europbaron

My cunning plan has worked and we have now agreed to do the following;

 

- Give over another corner of the lawn to growing food (about 4 x 4 foot where I'm gonna plant a cherry tree).

 

This is a balding bit of grass anyway, so it'd be much better to dig it over, put some quality soil in it and grow something useful instead.

 

- We're also going to plant some wildflowers in a bank of earth behind my veggie bed. I want to put some clover, bergamot and more lavender there.

 

 

My sweetcorn are just sproinging out of the ground now, a few stragglers have come up now too.

 

So I have 12 or so now, most of which are 3 feet high and rising. I did cut away a few of the lower branches of the overhanging bay tree so the corn at the far end get more light on their heads.

 

I may have a crack at planting a few more corn seeds this week, as they could grow quite quick over the rest of the summer and maybe, just maybe they won't mind giving a bit of food in October time. Temps should still be okay then.

 

....

I gather from earlier posts that you are growing the sweetcorn outdoors - is this correct? I may try planting a few myself this week. Is 3 to a standard growbag a reasonable prospect? I've never tried growing it before, but am pretty sure it will have to be under glass here in bonny Scotland. While you guys were baking in 30 deg C, we had a week of solid rain and about 15 - 20 deg C. That's a good summer for us

As to the expansion of growing areas it's working slowly but surely. Even after losing the potato bed to the greenhouse, we still have more space than last year. I've also built some boxes (coffins for small people as they are worryingly referred to at home) and we use pots and containers extensively to utilise what would otherwise be wasted space.

The trick for convincing them, I've found is

 

1) to grow mostly items that are higher cost, example your courgettes or peppers, aubergines etc. So the effort is 'worth it' in pure financial terms

 

2) once they taste how good it all tastes, they're sold

 

Had more strawberries yesterday, they really do taste gorgeous.

 

Since we've been feasting on welltasty homegrown produce, my missus is much more into the idea of using more of the garden to grow grub and has stopped taking the mickey.

 

The strawberries swayed her, but my first crop of new potatoes with our tea tonight will be the killer blow in establishing my evil plan for garden domination.

Yes, that is my cunning plan. Perhaps not so cunning really, as I have told her why I don't bother with carrots - really cheap to buy even if they can't match home grown for taste.

Now I have a greenhouse I'll attempt sweetcorn next year. Really expensive to buy for most of the year and we both love corn on the cob.

I don't think that growing veg on a small scale is ever really "worth it" financially. Even on my pittance of an income, if you allocate an hourly labour cost, those veggies would be very expensive. However, it can be a hobby, a useful skill and home grown really can't be beaten for taste.

Excitement got to fever pitch last night in the Mabon household as dessert for two (x2 bowls) was Strawberries grown by my own fair hand (with a bit of involvement from Nature).

 

My missis commented that they tasted 'just like the ones you used to get when you went strawberry picking as a kid' .

 

Absolutely lovely and suddenly after a slow start, we have a load more coming.

 

My corn has now started to grow very quickly.

 

I'd say by 1/3 in the last week alone and there are beans sprouting from everywhere too.

 

It's great to have access to a garden again, after living for years in a hermetically-sealed flat with no access to nuffink.

Good stuff. Just had to dig up most of my potatoes prematurely as we were given a greenhouse and the potatoes occupied its site. Surprisingly decent crop. We've had our first picking of strawberries and tomatoes too, and the beans and peas are coming on. We'll be getting our first courgettes this week - victory over the slugs. Give it two months and I'll be sick of courgette soup and courgette burgers!

I too would like to utilise more of the garden for veggies, but it's my girlfriend's. However, she is showing more enthusiasm this year and is getting involved. Hopefully I'll be allowed to extend the raised bed out so that it's level with the greenhouse and this will replace the bed lost to our new aquisition.

I started growing my own veg last year. Although we live in a flat we are lucky enough to have a small private garden. I only have 2 growing beds - about 9 foot by 3 ft each and a few containers.

This year we are growing

Main crops

Lettuce (many varieties) - successful - need to keep replanting though as they tend to bolt in the glorious weather we've had

Potatoes - early and main. No crops taken yet though earlies nearly ready.

Peas and runner beans - doing well but no crops yet.

Raddish - disappointing this year. They bolted while I was on holiday and were very tough.

Beetroot - first sowing look about ready to eat

Spinach - very successful, but starting to bolt. Need to re-sow some. Have a lot of spinach frozen to make spinach pies with.

Courgettes - disaster this year as the slugs ate all the plants down to stumps, but now recovering. First courgettes finally starting to appear.

Swiss chard - grew well but not enamoured by it. The leaves seem to mottle (sp?) in the hot weather. Will be ripping it out soon and replacing with fresh spinach.

Strawberries - only nine plants. I think they are too shaded though as although there are planty of fruits, they are slow to ripen.

Garlic - not picked any yet, but they must be nearly ready.

Leeks - too early to tell.

Broccolli - as above.

Spring onions - plants seem too spindly - doubt we'll get much from these.

Various herbs - too many but they look and smell nice.

Experimenting with

Tomatoes - only a few plants (roma and one other that I can't recall). First tomatoes ripening.

Chilli - growing ok, but no chillis

Aubergine (black beauty) - no veg yet.

Apple tree (bought dead-looking for £2) - a few apples appearing

Rhubarb - donated by parents. Taking well but can't eat it this year to aloow the plant to establish itself.

Cucumber - almost dead plant donated by parents. First cucumber growing nicely.

With the exception of the strawberry, rhubarb and apple these were all grown from seed.

The long winter really caught me out - I propogated lots of seeds too early and was unable to plant them out due to the cold. We're in Scotland so got it pretty cold. Starting early actually resulted in later crops as I had to restart many of my plants.

Last year I had tremenous success with courgettes simply by putting the seedlings in grow bags. As mentioned previously the slugs feasted on them this year. Beer traps and broken eggshells spread around them did not help (I won't use slug pellets). Eventually moved them into truggs and surrounded with sharp sand. They've not been touched by slugs since.