UKH

Just planted up the first of my raised beds. Put in some peas, spinach, leeks, parsnips, carrots and beetroot. 

Will do more in a couple of weeks to make sure stuff is ready at different times.

What is in your garden or allotment?

In reply to girlymonkey:

Rhubarb, raspberries, gooseberry, white currant, black currant, carrots, rocket, some random mix of foraging saddles, strawberries. Apple. Oh and leeks.

this year I’m experimenting with. ‘Wall garden’ made of old guttering - will be interesting to see how it goes!

In reply to Dr.S at work:

Oh yes, I forgot about our fruit as I haven't just planted it! We have raspberries, strawberries and black currants too 😊

I'm intrigued by the wall garden. Is that small shallow plants (the salady type stuff) growing stacked?

In reply to girlymonkey:

We have quite a lot, after doing a fair bit last year and starting earlyish with some this year (hopefully not too early...) - perpetual spinach, kale, peas, globe artichokes, several varieties of garlic (including elephant garlic, which is more sort of a leek really), a few "Mayan Rose" potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb, fennel, and a variety of herbs including coriander.

Cherries, apples, pears, plums, Japanese wineberries, blueberries (although they don't grow well), raspberries, gooseberries, red currants, strawberries, a vine that's unlikely to produce much even thought it's in the greenhouse, and a small fig tree that might.

Sprouting and propagating in the greenhouse we have seedlings for cucumber, tomato, peppers, lettuces, spring onions and radishes.

Still to plant courgette, butternut squash, beetroot, carrot, and cucamelon.

Getting more gardening done has been one of the few good things about the covid restrictions! We got a lot done last year, so we can do quite a bit this year for less effort (good, as we'll hopefully be getting away again soon).

In reply to girlymonkey:

This year: beetroot, carrots, peas, courgettes, red and black currants, various gooseberries, loganberries, potatoes, raspberries.   Apple, pear, plumb and damson.  If I can find any, alpine strawberries.  Perhaps the hazel will come in to nut this year.  

The beetroot made amazing pakoras last year.  I expect nettle saag will feature heavily this year.

In reply to skog:

Wow! I know where to come for my fruit and veg later in the year! 😜 Sounds amazing!

In reply to girlymonkey:

Courgettes, Tom's and chillis.  Little work and massive yields generally. 

I couldn't grow anything last year due to lockdown it messed up all the plans.  

CT

In reply to wintertree:

Beetroot pakora and nettle saag both sound interesting! Wow!

In reply to girlymonkey:

A variety of chillis. So-so success with them last year so trying a mix of seeds from last year's ones that produced and some new seeds. Purple jalapenos, orange habanero, purple tiger and whatever variety last year was. Also stuck some blackcurrant branches in the ground last year after stripping them of their fruit and happy to see green shoots appearing.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Well, we should really have loads of garlic later, if you want some!

Oh, I forgot the lovage and wild garlic we have tucked round the side. The wild garlic's coming up properly now, of course there's loads more by Gillie's Hill and King's Park.

In reply to girlymonkey:

I put one up last year with strawberries in - did ok, now have put up a few more and yes trying salads things - behold “ the hanging gardens of Langford”

In reply to Archmagos_Dominus:

This. Nothing that falls below the line on the chart of faff vs. cost in tesco is going in the ground this year.
That leaves globe artichokes, kohl rabi (superschmelz - the enormous ones), chard, salsify, broad beans, pak choi (probably the winner on the faff/cost graph), spinach, probably forgotten a few things...
And the permanent ones: strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb

In reply to girlymonkey:

Oh, and we seem to be growing thousands of sycamore seedlings! I think a storm must have hit at just the right time and direction to flood our garden with them last autumn.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Also try nasturtium pesto

In reply to skog:

Yeah, I have come across quite a lot of wild garlic out and about recently. I love the smell when you pass it!

If you have any spare garlic, we will happily use it!

In reply to Dr.S at work:

Looks great!

In reply to girlymonkey:

Sounds like we need a UKC market later in the year! 

In reply to girlymonkey:

Cat shit and brambles.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Got a paddock and stables above the house which has been neglected for 20 or 30 years. Going to start clearing it and plant an orchard

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

Up to the tree line? Great space!

In reply to Dr.S at work:

Yes, up to that line of Beeches, it’s about half an acre or so up there. The other half of the garden is a bit tidier than this😂

In reply to girlymonkey:

Nasal, ear and back hair. 

In reply to girlymonkey:

Don't have a garden, but having a go at growing some chilli plants in pots on the windowsill.

In reply to skog:

Do you grow in large pots/planters? Best productivity I’ve had by growing in big pots.

