What are you growing?

[Spirit fish]

Deep fried sage leaves are very tasty.
Yes it's the pigeons that are a problem.I have offcuts of chicken wire that I make a tunnel with to pop over my seedlings as they come through. It works very well as I can move them about as needed and don't need supports like netting does. I have netted my fruit bushes too or they'd have it all before it got ripe! Little blanks!
I lost all my blackcurrants to them last year, and a good part of my redcurrants too.
I'm determined to win this year.
Blackbirds are rather partial to fruit too I've noticed.

trap them and eat them

 

[EdS]

Can't believe we don't have a thread for this! So here's my little front garden setup:

View attachment 59267

Sorry for the bad pic by the way. The only angle I can get is from the front room window! In the two wooden planters I have potatoes, the left bed has 3 rows of onions, and a row of potatoes, the top right bed is rammed with strawberries, the lower right bed has leeks, a courgette (in the middle of the leeks) and a couple of sweetcorn, plus two rows of potatoes, then I have two bucket planters with.... more potatoes! I'm going big on potatoes this year if you haven't guessed.

I'm really looking forward to a big crop of strawberries this year, they are heavily laden, I just need to be vigilant with the birds and slugs! Any tips for that???

How are you all getting on with your patches?

Mostly older and grumpier

 

[punkrockcaveman]

It's that time again. I feel like I might be planting a few bits out after this current cold spell passes.

Potatoes are chitting, seed trays are full, lots of aliums, I'm gonna go a bit mental on the leeks this year.

I've got a rhubarb in a 35 litre bucket which has started firing up so I've covered it with another bucket to force it. Plenty of water we'll see what happens.

Hoping for fruit from my dwarf apple, pear and plum trees, also in 35 litre buckets, hopefully they are big enough for them to thrive, there are a good number of fruit trees in neighbours gardens so that will help pollination atleast.

 

[TLM]

Snow, another 5 cm this morning.

The local wildlife has gone crazy, elk and a few smaller deer species running around, wolf, lynx, foxs and lately a lonely wolverine, bears are still wisely hibernating. There haven't been this many predators around for the last 100 years.

 

[British Red]

It’s really getting time to put some major effort into the garden now

All the tomatoes are now potted on and moved out into the heated greenhouse. We are focusing on San Marzano & Roma this year – good thick flesh, minimal goo, great for canning

Tomatoes potted on by English Countrylife, on Flickr

The seed onions down in January are also out in the greenhouse. I’ll ***** them out next month – these are Rijnsburger. Nice flavour, keep well, open pollinated so we seed save them.
Seed onions by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Speaking of onions, check out these Spring Onions – over a year old, cut many times, over wintered outside and happy as Larry
Over wintered Spring Onion by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Spuds are chitting nicely. We normally only do first earlies to avoid blight but we are going to sack grow maincrop in one of the poly tunnels this year as an experiment
Chitting Potatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Early lettuce is cropping now so time for second sowing
Lettuce by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Potted chillies and peppers up today, but they will stay in another six weeks
Chillies and peppers by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Outdoors it’s easy to tell it’s warming up. We are counting down to rhubarb crumble
Rhubarb by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Wild garlic is being used a lot now – pesto making soon with our own hazelnuts!
Random wild garlic by English Countrylife, on Flickr

 

[TeeDee]

Ref the Hazelnuts - Were those tree that you planted yourself ? or already in situa.

 

[British Red]

Trees we planted. We have both cobnut cultivars and normal hazelnut. They crop more each year. Our first sweet chestnuts are appearing too.

 

[TeeDee]

Trees we planted. We have both cobnut cultivars and normal hazelnut. They crop more each year. Our first sweet chestnuts are appearing too.

How long did it take between planting and fruiting ?
What size were the trees when you planted them please.

 

[British Red]

How long did it take between planting and fruiting ?
What size were the trees when you planted them please.

It's a good five years to get a decent sized cobnut crop from a 2' bare root whip. After 10 years they are 9' and have 10 trunks each. Hazelnut crop faster imo but the nuts are smaller

 

[Kadushu]

I'm excited to announce that I have some chillis set on the plant I kept over winter. That is all for now.

 

[British Red]

The early seed grown San Marzano tomatoes are doing particularly well so I potted on the largest this morning

San Marzano tomatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

They already need "pinching out"

Tomato pinch by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Potted the largest of them on for an early harvest. The 3" pots could take more root development but I wanted them to have more nutrients and moisture than the small pots offer to stop them stress flowering

Tomato roots by English Countrylife, on Flickr

First Early spuds are nicely chitted so time to break out the home made compost

Composter emptied by English Countrylife, on Flickr

We honestly couldn't do what we do if we had to pay for shop compost, and it sits much better with us to turn "waste" into a useful commodity. If lockdown taught us anything, it's not to rely on shops for seeds, compost or fertiliser

Home made compost by English Countrylife, on Flickr

We collect old sacks ( ours and the neighbours) from feed and whatever the neighbours have. Cut a few holes and that's the planting. Unroll a couple of rolls to earth up.

