2 allotment plots but I thought they weren't a bad price for 80.
You can grow onions in large pots ~ some info here.

beetroot and globe-shaped carrots grow from seed in a fairly foolproof manner ime.

I picked up first early seed potatoes today in B&M. £1.99 a bag. Lots of varieties. To be chitted now and planted out towards the end of Feb.

I think carrots are difficult. Might try them separately this year in a container of very sandy soil.

A pot of herbs for £1 from lidl will split into 4 or 5 plants

I found carrots very easy. My kids just throw in the seeds and they grow. If they are too close (fist full of seeds just dropped) they jumble up but otherwise, they are lovely and straight. In any case, they are nice to eat.

Rocket and mixed baby leaves also very easy. And spring onions. Always grows well. But the neighbours cats started using the bed as a toilet so I was put off the baby leaves.

I put in potaroes last year but didn't get time to harvest them. Not sure if they will have rotted or not.

My courgettes grow like weeds - I always give loads away!

I tried for several years to grow French beans in the garden but the nearly all succumbed to slug attacks. Last year I planted one in a not-huge pot and it did really well, so this year am going to do lots of pots!

My carrots (I've only ever grown in tall containers, I think) have always ALWAYS succumbed to annoying little grubby things making tunnels.

I'd quite like to know how to avoid this, and other tips, as I'm seeing a chap about available allotment plots next week. I know feck all

Time to chit the first early potatoes.

Beetroot are great and you can get white or yellow varieties. www.realseeds.co.uk/beetroot.html

Chard is also easy and can be slotted into the flower borders in place of annuals.

Lidl do cheap seeds and they should be instore soon.

Jerusalem artichoke just keep going, if you like them.

Carrots like sandy soil. Sad fact of life.

My carrots (I've only ever grown in tall containers, I think) have always ALWAYS succumbed to annoying little grubby things making tunnels.

Carrot fly. Attracted by the smell if the seeds are sown too close together. You can minimise the chances of attack if you plant with onions or garlic. Marigolds and rosemary can also help.

Carrots are high maintenance, low value IMO. You either have to plant them very carefully or you thin them. Thinning them is a PITA and feels like such a waste. They then need very sandy soil with no obstructions and just the right level of water so that they don't go hairy. You should really net them to stand the best chance of avoiding the carrot fly.

Carrots are also f*kcing liars. You get a lovely green bushy top and then you lift them only to find they're 5cm of pencil thin carrot and 10cm of string. In normal times when you can buy a bag for 40p they're not worth the effort IMO. I have a lot of planting space and just didn't bother last year at all because there were lots of better things to plant. This year I am going to mix a very sandy bed and plant some just because of the situation but I'm not going to hold out hope of much of a crop.

Potatoes that were left in the ground may well still be fine if lifted now. I have two plants in the ground which I put in for christmas lifting and I've left them there because I had too many in the garage.

Perpetual Spinach. Easy to grow. Tolerated all kinds of bad behaviour. Like lettuce.
I have found carrots trick this year even with special care and the advice of the fabulous Home Grown Veg guy on YouTube. Also strongly recommend Huws Nursery on YouTube. Awesome bloke.

Tricky not trick.

As long as you keep away from politics can I recommend this thread. It's all about the gardening including veg but please please please no references to Brexit
Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 13! Are we weathering the weather? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/3335250-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-13-Are-we-weathering-the-weather

Pea shoots are delicious and pop up in weeks. Sow densely and harvest with scissors at about 10cm - you can normally get 2-3 harvests. Salad leaves can be grown the same way.

I agree carrots can be temperamental (harvest of 0 last year) but home grown taste so much better that I really think it's worth it, particularly for rainbow carrots which are ridiculously dear at the supermarket.

They do taste better but if we are talking about brexit grow your own and therefore the focus is on getting most bang for your buck with a fast turnaround I think there are much better things to put into whatever space you have

As with the store cupboard though, no point in having things you don't eat. If carrots are all your dc will eat then it would be worth planting them. No point having loads of chard and kale if the family refuse it.

I will be planting double the number of courgette plants this year and extra spinach. Courgettes produce masses. I planted double the amount of garlic too and its looking happy at the moment.

Bought some additional rhubarb plants yesterday. Won't be able to harvest from them for two years but I'm thinking long term. I already have four established plants but we all really love rhubarb and eat a lot of it. We could have double the number of plants and still use it all.

Great thread, was looking at seed catalogue yesterday, though was also googling gardeners. I only seem to manage to grow courgettes and squash.

I noticed B&M have branded seeds on 3 for 2 atm. Still more expensive than lidl but the lidl ones aren't available yet.

@UnaOfStormhold pea shoots are a good suggestion. I live in an area where outside planting spring stuff is out of the question until late March. But indoor pea shoots give a lot of bang for their buck and don't take up a lot of space. Indoor growing "space" is a massive issue for me so I stick to what will yield results. Or chit potatoes- shop packet type spuds rather than seed ones are doable if not reliable.

And Leavers who just say "we can grow our own" will find out the hard way that stuff takes time to grow and won't be ready by March 29.

www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Vegetable-Seeds/Carrot-Seed/Carrot-Paris-Market-5-Atlas-Seeds_2.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq5Wr_oCV4AIVAbTtCh0EmAwsEAQYAyABEgJ36_D_BwE&ccode=F19PGP#.XFFVo3Onw0M

These are the caŕrots I planted. Children loved them. They come up quite quick. You don't need to sift the soil. I planted them among leeks.

My broad beans were prolific this year but I don't know anybody else who can say that.

Things I keep in pots so they don't grow everywhere - mint and raspberries.

My children weren't sure about eating beetroot but they consented to a beetroot, bramble and apple smoothie.
And then decided they would eat beetroot from our garden.
And then ate it roasted.

To be clear, I'm quite a lazy gardener. I get tired easily. I cleared about 6 feet of border beside my lawn and the rest was in pots.

Rosemary seems to grow well.

Blueberries if you get more than one variety.

Gooseberries.
Blackcurrant - once they get going you end up giving them away.