***Grow Your Own 2011***

therutz said:
I have a chilly plant but it has lots of white flys on it how the hell do i stop them
as the spiders do a rubbish job :p
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A spray of weak soap solution made with washing up liquid or garlic soap is supposed to do the trick. I had a terrible problem with whitefly on my brassicas last year so I'm going to try garlic soap this year.
 
When is sprouting purple broccoli ready to pick and how far down do you pick it,or does it snap like asparagus? Veg patch got neglected last year but it's grown back regardless, also looks like other veg are growing back in-between the weeds,should spend bait of time tidying it up and seeing whats there.
 
what you reckon to early, too late or just plain rubbish.

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AcidHell2 said:
what you reckon to early, too late or just plain rubbish.
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Probably too late. All the warm sunny weather has caused my PSB to bolt just like that; long leggy stems, loose flower heads and very few of the tasty leaves. You could cut it and see if it's still edible but it's probably only good for the compost heap :(
 
In the greenhouse -

Toms - Not gonna leave
Cucumber - Staying in there
Spring Onions - Till the Sprout
Onions - Till they sprout
Cabbage and Broccoli in there till they get a bit bigger then going to a friend

In pots in the garden (we are hopefully moving soon so didnt want to plant any)

Cabbage
Broad Beans
Runner Beans
Strawberries
Broccoli (White)
Onions
Spring Onions
Potatoes
Rasberries (some fruit already!)

Really going for it this year!

Onio
 
I'm growing onions, leeks, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers potatoes and strawberries. I also have about 6 chilli plants and some herbs. I killed my Basil though so need to redo that and also plant my salad selection.
 
Despite living in a first floor flat with only a small balcony and a small space outside the front door to grow things in, I am currently growing a few things.

Radishes:
Apparently simply to grow and fans of shaded sunlight, this is the second batch I have planted and both seem to have bolted and become really leggy. I've seen time lapse videos of them growing and they should be sort of big leaves growing virtually straight out of the soil but mine are about 4 inches tall...not sure what I'm doing wrong. I have some more seeds though so I might plant up some more and leave them in full light and see what happens.

Potatoes:
After weeks of chitting, I planted these up in some of those cheap potato growing bags. Initally they didn't seem to be doing anything but they have gone mad over the last week or so. They keep growing and I keep covering them with more soil which apparently encourages more growth and hene more potatoes, so fingers crossed these will be good.

Spring Onions:
They grew about 4 inches long initially but since then they've not done anything so I'm guessing they won't be any good...

Tomatoes:
I planted these up in my propagator a couple of weeks ago, they've germinated and started growing. Stems are getting hairy and the leaves starting to take the distinctive tomato plant shape. Soon I'll pot them up and see what happens.

Chillies:
I planted several seeds I kept from the chillies I harvested from a chilli plant I purchased last year. They all germinated. I planted up five pots about 2 weeks ago, though I think the pots may have been a bit big as they haven't done much growing since. I'm hoping they are concentrating on growing roots and will get to growing more leaves etc soon. I had so many seeds that germinated that I passed several on to my mum who has also planted a load up, so fingers crossed at least a few plants will grow and we'll get a huge haul of chillies.

Baby Leaves:
Got a lovely big tray of these growing nicely and about half a pack still to sow, hopefully will have some nice salad in the coming weeks.

Herbs:
Currently got, Basil, coriander, chives, spearmint, thyme, sage, lemon mint, parsley, and a couple of others (which I can't remember) which are all growing nicely.
The mint is the king of the herbs, I started it from a 3inch cutting from my mums plant, within a few weeks it was going mad and gave me loads of leaves. I clipped it back over the winter and did nothign with it and then early february it started growing again and is doing brilliantly, it so simple and so delicious!!!

My mum is starting off some darf beans, and hopefully will be giving me a plant or two to find room for...
 
dannyjo22 said:
I built a raised patch last year, purely for my son and I to practice and learn together. He's 22 months now and we have put in peas, onions, garlic, carrots, spring onions and 9 growbags of 3 varieties of potatos.

