***Grow Your Own 2011***

Asparagus
Potatoes
Strawberries
Rhubarb
Chillies
Gooseberrys
Apples
Plums
Raspberrys
Courgettes
Herbs, rocket etc

Have a small allotment and some fruit tree's in the garden
 
lookitsjonno said:
Any tips to improve strawberries - my plants are 2 years old now so we should get a good yield.
Click to expand...

Make sure you cut any runners off them as soon as possible or the plant will expend energy it could be using to fruit. Give them a feed every couple of weeks with a tomato feed. Keep the birds off the fruit and keep the fruit dry and you should be ok.

They fruit best in year 2 & 3 so you can always keep a couple of plants aside to produce runners, pot them up and keep them well for the next year. That way you'll always have a supply of 1 year old plants ready to fruit the next season. From 4 plants last year I've now got 20+ 2yo plants ready to go and will hopefuly have 10 or so new ones this year.

Full list of things so far:
Salad potatoes (Rocket)
Maincrop potatoes (King Edward)
Red & White onions
Garlic
Beetroot
Peppers
Cherry tomatoes (Gardener's Delight)
Plum tomatoes (Roma)
Pumpkin (Jack o Lantern)
Butternut squash
Yellow courgette
Green courgette
Cucumber
Climbing French beans
Curly kale
PSB
Sprouts
Calebrese
Leeks

Plus:
Blueberries
Goosberries
Blackcurrants
Raspberries
Strawberries
Rhubarb
 
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Right I need some tips.

My tomato plants arrived this week, they are a few inches high and the leaflet that came with them said plant them straight away in 9cm pots of compost.

I did this and moved them to my temporary greenhouse. They have all started to wilt. Have I moved them outside too quickly?

I've moved them inside to see if they recover. The packet said about 10+ degrees.
This is the first time I've tried to grow these myself.
 
This year has seen me go crazy:

Rhubarb
Strawberries
Cayenne Chillies x 9
Jalapeno Chillies x 9
Bell Peppers x 6
20 Cabbages
20 Purple Sprouting
100 Onions
Loads of Spuds
Carrots
Spinach
Pak Choi
Kohl Rabi
Little Gems
Tom Thumbs
Herbs
CCA Lettuce
Raspberries
Spring Onions
Leeks
 
Coffee? I've never even thought about growing that, is it easy to grow?

dannyjo22 said:
Right I need some tips.

My tomato plants arrived this week, they are a few inches high and the leaflet that came with them said plant them straight away in 9cm pots of compost.

I did this and moved them to my temporary greenhouse. They have all started to wilt. Have I moved them outside too quickly?

I've moved them inside to see if they recover. The packet said about 10+ degrees.
This is the first time I've tried to grow these myself.
Click to expand...

Plants do tend to wilt when you transplant them to a bigger pot, something to do with the roots getting disturbed i think. They should be fine after a few hours.

If it was mega hot in your greenhouse then it could be that they got too hot. You need to be extra careful when they are that small. Put them out in direct sunlight for a few hours per day to get used to the heat. Once they're bigger they are fine in the sun all day, just make sure to keep the soil moist, it dries out really quick in a greenhouse.
 
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Thanks Mark, I think I put them outside too early. A few sites say put them outisde when they are about 8-10 inches. Mine are about 3-4.

Hopefully they will recover.
 
Just cut in 25 sleepers in a nice pattern of triangles around the borders of the garden, built one 2.4 x 1.2 double height planter that I have 1/4 filled and planted some Maris pipers in supposed to be good for the first year by breaking up the soil and it took hours just to do that bit. As they emerge I will fill with compost to the top.
 
Planted my climbing french beans out at the weekend with a healthy footing of homemade compost, also sowed half a row of carrots, a row of parsnips and planted out the beetroot. I had to pull all the remaining leeks as they'd all bolted in the warm weather but it gave me some room for other things, probably some of the squash when they've come on a bit further.

All the maincrop potatoes (KE) on the allotment are up and looking good and onions/garlic keeping well but could do with a weed. Salad potatoes (Rocket) in patio bags and two planters of strawberries seem to be flourishing.

I also took delivery of my new greenhouse over the Easter weekend but I'm having problems with the council about the removal of the unsalvagable derelict one, so for now that's still in a very big box. No use to me there though :(
 
IMG-20110509-00625.jpg

Tomatoes, pak choi, beetroot - pak choi is going like mad!
IMG-20110509-00627.jpg

My salad collection which is rocket, land cress, spinach, mixed salad leaves.

I have loads more, but no pics yet!
 
Great thread :)

Just growing our 1st ever Strawberry batch in a wall mounted basket.

Planning on building a raised bed to grow other veg, however this won't be built for atleast another 4-5 weeks, is there anything I could still plant out?

Also what soil do I fill the raised bed with? Do I fill it all up with compost from the shops??
 
Depending on how big your raised bed will be shop bought compost could work out pretty expensive. Better to buy decent topsoil in bulk.

There's plenty you can start now and plant out later, anything fast growing and good cropping like squash & cucumber, all the salad leaves, carrots & raddish, plus things to put in for winter like leeks, cabbages, sprouts.

This is a rough planting guide from Gardener's World mag which might help
 
Harvested my first early courgette at the weekend! Planted a couple of extra courgette plants for a later harvest too.

Peas are having a growth spurt and coming on well, along with the sweet peas.

Chillis are going crazy with flowers, got around 15 chillis developing across two plants at the moment with many more flowers and buds coming.

Tomatoes are coming on very strong too and shallots are just fine.
 
Update as of 2nd of June. Included are
Chillies =
..Apache
..Early Jalapeno
..Jumbo f1 bell pepper
..Bell pepper

Tomatoes =
..Micro toms
..Tumbling toms
..Pink Brandywine
..Cherokee Purple
..Gardeners Delight

 
This is mine containing from left to right:
Red onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips, leeks, cauilflower, broccali, cabbage, spinach, beetroot, rocket, courgette, cucumber and strawberrys.





And my spuds in special spud bags:

 
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