What are you growing?

[Woody girl]

Cauliflower seedlings are showing this morning. There was nothing last night. Exciting times when seedlings start to show.
Built a pigeon proof cage for my brassica bed this weekend. So fed up of loosing everything to them and cabbage white butterflies. Should have done it before, but I gave up growing all but chard in the end, as that was all that seemed to survive.
I'm determined to eat my greens myself, instead of feeding wildlife this year!

 

[Kadushu]

I know the feeling... Pigeons, mice, slugs, aphids, caterpillars. If it's not one then it's one of the others taking their slice.

 

[British Red]

Lovely farmer friend delivered the stuff to grow our veggies in today - nice wet, rotted horse manure. It always amazes me how the combination of rotted organic matter and thick organic mulch improves soil vastly more than any artificial fertiliser

Horse manure by English Countrylife, on Flickr

 

[British Red]

It may be small but the "first early" potatoes are up

First early potatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Cucumbers are up - had a poor show last year so hoping for better this year. Returned to "Telegraph" variety that do well here

Cucumber by English Countrylife, on Flickr

The first beans are up. Two varieties here of climbing French beans - one green and one purple. Planted 30 of each - 100 % germination. I'll be giving some away,!

French beans by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Potted on the early red cabbage. Left it too long in the John Innes tbh - should have potted on a week ago, hopefully they will perk up

Red cabbage by English Countrylife, on Flickr

 

[punkrockcaveman]

After the heat wave I got a bit too giddy and put out some seedlings and the snow came with a couple of frosts and have killed off most of what I'd planted out

I'm hoping the leeks, spring onions and lettuces pull through.



The potted dwarf fruit trees are coming on well, as is the potted and forced rhubarb, I'll take a crop in a couple of weeks and make a little jam.

Seed trays are in full swing on every available window sill and potatoes are in pots, I've gone for one seed potato in each 30l pot, with around 5L compost covered with an inch or so of year old chippings.

I've not had to buy any compost this year and I'm hoping I can eek out the year this way but I think I'm going to need some for seedlings.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

More seedlings have gone I this weekend gone potatoes are starting to show in pots. Leeks are looking good, young peas have been planted out. Cabbage species have been ravaged by pigeons!

First harvest of forced rhubarb made into a decent pot of jam

 

[swyn]

Purple sprouting is on the menu right now along with mega lettuce grown under a large round cloche.
S

 

[swyn]

More seedlings have gone I this weekend gone potatoes are starting to show in pots. Leeks are looking good, young peas have been planted out. Cabbage species have been ravaged by pigeons!

First harvest of forced rhubarb made into a decent pot of jam

View attachment 73651View attachment 73652

Our rhubarb is just getting going it had a big load of pony poo put on it earlier in the year.
S

 

[Robbi]

Older....

Nah, just old.

 

[British Red]

We decided to use one of the small poly tunnel frames ( normally used for netted chicken enclosures during Avian Influenza restrictions) for extra tomatoes this year. It may beat itself to death in high winds but worth a try

Needing a lot of big pots ,a big stack of B&Q buckets was needed

£1 B&Q bucket by English Countrylife, on Flickr

12mm spade bit quickly makes drainage holes

12mm half inch spade bit by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Drainage holes in bucket by English Countrylife, on Flickr

A few crocks or broken up bits of polystyrene packaging prevents compost blocking the holes

Crocks for drainage by English Countrylife, on Flickr

It was definitely time for potting on!

Tomato roots by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Tomatoes in bucket by English Countrylife, on Flickr

And into the polytunnel they go

Tomatoes in polytunnel by English Countrylife, on Flickr

These are Roma and San Marzano - thick walled cooking varieties suitable for preserving

 

[Minotaur]

Huw on youtube is doing all of his potatoes like that because he can just ignore them until he wants to eat them.

 

[British Red]

We sack grow new potatoes - it makes earthing up and harvesting super easy

 

[Minotaur]

Yeah he was saying he had problem after problem growing them. Then last year he found five buckets which were just happy sat there so from now on they all go in buckets.

 

[Kadushu]

I had a dream about growing a 4Kg potato last night! Got the lurgy and it's giving me weird dreams. :-D

Every year I grow mostly things I like and know to be reliable + a few new things. This year the new things include celtuce (long stemmed lettuce) and Gigantomo tomatoes.

 

[British Red]

I thought a little demonstration of our potato approach might be interesting. We sack grow our potatoes in feed sacks - its something we've had great interest in on the channel. We do this by cutting holes in old feed sacks and rolling them down. Chitted seed potatoes are planted in 6" of home made compost.

