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?

I'm going to try baked eggshells around my pak choi. They've already been eaten half to death. Will report back!

Baked eggshells sound like a plan Hunky! The slugs seem to be staying away from my plants for now, or maybe they're just losing the fight with the ants, who are already crawling everywhere

I need to put some more seedlings outside Badger, running out of room indoors and some have shot up in the last couple of days! My sweet peppers in particular have grown inches, it's astonishing.

Only one of the DC's sunflower seeds has done anything so far though, which is a bit of a shame!

None of my seeds has come through yet - but there again, I only started sowing a week past Tuesday

I tell a lie: I have some meconopsis seeds that I sowed over two months ago that have germinated but are still too tiny to pot on. I tried and failed last year to nurture any to be large enough to put in the garden and am trying again this year.

The broad beans I sowed about 6 weeks ago went into the raised beds this week.

It is ridiculously sunny and lovely here today. I've been out digging my dye patch for my woad and weld to go in. If I can ever get weld to germinate. Must get some more marigolds going as well now I have some space on the windowsill again.

Completed on my first house last week. House is being renovated but it's got a huge long garden! Have been out there loads with my parents. So exciting! It's definitely got a pear and two apple trees although they need some TLC and pruning. Making the bottom corner into a lovely veggie patch. My parents have an allotment so they have been giving me some stuff that they have started off. Going to start with seed potatoes, onions and broad beans in the veggie bed, and do some tomatoes and peppers in pots/troughs. I've also got some gooseberry bushes and a bramble bush that have been started off. Any other easy suggestions??

Oh and we have been digging, digging, digging... the last owners weren't that committed to the garden so the soil was very hard, hasn't been dug over in years and full of stones and rubble. Hard work but very satisfying! I actually have some flower beds and a veggie bed now.

I'm really panicking as we're off on holiday for a week now and I think everything is going to die. I'm giving everything a good soaking before we leave at 7 and praying for at least a drop of rain at some point this week.

Oh no! I hadn't thought about holidays. I can never go away and leave my plant babies now

I am already fretting about my august holiday with regards to my plants.

MissB83 raspberries are easy but for this year I'd focus on quick wins while you work out the structure of your garden. I'm glad you are doing potatoes, they will help sort your ground. Beans and peas for fixing nitrogen in the soil.

When I went on holiday for a week last summer I pushed some big plastic bottles filled with water upside down into my pots. Kept all my plants alive and I don't think there was any rain.

Prettybird: no, we're down south, definitely not your way.

I haven't had much luck with my seeds. I l know it's my fault, my seedling trays didn't have enough drainage and I didn't bother with compost, I just chucked them into garden soil. I tried breaking it up still very hard so it was a bit of a 'survival of the fittest' game. One bean out of 16 seeds and one courgette from 8.

The peas that went directly outside are poking their heads out and I also planted out the courgette.

I bought some strawberry plants last weekend and planted those out.

I'm really hoping for some rain soon.

Put my beans in the plastic greenhouse and they are looking very frazzled and unhappy. The peppers are loving it, however and have shot up, so not sure why the beans are so upset. Maybe I should bring them back in the house and see if they cheer up a bit.

I've repotted my cucumbers today... the ones I mentioned a few weeks back I got as plug plants (grafted) and were really "wobbly" from day one. They were still wobbly, it's like the stems are not at all steady within the little cube of compost they came with as plugs and they never rooted into the compost I potted them with initially. As they are still alive I thought I'd try a rescue mission with different type of compost so we'll see... No idea what's wrong with them though, never had this with plugs or other seedlings.

Yaaaaaay - I have some seedlings at last!

A few of my purple podded peas and sweet peas (both sown on 11 April) are appearing (in the greenhouse) and my flowering broccoli (cima di rapa), sown direct into the brassica bed on 12 April has also appeared

Some of my seedlings that I'd given up on are appearing at last too! DS2 chose sweetcorn and pumpkin seeds and I thought we'd got a duff batch as literally only one out of 12 had come through, but it appears they were all waiting for some sunshine!!

