Another couple for your list @NewBoy2 - don’t grow anything you or your nearest and dearest don’t actually like to eat - focus on growing things that taste so much better than SM versions or are a lot cheaper to grow at home
@herbaceous, having a plan is one thing, executing it perfectly is another. I had a main crop potato (never grow them) substituted for the salad potato I had ordered, right b*ggered up my orderly lines
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
We have 3 raised veg beds, each about 3 m long x 1m wide so rotate everything on a 3 year cycle. Beds are labelled A, B & C (or would be if we could only get a brass 'C' from somewhere! Why OH decided to choose letters and not numbers is beyond me.) We only grow 2nd earlies, runner beans, peas, carrots and salad leaves as I don't like brassicas.
OH notes in his diary what has been sown in which bed and the date etc.
So the only essential is a good supply of hot beverages
Totally agree with grow what you and the family eat, else a lot will go to waste.
Only thing I really don't bother with is a lot of brassicas, nobody at home really likes them and I never had a lot of luck growing them in clay. We always have big problems with Cabbage white butterflies, netting never seems to be enough. Only one I do is brussels because usually have good results.
I have an excel spreadsheet along the lines of Nollie's doc, which I update every winter when restocking my seed packets and ordering the garlic. I record varieties and note any crops that did badly. I list out exactly what I plan to grow in which bed. Then in the spring I get a cup of tea, decide what I actually want to put where and don't refer to the spreadsheet again until the following winter.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I have an excel sheet like that too. I think I have quite a bad memory for failures, so the excel sheets down the years are there to refer to. Charlotte Potatoes, ha, never ever again.
I note down sowing and planting out times, any snippets of extra info from seed packets or from my books and briefly go through it each week to make sure I'm not missing the boat with anything. Just about on schedule for April. May is going to be a busy time!
Ah @Nollie and that is why I prefer my way of growing, I no longer suffer that frustration just have nice surprises!
I'm such a rubbish gardener that if it grows I'm happy if it doesn't then it was probably something I did (or didn't do) but usually can't figure out what so just go the insanity route - isn't that the definition of repeated failures? But I can now grow carrots, Hooray!
And as for the hot beverages @GemmaJF they turn into Pimms as the season progresses so its pointless asking me what is growing where by July!
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
Oooh very posh @Dovefromabove ! I used to drink that many moons ago before time and tide turned me into a cheap date, now its just very dilute Pimms.
My late husband complained the Campari smelt and tasted like cough medicine but I didn't take much notice as he drank Ouzo (other paint strippers are available) and other oddities.
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
Posts
- don’t grow anything you or your nearest and dearest don’t actually like to eat
- focus on growing things that taste so much better than SM versions or are a lot cheaper to grow at home
@herbaceous, having a plan is one thing, executing it perfectly is another. I had a main crop potato (never grow them) substituted for the salad potato I had ordered, right b*ggered up my orderly lines
OH notes in his diary what has been sown in which bed and the date etc.
Totally agree with grow what you and the family eat, else a lot will go to waste.
Only thing I really don't bother with is a lot of brassicas, nobody at home really likes them and I never had a lot of luck growing them in clay. We always have big problems with Cabbage white butterflies, netting never seems to be enough. Only one I do is brussels because usually have good results.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I note down sowing and planting out times, any snippets of extra info from seed packets or from my books and briefly go through it each week to make sure I'm not missing the boat with anything. Just about on schedule for April. May is going to be a busy time!
I'm such a rubbish gardener that if it grows I'm happy if it doesn't then it was probably something I did (or didn't do) but usually can't figure out what so just go the insanity route - isn't that the definition of repeated failures? But I can now grow carrots, Hooray!
And as for the hot beverages @GemmaJF they turn into Pimms as the season progresses so its pointless asking me what is growing where by July!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My late husband complained the Campari smelt and tasted like cough medicine but I didn't take much notice as he drank Ouzo (other paint strippers are available) and other oddities.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/259222/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=Brass+letters&Material=Brass