We have planted some rocket, chives, mint and rosemary.

I have also bought two single grow bag greenhouses for tomatos.

My boy absolutely loves his veggies and I saw it as a way to learn together and he can see where all his favourites come from. There will no doubt be some complete disasters but it's been a great way to spend time together so far.
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What terrible parenting, your child might fail to grow up as a fat, unhealthy Mcdonalds eating chav with no respect for his parents....... which seems to be the majority goal of parenting for the country ;)

Seriously though, I think my parents weren't terrible but I feel late to the game in so much, gardening I've started in the past two years really but its such a long learning curve and feels like another long winded thing to learn. I'd have absolutely loved to have learned as a kid like you're teaching yours.


I built(had a lot of help) 4 roughly 2.4x1.2m raised beds, quite high due to bad knee's, though filling it with soil was knee breaking work, this year will be WAY easier.

Also got the bed's ready for planting pretty much one at a time and first two were only ready by early June really.

At the moment got Courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, chilli's, aubergine all growing, not huge but on their way to being a decent size before the frost is gone.

Have shallots, spring onions, leeks, carrots, runner beans, dwarf french beans, a load of mangetout/pea's, lettuce, sweetcorn, beetroot, range of herbs all to go aswell though a lot of that will be direct sown in the beds, probably under cloches in the next week or so.

Got loads of work to do though, double digging a lot of other space we have for more permanent stuff like the herbs, and some saffron, maybe some small fruit tree's and more space for extra tomatoes and courgette's as cherry tomatoes are a waste in the beds, and the courgettes get so big they are better off in huge pots aswell.

Trouble I have is ridiculous levels of slugs in our garden, and foxes who like to dig everywhere, and a couple of our own cats though they are pretty good at leaving the beds alone.
 
Herbs of sorts, Strawberries, and Potatos... And whatever else I can con my grandad into giving me. Had other things to do with the garden first :(
 
This year I am going to attempt toms, butternut, sweet pepper, courgette, turks turban, 100 weight pumpkin, 4 x chilli's then some mixed herbs.
 
I have one of the smallest darkest gardens known to man, so whilst I'm cleaning it out, only the front terrace can be used. So far I have, tumbling tom's, alicante tomatoes, gardeners delight tomatoes, a pea plant (suspect I need more to get a decent meal off it), chillis, rocket, basil (old plant which is just recoverying from the winter), new basil, sage, thyme, mint, and courgette.
The back yard won't be ready in time to grow anything this year, it is in a dire state.
 
First wave of tomatoes (two sorts), squash and courgettes are ticking over in the kitchen (from seeds). Another batch of the same in the propogator at the moment.

First sowings of mixed salad leaves, spring onions and spinach planted outside.

Fig "tree" and blueberry bush have come outside to play in the sunshine now :cool:

2nd early and main crop potatoes planted out last weekend - waiting on my sweet potatoes to arrive (first year I've tried them).

We've already cut a load of rhubarb :D

Would love to have a proper greenhouse for peppers, aubergines and the like.
 
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How interesting! I've decided this will be my first year to grow my own!

Flowers:
Salvia, Pansy, Nasturtium, Marigolds (Honey Comb, Jolly Jester and Tadget), Cosmos, Malope, Dahlia, Geranium, loebelia (?), alyssum, more and will get a few more from my Nans collection (that is thousands of plants strong!)

Vegetables:
Taters going in this weekend, Broccoli (some direct in soil and some indoors waiting for germination). Doing more this weekend. Carrots done on Sunday/Monday. Swede and probably a little beetroot.

Amphibians:
From when i was 7-11 i always used to breed frogs and toads, then bucket all the froglets/toadlets and tip them into the marshes (multiple hundreds some years). So i've gone and got 32 toadpoles which are currently in the old barbeque swimming around content :) . Another 10-11weeks and they should be nearly ready to leave. Had them for 4/5 days and they are noticeably bigger.
 
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