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Hi all,
I hope someone might be able to help me with this.
I've long had the ambition to grow some of my own veg. Not quite to the scale of Tom and Barbara in The Good Life, but I do have a couple of small raised flowerbeds that I feel could be put to better use. The only trouble is, I am unsure what to try growing. I don't get huge amounts of free time for gardening so it'd have to be something easy to grow and hardy enough to not wilt the first time I forget to water it. And as for sowing things in cloches, thinning them out, transplanting them..... there's a greater chance dodo's will breed in Northamptonshire!
So, any suggestions?
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.
HI Chris we have a town house with no garden but have a caravan with a small garden,i have grown potatoes in tubs and this year invested in a potato barrel which was very successful,i also grow garlic and parsley in tubs and have a rosemary bush which is great with roast lamb. As i like cooking i have lots of herbs,its great to pop out and pick your own. i also have strawberry's in pots, next year i want to try carrots not going for show size but if you pick them when they are little great. Onions are easy and lettuce buy a tomato plant in a pot at the garden centre when there is no chance of frost mine have been good this year, courgettes are easy and you only need a couple of plants to get a few nice fresh ones.
In the past I have grown all sorts of veg but now with a modern house with a relatively small garden. I have been using a raised bed with great results. Lettuce has been a great success. Plants bought when small from a garden centre. Sugar snap peas not quite so successful but not too bad a crop and best of all beetroot which was sown from seed on 24th May. Fantastic crop this year. I also grow courgettes in pots and they have been great and also a tomato plant in a pot. It is amazing what can be done with just a small space and minimum work.
Hi Chris
Have you considered fruit? Rhubarb is dead easy - and there's nothing nicer than rhubarb crumble made with home-grown freshly pulled rhubarb. Black, red and white currant bushes also require next to no attention, just a bit of end of season pruning, and will reward you with masses of fruit for pies, jam (jam is incredibly easy to make) or to sprinkle on your cereal. An added bonus is that the birds will appreciate the currant bushes but don't worry, once established there will be more than enough for them and you.
Squirrel
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Squirrel, I'm growing rhubarb this year for the first time, in a pot, and to be honest I'm not sure what to do with it! It's an "Early" variety which I bought at the end of Spring. After a rocky start I have two short sticks....do I leave these, pull them...or what??
Make the most of today because, unlike Sky+, there isn't a rewind button.
Hi Paula... it is too late for those rhubarb sticks this year so just leave them to die down. Make sure the bulb (root) of the plant is well-covered with earth as the best rhubarb is "started off" in the dark. If you want to "force" it, in early spring (when you see new growth coming through) you can place an upturned chimney pot planter over the plant. Regardless of whether you choose to force it or not, when you get good long stems with leaves that almost rival a Gunnera (!) that is the time to pull off the stems and enjoy.
Do "yell" if you need more info.
I find one of though's black compost bins, the council are soo ready to give away, makes a good forcer, but never do the same plant two or three years running.Chimney pots are to small.
Rhubarb is best in the ground if poss, any ground will do pretty much as it likes to get a nice deep root run. let the leaves die back them chuck em on the compost heap. a good autumn mulch and a bit of water through dry spells and it should crop well for years. Don't be tempted to try forcing until the clump is well established, say three years and thereafter only every other year.
enjoy
Keep it diverse and you can't go wrong!
Unknown said: Thanks for the suggestions. Onions and spring onions may well be the way forward for me, I love anything in that family. I wonder how hard it is to grow garlic...
Thanks for the suggestions. Onions and spring onions may well be the way forward for me, I love anything in that family. I wonder how hard it is to grow garlic...
Now is the time to plant your onion sets and garlic. Break your garlic up into cloves, push each clove into the ground (about 14cm apart) so you can just see the top and nature will do the rest. It will be ready to harvest around June next year.
Build it and they will come.
Have read all these threads with great interest - I have been a keen gardener all my life but can no longer manage digging and heavy work so have a concrete area with a potting shed and two mini greenhouses all of which will be fenced off from the main garden and I now have lots of ideas of things to grow in pots or grow bags with easy access. Have just set up some metal staging with grow bags for strawberries so there is no bending and some plants have been kept back for the mini greenhouse hopefully for an early crop. Can't wait to start on potatoes in pots - too late for Christmas I think? Also discovered some dwarf broadbeans so have pots ready for them. Herbs are also a must and am very tempted by all the ideas here - but will curb my enthusiasm to match my energy!
Hi, no matter what you grow you are going to need a bit of commitment to keeping it well watered Chris. But it IS worth the effort I can assure you. I've grown veggies for the 1st time this year, alongside creating more of a wildlife garden so it's been a busy gardening year but I've loved the results of growing my own, so much so that I'm creating 2 new veggie beds from tired old shrub beds. My top 2 for a new veggie grower would be Mange Tout (grown up canes) and Sweetcorn. There's nothing like your own home grown sweetcorn cob covered in melted butter to think 'grow your own' is worth it! The mange Tout just need watering daily in very hot weather but 3-4 times a week in mild-hot weather. The sweetcorn similar but seem to be a bit more hardy. Mange Tout can be picked and stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks but they are prolific producers so dont plant more than 2-3 plants per person. I grew something like 20 plants (like I said, I'm new at this!) and there's only me to feed so was overrun with them although the neighbours had to help me out! Good luck