Potatoes in sack by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Because we do this early we can start the potatoes in the greenhouses before moving the sacks outside when we need greenhouse space for other crops. Its perfectly possible to start again in Autumn harvesting fresh potatoes in December

First early potatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Our " First Early" variety (Sharpes Express) is very large nor - maybe 30" tall and the sacks are fully unrolled

First early potatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

What is interesting to note is that they are now about to flower - which means that New Potatoes can be harvested (by emptying the sack into a wheelbarrow)

Potato flower by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Later varieties are growing on - but by working greenhouses and varieties, its perfectly feasible to harvest spuds for at least 6 months

Main crop potatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

 

[Van-Wild]

This year I am making an effort to grow stuff that I know I will eat.

So far this year, everything looks healthy. I have a large strawberry patch that is already in flower, a single potato sack that's doing well, four rows of carrots, some brocoli that is getting planted tomorrow, raspberrys, gooseberrys and redcurrants. I also have a few potted herbs, corridander, chives, parsley and thyme. I also have spinach that I use as a cut-and-come-again plant.

I blanched and froze a load of broccoli and kale last year and it saw me almost through the whole of winter. Hopefully this year, I will be able to harvest my greens throughout the year with careful seeding and planting out.

Sent from my SM-A528B using Tapatalk

 

[grizzlyj]

I just potted up some sweet potato plugs I got in the post, they will be planted in the polytunnel, no heat. I have no idea if they will work, I was surprised they are just little rooted plants and not coming from a tuber.
I'm also trying to grow some wild strawberries from seed. From a Gabe Brown yt film about low input commercial farming there was a list of low growing plants you could put in alongside the actual crop you wanted while maintaining soil life year round, add nutrients etc keeping unwanted plants crowded out. As well as clovers one was strabs. So as an under storey plant I'm hoping for hundreds of them in the fullness of time to put under all shrubs, fruit bushes etc and if they actually give strawbs then lovely If not but stay alive then less strimming. Tiniest seeds ever though!
I'm also going to put some spuds in old compost bags after seeing the above

 

[Woody girl]

The destroyed bubble dome greenhouse has gone at long last. Only fit for the tip, though I did rescue and reuse the legs to make a decent brassica cage.
Have finaly got the new raised bed made and put in place to replace the old rotten one, but its a lot deeper now, and needs a good bit of soil to bring it up to the right level. That will have to wait till autumn though as I will also need to replace the second bed then, so will just get some well rotted manure to top them both up.
Sweetcorn, courgettes, cauliflowers, leeks, ordinary tomatoes, and peas to go in Monday. I'm too shattered to do any more gardening this weekend. I'm having a rest day today.
Got given some large hanging baskets and planted them up with strawberries in one, and cherry tomatoes in the other.
Next job is to totaly refurbish my herb pot, they are looking a bit sad. Growth is weedy, and riddled with dandelion and grass that got in over the past year, they don't look very pretty, so will start again with new plants.
Potatoes are looking good, and the purple sprouting growing nicely inside the cage for once.
Shallots and garlic going great guns, though beetroot needed a second sowing due to slugfest, and new parsnip seeds needed as the ones I had didn't germinate at all, they can be finicky so it's par for the course Just started to show, so slug pellets employed though I'm trying not to use them.
The garden is going very well so far this year.

 

[Woody girl]

Everything is now in the ground, just in time for the rain to give everything a good soaking, saving me hours of toil with the heavy watering can being dragged up the steps and garden to water the raised beds .
There seems to be a shortage of the fine black netting I use to protect the crops, so as it is too cold for butterfly's at present, have employed chicken wire to protect from pigeons for now. Seems the stuff is made in China, and both my local shops that stock gardening supplies cannot get it. Not a problem for now, but the cauliflowers and currants could be under threat in the near future. The birds are already taking the unripe currants from the stalks.
Need more containers for salad crops, as I have concentrated on crops for the autumn and winter months this year in the raised beds, when I expect prices to be through the roof for fresh veg.
I have managed to aquire new recycling boxes and I'm using the old ones for potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and bush beans.
They are ideal, as they already have drainage holes, and are deep enough for deep rooted veg .
I'm even using old washing up bowls for radishes and spring onions. These were formaly used to tidily store items under my kitchen sink.(now a really messy tangle of items!)
These are kept on an old folding picnic table out of the way of slugs, as ground space is now severely limited!
I'm enjoying coming up with solutions to growing spaces.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Things are going better this year than last I've reduced slightly the area I'm growing in but I'm hoping to concentrate my efforts better.

I've followed no dig principles this year and got a good layer of home made compost and manure down in the bed that has had all winter to do it's thing. It seems I'm getting very few weeds. In this bed there are peas, lambs lettuce, gem lettuce, greyhound cabbage, leeks, spring onions, chard and calabrese, and under the planks are more gem lettuce and basil, a neat little trick I learned to help even and good germination.



The strawberry beds have been thinned out and weeded, and I've watered a lot less this year which seems to be working well.



The fruit trees are doing OK in pots, the apple seems to be struggling a little so I think I'm going to mulch with dry grass to help them retain moisture over summer. Rhubarb has been great and almost finished the jam off from the forced early crop. Pots are doing well and my last bucket has been planted out with more pots.