Advice for a hopeless gardener

[jansman]

Told you last year - take your time . Cannot beat nature. Go with the flow.

I'll be good, this year.

Thankfully, ebay and Royal Mail are conspiring to slow me down. Some seeds, and tree onion bulbs should arrive later this week. The tree onions will need a home straight away, I think I'll pot half and pop half in a bed..... Better still... I'll read the blinking instructions.

I need to knuckle down with clearing about 25m^2 of my plot. That alone will eat up January. I'll pop those garlics into a bed for now.

Apart from some onion seeds and maybe a few bell peppers, ASAP, I resolve to sow NOTHING else this month....

I used to sow tomatoes now ,when younger. However it took heat, light,and worse…attention. Waste of time and ( now) expensive heat. Hey ho!

[jennyjj01]

Told you last year - take your time . Cannot beat nature. Go with the flow.

OK....I raked over one of my beds to get the weeds out. There are still half a dozen skinny leeks in there so I un-choked them
I've popped most of my garlic in the raked bed, which is light and fluffy compost, all but the most subdued cloves, which I left in the tray under a propagator lid. Live or die. It's up to nature to find a way.
The rapidly prospering bulbs had up to 3 white hair like roots. Not much at all. Some of the OK looking ones had barely any root growth, but they were still sprouting well. If I get 50% survival of those and they develop into whole bulbs, I'll be more than happy. If frost gets them, C'est la vie.

[GillyBee]

How much energy do you have to spare - both personal and household? For an easy life stick with nature's calendar.


Crops fall into 3 categories.
Tough bulbs like garlic that need to sit in the cold ground for a bit to form roots before they grow. Put in the ground now as long as it isnt frozen. Garlic wil not make cloves if it is kept too warm over winter
Tough aka "hardy" plants & seeds that will not drop dead if you get a chilly spell. These still need warmth & light to actually grow. You can also plant hardy PLANTS, mostly long lived things like rhubarb, currant bushes, raspberries etc in cold but not frozen ground. Hardy SEEDS need a bit more warmth & light to grow. Things like peas (not beans) lettuce, carrot, spinach should germinate OK come March time but wil rot if sown too cold.

Delicate plants aka "tender plants" need warmth to survive and usually need to be started on a windowsill and planted out once ALL risk of frost is gone. This includes peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, squash and runner beans. Sow these too early and you are asking for a lot of work trying to keep them alive.

An outdoor greenhouse lets you sow about a month earlier than sowing outdoors. A good growing guide will list what to sow when. Avoid anything sowing indoors if there is an outdoors option and don't sow the delicate stuff before about April or it will outgrow your windowsill before it is warm enough to kick it outdoors. If it is a cold spring you may need to wait a couple of weeks for things to warm up and be prepared to sow a second batch if he first one fails.

[jennyjj01]

How much energy do you have to spare - both personal and household? For an easy life stick with nature's calendar.

Partly I want to grow further through the year, but mostly I'm just excitable. I think most of my energy will be expended on digging my plot. Much as I'd love no dig, no way do i want to buy a tonne of compost, just for an easy life. I cancelled the gym

Crops fall into 3 categories.
Tough bulbs like garlic that need to sit in the cold ground for a bit to form roots before they grow. Put in the ground now as long as it isnt frozen. Garlic wil not make cloves if it is kept too warm over winter

Did that today. It was not making good roots and burning all it's energy shooting up.

You can also plant hardy PLANTS, mostly long lived things like rhubarb, currant bushes, raspberries etc in cold but not frozen ground. Hardy SEEDS need a bit more warmth & light to grow.

Here impatience gets the better of me.

Things like peas (not beans) lettuce, carrot, spinach should germinate OK come March time but wil rot if sown too cold.

I tried a few peas as manure crop, but these I do expect success with as soon as it's warm enough to sow.

Delicate plants aka "tender plants" need warmth to survive and usually need to be started on a windowsill and planted out once ALL risk of frost is gone. This includes peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, squash and runner beans. Sow these too early and you are asking for a lot of work trying to keep them alive.

Been there: Done that. Peppers, aubergine, most tomatoes, died in misery

An outdoor greenhouse lets you sow about a month earlier than sowing outdoors. A good growing guide will list what to sow when. Avoid anything sowing indoors if there is an outdoors option and don't sow the delicate stuff before about April or it will outgrow your windowsill before it is warm enough to kick it outdoors. If it is a cold spring you may need to wait a couple of weeks for things to warm up and be prepared to sow a second batch if he first one fails.

