Grow your own

I only got a garden last year so it was a first timers crop. I bought a small 6x6x6 plastic greenhouse for £30 And had bumper crops of tomatoes (Gardner's Delight), cucumbers (Passandra) and salad leaves. I'm planning on the same for next summer but I'd like to have a go at Galia Melons too. My soil is heavy clay and huge rocks that has a soil depth of less than a couple of inches to cultivate, so I've decided I'd like to have a 6x6x4 raised bed to grow potatoes, onions and cabbage. I'm retiring shortly and this is my "looking forward" plan.

polly there is a lot on line. Have a look.

I will follow your progress with interest. I have six raised beds, mainly 5 foot octagons so not really a lot of space. Could be something for me to try in the future, I will read up a bit.

Polly99

I have onion sets and garlic which I planted in the autumn. Without a greenhouse I have found sowing seeds too early does not give good results. This year I want to try cavolo nero for the first time as I love the taste.
midgey can you use the chick peas that you buy for cooking? Great idea for an interesting thread.

Yes they need molly coddling I think. I’m like everyone and found sowing early often a waste of time, but I am trying to get stuff as early as possible with the new system so I shall have to suck it and see this year.

I have onion sets and garlic which I planted in the autumn. Without a greenhouse I have found sowing seeds too early does not give good results. This year I want to try cavolo nero for the first time as I love the taste.
midgey can you use the chick peas that you buy for cooking? Great idea for an interesting thread.

Fennel

Whitewave - I think you're in the NE. Do you grow leeks?
Our neighbor here used to grow them and put them in competitions. There was a secret to the feeding - involved seeweed.
Personally, I appreciate leeks, but only in small amounts.

No we are on the South Coast, well sort of - on the South Downs.

Leek seeds arrived today!! It says sow in Jan and Feb for harvest between August and Christmas.

I can put 9 to the square foot. So hopefully I can plant up 2 square foot (feet?)

Yes. In the first lockdown, we saved loads on petrol and not going out. So because we miss the allotment so much we treated ourselves to Trugs. That was in about August. I then found square foot gardening on line, and thought it would suit trug gardening. Bought a book and started to SFG. So far we’ve grown beetroot, carrots, lettuce, salad mixed, mixed oriental salad, chard, spinach, pak choi, spring onions, Japanese spinach, mizuma and herbs etc. All that been eaten and cleared. Now we have growing, carrots, garlic, Japanese onion, peas, broad beans, winter cabbage x4, winter lettuce. Each one in a square foot some in more than 1 foot.

It is incredibly easy with no digging. I replenish the compost and add FBB. We have insect netting - very useful and greenhouse covering for cold weather, not yet used.

@All at waist level, so good for bad backs etc.

Whitewave - I think you're in the NE. Do you grow leeks?
Our neighbor here used to grow them and put them in competitions. There was a secret to the feeding - involved seeweed.
Personally, I appreciate leeks, but only in small amounts.

Ooh, WhitewaveI was reading too quickly and missed your mention of square foot gardening in your first post .
Is this your first attempt at it, or have you done it before? I was on the verge of trying it myself some twenty-odd years ago, when I first got into veg growing, but then managed to get an allotment instead. After many happy and productive years, I have had to give up the allotment, so will maybe give square foot gardening some thought again now. It's not that my garden is particularly small , but back damage is increasingly limiting how much digging and weeding I can manage.

You are lucky to have an OH who helps - mine is willing to eat what I grow, but that is as far as his 'help' goes!

We had an allotment for over 20 years, but then ill health forced us to give it up much to our distress, but Trugs which are waist height and 3x6 give us quite a bit of space and no digging. Pots will grow strawberries and other stuff.

I’m looking forward to next year snd sharing our successes and failures.

I have garlic in that is sprouting, I don’t grow over winter onions and broad beans, it’s only me that eats them. Seed potatoes ordered, will chit when they arrive in egg boxes. Early Feb I’ll sow tomatoes, chillies and peppers in the spare bedroom. I got half an allotment plot in September, previously had a whole plot for 10 years, until we went off to France, so been growing in the garden the last 2 years.

Which ever way you like!

MamaCaz

I won't be sowing anything in January, and probably not in February either.
I've tried in the past but results were so poor that I gave up. The problem wasn't germination, but growing-on.
Maybe it would have been successful if I had deeper, lighter window ledges, or a cool but light and frost-free porch.

Nowadays, I sow nothing until March. Even then, I will not sow much until the conditions are right outside.

There is one job that I plan to do in January: clear the tomato plants (only picked the last tomatoes last week!) out of the small wooden greenhouse in the yard, and give it a thorough clean

Because I’m doing square foot gardening I’m only doing a very small amount of sowing at each time but successionally over weeks.

My DH has put together a heated box thing in which I can grow on the little plants.

In order for the square foot to be successful I need to get started as early as possible.

So then what? Do you have them in salads? Sandwiches?

I won't be sowing anything in January, and probably not in February either.
I've tried in the past but results were so poor that I gave up. The problem wasn't germination, but growing-on.
Maybe it would have been successful if I had deeper, lighter window ledges, or a cool but light and frost-free porch.

Nowadays, I sow nothing until March. Even then, I will not sow much until the conditions are right outside.

There is one job that I plan to do in January: clear the tomato plants (only picked the last tomatoes last week!) out of the small wooden greenhouse in the yard, and give it a thorough clean

Sprouting seeds are very easy, chick pea and mung beans are really nice. All you need is a saucer and some kitchen roll, just keep the seeds damp.......just like mustard and cress!

I’m keen to be involved in this thread. I’ve grown the usual stuff in previous years with varying degrees of success, but I don’t have a greenhouse yet, just a cold frame. Hoping to get a grow light for Christmas so I’ll be starting seeds in January too, it’s too dismal in Wales to start anything in the house that early otherwise, it doesn’t get enough light.
I’ve got a big garden, but it’s on a slope, which makes growing anything over a foot high a challenge because it has to be staked. If anybody has any tips on how to stake effectively on slopes please let me know.

Oh compost! I have a compost bin but never put in potato peelings because they grow??. Brilliant will definitely give that a go.

I do have broad beans and onions already growing. I sort of started this thread fr,on January if that makes sense

Sadly, we no longer have the space, or the energy, to grow our own.
But a couple of tips - you can start broad beans, and some kinds of onions in open ground at this time of year. For spring cropping.
And if you have a compost box, potato remains could have germinated and produced new potatoes to eat now.
This was from our experience in France, but could work here as the climate is getting warmer .

Where is Craftyone when we need her, I was going to ask her about planting in the Winter for Spring veg.

Someone on another tread suggested sowing for seed sprouts. I’ve never done that so if you are reading it avalon can you give me the hows and where you use these sprouts please.