29th March "Grow your own" newcomers welcome here

[TalkinPeece]

In light of lots of posts on lots of other threads I thought I'd start one for those who are looking at their gardens in a whole new light this spring.

Rule One of starting to grow your own
do not be over ambitious
A couple of growbags and pots at the start will give better results than trying to dig up the whole garden

Rule Two of starting to grow your own
grow stuff that will actually cope with your conditions
Look at where the sun shines on your garden at different times of day and what access to water you have

Rule three of starting to grow your own
grow what you will enjoy eating fresh from the garden
as the crops will be smaller but tastier

Rule Four of starting to grow your own
prepare to develop an obsession with the weather forecast

HOWEVER
Tomatoes against a wall of the house are easy in most of the UK
Herbs in small pots on windowsills are easy in most places
Lettuce / salad greens can work in pots, tubs or even hanging baskets
Spinach can be seeded soon and every few weeks from then on to keep you in greens for months
Baby carrots are quick fun and easy to grow in a tub
Beetroot ditto
Dwarf french beans later in the year are well worth growing even in a tiny garden

If we assume that the biggest newcomer plot is 2m by 1m (or 8 feet by 4 feet in old money)

How much yummy veg can Mumsnetters produce?

Thanks for the tip belini. I just watched his video on using eggshells and had no idea you could plant seedlings in eggshells. How cool is that?!

I've just been to Aldi and returned with five apple trees . I think DH might notice my stealth buying...

You can open an orchard!

Today I am sorting the strawberry bed and putting the compost heap back together. It's going to be a bit of a job but the sun is shining and I have an audiobook to listen to.

I think I was a little rash buying five. I hadn't really thought about how far apart they will need to be.

Hey ho.

Cloudtree
It massively depends what rootstock they are on how much space they will need.
If the root stock is not labelled (in the format M and a number)
you have to assume they will get big
ie around twenty feet across in ten years

Cloudtree I think he might indeed notice 5 ! Read something about rootstocks previously on this thread :

www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/general-chitchat/aldi-fruit-trees-lets-all-contact-aldi_83407.html

Suggests that year at least they were M9 which is pretty small in scheme of apple trees. Given you have a few, maybe have a read up on training fruit trees. Cordon Apple trees don’t take up much space and in that thread above someone said they were doing step over trees with them.

Mmm, mine are MM106 so 'semi' dwarf i.e. big . They're already over 2m

Its fine but I'd planned on having them in one area of the garden due to ensuring that they get plenty of sun (kitchen garden doesn't get enough) and now I might just have to spread them out a bit more.

But there's certainly no sneaking them in..

I would love raised beds - we only have a tiny lawn though, can't really lose any more space from it. I was offered some (and an allotment!) by a chap who'd built his own, but we only have a stony gravel bit to put them on, and I don't know if that would be suitable.
I think that would work if filled with good compost because there would be good drainage through the gravel.

I’m joining because I need someone to kick me up the backside when I’ve got to the point of too pregnant to care 😂. I got sod all done last year and the year before as I was either newly pregnant and so bloody ill or I had a small baby who was just a nightmare quite frankly. This year I am due in July and DD is quite happy to kick about the garden on her own, so no excuses!

I’ve got raspberry and gooseberry canes to go in shortly and also an apple tree which has been waiting to go in since about September 🙈. I have lots of seeds to select from but hoping to mainly grow: salad leaves/lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, onions, broad beans, French beans, peas. I will buy a few tomato and cucumber plants from the garden centre as I don’t ever have much chess from seed and we don’t eat enough of them to justify more than one or two plants. I already have 4 3 year old rhubarb crowns in situ which have just this last week poked up through the soil.

We’re rural North Yorkshire so not panicking too much just yet, we didn’t even have snow at this time last year so I don’t think I need to worry that I’m late yet! Will start all seeds in the dining room so that DD can’t level them out and they get plenty of sun. Very lucky to have lots of space and lots of sun as fully south facing (although everything went brown last year because it got so much sun I couldn’t keep up with the watering 😂) and a ready supply of farmyard manure so hoping something can be successful. Thinking about planting a herb garden effort around an old well that’s in the garden but the rabbits round here seem to love whatever I plant in there so perhaps we shall think of another plan!