Cloche and clear polly growing hut are my best effort.
I'm going to have a two site growing space. seedlings, tomatoes etc in my more supervised back garden beds, and my bulking crops on the allotment.

[jennyjj01]

Garlic will be fine. Egyptian onions,yeah. My very first lot,I banged one bulb per pot to create a plant,them bunged in when suitable.The crop,I just let it ‘walk’ and there are dozens and then some! Cannot beat ‘em.

Help please, especially from Jansman....
My Egyptian walking onion sets arrived at enormous expense. bulbils? Cloves? Bulbs?....

Just over 20, but many are tiny as small as 8mm
Now, I recognise that it will be years before I harvest anything at all but I think I need to give these the best start possible.
Many are looking pretty sad.

So. Best thing to do NOW?
Do I remove dry papery layer?
Into a shared windowbox like my garlic? Transplant when they've had a growth spurt?
Will they dislike transplanting?
Or into plastic or card eggbox individually?
Or into individual 2.5 inch pots?
Good potting compost or some of that soft nutrient free coir.?
Add some food?
Or hydroponics in card tube wick.
How deep? Internet says a couple inches but I can't do that well in small pots
Or should they go straight outside into planters
Or into the cloche?

I suppose I will spend the next many years weeding around them.
When they go out, dedicate a square metre or so

Please help me babies live

Photo to follow.

[jansman]

Garlic will be fine. Egyptian onions,yeah. My very first lot,I banged one bulb per pot to create a plant,them bunged in when suitable.The crop,I just let it ‘walk’ and there are dozens and then some! Cannot beat ‘em.

Help please, especially from Jansman....
My Egyptian walking onion sets arrived at enormous expense. bulbils? Cloves? Bulbs?....

Just over 20, but many are tiny as small as 8mm
Now, I recognise that it will be years before I harvest anything at all but I think I need to give these the best start possible.
Many are looking pretty sad.

So. Best thing to do NOW?
Do I remove dry papery layer?
Into a shared windowbox like my garlic? Transplant when they've had a growth spurt?
Will they dislike transplanting?
Or into plastic or card eggbox individually?
Or into individual 2.5 inch pots?
Good potting compost or some of that soft nutrient free coir.?
Add some food?
Or hydroponics in card tube wick.
How deep? Internet says a couple inches but I can't do that well in small pots
Or should they go straight outside into planters
Or into the cloche?

I suppose I will spend the next many years weeding around them.
When they go out, dedicate a square metre or so

Please help me babies live

Photo to follow.

Ok. As they are. Don’t peel etc. into a small pot of dampened compost or whatever you use. I popped mine in (/and yes some are small) . Just under the surface. Pretend it’s how they will fall and do it naturally later this year Try to keep them unfrozen,but it won’t hurt if they do. It just helps. Keep them JUST damp . They won’t take long to sprout. Simples.

An excellent,no work onion.

[jennyjj01]

Help please, especially from Jansman....
My Egyptian walking onion sets arrived at enormous expense. bulbils? Cloves? Bulbs?....

So. Best thing to do NOW?
Do I remove dry papery layer?
Into a shared windowbox like my garlic? Transplant when they've had a growth spurt?
Will they dislike transplanting?
Or into plastic or card eggbox individually?
Or into individual 2.5 inch pots?
Good potting compost or some of that soft nutrient free coir.?
Add some food?
Or hydroponics in card tube wick.
How deep? Internet says a couple inches but I can't do that well in small pots
Or should they go straight outside into planters
Or into the cloche?

I suppose I will spend the next many years weeding around them.
When they go out, dedicate a square metre or so

Please help me babies live

Ok. As they are. Don’t peel etc. into a small pot of dampened compost or whatever you use. I popped mine in (/and yes some are small) . Just under the surface. Pretend it’s how they will fall and do it naturally later this year Try to keep them unfrozen,but it won’t hurt if they do. It just helps. Keep them JUST damp . They won’t take long to sprout. Simples.

An excellent,no work onion.

