Planning this years veggies.

[SarahJane]

I decided as the weather was wet and windy today I would sit down with my seed catalogues and try and work out what I wanted to grow and what I still needed to order.

So far the plan is;


siverskin onions (Burletta)
spring onions ( guardsman)
shallots (Jurmor)
Elephant garlic (not tried this before)
Aubergine (Ophelia)
Borlotti beans (Solista)
Runner beans (white lady) I also have some I saved from last year.
Cucumber -outdoor variety (crystal lemon)
Gherkins (Bimbostar)
Petit pois (pea wee)
Sweetcorn (sunrise)

I still have a fair amount of other seeds, chilli, peppers, radishes, courgettes etc so wont need to buy them.
As I have limited space and alot of the plants will be grown in tubs and pots, I am hoping that the varietys I have chosed will be ok. If anyone knows of any better varietys or thinks I may have chosen the wrong variety please let me know.
I havent grown sweetcorn before but I do have an area in a border that they can go. Beans and peas are no problem as I have 2 huge obelisque-y things that I grow them up. I use troughs for garlic, and shallots and the rest will have to go in pots.

[Green Aura]

Sounds a nice mix, Sarah. But ( being blonde) should you really be growing anything called bimbostar?
Sorry honey, couldn't resist that one - no offence intended

[SarahJane]

Sounds a nice mix, Sarah. But ( being blonde) should you really be growing anything called bimbostar?
Sorry honey, couldn't resist that one - no offence intended

LOL, trust you! (Actually it did make me giggle when I read the name!)

[MuddyWitch]

OOOOOOOOOOO now I want some, to give our eldest as a gift!

1) She loves pickled gherkins & 2) she's the blondest brunette I know!

*Evil Mother Laugh*

MW

[SarahJane]

OOOOOOOOOOO now I want some, to give our eldest as a gift!

1) She loves pickled gherkins & 2) she's the blondest brunette I know!

*Evil Mother Laugh*

MW

Marshalls catalogue Muddywitch. I love the name too.

[hippy chick]

I've started off some cress on my windowsill... I know, it's simple and 5 year olds grow it in school, but it's a super food you know. I'm also going to grow garlic... need to do more planning though as I cannot feast off garlic and cress alone!

[Big Al]

I decided as the weather was wet and windy today I would sit down with my seed catalogues and try and work out what I wanted to grow and what I still needed to order.

So far the plan is;


siverskin onions (Burletta)
spring onions ( guardsman)
shallots (Jurmor)
Elephant garlic (not tried this before)
Aubergine (Ophelia)
Borlotti beans (Solista)
Runner beans (white lady) I also have some I saved from last year.
Cucumber -outdoor variety (crystal lemon)
Gherkins (Bimbostar)
Petit pois (pea wee)
Sweetcorn (sunrise)

I still have a fair amount of other seeds, chilli, peppers, radishes, courgettes etc so wont need to buy them.
As I have limited space and alot of the plants will be grown in tubs and pots, I am hoping that the varietys I have chosed will be ok. If anyone knows of any better varietys or thinks I may have chosen the wrong variety please let me know.
I havent grown sweetcorn before but I do have an area in a border that they can go. Beans and peas are no problem as I have 2 huge obelisque-y things that I grow them up. I use troughs for garlic, and shallots and the rest will have to go in pots.

Sweetcorn needs to be planted in blocks rather than rows as it's wind pollinated. Just thought I'd mentino that so you get some great cobs. Also when ready have the pan of boiling water ready, pull a cxob and skin it on the way to the kitchen. Dunk it in the water and then enjoy the sweetest corn you have ever eaten.

[Mal]

Trying to do the planning thing, and to be honest, it's doing my head a little. I think I've been spending too long worrying about how stuff will work - need to just get some seeds and put them in and refine the process next year.

anyway, 2 specific questions:

1) I have about 5 raised beds to use (well, soon to be raised beds), so I'm doing a rough 4 year rotation. Therefore on my plan I have one bed to use for root veggies. I was going to do potatoes, beetroot and carrot, maybe some parsnips. The beds are (will be) 8ft by 4ft. Question: If I do half of it (4ft by 4ft) as pots, will that give me any yield at all? I'm not looking for a bumper crop, more a few nice meals worth. Follow on question: would it be better to do all as pots, and then follow on with beetroot and carrot as the pots come out - gives later beetroot/carrot, but more pots. Ooh my head hurts.

2) One or two beds will be legumes - I thought I'd put some peas down the middle of one (8ft), and some dwarf beans I have left over from last year around them to use the whole bed. This seems fairly standard, not worried about that. On the other bed, I was thinking of trying to get more pea growing space by doing them cross-wise, with about 1.5 ft between them. This give me about 28 ft (roughly) of pea space. Question: Is the cross-wise idea just crazy? Is that too close together? Will they get enough space to grow from that?

If anyone can help a novice out, please do. Alternatively, just tell me to stick some stuff in the ground and see how it goes, I think that's basically what I need to do.

Man, I've really got to stop doing stream-of-consciousness on my posts.

[MuddyWitch]

Just to increase your headache...

Q1)How about doing the whole bed as spuds, but make half of 'em "earlies" so your carrots aren't too delayed? Just be a little careful though, 'cos if you've put alot of muck on for your spuds, the carrots may fork.

Q2) I always plant my peas at a 45* angle to the long side of my 12'' by 4'' beds and they've always done well. Few make it to the kitchen, but that's cos we eat them straight from the plant!

MW

[Big Al]

I've got 5 1.5m x 4.8m deepbeds and one is going o be permanently for fruit etc so leaving 4 on a rotation system. I personally wouldn't bother growing potatoes in your deep beds as they are bought cheaply. I'd use the limited space ( in both yours and my deep beds) for other food. I'm going to grow potatoes in tyres or sacks this year so that, like you I get a few good meals rather than sack fulls.

You can look on the internet for growing plans for now but i'll try to dig out my organic book and list some ideas but it won't be until monday. Tommorrow, Sunday is potato day so if you are looking for some good quality seed potatoes then check online for potato days near you and go along. my local one is in smoggsville so gas masks at the ready tomorrow for me.

One other thing I will be trying in one bed this year is cramming it full of whatever I can and feeding it ferociously. It's on this site somewhere but also in the ish book where the ancient indians grew sweetcorn squashes and climbing beans all together so don't be afraid to try anything. Also the most important aspect of this growing you are doing is to make a diary and write everything down as you do it / observe it. Then at the end of the season do an evaluation of your first year of gardening and change the bits that didn't work too well.

HTH

Big Al

[prison break fan]

Big Al, I did the sweetcorn ,squash and bean planting on my allotment last year, and while I had lovely sweetcorn and squash the beans were a total failure. Not because of the seed as I grew them elsewhere on the plot and they were fine. I shall do my planning this morning as it is a horrible day forecast here. Isn't it exciting! pbf

[moocher]

seeds i already have peas kelvedon wonder
tomato garden pearl for hanging baskets
moneymaker for ground
carrot paris market 5 atlas
sweet pepper redskin f1
chilli f1 apache
plus will be buying salad leaves ,potatoes,courgettes,spring onions and may try sweetcorn or mini pop sweetcorn.

[Big Al]

been to the local potato day and got about 6 tubers each of earlies, 2nd earlies and pink fir apple mains..... all for the princly sum of £1.50.

Enough to put in some tubs or tyres but not enough to take a deep bed over. ...