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?

Oh this a fab thread! Exactly what I was just thinking about this morning.
I would love to grow more of my own bits and bobs but no idea where to start really.
I've tried to grow peas before and they were just nibbled away by creatures! I didn't get a single pea!
In an ideal world I'd like to grow peas, carrots, potatoes, courgettes and some fruit.
We're not in our own property so can't really go planting whole veg patches or apple trees!
Really interested to get some ideas and guidance!

A quick word for Project Diaries on YouTube. Budget friendly. Nice guy.

Place marking. Every year I say I will grow veg and never do it, this thread will give me the inspiration I need

I love Vivi's kitchen garden. She is completely mad in a lovely way. viviskitchengarden.blog

Thank you, talkin, for the link to this thread

Will start with the book suggestions.

I have a quite large but awkward outside space. It's shared with my ndn and you have to walk along the ndn on the other side's garden to get to ours so a bit of a faff. However, once up there, there are several areas that could be used (sunny and shady) and a choice of three sheds.
My kitchen window sill gets no sun at all and whilst the sitting room does, it's not all that practical to have things on it (up to 6 childminding children a day with touchy hands!!).

We also have a big slug problem (indoors) so I'm very interested to read the suggestions for getting rid of them.

Another book www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetable-Garden-Displayed-Joy-Larkcom/dp/0906603870?tag=mumsnetforum-21

And another www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/month-by-month-organic-gardening/author/lawrence-hills/publisher/thorsons

Have cleaned the heated propagator and will have the chilli seeds in it this week.

Thank you PostNotInHaste - I hadn't even thought about that (now can't believe what a prat that makes me). I've never hand pollinated before as you might have guessed , is it simple(ish)?

Should I be replanting my broccoli or supporting the cress type shoots?

This looks like a thread for me. I only have a yard, south facing, with a lot of pots scattered about. No greenhouse. I've done a few vegetables before, & usually have some herbs growing. Need to get it properly sorted ASAP. In the past, in pots / containers I've grown:

Tomatoes - hardy outdoor types only - fairly good.
New potatoes in potato growbags - good yield for minimal effort.
Beetroot - I think it was variety Boltardy - several massive roots, yum.
Lamb's lettuce - took care of itself, fairly low yield for the space required .
Mixed cut & come again lettuce - ok but slugs.
Rocket - wild rocket self seeds everywhere if you give it a chance...
Horseradish - grew surprisingly well in a pot, very hardy.
Herbs - sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, bay, parsley, mint, tarragon (buy french, not russian tarragon), chives, garlic chives, winter savory, chamomile, feverfew, lavender, hyssop, marigold. Basil & coriander indoors. If outdoors, I struggle to stop coriander from bolting if it's warm, or suffering devastation by slugs if it's the least bit damp. Basil is ok outdoors but gets horribly attacked by aphids. Yuck...

I plan to do courgettes this year, as well as new potatoes & possibly tomatoes, cut & come again lettuce, & rocket. I need to sort my yard as a lot of the herbs have escaped & appear to be set on taking over.

On TV today I saw a segment about winter purslane - this is just the first link I found, other retailers are available! Apparently it's at least somewhat winter tolerant.

Can I join too please? I've only got a balcony - it is south facing but has no protection from the wind (north west coast of Scotland). Last year I managed to keep all my flowers in pots alive and it's given me a taste of what I could do!
I've just planted strawberries in pots which I've got inside at the moment - I'm told they can go outside though? Isn't it too cold as yet?
Wondering if I could do potatoes in sacks? Tomatoes? Peppers?
I have a fair amount of space inside (also south facing, full height windows) so could have things inside too?
I'm a complete amateur and don't want to waste money, effort or time in planting stuff that won't survive never mind flourish!

Lonely it was a few years ago but I think I just got a small paintbrush and gently put it in each flower to transfer the pollen.

Unsoftly the strawberries will be fine outside. They sit under snow and ice looking shrivelled and pathetic then when the weather improves and the’re ready they spring into life. You could do potatoes in a sack or bag, I guess supermarket bag for life with holes in would do the job. Bit of soil in the bottom, pop the tubers in. Then when the green shoots come through put more soil on the top, repeat the process a few times especially if frost due, it’s called earthing up and ensures the new potatoes are well buried and don’t go green,

There are different types of potatoes that take different amounts of times between planting and harvesting (first relies, second earlies, main crop and probably others) so you can stagger your harvest. Potatoes are relatively cheap though and you might want to use your space for veg that costs more to buy. Peppers can be a bit tricky sometimes as depends on the weather. Tomatoes would be good and Marketmore cucumbers .

Another few weeks and Gardeners World and Beevhgrove Garden will be back , both are worth watching as have sections on veg growing . Beechgrove is in Scotland so helpful for those of you up north with planting timings but informative for everyone. They run lots of veg growing trials to see which type of pots etc produce the greatest yield and have areas that relate to the various growing conditions people have eg not necessarily huge amounts of garden.

Can’t believe i’m Saying this but am going to grow some marrows this year as found that my accidental marrows last year stored well in a cool cupboard and were handy for bulking out things like spag Bol, curry, soup and are good in lemon and courgette cake. I planted yellow courgette seeds at allotment but they were green so I ended up with stealth marrows again.

Thank you PotNot - I shall inspect it today with a brush handy!

We moved house last spring and our new garden needs a LOT of work. I planted some randomly-acquired courgette and tomato plants last year and they were a storming success, so I’m looking to build on that this year.