OK....
My expensive 10 cloves/bulbils or whatever they're called counted up to 25 and have now been popped into damp, light compost in a windowsill propagator. 9 went into loo roll pots and the rest into slightly larger plastic pods. 4 got paired up. I'll tend not to water it and see how it copes with it's own condensation.
If they go like the strug garlic cloves, I'll look to plant them out in about 3 weeks when they are 3 inches tall.
By that time, I'll be itching to sow something else into the propagator.... Bell peppers? Aubergine?
.
Well that's the plan

Meanwhile...
Visit to Home Bargain today, thanks to member 'Rusty'. They had ONE rack of seeds on a far corner end of isle. 50% flowers, 50% veg. All packets were half price at 49p. Looked like new stock. No other garden stuff out yet.
Varieties were a bit scant but acceptable. three types of carrots including Paris Market and Early Nantes. Three types of tomatoes including MoneyMaker and Roma and a couple of types of most popular veg.
Packs were a bit skimpy with, for example 25 peas or 25 tomato seeds to a pack. Well worth the visit.

[jansman]

Help please, especially from Jansman....
My Egyptian walking onion sets arrived at enormous expense. bulbils? Cloves? Bulbs?....

So. Best thing to do NOW?
Do I remove dry papery layer?
Into a shared windowbox like my garlic? Transplant when they've had a growth spurt?
Will they dislike transplanting?
Or into plastic or card eggbox individually?
Or into individual 2.5 inch pots?
Good potting compost or some of that soft nutrient free coir.?
Add some food?
Or hydroponics in card tube wick.
How deep? Internet says a couple inches but I can't do that well in small pots
Or should they go straight outside into planters
Or into the cloche?

I suppose I will spend the next many years weeding around them.
When they go out, dedicate a square metre or so

Please help me babies live

Ok. As they are. Don’t peel etc. into a small pot of dampened compost or whatever you use. I popped mine in (/and yes some are small) . Just under the surface. Pretend it’s how they will fall and do it naturally later this year Try to keep them unfrozen,but it won’t hurt if they do. It just helps. Keep them JUST damp . They won’t take long to sprout. Simples.

An excellent,no work onion.

OK....
My expensive 10 cloves/bulbils or whatever they're called counted up to 25 and have now been popped into damp, light compost in a windowsill propagator. 9 went into loo roll pots and the rest into slightly larger plastic pods. 4 got paired up. I'll tend not to water it and see how it copes with it's own condensation.
If they go like the strug garlic cloves, I'll look to plant them out in about 3 weeks when they are 3 inches tall.
By that time, I'll be itching to sow something else into the propagator.... Bell peppers? Aubergine?
.
Well that's the plan

Meanwhile...
Visit to Home Bargain today, thanks to member 'Rusty'. They had ONE rack of seeds on a far corner end of isle. 50% flowers, 50% veg. All packets were half price at 49p. Looked like new stock. No other garden stuff out yet.
Varieties were a bit scant but acceptable. three types of carrots including Paris Market and Early Nantes. Three types of tomatoes including MoneyMaker and Roma and a couple of types of most popular veg.
Packs were a bit skimpy with, for example 25 peas or 25 tomato seeds to a pack. Well worth the visit.

Don’t put it in a propagator. Keep it natural.

[jennyjj01]

My expensive 10 cloves/bulbils or whatever they're called counted up to 25 and have now been popped into damp, light compost in a windowsill propagator.

Don’t put it in a propagator. Keep it natural.

Ah.
It's not a heated one or anything clever. Just one of these trays, with a clear plastic lid...

Does that advice still stand? Only difference between how I did these and my garlic, is that the garlic was not in individual pods.

Did I do bad

The only way i could go more natural would be to leave the lid off. It's in an east facing window so gets no direct sun. I could move the lot outside into the open, but I'm trying to keep an eye on the soil dampness.

[jansman]

My expensive 10 cloves/bulbils or whatever they're called counted up to 25 and have now been popped into damp, light compost in a windowsill propagator.

Don’t put it in a propagator. Keep it natural.

Ah.
It's not a heated one or anything clever. Just one of these trays, with a clear plastic lid...

Does that advice still stand? Only difference between how I did these and my garlic, is that the garlic was not in individual pods.

Did I do bad

The only way i could go more natural would be to leave the lid off. It's in an east facing window so gets no direct sun. I could move the lot outside into the open, but I'm trying to keep an eye on the soil dampness.

Just no lid. Don’t force it. It’ll sprout.