Anyone growing their own veg this year?

[cedarblue]

couple of sweetcorn popping up, some yellow courgettes and some basil seeds too.

sowed some brussell sprouts and am soaking my sweet pea seeds overnight ready to sow tomorrow along with some other flower seeds.

what a glorious, sunny day today!

[sc2987]

Anyone in Bristol who wants to grow their own but has nowhere to do it, take a look here: http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26461

[RubyDuby]

everything has sprouted now! Now just need some luck...

we have radishes, beets, carrots, red onions, white potatoes, sweet corn, basil and cilantro.

[Hemlock]

The herbs and veg are doing well. We've decided not to get our front driveway paved after all - paving is boring. We're going to dig it all up and have a smart veg plot with loads of herbs and veg and flowers around the edges of the raised boxes. Our neighbours are all easy going so I don't think they will mind.

[Dawny]

It's my 2nd year for my veggie patch & love growing my own, doesnt taste like the plastic stuff you get in the supermarket!! Got the usual, lettuce, spring & red onions, beets, carrots, peas, french beans, radish & first time grow parsnips ( yum!) & trying 1st time med herbs, also growing purple broccolli & sprouts! Oh plus rooster potatoes!

[Risker]

^ You're not supposed to eat plastic fruit & veg, it's for display only

I'm not growing loads this year as we're due to be moving soon but should have a tonne of garlic (I've planted a wall of it around my lettuce do deter critters), red & green salad bowl lettuce, rocket, cosmic purple carrots, potatoes (forget which variety) aji yellow chilli peppers, purple russian tomatoes, sungold tomatoes, mammoth pumpkins, giant sunflower, coriander and should also have some strawberries, wild strawberries, grapes, goosberries, rhubarb, chives, mint, blackcurrants and redcurrants that are perennial.

[Dawny]

No Risker that I know you dont eat the plastic it comes in Lol!! It just tastes like the plastic it's in! . You said you're growing garlic, is that pretty easy to grow or is it a pain in the rear!?

[Risker]

Garlics really easy, just use cloves from a supermarket bulb and plant them straight outside.

[Dawny]

Nice 1 risker, it's more so for the grumpy one to use, though I dont mind a little bit once in a blue moon! Plus I'm trying to grow all my own as my workplace shut down ( a pub) so as you can guess money is tight! I know....not on my own in this

[harpy]

So far all we've actually eaten from the garden is a minuscule radish and a number of baby salad leaves. However I really like baby leaves so I'm happy.

Rather than a vegetable patch I seem to have a load of veg and herbs that are interplanted with decorative plants. Does anyone else do it that way and is there some drawback I haven't yet thought of? We do have some containers dedicated to veg type stuff as well.

[Dawny]

I have not heard of any draw backs of growing foods in with other plants & bushes or tubs. At the moment I am also growing med herbs in my window boxes so I can pick & grow/go! Have parsnips in my plot & also in a tub to see how both go... & at the moment the tubed ones are fairing much better!

[wildcatstrike]

HellooOo.. i've just caught the growing bug after buying some "grow your own herbs" type pots and i reeeeally want to start growing loads more things! But i don't know anything really about growing veg or herbs. So far my basil and coriander pots are flourishing and i've got chives seedlings poking through this week! Hooray! I'm trying to germinate tomato seeds in some little kids pots from Asda but nothing's happening after a week - boo!

Cos i know nothing about growing, my plan is to basically just ignore the time of year your meant to grow things and just plant whatever i like and see what happens!!!!! Can you just grow most things in containers/pots or compost bags? We've got a big garden but we're movin soon and most of it's grass anyway - just a few soil borders that are already full of flowers/bushes.

I get a bit scared away if i read "grow outdoors" on something - i'm like "so does that mean it won't work indoors?!? WHYYY? arrrgghh i'm scared!"

Any advice or tips on easy growing for beginners welcome!