Potatoes in sack by English Countrylife, on Flickr

We will start them in one greenhouse for a very early crop but they will move to a poly tunnel for warmth and blight protection

First early potatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Spring onions and cucumbers are coming on nicely and started the early squash and pumpkins today. It's really feeling like Spring

 

[swyn]

My wife has bought some purpose made small cloches in our polytunnel which has resulted in some fantastic lettuces.
Beats the old 5 litre squash containers. These were good but not quite big enough.
S

 

[Woody girl]

My bubble dome greenhouse was wrecked by the big wind last month, nothing left but the bare bones of it. (Miserable face)
My kitchen is now the green house, and it's getting a bit crowded! Potatoes have gone in, a bit earlier than I would have done normally, but I realy need the room.
Broad beans, tomatoes, beetroot, peas, bush beans, runner beans, and various salad crops, cauliflower, chard, kale and wild flowers have been sown in modules this week.
Garlic and shallots are in the ground and covered with fleece cloches.
New water butt is waiting installation after the gutters are replaced next month.
New Garden chairs and table finaly turned up this week. They've been on order since autumn 2019!!!!
The grass needs cutting already!
Elderberry and damson trees have been planted.
It's been a busy week this week, but so good to get outside and work in the lovely sunshine.

 

[British Red]

Garlic and shallots are in the ground and covered with fleece cloches.

I plant my garlic and shallots in September and don't look after them at all !

They've weathered being buried in snow, -17C frost, 70mph wind and biblical rain and shrugged the lot off.

I've even taken to seed sowing onions in late Summer and letting the seedlings over Winter in the ground. They do just fine even in hard frost's.

I've come to the conclusion that alliums are tough blighters!

 

[Woody girl]

I have some garlic I planted last year which I will harvest in the autumn, I often find a clove sprouting so I grow it on in the neck of a bottle of water, then when it has roots I plant it out at all times of the year, sometimes they have to stay in the ground for more than a year to grow into a decent size bulb, but that doesn't matter, it means that my garlic patch grows all year round.
I found a couple of sprouted onions today in the bottom of the onion bag, so I will grow those on as a flower in a border, rather than throw into the compost bin, and let it go to seed so that I'll have some onion seed to plant next year. I'm beginning to save seed a bit more regularly now. My runner beans are on the second year of seed saving, as are my peas.
Tomatoes are from actual store bought tomatoes, that I saved seed from, planted, and saved for seed for this year, as are my butternut squash.
I'm going to try sweet peppers from store bought aswell as packet seeds.
See how well they do against each other. If it works, I'll not buy pepper seeds again.
I've grown 3 sweet chestnut trees from store bought nuts I got the Xmas before last, and they seem to be doing quite well in pots so far.
I also bought two Jerusalem artichokes from the veg shop, and have planted those in pots for now. Next year I will have many more to plant and eat.
I have a mango pip germinating in the kitchen too. Experimental exercise to see if I can get a mango tree to grow in the UK!
It's fun to see what kitchen waste you can get to grow into plants that feed you.

 

[SaraR]

My bubble dome greenhouse was wrecked by the big wind last month, nothing left but the bare bones of it. (Miserable face)
My kitchen is now the green house, and it's getting a bit crowded! Potatoes have gone in, a bit earlier than I would have done normally, but I realy need the room.
Broad beans, tomatoes, beetroot, peas, bush beans, runner beans, and various salad crops, cauliflower, chard, kale and wild flowers have been sown in modules this week.
Garlic and shallots are in the ground and covered with fleece cloches.
New water butt is waiting installation after the gutters are replaced next month.
New Garden chairs and table finaly turned up this week. They've been on order since autumn 2019!!!!
The grass needs cutting already!
Elderberry and damson trees have been planted.
It's been a busy week this week, but so good to get outside and work in the lovely sunshine.

Sorry to hear about your greenhouse!

 

[British Red]

I also bought two Jerusalem artichokes from the veg shop, and have planted those in pots for now.

Be sure and guy them. Even in soil ours get knocked down by strong winds. We tie them together in wigwams the same way we do sweetcorn to provide support.

If you want some seed saved parsnips, sweetcorn and the like, just say btw. Peppers & chillies too.

 

[Woody girl]

Sorry to hear about your greenhouse!

Thanks, £200 and two summers. Ouch!
I won't recommend them despite how easy they are to put up, they look very cool, but not worth the money. An expensive mistake!

 

[Woody girl]

Be sure and guy them. Even in soil ours get knocked down by strong winds. We tie them together in wigwams the same way we do sweetcorn to provide support.

If you want some seed saved parsnips, sweetcorn and the like, just say btw. Peppers & chillies too.

Thanks, I grew them once many years ago, and I tied them to the fence, probably do the same again.
I have plenty of veg seeds, in fact, I'm giving them away myself to my neighbours! I do need more growing space though... can you send me some of that.
Only joking of course, I can't manage an allotment nowadays...even if I could get one. So I'm pot planting things like potatoes parsnips radishes and carrots in old recycling bins and plastic storage boxes, even cardboard boxes wrapped in bin liners, and an old plastic cold water tank grows a selection of wild bee friendly flowers.This frees up the raised beds for salad crops and winter greens.
Rhubarb is growing in an old tyre!
I shall also grow tumbling tomato tomatoes in hanging baskets along with some herbs in another outside the front door.
Even my air source heat pump exterior unit has salad plants growing in pots on top of it.
In a small garden, you have to be creative and inventive.
I would love a couple of chickens too, but I don't think I have the room realy, and no car to go and pick up sacks of feed. I've been offered a good coup for £20 as a neighbour gave up due to the bird flu restrictions. Tempted...very tempted.

 

[Kadushu]

I tried growing tomatoes in neat chicken dung last year. 4 big tubs with 3 plants in each which is quite enough for my needs. 3 tubs had well rotted dung and 1 had fresh dung. All the plants grew successfully but the ones in the neat dung did look over fed for a while and it may have checked their growth ever so slightly. However, the benefit was that I didn't need to feed any of them at all through the year, whereas with compost they usually start to look in need by late summer.

I wouldn't recommend such high levels of chicken dung for anything else and certainly not unrotted dung.