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?

Wow !
none of that happening for at least six weeks here in the south of England

got this shelf in wilkos

I spied some grass poking through in one of the raised beds earlier and went over to pull it out. Then discovered it’s actually dozens of self seeded sweet corn plants. Way too early but they’ve done their own thing. Hadn’t even planned on doing any this year since it’s a lot of space taken up for very little reward.

Cloud I think we have a rogue onion in with our tomatoes

My pea shoots are starting to, er, shoot up! Will have a poke round the garden tomorrow after another very rainy day today, see how everything outdoors is doing. We are going to have a quiet (skint) weekend so will try to get DS2 busy with the compost and sowing things. DS1 is more interested in climbing over everything!

Thanks for the book tip Bellini. I'll take a look at that. I like the idea of having something that tells me what to do each month.

I'm feeling rubbish and started some new medication Wednesday which is making me feel even more rubbish so I'm glad I got plenty done the other week. It's cheering to see some of my little seeds poking their noses up.

My Blackthorn arrived the other day and I did manage to pop a few of them in yesterday, thankfully I'd already prepared the bed so it wasn't too much to do. I'll get dd to help me do the rest over the weekend. She's pretty good at digging holes. I'm going to keep an eye out for some gooseberries to go in with them I think.

I need to decide whether to pull up the self seeded sweetcorn or let it carry on growing. I've grown it for the past few years but you really need a decent sized block for it to stand any chance of pollenating fully and I can only really get about 18 into the bed without it being overcrowded. Possibly another row if I really squeezed it in. It's annoying to grow since it gets massive and looks like its doing really well and then you take off the husk to cook it and find that most of the kernels didn't pollenate . Little baby sweetcorn shoots might become chicken feed since there are better plants that I could have in that space..

Cloudtree
I would pull it because you have no idea whether it will grow true ....
I stopped growing Sweetcorn as the yield per bed was too small
and I only buy it at pick your own so I know its properly fresh
I miss it, but I'll cope

I'm just here to say that my little courgette sprouts are looking gorgeous.

My butternut squash seedlings are visibly bigger every time I look at them. I'm going to have to pot them up and give them to people as presents soon as I haven't got the space for more than one.

I have a small veg bed approx 1m x 1m that I have been planting for the past 4 years. I have just picked some purple sprouting broccoli that has been in there so long, I didn't think I'd ever get to harvest it.

Can anyone identify this - think it may be self seeded lambs lettuce (ignore the leeks)?

Well Im very glad I held off with the planting. Woken up to lots of snow!

Snow!?

Where I am it looks windy but lovely and sunny at the moment. Hard to imagine snow. The weather really is all over the place this year.

Some advice needed...My courgettes at going to be too big for the propagator in a day or two (they are growing so fast!). Does that mean I need to put them in bigger pots? I have window space so can keep them inside thankfully if the weather turns down here.

I might have underestimated the amount of wind a bit...our trampoline just escaped into nextdoor's garden.

My courgettes at going to be too big for the propagator in a day or two (they are growing so fast!). Does that mean I need to put them in bigger pots? I have window space so can keep them inside thankfully if the weather turns down here.

If you are in the UK, what is your last frost date.

I don't even sow my tender veg until mid april.

sowing early is a waste of seeds, as there are not enough daylight hours for these plants, and they get pot bound before they can go outside. Unless you have a micro-climate that doesn't get the UK weather.

Well, I'll bear that in mind for the future sack. I'd just followed the date on the packet which said I could sow indoors from march. Early I admit but I'm a tad keen. Should I just dump these or is it worth keeping? I have space indoors with a good south facing window large enough for pots.

I just discovered this site. You can put in your location, select what you want to grow and if gives you a calender of when to do stuff. Obviously, yes, I am completely out for lots of things already.
www.gardenfocused.co.uk/calendar-veg-personalised.php

Should I just dump these or is it worth keeping? I have space indoors with a good south facing window large enough for pots.

You are over a month early, so use it as a learning tool.

See what happens and resow again mid April.

Wildernesstips I think you are right about lambs lettuce - I've just seen some on the Seekay site on eBay but can't copy photo over.

Bigly
Pop them into three inch post on a windowsill and wiggle them plenty to keep them stout.
I sow mine at the end of march - when other things come out of the propagators - and then plant them out mid April

Thanks Talkin, I'll do that and then plant some more in a few weeks.

Thanks, BiglyBadgers that link is very useful.

Not here to ask about growing crops, but for floral advice. DH and I are staging a small floral protest on our front doorstep where it will be visible from the street, and would like to maintain this theme for as long as possible.

Any recommendations for blue-and-yellow seasonal flowers that are suitable for containers (so we can keep swapping them out as they fade to keep up a constant display through the seasons)? At the moment I can only think of those very blue lobelias for the height of summertime.

You need Chiltern seeds who do their catalogues by colour.

www.chilternseeds.co.uk/flowers

My favourite blue flower is Anagalis; ours flowered until November and then it has survived this winter so no need to buy any more this spring.

Great link Bigly.

Thanks Geisto, I'm going to taste it later this week.

Elements what about lavender and perovskia for blue?