[cobweb]

^ just experiment as i have found that it so much depends on your exact location, growing medium, regular watering - and luck - so just try til it falls in to place!. Well that's my advice, anyway! .

I am growing radish, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and spinach in pots/tubs/shopping bags this summer, plus pansies, sunflowers and sweet peas. The soil is rubbish in our garden so everything is going in containers. I'd forgotten how rewarding it is to see the little shoots coming up! .

[harpy]

Yes, I would have thought most things ought to do OK in containers - only thing is my pots need a lot of watering in hot weather. Re inside versus outside, plants probably don't know the difference, but some things will want more sun than others so different windowsills will probably suit different plants better.

[Oveeja]

I have already planted a chestnut and a hazelnut seed, I will be expecting nuts some years from now
I am also planing on planting tomatoes, garlic, raspberries, avocados, cherimoya, black persimmon (this tree's bark is where the original chewing gum comes from and it also gives these delicious fruits) and some kind of super acid little prunes that I love.

[harpy]

Who's planning to grow what this year? I am going to do outdoor cucumbers again as they were quite a success last year, similarly for the cut-and-come-again salad leaves.

Already have some radishes coming up after I dumped some sprouting seeds outside because they had moths in them Apart from that, haven't really thought.

Anyone know about outdoor bush tomatoes? Last year I grew Gardener's Delight but staking them in my reusable growback was a bit of a pain so I thought I might try bush this time.

Oveeja, your list looks great but I'm not sure how well avocados etc would do in London

[Risker]

I posted this in another thread because I couldn't find this one but now harpy's bumped it, here's some info I got from the company that makes Baby Bio.

Thank you for your email. The only plant foods we produce are Baby Bio range of houseplant food and Phostrogen all purpose soluble plant food and Phostrogen Super Concentrate (suitable for all garden use, including edible crops). These feeds do not contain any animal components and have not been tested on animals.

These plant foods are widely available from Garden Centres, Homebase and B&Q stores.

http://www.bayergarden.co.uk/products/

[harpy]

Thank you Risker - might need to add something like that to my tomato compost this year; I found the tomato compost I bought last year wasn't vegan so have got the vegan version of Fertile Fibre for this year.

[VeganVeggiePatch]

I grow a garden every year. We have 18 raised beds. I actually recently started a Youtube channel to document my garden this year. I had a great salad last night that I made with my own lettuce and onions. Here's a link to the page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/VeganVeg...h?feature=mhum

[Risker]

Just received this email;

I can confirm that our Growmore contains only mineral nutrient derived from synthetic sources. There is no animal based organic nutrient in this product.

http://www.vitax.co.uk/

They're selling this in poundland at the moment.

[cobweb]

that's good, thanks Risker

[Risker]

From Doff

our Tomato Feed does not contain any animal or milk derivatives.

http://www.doffgarden.co.uk/product/tomato-feed

Also available in poundland

EDIT: got them to be a bit more specific...

There is not manure.
The product just contains the usual ground mineral rock nutrients, magnesium and added seaweed.

[jake]

Garlic, herbs, spices, sweetcorn and 40+ chili plants including 10 black Nagas, one of the hottest chilis in the world!

[DavidT]

Onions, garlic, half a dozen varieties of spuds, sweetcorn, peas, globe artichokes, mange tout, peppers, spinach, chillis, carrots, courgettes, tomatoes, marrows, asparagus, cabbage, pak choi, broad beans, about a dozen different lettuces, loads of herbs, pears, half a dozen apple varieties, strawberries, gooseberries, jostaberries, blackcurrants, damsons plus quite few things I can't bring to mind.

We're hoping to get two or three grape vines going soon too.

Without a willing and happy helper, I doubt if I'd grow anything. The value of a like-minded partner is large projects like a vegetable garden is incalculable.

Edit: just remembered radishes so I had to go harvest some. Talk about hot! Brilliant.

