Advice for a hopeless gardener

[jennyjj01]

All I need is a miracle
First time I ever tried... I plucked four side shoots off my marters and I'm trying to root them. Dipped in rooting powder and poked into some compost. Smallest was barely 2 inches and biggest was just 3 inches . Sat in a water bath in the kitchen window
Anyone taking bets as to whether they prosper ?

My marters are still pretty small. Tallest is less than a foot tall.
Photos to follow.

[jennyjj01]

Today a couple of veg growing 'speriments.....

So,
Tardis number#1, I removed the lid, gave the top half a stir and planted one chitted spud* seed in the middle,

Tardis number#2, similar, but in that I planted a 3" courgette seedling that I had in a 3" pot.

It's my intention to neglect these babies and let them get rained on and shone on. I'll only intervene if they look like they NEED water.

Am I being silly?

Silly or not, here's an update after just 6 weeks...
The courgette is now huge and starting to flower. Unexpected was that not only my deliberate spud, but about half a dozen chucked away spuds or peelings, have also sprouted.
These spuds are probably bigger and better than anything I intentionally grew anywhere. In one tardis, the courgette and some spuds are fighting it out. In the other, spuds are sparring with eachother.
These have just been watered a few times, but with no real attention.

Awesome result after about 6 weeks, I'm hopeful of a crop.
Cardboard has been removed. the big leaves are suppressing weeds.

Just look at this transition. 6 weeks!

[GillyBee]

Do you have a good stash of courgette recipes ready to go? I know have a little set of courgette recipes saved in "Recipe Keeper" app. We have not made much use of the dehydrated ones from last year. This year I may try Dill pickles with some.

[jansman]

They are rather nice cooked down in olive oil and garlic ,than served with pasta. Simple and tasty.

[jennyjj01]

Do you have a good stash of courgette recipes ready to go? I know have a little set of courgette recipes saved in "Recipe Keeper" app. We have not made much use of the dehydrated ones from last year. This year I may try Dill pickles with some.

Thanks.
I still have jars of pickled finger sized ones from last year Zod only knows how I'll get them eaten quick enough. Dehydrating never occurred to me. One plant will be enough to feed the village with the darned things.

On average, I buy zero courgettes per lifetime, so fair to say I'm self sufficient

[jennyjj01]

I have fruit..... Not a lot.....
But it's a harvest.
Roughly a dozen plants averaging about 1.5 strawberries each, including tiny red ones.
I picked some a bit green, which I'm cosying up with a banana to see how they ripen.

Not much sign of any critters getting to them.

My gooseberries seem to be hiding.
Maybe a dozen or so raspberries starting to ripen. I don't know when to harvest them.

[jansman]

Pleased to say that we are now harvesting strawberries,gooseberries, lettuce, Egyptian and Welsh onions - lots- and Daubenton perennials kale .Rhubarb is superb,and I’m making my chutney now. No good if it’s not 4 years matured! Spinach will be in a week. Also spuds. My mate bought Jersey Royals last week,and wasn’t impressed. So I gave him some of mine. They won! The Apple,pear and plums are looking heavy now.

One thing about spuds these days is that I don’t ‘plant’ them. I just leave a couple of tubers there when cropping.Sling some compost on when I can be bothered,and next year,regardless of weather,a crop. Done! Same with perpetual spinach. And lettuce. I just let them go to seed,whack ‘em and let them grow. And they do. The garden looks a little ‘wild’ ,but in a crisis,the majority of townies here now would not realise it were food if they trespassed.
One bed I am pushing is the perennial kale. Up until recently,I always grew Scotch Kale. Very nice. But it means sowing and transplanting in the greenhouse etc. Hard work! So simple cuttings I will stuff in the ground from the perennial kale and we will be more than covered.

I very rarely use a spade or fork these days. In fact it’s usually for getting worms from the compost to go fishing with.

Have a good day. The rain today will do your watering.

[jennyjj01]

Pleased to say that we are now harvesting strawberries,gooseberries, lettuce, Egyptian and Welsh onions - lots- and Daubenton perennials kale .

