Growing your own

Hi Granjura lovely to hear from you. I bet your garden looks lovely under the snow. Enjoy.

Lovely to have snow , so no sympathy here! I love seeing our garden with a wintry blanket!

Hello granjura , how very nice to hear from you .
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Sorry about the your weather !

Garden under 50cm of snow- so we are all having a rest, garden... and I.

Our elephant garlic from 2012 did nothing that year, but gave us a good crop this year! The little broad bean plants we planted are coming on beautifully for next year.
We have a completely out of control espalier plum to prune and the more I read the RHS pruning book the less I understand it.

Just planted 6 cloves each of 9 different garlic varieties and 5 elephant garlic. Stuck the not too plump extra cloves in around my winter brassicas. It was so cold I had to check I'd not left any fingers inside my rubber gloves not sad really just frozen.
Merlot our crop was 'adequate' this year, but 2012 was pathetic.

We planted some Elephant Garlic and Early Purple garlic in October and the Solent Wight will go in around Feb. Fingers crossed for a good crop next year as this year's was pathetic!

Just off to plant my garlic in the allotment. Usually do it earlier but things have conspired to stop me. Thankfully the weather is still mild(ish)

Pentsemmon are there any allotments or vegetable plots near you? You will find that local gardeners are only too happy to share their knowledge regarding which varieties of fruit & veg grow well in your local area. Alternatively pop along to meetings of a local gardening club - meetings are usually held throughout the winter - where you will not only be able to gather information, tips and advice but also to participate in bulk purchase of essentials. Local conditions of soil and weather vary greatly e.g. for reasons unknown but much speculated on, Courgettes are easy to grow and prolific in my village but not in other parts of our Wee County, likewise onions, plums and parsnips but not carrots, which are a waste of time locally.

After 3 very busy weeks and much rain I found time to take a tour of the garden today in the sunshine and was rewarded with two perfect tomatoes from a rogue plant that grew in the veg plot + two decent courgettes - surely the last of the Harvest? but I have been saying that for 6 weeks now . Still picking apples, have parsnips to lift and enough leeks to last through the winter.

Penstemon - try climbing french beans next time. The slugs don't seem to climb so high !

We get excellent organic seed from Tamar Organics, would really recommend them. We have had a good year after a late start. We have harvested about 50 lbs of potatoes, lots of beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, ruby chard, salads, beetroot, carrots, courgettes, squash and loads of leeks. Excellent crop of apples, pears, quinces and plums too.
We have now cleared most of the summer stuff from the beds and planted onions, shallots, lamb's lettuce, garlic, broad beans; winter spinach still to go in.

Hijane thanks for the ideas! I will think about what we like to eat..then explore how easy/tricky they are to grow, then go and look at the seed packets...get carried away on a tide of enthusiasm and buy all sorts!

No, but maybe it would help you to try it out for just a year to see how you do. At first I always bought all the seeds I wanted then put them upright in a shoe box (I am a seedaholic so I have four now) and then went through them in order of when they should be planted according to the instructions on the packet. This does of course vary according to where you live and I would be wary of that with that company, do they make allowances for the fact that if you live in the north midlands your final frost date is going to be a month later than if you live in the south? Even so, if you are very cautious about it all then maybe it's worth it just for the first year. After that you can start looking into early, mid and late carrots. Personally I would prefer to make a list of what I really want to grow, then go and browse the seed stands. Preferably the cheap seeds to start with, Mr Fothergill's or something.