[GabriAngelle]

Tomatoes in a cup is all that I can grow in my dorm. Ha. I would grow my own food if I could.

[RubyDuby]

green beans, grapes and strawberries...

[cobweb]

^ yummy!

I'm attempting to grow tomatoes, various herbs, rocket, cucumbers, and radishes in collapsable plastic planters.

[RubyDuby]

That's what I'm using too!... well, Topsy Turvy. Upside down.
The strawberries aren't doing so well... but the beans are already looking very promising.

Let me know how your rocket comes along.

[cobweb]

will do, we can be growing partners

[Risker]

I'm doing courgette taxi, chives, tomato gardener's delight, parsley, chard bright lights and pumpkin baby bear. Don't have a garden at the moment so it's all in plastic pots and troughs. Somethings been nibbling on them a bit, I need to remember to apply garlic wash more often.

[Risker]

...*mumbles*...bastard snails...

[harpy]

Have you tried the copper tape, Risker? I find that pretty good for keeping snails and slugs out of containers (as long as there is no way for them to drop down on the stuff from above). I don't think it harms them, but they don't like to cross it.

[Risker]

Yeah, I have copper tape all round my troughs but they don't seem to care. They've eaten my one and only parsley plant and taken bites out of my courgette and chard leaves. I'm amazed they hadn't eaten more considering how many I found hiding on the side of the troughs. One of them refused to let go when I tried to remove it and I was afraid that if I pulled it any harder I was going to horribly injure it so I sprayed it with garlic wash. It really didn't like that and let go sharpish so it seems that's probably quite effective. The troughs are on a layer of sharp gravel but they were near the edge so the snails could just cross a brick to get to them, I've moved them further out in to the gravel now, hopefully they won't want to cross it.

EDIT: In fact, they completely ignored the pots without the copper tape and went straight for the troughs that have it.

[harpy]

Perhaps you have got supersnails, Risker It's true most of my pots are on gravel as well so perhaps that's helped, although it's not the sharp kind. ETA Last year I did find the odd one that had got into the veg pots but I just lifted them out and put them on expendable plants. Haven't got round to planting anything much that would appeal to them this year.

[cobweb]

I just dug over a patch of ground that was grassy, I decided I needed to have more space. Am going to buy more seeds tomorrow. Not sure what I'm going to do re slugs and snails, thay are a pain!.

I remember once I grew a crop of Kale when we lived in Scotland, it all got munched before I could harvest it, and I accidentally created a massive group of Cabbage Whites . They were the talk of the village .

[harpy]

Well that was a result, cobweb, even if not the one you were aiming for!

We don't seem to have as many snails as we did. Not sure if it's anything to do with the hedgehogs.

[cobweb]

ahh, crafty Harpy!

[harpy]

Personally I'm much more excited by butterflies (even cabbage whites) in the garden than by anything edible - but that's us townies for you.

I have actually seen a few (white ones and also blue ones) out there this year. They were saying on the radio it's a particularly good year for butterflies.

[Risker]

I've just relocated a few more slugs and snails, god knows where they're coming from, there's no real vegetatation for them to have lived on nearby before my plants arrived.

I'm thinking of making some kind of beer trap, not to kill them but to attract them away from my plants and hopefully keep them there so I can relocate them. So really it would need to be something that isn't deep enough for them to drown in but not easily escapable... I might just try a saucer of beer and hope they get so wasted that they can't be bothered to leave.

[cobweb]

It amazes me where wildlife can spring from!. We are using an old bin as a water butt, I looked in it yesterday and found that we now have a family of Tadpoles in it!

[harpy]

Tadpoles!!!! Aren't you lucky? Will they be able to climb out when they're ready or will you have to add a plank or something? (Sorry, teaching my grandmother to suck frogspawn here I'm sure!)

A friend says that every year a frog shacks up in a bucket of water she has in her garden, even though she has a pond nearby. We assume it must have been "born" there.