Of course, as you will know, you need acidic soil so it’s easier to control ph in a container. Also, easier to watch the fertilisers type and amount.

However, what I only discovered after I stopped growing blueberries in pots after some 15 years and planted in garden, (ignoring a very slight change in ph), they benefit from a restricted root run. 

I lost 75% of production in first year after direct planting in soil, and since then I get only 50% of what I did when potted. A professional gardener told me that the main reason was due to the unrestricted root run in soil.

I’m thinking of going back to pots!

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

We only have a couple of bushes, one in the ground at the front, that I think has actually died, and one we had in a pot last year but I planted out the back last autumn - sounds as if that may have been a mistake! Interesting about the root run...

We've added pine needles and tried to acidify it a bit, just going to see what happens this year. If they die or don't produce I may just replace them with more gooseberry or raspberry, blueberry seems hard work for little gain and we can get lots of wild ones easily anyway, not quite the same but still good.

In reply to girlymonkey:

I have two small/immature fruit trees (I think) that we inherited when moving house but don't know what they are. Wonder if anyone knows? Both these photos were taken yesterday, I thought possibly a plum (which we have now planted out) and an apple (still in a large pot). 

Nothing else growing that might produce anything edible, but we have planted a couple of other small trees and have a back garden full of lavender which the bees love

Edit, we also have a fig plant in a large pot, not sure when we might expect it to start growing any fruit, it's currently about 50-60cm tall.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Only apples, pear, plum, blueberries, strawberries, alpine strawberries, rhubarb and some herbs now for me. 

Used to grow lots of vegetables in years gone though, and even had an allotment at one time.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

I'm growing lard, mostly. 🙄

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Little work and massive yields .

In reply to Si dH:

First one I’d say Apple, possibly red.

Second one is in the cherry and plum family.  Almost looks like damson blossom but more likely to be a plumb.  If the bark polishes up reddish and shined it could be a cherry but I don’t think so.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Olives, almonds, peaches, pomegranate, the world's biggest yucca, eucalyptus, orleander, horse chestnut.  

Currently looking for a castor bean plant (they grow locally). Sure I could find a use for the ricin from it...

In reply to girlymonkey:

Increasingly annoying, according to my children. 
Other than that, raspberries and rhubarb, wild rocket and herbs. But mainly insect loving plants. 

In reply to girlymonkey:

The pakoras were born of desperation after having grated beetroot every day for a month, and regular doses of beetroot chips, not to mention the sides of beetroot leaf salad.  They were also a surprise hit.

For the saag just use fresh, young nettle leaves instead of spinach.  

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

I'm converting that half of my garden to a motocross track. The other half the dogs destroy.

In reply to Andy Gamisou:

From that list, I'm going to guess you aren't in Scotland, or anywhere in the UK for that matter!! Sounds like a great selection 😃

In reply to wintertree:

Lots of “free from” stuff has beetroot as its base. It’s good stuff. 

In reply to girlymonkey:

Ruhbarb, strawberries, redcurrents, blackcurrents (new - won't fruit this year), damson (ditto), grape vine (blackbird food...), many herbs, sweet peas, nastursiums and  tomatoes. Last three are current seedlings, still to sow are a squash experiment and french beans, giving the runner beans a miss this year...
Sadly missing, raspberries; grubbed out this winter as getting severly virus infected and performing poorly, and nowhere sensible to replace them. Very sad as they're usually the MVP on effort vs supermarket cost scale.

In reply to girlymonkey:

I am very late this year, but garlic and onions went in last autumn and are doing well. Chillies, peppers,  tomatoes and aubergines have been sown in trays.

Last year was a mass of tomatoes, peppers and aubergines. We'll have fewer this year, but more flowers. I am looking forward to sunflowers, marigolds and night scented stock.

In reply to girlymonkey:

First year in my own house, with my own garden which has some ready built veg patches. So far I've got carrots, broccoli and beetroot in the first of 3 of them. We (well I say we.. my wife..) swapped our plastic pond that we dug out for a selection of green and purple(?) gooseberry bushes. Our cleaner has an allotment and is likely going to be more useful than just for cleaning the kitchen it would seem! 

No real idea what I'm doing, but excited to see what happens and get ideas to fill the other 2 beds.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Only got a single flowerbed, a small trough planter and 2 hanging baskets so it's a pretty modest selection:

Courgettes (orange), 2 small bay trees ( a birthday present), leeks, purple sprouting broccoli (survived from Last year, really pleased with how well they have grown, leaves are tasty as as are the florets), peas, sweet peas, fuscias and marigolds.

My garden has been a lovely distraction over the last year!

