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've very lackadaisically had a go at growing bits and pieces with mixed success the last few years - jumping in to see how you all do and maybe get some tips! :)
My tomato game got much better once I found I could buy 30cm plants online from a nursery "tomato plants direct", they have lots of unusual varieties which always feels more fun. Last year I got a variety of jet-black bell peppers from them that were a conversation piece!

Last year I grew Tumbling Tom tomatoes in hanging baskets that were very successful. I also planted some kale plants my neighbour gave me in a space in the flower beds. Unfortunately I'd forgotten about the dahlias that came up underneath them, that wasn't so successful.

oooh i'll have a look at those tomato plants online.

i'm a bit rubbish at tomato plants.i wonder if i don't water them enough? they often have a very thick skin and sometimes are a bit woolly. any tips? i grow some in a greenhouse (in pots filled with grow bag) and some in a trough outdoors.

Thank you for the recommendation for the Real Seed Company. Got a little batch of seed to try - a variety of cucumber, small courgette, sorrel and spinach.

I’m going to try to grow them in containers/pots as I have a small garden with nowhere to do a bed.

Oh exciting! This is exactly the thread I need! I've not had time to read the whole thing but I have a couple of outdoor beds and a greenhouse all weeded and ready to go. Planning for tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers in the greenhouse, not sure what else. Questions:

Should I buy little plants or seeds and is it OK to buy them from garden center rather than online (am SAHM and garden center rates as an exciting outing for toddler).
I have a small bed with two strawberry plants that survived the winter and two that died. What is a good thing to plant next to strawberries?

How do I know when to start planting?

goodlife
Tomatoes like a steady supply of water and they are quite thirsty ...

zigzag
When my kids were little I could waste half a day looking at every shrub in the garden centre with them and letting them splash in puddles

Seeds like Suttons and Thompson and Morgan are absolutely fine - have fun choosing

Planting dates etc - another expedition ... go to your local Oxgam / charity bookshop and pick up some of the books listed up thread
they explain the timings for each type of seeds

This weekend is the perfect time to get tomatoes, aubergines and peppers started in a propogator or on the windowsill

Buy mustard and cress seeds as well so your little one can watch them grow and then have THEIR plants to eat in a matter of weeks

Should I buy little plants or seeds and is it OK to buy them from garden center rather than online (am SAHM and garden center rates as an exciting outing for toddler).

Don't be fooled by the purists saying you need to start everything from seed [and i am a seed saver and hoarder]...do what is right for you.

The main problem that I find with buying is the varieties; the number of varieties of veg plants available pre-grown, is minimal, compared to the varieties of seed in garden centres, which itself is minimal compared to the varieties that are available online from places like Real Seeds.

Also, the price point. I saw a garden centre last year selling Kohl Rabi, for £1.99 PER PLANT. That's essentially nearly £2 for one turnip.

Whereas selling a tray of 12 cabbages for the same price, is absolutely fine.

Don't buy end of season purchases that might be pot bound though as they rarely recover, unless they are rock bottom priced and you are more experienced in helping them recover. Get them repotted and soaked as soon as you can. I often keep water and trays in the car just for this when I am out and about visiting garden centres.

goodlife which varieties have you tried? It really can make a huge difference. I don't have a lot of experience, but for outdoors, Gardener's Delight is very good - cherry toms that burst with flavour.

My favourite tomato varieties ....
Sungold (bright yellow salad size)
Tigerella (stripy salad size)
Black russian (purple / black beefsteak)
Red Pear (pear shaped cherry tomato that fruits till the first frost)

Sungold is delicious, my neighbour grows it every year in a big pot by her front door every year and it does really well there.

I think very often if you are doing just a couple of plants it is definitely easier to get plants rather than seeds. Aim of the game to get maximum food to eat and it doesn’t matter how you achieve that.

I grow Sungold. It's the only F1 I do grow.

Today was getting the polytunnel started
two propogators each with 16 pots, 4 seeds in each
Aubergines, peppers, basil, ten varieties of tomato
then early sowing of peas and broad beans next to the chitting potatoes.

Next weekend is when the first sowings will go in outoors .....

Marking a place to join in later

I sowed mixed salads today, outdoors. Covered with some enviromesh.

I have Polytunnel envy

I’m well behind it seems. Spent this weekend preparing pots for planting, but there’ll be no actual planting until
Next weekend. Did get the strawbs back in the hanging racks though.

Apologies, haven’t had time to read whole thread. But having considered serious planting (more than the usual dabbling with peas and courgettes), I have a genuine question,
If fresh imports become as short as some fear for a time, I worry there’s the potential for some pretty uncivilised behaviour. Aren’t you worried that after all of your hard work, your produce will just be a target for thieves.
That’s putting me off, I don’t want to encourage people into my garden to pinch things. Sorry to put a downer on a nice thread, but how will you protect your produce?

I’m a sitting duck as raised beds visible from road. I guess one way of doing it is to plant in amongst mixed borders and hope no one knows what things are, guess people would look for more formal plots. Hopefully the scenario would be food more expensive but not to extent people start raiding gardens.

If you have spare milk bottles herbs and lettuce could go in there - www.growsonyou.com/franl155/blog/28415-milk-bottle-hanging-planters

You aren't well behind, it's just people with an obsession are behaving badly.

How do you protect your produce?

In the old days of the allotment, I would make it 'unsafe' to come onto the plot, I'd put up spiky looking trellises with woven canes sticking out at all angles; and bags of compost that needed to be stepped over to access the plot. Our main culprit was the guy who used to use our patch as a market garden and he would steal veg from people's plots if he could get on and off safely...he is pretty far gone with dementia now and doesn't often leave the house.

Nowadays, I have no idea but I''ll have to put some thought into it.

Only my next door neighbours can see my raised bed. I have no idea what their view is on Brexit but we have pretty a cordial relationship and at least one of them is pretty handy with DIY. My plan is to keep politics out of it and see how mutually useful we can be.

Thanks, hadn’t even considered bottles and windowsills, der . I asked because of conversations with my mum: she was born in October 1939 and saw it out with her mum and much older sisters in Battersea then Balham throughout the war. She said they stopped growing in the end because people just stole things as they appeared, after their chickens and rabbits were the first to go . Fervently hoping we won’t have the same dilemma 6 years on!

Still pinch myself regularly, that we’re even having to consider such things. We’re not at war, there isn’t a pandemic and we’re not under external sanctions. Lunacy.

I grew up on a farm and had to see off a couple of ‘townies’, that I caught stripping the holly hedges bare, to sell at Christmas. Keeping 8n mind theses were hedges, used to keep in animals and it was being done to make money, I think people would be very naive to think that their veg would be safe, if things get dodgy.

Yes it will probably go if things get really bad and it would be depressing . But there are other benefits to growing food other than just eating it, it can be really therapeutic in stressful times, a good distraction and connection with the passing of the seasons that can help ground you a bit when things are going mad all around you.

And that sight of the first green shoots pushing through never gets old, however many years you have been doing it.

Yes that’s true and we could all be in need of a bit of therapy. In the meantime, we’ll keep stashing the tins away.

JRM
Utterly fair question to which I do not have an immediate answer.

29th March is looming horribly to me
BUT
I want this thread to encourage even the least convinced to try growing something
even if its Cress in a plastic box on the windowsill.

The more people who start to understand how food is grown again the better we will be

I'm spoilt, I have a conservatory, a greenhouse a polytunnel, 16 veg beds a flower garden and a woodland garden
BUT
DH and I started with three windowsills in a rented house