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?

elements
siberian iris - flower for MONTHS
meconopsis ?
nigella and limnanthes?
grape hyacinths?

Oh, thanks for the suggestions! I’ll have a mooch around the garden centre!

The Hillier books do sorting by colour and season - libraries have them as do gardening nuts like me
and the Hessayon Flower expert has a "by colour" section

Geranium Rozanne is long flowering from around June.

I'm glad people found the link useful.

In a moment of madness I ordered some purple carrot seeds. So that's exciting.

I saw some lovely violet coloured tomatoes on the Seekay site yesterday but think I'm not quite ready for that level of excitement... I dunno, though. Any rebellion is good rebellion these days Non-capitulation and all that...

Apologies for misinformation above - not from Seekay site but from China - they kept popping up on my screen. Might still try some though.

Oh I already have a Geranium Rozanne, how could I have forgotten when it's one of my favourite plants in the garden? I'll have to buy another one to put in a container.

I failed miserably with meconopsis a few years ago, perhaps I should have another try.

Perfect time of year to chop a bit off it, just done this and have a couple of new plants coming through.

Love the floral protest, Elements!

I’m trying to hold off on most things here, although luckily I’m in an inner city area on the south coast, so should be able to get started sooner than most.

I’ve got shallot, celeriac, celery and leaf celery seedlings coming along nicely. The bed I wanted to put broad beans in isn’t ready yet (next weekend hopefully if the weather is ok), so sadly most of those seedlings I sowed a few weeks back are going to be too leggy. I’ve sown some more, and will sow some direct too. Haven’t grown broad beans before (or celery/celeriac) so I will see how they go...

Got way too many pepper and chilli types in the heated propagator - hopefully I will be able to pass some on to family and friends...

Beautiful, if a little windy here - wish I was at my allotment!

Unfortunately I’ve left it too late to get organised for seeds, but I’m going to check out the local garden centre and there’s market once a week, that I’ll try too.

Well, according to Biglys calendar, I shouldn't have planted anything yet. Apart from potatoes. Which does explain why nothing has sprouted despite the careful covering of pots (thanks TiP)!!

I was feeling really late but I've used the bigleys calendar and it's telling me not to plant any seeds until the end of march beginning of april.
Hoping I don't ruin my chances. Seeds so far
Dwarf early peas (avola)
Nandor f1 carrots/resistafly carrots
Harrier f1 squash
Outdoor cucumbers
Tumbling toms
Spring onions.
All my herbs are potted and outside, quite small at the moment but I'm joping harvesting as needed helps keep them going.
I also have 2 garlic plants I was gifted. They have green shoots I'm just not sure where to put them. I'm hoping a nice pot will do.

Any advice on this pile? I'm in the East Midlands and hoping I've not ruined my chances.

On the basis on my (limited) experience, sounds like you are doing the right thing! I don't think you have ruined your chances...planting too early...now that on the other hand... I also think its where you plant them. I thought our conservatory would be warm enough. It wasn't!

It is much easier to catch up with late sowings than many seed companies would have you realise
and its always a toss up between "early" crops and rapid later crops

Was talking to allotment friend yesterday, she also hasn’t started yet (south coast) . We were saying how when we got our allotments in one place a few years ago it was 1 May and we all did fine, so there is loads of time for anyone who hasn’t started. As TIP says, things do catch up.

I've planted some things a bit early according to the chart- seeds straight out of the veg not from a packet so no information. Am I wrong to think that if I keep them in pots in the house they'll be OK? I suppose I'll find out in due course.

Job you’ve all cheered me up, no end. I can’t find ‘bigleys’ calendar, but found one called Esschert sowing/harvest calendar. Is this similar? I love the look of it and think it would be lovely framed and put up in the kitchen. The price difference is amazing. From @ £30 to £9!

www.agradi.com/esschert-sowing-harvest-calendar.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIu5-W4qr84AIVKrftCh0STgUqEAQYCSABEgJJPvD_BwE

I’ve no idea where ‘Job’ came from. Probably my subconscious telling me to ge5 off my ass and do some work! 😳😁

Keep them inside and if you think they've gone in too early (which they probably have - I haven't planted anything yet and am not planing to until this weekend) then don't put a lid on them. This will keep them a bit cooler and they will take longer. You might be fine. Monty Don did tomatoes and various other bits last week (so probably 2/3 weeks ago). His rocket was well away.

You're aiming for strong healthy plants that will cope with being outside when they get too big. You don't want tall/leggy thin ones.

If you have the plants already though, I wouldn't ditch them. They might be fine, particularly if we get early warm weather. Just keep in mind that you might want to do a second sowing.

Here's the calendar thing I linked to up thread S1naid. It's cool because you can out your location in and choose what you want to grow and it gives you the key tasks with dates adjusted for last frost dates. It also links through to detailed planting instructions which as a massive novice I'm finding very helpful.

Its not really mine though. I just stumbled on it in Google when looking for frost info.

www.gardenfocused.co.uk/calendar-veg-personalised.php

That’s brilliant BiglyBadgers. I must have skimmed through the thread too quickly. Thank you.

I'm getting so much help on here it's nice to bring something to the party.

I'm using the gardenfocused calendar too! I'm in Southwest Scotland so haven't done much at all. I'm hoping to grow potatoes, leeks, beetroot, courgette, raspberries, strawberries and peas. Oh and Tumbling Tomatoes. I'm so confused about chitting the potatoes though. I got a mixture, earlies, second earlies and main crop in February and just left them in box. I got them out to start chitting them (slightly later than calendar suggested) but the earlies have some huge shoots on them around 7/8 cm long!!! So then everything I read says to plant them when sprouts are 3/4cm but they are not due to go out until 2nd week of April at earliest. So what I do with the ones that are super long already? I'm feeling pretty useless at this already!!! I'm more confident with ornamental plants and shrubs! Not got a clue!

The reason you have long shoots is because you left them in the dark so the shoots grew long and weak trying to reach the light. You want them strong and short (otherwise they'll get knocked off when you plant them). Put them on the window ledge in the light.