[CoolCat]

I have 4 window boxes (living a city). They contain basil, curly leaf parsley, lettuce (the kind you can cut outer leafs from and it keeps growing), chives, garden crest and kale. In the past I had things like strawberries and tomatoes as well but they don't give much yield for the space / time they take. So I went for leafs I can harvest from all the time. My oregano, rozemary and thyme didn't make it through the winter and I felt bad for the wee plants, so I decided I would do annual plants only this time arround. The chives is the only plant that survided from year one. This is year three. Oh and there is a mystery tree in it (one foot high give or take) that came with the chives seeds. I have no idea what it is, but if it's happy growing in a container who am I to say it can't.

As to chime in on the amazing wildlife... last year pigeons made out on my strawberry plants heh. And I had issues with lice in the past that I think was from birds as well. I just wrote that one box off and let them do their thing. Some ladybugs came to feed on them but not enough to control them. I guess an isolated box doens't make a well balanced biotope. It's just for fun that I grow stuff, not survival, so I just let things runs its own course.

[harpy]

I might just try a saucer of beer and hope they get so wasted that they can't be bothered to leave.

ROFL! You could try putting down grapefruit skins as I think they are meant to collect under those so you can conveniently relocate them. I haven't tried that though.

Your window boxes sound great, CoolCat. Those "cut-and-come-again" salad leaves are delicious aren't they? And the mystery tree...I sometimes find the things that turn up without being planted are more interesting - I have got a huge angelica plant in the garden that I definitely didn't plant. The bees seem to like the flowers.

[cobweb]

Tadpoles!!!! Aren't you lucky? Will they be able to climb out when they're ready or will you have to add a plank or something? (Sorry, teaching my grandmother to suck frogspawn here I'm sure!)

A friend says that every year a frog shacks up in a bucket of water she has in her garden, even though she has a pond nearby. We assume it must have been "born" there.

Really? (re your friend). Funny!
No they won't be able to climb out, will keep a close eye on them and if they're looking like surviving will need to make the bin a bit nicer for them. Do you feed tadpoles, if so, with what?.

[harpy]

I'm afraid I don't know about feeding them - do you think there is much else in the way of pond life living in your butt? I do remember from my tadpole-keeping days that too much food was potentially a problem. I suppose you could introduce some pond water which would probably contain food for them, but then your bin mightn't be much use for its intended purpose afterwards.

I just found this http://www.arc-trust.org/advice/FAQs...es/feeding.php - and http://www.ypte.org.uk/environmental...nd-tadpoles/28 You could try contacting either of those orgs if you need more info.

The being-able-to-get-out thing is obviously important as they stop being able to breath under water past a certain point in their development IIRC

[cobweb]

How rude, asking about my butt like that!

There are little insects in there and some carrot gratings (I'm not sure WHY the carrot gratings are there ). Thanks for the links though, will follow that up. We've put a kind of stone ladder in there but can't get it all the way to the top - it's way above the water line though. Sam counted them yesterday, apparently there are 8 Tadpoles.

[harpy]

How rude, asking about my butt like that!

Arf! I suppose you could float something in there, a bit of wood or something, so the little blighters can sit on that and sun themselves? Or maybe they can get out on the first rung of the ladder or something. I think it's when they get back legs that they start wanting to breath out of the water, but don't take my word for it because it's been a while since I was responsible for any tadpoles sadly. (I would really like to have a pond but the thought of the cats pestering the amphibia puts me off.)

[CoolCat]

My dinner was a salad made from the stuff I grow in window containers !

I could harvest from all but the kale. Those are still too small (only 4 leafs on each plant).

[RubyDuby]

^how fun! I bet that was very satisfying.

[CoolCat]

It was actually... my eating habits were fairly poor because of too busy with work lately (got a deadline this week) and some nice fresh green leafs sure were a treat.
I think I will be able to harvest another dinner tomorrow