Trowel and Error

[Disco]

I go and stare at my seedlings at least twice a day, and perambulate around the garden to see what's been occurring :))

This is what I love about growing. The morning amble around the garden to see if any sprouts are appearing even if you only potted them up five minutes ago, then casually peering at them 50 times a day.

[Disco]

We ought to set up allotments for people who can't afford their own. Community ones.

There are a lot of community orchards around me. Along the canal there are a couple. Fruit and berry trees/bushes.

[Mountain Goat]

What do you recommend for low maintenance veg to grow this year? My first raised bed is arriving soon and hopefully we'll get it built over the weekend though I haven't got anything to fill it with yet, so it won't get going for another week. Next year I am keen to get properly into it, but this year I have 547 other new plants to learn how to best take care of, more beds to dig etc etc, and I am not good at adding too many new chores to my routine at once. I suspect if I start growing things that require a lot of pest intervention I won't keep on top of it (this year). I did want cavolo nero but now I see I need to net it etc.

I am definitely thinking plenty of salad leaves, radishes, spring onions - the things you let children be in charge of. :lol: Herbs will be in various spots in the garden but some probably in the raised bed. Rainbow chard? I love a leafy green but most brassicas are quite high maintenance I think? Last time I grew courgettes I don't recall them being any bother? Pak choi? I don't have a lot of raised bed space (1.2 x1.8, for now, there will be another later) but I don't want to waste it.

[Duophonic]

Do you follow Gerald Stratford on Twitter, Goat? He recommends starting off with radishes.

[Mountain Goat]

I do not! But I will, thank you. :)) I have grown radishes a few times and will definitely include them - they're good companion plants for warding off some sort of pests too I think?

[baargain]

Chard is a good one for sure. It's not a brassica so you wont have brassica issues with it. Courgettes are easy too, as are winter squash (but they get fucking massive so maybe don't have them right now!). Beans and peas are also pretty straightforward. I have an uneasy relationship with pak choi, I don't know why :lol: it tends to bolt if the days are long, so you might need to hold off sowing that til after midsummer. Tomatoes? You could get a bush variety that doesn't need endless side shoot removal like the indeterminates.

Look into square foot or square metre gardening, there's lots of tips for growing stuff in smallish spaces, including who grows well with who.

[baargain]

I've put more potatoes in at the allotment. I have too many, it's going to be carbs agogo soon :lol: The Bf made some space in a lean to shed that will mean I can get a third freezer, so this will help! He can bulk prep chips and rostis for me.

[Disco]

Definitely tomatoes, courgettes, salad leaves and radishes, beetroot - they just grow.

Everything in pots is germinating/ growing.

Jealous of your third freezer plans, Baa. I want a third to go in my shed but that would mean clearing the cobwebs, spider carcasses and actual live spiders too. So two freezers it is.

[Mountain Goat]

Thank you!! I am not a great fan of beans but am of peas (and that's something that is infinitely better fresh from the garden) and tomatoes. And beetroot! I had read somewhere they were easy but I didn't quite believe it. :))

Three freezers is amazing. :)) Start a potato cafe!

I got a delivery of baby plants (flowers) yesterday which are now recovering from their journey and will be planted out at the weekend. Rudbeckia goldstrum, verbena bona-thingy, lady's mantle, a very dark purple buddleia and black hollyhocks. I think one of my transplanted plants is unhappy in its new home (it's a very dull shrub, and they planted about a hundred of them in my side garden bit so it's not a loss) but everything else looks happy. Well, the fennel is predictably histrionic but after flopping like Sarah Bernhardt has since grown about six new bits, so I'll just let it get on with its sulk.

[baargain]

Beetroot! Yes! So easy, and you can eat the tops, so it's just fat bottomed chard really.

The baby plants sound lovely. I hope they're happy in their new home.

I've just slung weather protector over my aldi greenhouse, so hopefully that and the cold frame will get built tomorrow. I've rigged up wires in the greenhouse, I used to grow the tomatoes up string, but it always broke, so hopefully this will be better.

[Mountain Goat]

Raised bed has not arrived but I have finished creating a level platform for it ( it is on a slope so I had to level it - the initial platform is bigger than the bed as I thought I could get a 1.5 width and I couldn't, hence the final layer of levelling doesn't cover the whole thing, just the bit I'll use.

The section in front is for herbs happy in the sun ( and happy in the ground); there are other areas for herbs with different preferences:)) ). I need to delineate the path with bark chips next. You can see the fennel being histrionic.

And I've planted everything but the hollyhocks which are bare root so I may start them in pots, but I need more pots....

( It doesn't look like it, but it's a sunny corner despite being mostly enclosed)

IMG_20230422_124643.jpg

[baargain]

That's gonna be a nice corner!

IMG20230425172612.jpg

Asparagus! It was all bending to the East. I don't know why :lol:

[Disco]

Phat harvest! How old are you.r asparagus plants? I used to have them but moved away before I could eat them.

[baargain]

I am not sure! They're on the allotment, so I have inherited them. I think there are some gaps, so I might get more crowns to fill in the holes.

[Disco]

So cool. They look well established by the size of them..I guess, do they get fatter and fatter?! All I know is that is takes a few years from the first eruptions (from new crowns) to be able to harvest them.

[baargain]

I don't know :lol: I really should find out. The male plants do chunkier spears, and the female plants do skinny ones.

I have googled! Yes, they get fatter over time. Mine must be pretty well established.

[Disco]

They are chunky!

I've got lots of different things germinating all over the house now, and I noticed rows of stuff coming up in the raised bed. I can't remember which row is the broccoli and which is the savoy. It will become apparent as they both get eaten to death no doubt. :lol:

[Mountain Goat]

OOOH. I am very jealous of your massive fat asparagus. And I will be interested in your broc and savoy progress Dics, I'd love to have those next year.

Raised bed will be built over the weekend and filled hopefully (I'm looking at 7 parts topsoil, 3 parts manure, 2 parts sharp sand as recommended on the Gardeners World site but further help gratefully received - on a separate article on the same site, Monty Don said two thirds garden soil, one third compost, then mix in manure and sharp sand, for example, just to mess with me. I mean I get the basic principle.)

Annoyingly my herbs which I order most years that normally take two weeks to come as it's a very small business now have a 24 hour turnaround and I now have windowsills of herbs with nowhere ready to put them (they will get trampled during J building the raised bed, it's not worth the stress :)) ). They are nice and big though. Yesterday I planted out six foxgloves and today I have 12 Salvia Amistad and 3 of an unusual ornamental speedwell (and I can't remember where I had in mind for them when I ordered them ).

[wendy james]

Where do you order your herbs from Goat?

[Mountain Goat]

Here: http://www.manorfarmherbs.co.uk

I originally ordered from them years ago because they sell shiso seeds/plants and I couldn't find anywhere else that did (other sources now exist) but have just continued to use them. They have a nice range of less common herbs that I use a lot, like lovage, sorrel, mitsuba and sweet cicely.