One thing about spuds these days is that I don’t ‘plant’ them. I just leave a couple of tubers there when cropping.Sling some compost on when I can be bothered,and next year,regardless of weather,a crop. Done! Same with perpetual spinach. And lettuce. I just let them go to seed,whack ‘em and let them grow. And they do. The garden looks a little ‘wild’ ,but in a crisis,the majority of townies here now would not realise it were food if they trespassed

Good thinking about the spuds. So it's sort of like a deliberate 'volunteer'? That's a pretty remarkable testament to nature that a spud can sit in the ground untended for many MANY months and not decay. Nature Rocks! I had mused over that idea, but no-one on t'internet suggested it. We get all sorts of know it alls saying never grow spuds same place etc. Pah!

Interesting to know how you handle annual weeds between your lettuce and spuds, while waiting for them to germinate? I guess you must be a dab hand at knowing weeds from veg? I see that problem where I sowed carrots: All sorts of annual weeds are popping up amongst them and it's only luck that I recognise carrot tops so i can pull some weeds without wrecking them. Straight lines: Pah! Thinning out: Pah again!
In spite of the allotment, I still embrace buckets and pots, where I have peas and carrots and even spuds doing their thing.

I'm letting my Egyptian onions do their own thing: Not harvesting this first year. A couple got all gnarled up and died but about 4 are drooping down their bulbils. It's a wonder to behold. I hope to eventually have a 1sq m bed full of them.
I agree about the rain. I watered just a bit, knowing that our British weather would know what to do. We let the lawn's get parched, this year: Lawn's just a darned chore. Might bed out the back lawn, which is neither use nor ornament.

Back to the topic of letting things go to seed.... I have about 5 parsnips left in the ground. They are about 6 feet tall I'm hoping they'll give me masses of seeds. I do hope they somehow pollinate. If not, I'll have wasted a year's worth of bed space. My Chives went to seed and the chive patch is growing great. Self sufficient in chives. A few spring onions have been growing forever. Pretty much gone wild on me and given zero love and attention. I harvested a few last week and they were big and round. Who cares if they were the wrong shape as they still went on my cheese butty.

Jansman..... I'm reading your 'lazy gardening' style as giving me some permission to be lazy too Weeds pulled and dropped where they are. Some grass clippings scattered where others might hoe and clear. Cardboard where others would have beautifully hoed and tended bare earth.
I've got a big raised bed just for 'pretty flowers' Guess how much effort that gets:... Rake once. Sprinkle with a couple of kiddies bags of 'cottage mix' and let it get on with it. Every summer it bursts into colourful life, weeds and all. So what if its a mess, so long as it's a mess of colour.

[jansman]

The spuds don’t suffer the weather. They grow. Weeds? I pull the worst,but I don’t stress. They always grow! Your onions- you are doing the right thing. First year let em go. Next year they will grow! And that won’t be long. This kind of gardening is not lazy. In fact for all the Climate Brigade who whinge on about whatever,this is actually an eco - positive ,as it cuts out real energy and provides it too!

[jennyjj01]

Weeds? I pull the worst,but I don’t stress. They always grow! .. This kind of gardening is not lazy. In fact for all the Climate Brigade who whinge on about whatever,this is actually an eco - positive ,as it cuts out real energy and provides it too!

So..... You're not going to scold me for not hoeing before the weeds pop up

I still wonder how you cope with weeds germinating alongside carrots. Mine are literally like step cousins, weed and carrot growing up side by side. Every time i try to pull a weed, a carrot seems to perish, so I really don't stress it, so long as a decent number of carrots survive. I didn't do too well sowing in neat rows. So no hoeing.

I sort of ration my time at cultivating and I can't get my head around how much time and effort and money some folk put into allotment or homestead gardening. Farmers seem to spray,dig, sow, spray, harvest. You don't see them fannying about hoeing or earthing up spuds or riddling out weed roots. Though they may use evil chemicals, they know that efficiency is not about getting the biggest or best yields, but rather the best return on investment. We home growers should take notice and cherry pick best practice. Actually, I think it would be some sort of OCD to get stressed out over weeds to the extent of trying to eliminate them. Spuds and courgettes have the best idea: Claim their area, and shade out the weeds. Peas and beans and tomatoes: Rise above them. Carrots are a bit dumber and try to signal us for help with their feathery distinct leaves
Nature will do it's thing: Weeds are natural: Critters are natural: We humans are the interlopers thinking we can reign over them. Pah! Not without being a slave to the hoe.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT. Same with any aspect of life.