Calling SMB veg growers

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Wilfy said:
Taken control of the allotment at last.

Got me first leek of the season.

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Easy this growing lark. :lol:
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Mine have not fattened up at all. They are about the thickness of a board marker.

Going to pick a bunch and put them in a veg broth for tea and need to decide if I should start my seeds in pots for this year or watch the match. I feel the seeds will be more entertaining!
 
DaveH said:
Mine have not fattened up at all. They are about the thickness of a board marker.

Going to pick a bunch and put them in a veg broth for tea and need to decide if I should start my seeds in pots for this year or watch the match. I feel the seeds will be more entertaining!
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I’ve got about 2 dozen to pull. The shed I’ve bought from the old fella has tables in for potting and windows so I can set stuff away in there as well. Need to get some staging for the greenhouse but that’s not a problem as I work for a joinery company. The ground is ridiculously soft so can’t do much until we get some better weather.
Quick question @Butcher's Coat , if I am putting blood, fish and bone down, can I just put it on the surface or does it need to be dug in straight away?
 
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FC United of Manchester said:
Have you tested the soil PH yet mate?
Winter is a good time to be adding a bit of lime if it's acidic like mine is, particularly is you're going to be planting some brassicas/leafy greens.
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I’ve left the tester round home. I’ll test it next weekend. Been talking to the neighbour to one side today and he reckons the fella who had the plot got good crops. The neighbour to the other side is held in high esteem here so will be bending his ear when I get to know him.
 
FC United of Manchester said:
Have you tested the soil PH yet mate?
Winter is a good time to be adding a bit of lime if it's acidic like mine is, particularly is you're going to be planting some brassicas/leafy greens.
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Should you be looking for a neutral PH? I've not tested mine in years. I think it was alkaline when I checked. I live on the Kent coast, which is essentially a slab of clay on top of a slab of chalk, so I'd expect it to be heavy alkaline.
 
DaveH said:
Should you be looking for a neutral PH? I've not tested mine in years. I think it was alkaline when I checked. I live on the Kent coast, which is essentially a slab of clay on top of a slab of chalk, so I'd expect it to be heavy alkaline.
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I try and keep mine around 6.5 but I don’t fret over it. When I first took over the plot it was all below 5.0 so I used to lime it. As I’m now no dig and it’s had a few years of compost on the top it doesn’t need as much.
I always lime my brassica beds though to avoid clubroot.
 
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I’ve a couple of square meters in the garden that I’d like to grow a few veg that would interest the grand children.
So they can plant, grow, harvest and, hopefully, cook and eat.
Any suggestions what would be simplest/easiest?
 
nahwee said:
I’ve a couple of square meters in the garden that I’d like to grow a few veg that would interest the grand children.
So they can plant, grow, harvest and, hopefully, cook and eat.
Any suggestions what would be simplest/easiest?
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Peas & tomatoes, both lush straight off the plant, it's the memory I have of my Grandads allotment, together with carrots still a bit dirty, sitting together on the steps of his shed munching them.
 
nahwee said:
I’ve a couple of square meters in the garden that I’d like to grow a few veg that would interest the grand children.
So they can plant, grow, harvest and, hopefully, cook and eat.
Any suggestions what would be simplest/easiest?
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is that a 2x1m bed or a pair of meter square beds?

You will not get a lot in them, but look at companion planting. If you want to interest kids, peas are usually a good one. Easy to grow, they grow pretty quickly and peas straight from the plant are fantastic just to nibble on. Between the rows you can get onions, garlic or leeks. One options is to have two rows of peas, plant onions on the outside and a row of carrots up the middle. They will not out-compete each other for resources and the onions flanking the carrots help reduce predators.

Parsnips might do a bit better there, as carrots do like a bit of sun and the peas might give too much shade.

Squashes are always a nice one to grow too. Suttons do one, Amazonka which gives bright orange 'pumpkins'. But unlike your traditional pumpkin, these are very tasty balls up to about 15cm across. And they are quite heavy croppers. You can happily plant these with peas or beans.

Some buckets with charlotte potatoes is an easy one and fantastic cooked fresh on a summers day.
 
Never thought of peas!

Bed is about 1,5 x 1,5m, full sun till late afternoon.

Made a half-hearted attempt at leeks last year - mine too were 40cm tall and skinny.
Potatoes in a bucket sounds interesting too.
 
nahwee said:
Never thought of peas!

Bed is about 1,5 x 1,5m, full sun till late afternoon.

Made a half-hearted attempt at leeks last year - mine too were 40cm tall and skinny.
Potatoes in a bucket sounds interesting too.
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Taties in a bag as an option. Great for the bairns to root around and pop up a beautiful new potato. Grow in compost rather than soil and their hands won’t get too hacky when they’re hunting the spuds.
 
nahwee said:
Never thought of peas!

Bed is about 1,5 x 1,5m, full sun till late afternoon.

Made a half-hearted attempt at leeks last year - mine too were 40cm tall and skinny.
Potatoes in a bucket sounds interesting too.
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Look at getting 2 sets of crops per year out of it, Spring/Summer & Autumn/Winter rather than just one longer growing crop. Plant up your Leeks in an old washing up bowl (with drainage holes) around the beginning of April and let them grow on there until you harvest your Spring/Summer plants and then just transplant them once you've cleared the summer stuff.

Basically grow what you like to eat. First crops could be salads, peas, dwarf french beans, Beets, Courgettes, Onions, Shallots, Fennel. early carrots. Follow them on with Leeks, Chard, Kale etc which you can start in modules in advance ready to transplant as you harvest.

Pots are great as well if you have room for them. You will pick up 10 x 30 litre pots for £30-£40 which are great for spuds. 4 seeds potatoes per pot (on 2 levels) for 1st/2nd early and just 2 per pot for maincrop spuds. That's how I grow all mine. Tomatoes will be great in pots as well.
 
FC United of Manchester said:
Pots are great as well if you have room for them. You will pick up 10 x 30 litre pots for £30-£40 which are great for spuds. 4 seeds potatoes per pot (on 2 levels) for 1st/2nd early and just 2 per pot for maincrop spuds. That's how I grow all mine. Tomatoes will be great in pots as well.
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What do you mean by 2 levels? I usually start with a pot about a third full and then chuck in a few handfuls of compost & manure mixed until it is full. A lot of the books say to do that, but I have to admit I don't get a lot of taties in the top half.

Are you saying plant say 2 at a third full and another 2 at a two thirds full?
 
DaveH said:
Are you saying plant say 2 at a third full and another 2 at a two thirds full?
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Exactly that.... but only for determinate (first/second early) as these only grow on one level. So, 1/3 full 1 seed each at 12/6 o'clock, another layer of compost then 2 more at 3/9 o'clock.
I only do 2 on the one level for indeterminate (maincrop) though as they will grow on multiple levels.

I must stress that's for the 30l containers I use though, if your pots are bigger/smaller then you could get more/less.
 
FC United of Manchester said:
Exactly that.... but only for determinate (first/second early) as these only grow on one level. So, 1/3 full 1 seed each at 12/6 o'clock, another layer of compost then 2 more at 3/9 o'clock.
I only do 2 on the one level for indeterminate (maincrop) though as they will grow on multiple levels.

I must stress that's for the 30l containers I use though, if your pots are bigger/smaller then you could get more/less.
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Cheers, I have a variety of sizes but will give that a go.
 
Gone with tomatoes and peppers this year. Don't have a lot of space so will grow these upright.

I'm decent with tomatoes, never tried peppers before. Gone with sun blessed toms and gypsy peppers.
 

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