Grow your own 2013

topgun06 said:
Looks like a nice little convenient plot. What are you thinking of planting in there?
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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.
 
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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
 
Other than my chilis which are doing great.
The parsnips have died, the winds blowen over the tomatoe grow bag green houses snapping the stems, so I think they will die.
Aubergine are hanging on but not doing great.
 
Heres my selection for the year, as I live in rented house I didnt want to do too much work on someone elses garden and I can always take this with me so we have...:

Little Gem Lettuce
Courgettes
Bell Peppers
Tomatoes (Checked them this morning looks like they could do with an electric blanket)
Potatoes
Garlic
Onions (just off camera)
Strawberries (Not shown)



...and my experiment for this year... Petit Pois in hanging baskets:

 
The plot the other day, looking reasonably tidy. Just the beans, chard and beetroot to be planted out. I might throw a patch of peas in somewhere as well.



And the greenhouse

 
Is it too late in the year to plant some peas? Got some netting left over from a climbing plant and with it costing £8 i want to put it to good use.
 
Took on our first allotment 4 weeks ago and have been busy trying to get it to a useable state before we go away this weekend for 2 weeks.

How it was when we got it:

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Now:

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Growing: Peas, Carrots, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Peppers, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Chard, Swede, Lettuces and Courgettes.
 
LiE said:
Took on our first allotment 4 weeks ago and have been busy trying to get it to a useable state before we go away this weekend for 2 weeks.

How it was when we got it:



Now:



Growing: Peas, Carrots, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Peppers, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Chard, Swede, Lettuces and Courgettes.
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Some good har work one into that, don't loose to much hart when you come back from holiday and it looks like a forest of weeds you've broken the back of it now!
 
a1ex2001 said:
Some good har work one into that, don't loose to much hart when you come back from holiday and it looks like a forest of weeds you've broken the back of it now!
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This. given the rain we've had there are bound to be loads of weeds. However the good news is that they'll be young, weak and won't put up much resistance*.


*Make your own Jimmy Saville puns here as you see fit :D
 
WillyNelson said:
And for a while yet I'd imagine. It's best to make successional sowings of peas anyway, to prolong the season & prevent a glut.
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LiE said:
Peas should be fine.
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Cheers, just ordered a few different types from ebay. I grew peas years and years ago when i was still at school and I used to eat them straight out of the pod.


Got some bell peppers and cayenne chillis on the go and some strawberries. Hopefully next year i'll put in a small raised bed and grow some other stuff.
 
One of the advantages of the California climate is your tomato bushes survive the winter so even cutting it back moderately you end up with something like this :p This was a volunteer shoot from some compost last Spring that we put in a cage once we realised it was a tomato plan so just over a year old now.

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It's nice to have a good citrus climate too, have an abandoned lemon orchard just up the road so never short of a lemon or dozen :p
 
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Very jealous, my tom plants are just starting to flower...

What's the soil like over there? That's one thing going for us, great soil and lots of rain.
 
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