I already have some herbs that are doing well - parsley, rosemary and two types of thyme. My mint and sage are looking very sad so I may be replacing those this year, and I’d like to add sorrel, coriander and dill to my collection. I’m currently trying to germinate some chilli seeds, but I don’t have a heated propagator so that may not succeed.

This weekend I put some autumn-fruiting raspberries in big pots on my patio - this variety is supposed to be suitable for container growing but we will see...!

Other than that, I plan to do tomatoes and courgettes as last year, and add broad beans, beetroot, chard/cavolo nero and runner beans. Oh, and I have some second early potatoes chitting on the kitchen windowsill

If I get around to it I’ll add some strawberry plants and cut and come again lettuce.

What was rule one again?

I've just started a thread about flowers (and this pot) but I'd really like to grow veg in them too.

Do you think they're too small for a courgette plant? 51cm long, 19cm wide, 12cm deep?

I'm going to grow lettuce and spinach in them - not sure what else - any ideas?

I've gone from having a massive garden and an allotment to 30 pots like these now I've moved - it's so weird, I've been gardening 30 years and I just can't get my head around it

Tumbler type cherry tomatoes?

That's a great idea!

I've never been able to grow tomatoes as I've always grown potatoes

With a small garden, nicely sheltered but lots in shade, I've found that "bush type" tomatoes (varieties like "Tumbling Tom" which can come in both red or yellow!) grow well in hanging baskets once they have sunshine and you keep them watered. I tend to add water retaining granules (I had a pack from B&Q, so hopefully I can find them again as I finished them off last year) to the compost when potting the basket initially. I buy the plants from the local garden centre.

I also grow "cordon" types (you pull off the side shoots and they grow taller) in large pots on the ground - I put 2 in a square pot that is 12" wide and support them with some bamboo canes.

If you have a sunny windowsill, try window basket pots on them. I usually put a small piece of wood underneath the tray to the front, to (at least mostly) counteract the slope of the windowsill.

Nice things on my windowledges have included:
Cut and come again lettuce (just pull a few outside leaves each day from each plant once they get going)
Spinach
Dwarf French beans
Radishes and spring onions
Dwarf peas (harder to get but there are varieties to buy as seed from Thompson and Morgan or Suttons)
Dwarf broad beans
Herbs
Baby carrots

I have a quite large round tub that I put more bamboo canes into and grow French beans up those - that can give us loads!!

Things like courgettes, single broccoli plants, broad beans, etc can all be grown in the middle of flowers. My one bed for veg has a mix of broad beans, courgettes, broccoli, radishes, spring onions, lettuces, beetroot and sometimes I squash in some summer squashes as well. All mixed up together.

The back of that bed, against the wooden fence, is a thick row of peas, supported along the fence, that almost disappears from your vision grown like that. And the flowers are nice, there's a (some kind of actual flower that climbs - DH is the flower man in our house!) purple thing at the end of that line, so the white pea flowers ending in the purple flowers looks nice and not at all "structured vegetable garden"-like.

I don't grow onions or garlic since I gave up my allotment, but it would be easy to add just a few in between things (but the amount to buy for seed is way too many for me so I don't bother - if you have someone to share a bag of onion sets or seed garlic with, it would be nice).

Some rhubarb in a corner is lovely, and takes very little minding but is really nice for those few weeks!

Strawberries in pots, hanging baskets, window boxes, or in the ground, all work well.

I have no currants anymore (since I gave up the allotment) but if I had space, I would put raspberries along a sunny fence and definitely some blackcurrants.

BiddyPop - I mentioned upthread that I’m experimenting with container raspberries this year. Allegedly you can grow the bushy autumn fruiting varieties quite well in a big tub without needing to support the canes, so I’ve popped a couple of bare root Autumn Bliss on my patio. I’ll update later in the year

OOh, sounds good Pengling - unfortunately all my space for containers is already gone against the house and we want some space to sit in. The wall behind the house is 12 foot, so significant shade cast so the east facing fence is ok for sun (where the peas grow) but the west facing fence gets shaded far too quickly and there's a tree along it that DH won't cut back.....

I hope it works well for you though!

Any advice for growing herbs/cress/anything edible in water alone? Can't have soil in the home because of mold/fungus spores.

Also I'm not green fingered at all...and have the knowledge of a 3 yr old!

If you have a teeny garden or or in rented, pots are your friend

Check out the Recycling centre to pick up big sturdy tubs

Climbing beans are beautiful plants - use them to make an arbour and grow tumbler tomatoes around their bases

To keep pots moist, I mix lots of swell gel into the compost
www.yougarden.com/item-p-100027/blooming-fast-swell-gel-and-feed-plus

Hazards - hydroponic systems are your friend - basically swell gel and clay granules.
Its how a lot of the commercial growers operate now as soil is messy and heavy
I'll do a bit of looking up and post links later

Just found this article from last summer ....
www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/house-garden/gardening/best-home-hydroponics-kits-gardening-indoor-herb-garden-a8461671.html
Most of the kits look a bit OTT in my view,
but every big town will have a hydroponics shop full of stoners
where you can buy the basics pretty cheaply

Here is the RHS page on hydroponics
www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=911

And for those who fancy a day out, see when your local agricultural college has its open day - LOADS of ideas there
and a good chance to debounce children

BiddypPop your window box kitchen garden sounds a complete delight! I think wild/alpine strawberries would also be worth a try for Laurel.

That's a big change for you, Laurel. I'm used to very small gardens and I think it's a bit of a different mindset e.g. buying a few plugs can be enough and you won't be wasting seed, so costs aren't as different as they might seem and so on. I'm sure you'll get there and lots of luck with your new garden. Agree completely about D G Hessayon - he has a container book that's very good.

Laurie