Repotted the one sunflower which had come through. DS1 promptly snapped the head off it

Wilkos are selling off lots of their seeds half price, in case anyone's interested; you do have to spend over £20 online but that's easily done if you buy cleaning stuff/ make up/ petfood as well, at least it is if you're me! Link here, hopefully: www.wilko.com/en-uk/garden-outdoor-living/planting-growing/seeds-bulbs/c/73?pageSize=24&sort=price-asc

Some of my Poundland shrubs are starting to flower, hooray! And some of the more expensive plants seem to have survived too. The strawberry plants which I'd given up on and just optimistically chucked in some compost are coming to life despite a lack of loving care. Not sure what this says about my gardening skills

I've been neglecting the garden this year but finally got started yesterday.

Sowed broad beans, French beans, peas, radishes, courgette, summer squash, spinach and lettuce. Dug out some compost for the veg bed. Threw out about 10 packets of out of date seeds, and sent 4 more that I won't use off to DF for his garden.

The plants are not in the garden centre yet so I can't get tomatoes going. I know my limits.

DH and I have also agreed on replacing the shed, and having proper shelving in the new one, so that will make things much easier!

Cut my first asparagus from the garden today (picture of the bed taken before I cropped it). From bed to plate (microwaved then in butter) in 10 minutes (including struggling with a recalcitrant roll of cling film )

Forgot to weigh it before cooking it though.

How yummy pretty! I went to re-pot some seedlings today and start off some new ones only to find DP had locked all the compost in the shed and taken the key to work with him no idea why as it wasn't in the way or anything, how annoying!

Admits to having got back from hols at 8pm today so have no idea how bad the garden looks ....
update tomorrow
reseeding may be needed

veg gardening makes you value supermarkets more
which was the source thought of this thread

Hope the garden wasn't too bad after your holiday Talkin

I brought my poor frazzled beans back in the house and they are looking much happier on the windowsill so I guess that's where they are staying until it's time to plant them out.

The tomatoes and courgettes that I planted out the other week seem to be doing pretty well so far and the spinach is going great guns. I’m glad we’ve had a bit of rain though.

Stuff indoors is fine but seed beds have been utterly dire
I need to re seed loads of stuff and may just cut to the summer crops with a couple of beds
my leeks are six inches shorter than they should be by now
and the berries are sitting waiting for consistent weather

food security is too easy to take for granted

I only sowed some leeks (old seed though) on Tuesday - currently in the greenhouse. Will sow some fresh seed direct into the onion bed tomorrow.

I've got lots of stuff popping up now in the greenhouse I'm going to have a gazillion tomato plants as both the very old packets of tumbling tom seed and gardener's delight that I just used the whole pack of have both all come up The "fresh" seed (Roma and All Blacks) have only, so far (despite being the first sown - April 9th) popped up 3 and 2 seedlings each (from the 6 each sown). The Golden grape old seed hasn't produced anything yet - but I only sowed that on the 17th, and I also shoved in a packet of very old Black Cherry tomotoes on Tuesday . And I also have 3 each of Ildi and Ailsa Craig (fresh seed) that I sowed on the 20th.

You did say that there was no such thing as too many tomatoes, didn't you, TalkinPaece ?

Definitely no such thing as too many tomatoes! I have 8 plants altogether, of three different varieties, which is more than twice as many as last year. They’re now happily settling into their growbags in the greenhouse. The cucumbers have also enjoyed the hot weather and will be moving to their final homes at the weekend.

I’ve finally started putting things into my veg patch - cabbages and sprouts. Unfortunately we’ve had vicious rain/hail showers the past two days - one of my cabbages has been lost and some of the sprout plants are looking a bit flat, but hopefully they’ll recover. Luckily most things were out in trays and pots being hardened off, so I’ve been racing out to rescue them every time the heavens open!

I have nearly 100 tomato plants all about eight inches tall
and 24 aubergine plants
and 16 pepper plants