In reply to girlymonkey:

I don't have a garden but there is a small patch of soil and grass right outside my kitchen door which I sort of class as "mine". I planted some generic "wildflower" seeds bought in packets (oxymoron?!) from Wilko last summer, last summer. Nothing happened. 

yesterday I planted 40 freesia bulbs. Let's see!

The apple tree there, which looked like it had died last summer (no crop at autumn, and all the foliage disappeared) has just been resurrected somehow - leaves blooming out of the peripheral twigs. It's now the Easter Jesus Resurrection tree

In reply to girlymonkey:

I planted 20 asparagus crowns in a raised bed 5 years (I think) ago. Expecting a bumper crop starting in about 2 or 3 weeks time. Yum!

In reply to girlymonkey:

Tontos, spinach, garlic, runner beans, rosemary,  coriander,  carrots, plums, cherries, chives, sage, thyme, pears and about 15 types of chili

In reply to girlymonkey:

I planted 20 fruit trees this winter so in 3-7 years, apples, pears, cherries,  cobnuts, morello cherries, green gages and damsons.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Good thread. 

Question: has anyone managed to successfully grow blueberries here in the uk? 

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I'm pretty sure the Uk grows blueberry crops commercially, and of course the hills are covered in wild blaeberry, so presumably it should be possible to replicate some of this in a garden? I haven't tried though

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

Shallots have to be the ultimate on this metric.  Zero effort, just stick them in the ground, minimal weeding and come back six months later to harvest them.  They cost a fortune in the supermarket, especially the nice long french varieties that are much less hassle to prep in the kitchen.  And you just save the best ones to replant the next year, too.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Yup. Very successfully for 15 years ! (Though see my comment above about being in pots.)

Two bushes in pots gave me far more berries in season that anyone would want to eat. I never weighed but had probably at peak season had 500g/week plus all I could eat whilst picking. Most weeks more than enough to eat and cook with daily, make enough jam for a year, and still give kgs away over the year to others.

Now have four bushes planted in soil and get less overall unfortunately. Two are still a bit immature but are useless and are just currently a waste of space 🥴. 

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Yeah we've (Neighbours and I in our shared garden) had some success in Glasgow.

The key seems to be replicating that "Forest Floor" type environment. We have 3 bushes in separate containers spread out in a SW facing garden. None of the plants really did much until they were about 3 years old, and putting them under a much bigger plant so they get dappled light rather than directly in the sun seems to have them thriving. Also ericaceous compost needs to be used but i'm probably stating the obvious there.

I think a couple of different varieties cross-pollinating can vastly increase yields

No idea where you are in the country but perhaps the fairly extreme cold winters/warm dry summers we've had the past couple of years in Scotland just happens to (slightly....) mimic the northern USA where I think blueberries hail from.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

What's the secret CP? We've had success but not THAT much... We all love blueberries!

In reply to Jamie Wakeham:

Yeah, maybe. I'm not into oniony things so not for me. Do have a lot of garlic growing though, same reasons.

Our big wins are Pak choi and globe artichokes, because £££ and a piece of piss to grow. But also salsify, which is amazing and not for sale at any price.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Planted garlic in the Autumn, now a couple of inches tall. Will plant Broad Beans in the ground soon. It some Courgettes and salad stuff started on the inside windowsill. We live at 750ft so frost still a hazard at the moment.

In reply to peppermill:

Apart from the big pots which I discovered with hindsight, no idea! Probably was lucky with getting productive stock to start with.

However, things like wind protection behind and to one side (but open to allow air circulation), shaded from early morning sun, but full sun otherwise and particularly late into evening, heat and light reflecting surface behind (happened to be greenhouse directly behind), lime dressing every 3 years, balanced NPK fertiliser dose once a year, blood fish and bone dressing every few years, and bi annual pruning may all have had something to do with it. Area is a cool/cold corner in winter/at night, but can get quite hot in day when sun is strong.

The pots seem to have been a main reason. Large clay ones, good drainage crocks and stones in bottom, then 1/3 clay soil with some added drainage, and rest a mix of ericaceous and lighter soil.

I also have to net during fruiting to stop, well reduce, the pigeon loss or I would not get much at all!

In reply to girlymonkey:

Older and more grumpy

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

I find Pak Choi to be easy to grow too, in the polytunnel, although I did have one lot of a purplish variety a couple of years ago that all bolted.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Who, me? Nothing! I’m not growing anything! Who told you that? Nothing growing here, move on.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

How is your aerobin hot composter getting on?  Ours hasn’t had any issues with smell, flies or rodents despite the ungodly mix of food scraps that has gone in to it.  However, the side panels are bulging out and the “compost core” is visible where they part on the edges.  I’m putting this down to bad assembly (by me) not engaging all the bits properly.  I’ve stopped filling it for now and will empty it as reassemble in a couple of months time.  Suddenly the main bin is filling up again every two weeks...

