Grow your own 2013

[Stan_Lite]

Since there have been a few posts in the 2012 thread in the last few days, I thought I'd start a 2013 thread.

I successfully grew some Cayenne chillis last year so I'm hoping to expand on that with a few different varieties. I also managed to grow some herbs (parsley, coriander, thyme and rosemary). These successes have inspired me to branch out a bit this year so I'm aiming to grow some veggies. I don't have a garden. My back yard is concrete and paving slabs and there is only one corner that gets any decent amount of sun. I will not let this deter me. I intend growing some basic veg in pots and grow bags and add sage, basil and dill to my herbs.

I'm looking forward to the challenge

 

[Stan_Lite]

Whisky barrels would be awesome for growing tatties in Wonder where one could pick some up

 

[Stan_Lite]

Homegrown veg is great, we grow spuds, cabbage (curly kale, savoy, minicole), carrots, parsnip, beetroot, peas, radish, lettuce, sprouts, leeks, spring onions, onions, french beans, turnip, swede, strawberries, gooseberries. That's all i can remember off the top of my head. It provides about 90% of our yearly veg.

Ooh. Forgot about curly kale. Must add that to the list

 

[Stan_Lite]

im going to be doing quite a few this year..looking forward to this thread.

Me too. I'm hoping to pick up a few tips as I'm quite new to this growing stuff lark.

 

[Stan_Lite]

I've been looking at seeds and stuff to buy when I get off the rig. Unfortunately, the list of things I'd like to grow far exceeds the limited space I can muster. I've been exploring ways to maximise the space available but I won't know for certain what will be possible until I get home in 11 days time. Hopefully, I'll be able to grow most of it. I've made a list and divided it into 'must haves' and 'would likes'.

 

[Stan_Lite]

@ Stan - You need to check out vertical gardening.

First vid I could find but the idea is there & can be adapted to suit.

Looks interesting. Once I get home, I'll have a look at the space I have available and what I want to do and try to marry the two. The space I have available is in a corner with two brick walls, so I could put up some shelving to put pots or planters on. That might just about give me enough space for most of what I want to do.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Looking for some advice regarding soil. The area I have is a brick enclosure about 2' high in the corner of the yard. At the moment there are some daffodils and some weeds and also a couple of old tree roots. When I get back, I will be removing the daffodils and the tree roots (I have stuff to paint on to the roots that's supposed to kill them) and digging up the weeds and treating it with some sort of herbicide.

The soil that's in there is quite heavy so I'm thinking I'll need to do something with it. What I'd like advice on is what to dig into it. I've seen a few things online, including; 'soil improver', organic compost and manure, amongst others. Could someone give me some advice on what to dig in to the soil to make it better for growing veg? Also, what's the best thing to get rid of the weeds and keep them away without hurting my veg plants?

 

[Stan_Lite]

Thanks for the advice guys Looks like I'll be getting some exercise.

I'm still away at work for another week and a half. Hopefully by the time I get home, the weather will be more conducive to digging and weeding.

I don't have any home-made compost - yet. It's something I plan on doing but, even if I start it straight away, it's going to be a while before I can use it. Would some organic compost from a garden centre be good to dig in this year?

I don't eat a lot of tomatoes, what else could I grow in the grow bags to use the contents in the autumn?

 

[Stan_Lite]

just get the cheapest compost you can and mix it in with your soil.

The quality of the compost doesn't really matter when your not using pots because the roots can stretch out a lot more anyway

Thanks for that. I'll get some of Asda's cheapo stuff to dig in.

Never got anything done last time I was home as it was still quite chilly and frosty at night. I'm away at work again now and not home for another 3 weeks. Hopefully I'll get something done then. I did get some herbs sown in pots in the windowsill the week before I left and they were coming along nicely when I left. Hopefully they'll be well on when I get back. I have a neighbour who looks after my chillies and herbs while I'm away. She was going to re-pot the chillies while I'm away and keep an eye on the herbs and pot them on if required. She was also going to dig up the daffodil bulbs from the small growing bed I have out the back and take them for herself as I don't want them. That should give me a head start on the digging. All I'll need to do is dig up the weeds, cut back the tree root and dig in some compost and I'm ready to go.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Finally got round to digging my little plot. This is what it looked like before:

After 3 hours of digging (mostly with hand trowel and hand fork), several blisters and a dodgy back, it now looks like this:

It was full of daffodils, weeds and had 4 small tree stumps and associated roots that needed to be dug up. I've got it all out now and I've dug in some compost (£6 for 125 litres from B&Q). I've given it a good soak and I'll leave it to settle for a few days before planting anything. Damn hard work but, hopefully, worth it.

A picture of the devastation in my yard just now. It'll get cleaned up tomorrow. Right now I'm having a well deserved ice cold Hoegaarden before I soak in a hot bath for a bit.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Looks like a nice little convenient plot. What are you thinking of planting in there?

It's a decent height for working with.

Planning on Onions, spring onions, leeks, celeriac. swedes, carrots, spinach and beetroot in the main plot with butternut squash, broccoli and raspberries in tubs. Also have herbs in troughs on the windowsills and chilli plants in pots.

Seems like a lot for a small plot like that but I live alone and am away for work 1 month out of 2 so I don't need to plant many of each.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Got stuff planted last week. Some of it was plants from B&Q and some was seeds. First photo is the main plot. This has, from left to right: carrots (plants), spinach (seeds), celeriac (plants), swedes (seeds), spring onions (plants), beetroot (seeds) and leeks (plants). The trough at the bottom is garlic. It's supposed to be planted in January but it was stuff that would have been thrown out anyway so I thought I'd give it a go. The recycling box has a mix of brown, red and white onions.

All seem to be doing fine. When I left on Wednesday all the plants looked fine and the spinach and swedes were coming through just great. The beetroot was lagging a bit but there were just the beginnings of some shoots when I left.

In the second photo, the large tub on the left is broccoli. They were coming through fine when I left as well. Also there are my chillis. There are 2 cayennes and 2 jalapenos there. Also two small plants I bought last year and over-wintered. They are already producing fruit. One is some hungarian chilli and the other is Apache F1.
The other pots and the white trough are marigolds. I've dotted them about the place as they're supposedly good for attracting ladybirds and lacewings which feed on aphids. My chillis got a hammering from them last year so this year I'm taking action.

Final photo is my habanero chilli plant inside the blowaway greenhouse. Apparently they love it hot and humid so I'll keep it in there for now to see how it likes it.

I'll be back home in 3 weeks (my neighbour looks after them while I'm away). Looking forward to seeing how much things progress while I'm away.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Forgot to mention, I also have raspberries, strawberries and herbs in tubs out the front.