Can anyone advise how many litres of compost (approx) I'll need for a raised bed frame measuring 120x40x38cms please? I decided to bite the bullet and revamp part of my tiny wilderness garden in the cause of perpetual spinach but am too old and arthritic these days to actually dig for victory I've also ordered a couple of smaller frames but should be able to work out how much compost I'll need for those from an answer to the above. Thanks

www.compostdirect.com/calculator

Thanks Cloudtree - very useful site!

Thanks glamorousgrandmother for the raised beds advice! Hoping to go and have another look at the weekend to see if I'm being practical. Ideally I'd take them (as they're super cheap) and store them till I get my allotment, even if it's a few years down the line, but we don't have anywhere to store them (they are massive!).

Hope everyone's enjoyed the lovely weather? Our garden is looking a lot tidier, I've done a lot of weeding and cleaning, but I desperately need to re-pot a few seedlings and get some more on the go. Unfortunately the DC are keen to 'help' but no seedlings survive when they get going

We harvested the saffron, might be enough for two risottos

Must pull my finger out and get the chillies going.

DH has put in two more raised beds using pallet collars. £5 each (bargain) and because they have hinged edges, they have been made parallelogram shape, which fits them in their space beautifully. It is all looking not too Heath Robinson.

I've also bought an Aldi fruit tree but not sure it's okay for my garden now...?! It's a Concorde pear on rootstock quince a. One website says this:

Quince A More vigorous than Quince ‘C’ and the choice for orchard or grassland/paddock planting. Easy to grow and hardy. Tree sizes of 300-380cm’s height and spread are normal. Can be grown on a trunk with sufficient clearance to be mown beneath. Suitable for bush and half standard trees.

Does that sound okay for a medium sized (north facing) garden?! My car got hit by another car in the car park too so it was a stressful trip!

It's a bit soggy here today, but I've got the heavy outside work done I wanted while the sun was shining so that's alright. I brought some seeds yesterday and my potting compost just turned up so going to get a few bits in loo roll on the windowsill.

I've decided to have a go at growing some cucumber on the bedroom windowsill which gets lovely light. The only potential problem is that the cat likes to jump in and out of the window so I'm hoping he won't decide it's in the way. He also has a bit of an obsession with eating cucumber so I might need to find a way to stop him eating them if I actually get any growing.

I’ve got a new toy, which I’m very excited about! I don’t think I need a heated propagator, I did fine last year with normal propagators and little pots with bags on. But I wanted to try it anyway! We have no windowsills to speak of, but the bed in the spare room is right in front of a south-facing window, so I use that to start my seeds off. I will make sure that I stroke them this year!

I’m with others who haven’t started yet. I read all my seed packets, worked out when to expect the last frost and counted on my fingers. The only seeds I’ll be planting before mid March are leeks, as far as I can remember.

Oh. That looks great, QueenOfThorns.

I was given the name of this site by an acquaintance, who grows most of her own veg. Her garden looks amazing. Has anyone else tried it. She says it’s a brilliant way to get started and they send you the plants when the right time of the year starts. It looks really good and has given me loads of ideas. I really don’t want to be growing from seed as I’ve left it a bit late to get organised. I’m going to give it a go.

www.rocketgardens.co.uk

Looks like and INCREDIBLY expensive way to get stuff
and does not allow plants to settle into your soil
and those varieties are very run of the mill

Would love to join. Had billions of tomatoes last year, broad beans, good amount of herbs and some blueberries and strawberries.

We have one raised bed but unfortunately it is on the north side of the garden so not sure what can be grown in that.

Can anyone recommend a cheap mini greenhouse for starting off seeds? Plastic/wood rather than a big glass affair. The ones I have seen look a bit too rickety

We have got a cheap plastic greenhouse, I think it was £15 from Aldi. It needs something solid and heavy in the bottom to stop it getting blown about but we've used it for about three years for starting off seedlings and it was full of pepper plants last year.

I've just treated myself to a little propagator. Just a basic no frills box with a lid, but I'm very excited.

I ordered from Rocket Gardems once many years ago when it was a bit cheaper. Had more than I needed for the space so stuffed things trying to do square foot garden but it didn’t really work.

Customer service was good and the plants did arrive in very good condition though to be fair. Our local plant sale at the church hall in May is great for veg plants. I still haven’t started for this year really, loads of time.

When I had my allotment I bought loads of plants from Rocket Gardens and they turned out amazingly well. I had no luck growing cauliflower from seed but my rocket garden plants thrived.

They were really high quality.