In reply to girlymonkey:

The usual suspects - onions, new potatoes, garlic (in last autumn), beetroot, purple french beans, mange tout, tomatoes, courgettes, chillis, aubergines.

New for this year - tenderstem broccoli and tromboncino squash

Not bothering with anymore - sweet corn and maincrop potatoes.

Fruit wise we'll have redcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries. 

We've still got blackberries and french beans in the freezer from last year.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Looks like we're in for a cold week (it feels like it's arriving now).

Overnight frosts are forecast for almost everywhere - for most nights this week, up here.

Take care of those seedlings - it's maybe worth covering them, or bringing some inside.

In reply to skog:

Yeah, we have stuff for covering them. It does feel like a very sudden change, doesn't it?! 

In reply to girlymonkey:

In terms of edible thing, strawberries, potatoes (3 varieties), tomatoes (4 varieties), sweet pepper, chilli pepper, cauliflower (spring ones almost ready, seedlings for autumn ones), broccoli, savoy cabbage, sprouts, peas (1 lot planted, another lot of seedlings just germinating) french beans, mange tout, courgette, leeks, onions, garlic (2 varieties), beetroot, perpetual spinach, chard, mixed lettuce, carrots, parsnip, turnips and various herbs.

Most of the things that can be sewn and grown on in the greenhouse before planting out have been sewn. I haven't sewn any of the direct-sew stuff yet, with the exception of parsnips which like to go out early. I was going to do a batch of carrots/beets/spinach/chard this weekend, but given the colder weather coming I will save them for next weekend.

Not much fruit - my partner doesn't really eat it so I always end up with more than I know what to do with. Strawberries are easy to grow in sensible quantites for one!

I also have seedling for antirrhinums, cosmos, wallflowers and some other flower that I can't remember now in the greenhouse - it's a bit difficult to move in there at the moment!

My big project this year is the front garden. The year before last I took up the lawn with the aim of turning it into a kind of parterre/knot garden type thing. I planted hedging for the partitions in the autumn, but it was difficult to furnish it with flowers properly last summer because all the garden centres were either closed or low on stock. This year I intend to bring it to it's full glory!

In reply to girlymonkey:

My waistline.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Yes! (Harvesting is a different matter - birds). Get peat free acidic compost.

In reply to girlymonkey:

This will be the first  full year that I have had my allotment. Loads alrady on there, and loads I have planted  already. There are now 5 different apple trees, a pear tree, which I dont think is going to give anything, several plum trees that I have massively chopped back so nothing this year, Also gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries. I may plant some strawberries if I can find some space. Ive seen hanging basket blackberries so may add a few of these. Then vegetables, I have garlic, leeks, beetroot, kohl rabi, and carrots already in and planning on planting courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, chillies, peas, runner beans and squash. Id like to plant some sweetcorn too, but last time I tried the squirrels ate them so undecided.

Almost forgot the potatoes and carrots I planted today

In reply to girlymonkey:

Chinese broccoli

Swiss chard

Ethiopian kale

Also trying climbing courgettes.

In reply to kathrync:

"Smoothies". The reduction in physical volume is immense! And you can neck them without really realising you've just eaten 2 apples and 3 carrots and some berries, in about 3 minutes. 

In reply to wintertree:

Well remembered! 

Its working well. No smells at all. Everything goes in other than meat. It warms up nicely and I have started mulching with the contents on the beds. Im slightly disappointed that it doesn't end up like the pictures suggest but this might be the mix. It is also rotting slower than expected but this might be the time of year. It produces great liquid food which we use too.

We get loads of fruit flies from it but these just end up as food for my garden wren and dunnocks.

In reply to thethread:

I will never do brassica ever again. Too many failed crops and it is very hard work chasing the bloody cabbage whites away and painstakingly removing the caterpillars/egg from the plants.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yes, that's how I'm still working through the massive volume of frozen fruit I had the year we bought this house (2015) before I took most of the fruit bushes out... Most of the back garden was rampant raspberry canes when we moved in. Only another 7 ice cream tubs of mixed berries to work through...

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I grow mine under insect mesh, which keeps the cabbage whites off nicely. Brassicas are very hungry - I manure quarter of my plot every spring and grow my brassicas in the part that has been manured. Gives them lots of food and also helps with water retention. I haven't had a failed plot since I started doing that and "maintenance" is a half hour job once a year.