Advice for a hopeless gardener

[jansman]

I’ve dealt with this firm for years https://www.realseeds.co.uk/. The stuff they sell grows! And they encourage the saving of seeds. In the future,saved seed and perennials will be normal. Growing food will be like the late 70’s and earlier- it won’t be a hobby.

[jennyjj01]

I made beans Dunno what sort. I#m told, some went too big and will be stringy. But this is for tonight's tea, with my home grown spuds and onion.

[jansman]

I made beans Dunno what sort. I#m told, some went too big and will be stringy. But this is for tonight's tea, with my home grown spuds and onion.
IMG_20230803_162354.jpg

Excellent! Cannot beat a home grown crop. Great picture.

[jennyjj01]

I made beans Dunno what sort. I#m told, some went too big and will be stringy. But this is for tonight's tea, with my home grown spuds and onion.
IMG_20230803_162354.jpg

Excellent! Cannot beat a home grown crop. Great picture.

My box of Taters has dried out and whatever was eating them seems to have dried and died. A few spuds are brown inside. My onion straight from the ground was pretty big and in good shape. And these beans were fine: Not stringy. Needed a slightly long cooking. It was really satisfying to eat. Mr JJ was impressed and snarfed a big portion.

It was also satisfying walking through Lidl this afternoon and seeing three onions for 95p and knowing that I have over 75 such onions just sat in the ground. I'm leaving most of them there, so long as they have some greenery.

[jansman]

I made beans Dunno what sort. I#m told, some went too big and will be stringy. But this is for tonight's tea, with my home grown spuds and onion.
IMG_20230803_162354.jpg

Excellent! Cannot beat a home grown crop. Great picture.

My box of Taters has dried out and whatever was eating them seems to have dried and died. A few spuds are brown inside. My onion straight from the ground was pretty big and in good shape. And these beans were fine: Not stringy. Needed a slightly long cooking. It was really satisfying to eat. Mr JJ was impressed and snarfed a big portion.

It was also satisfying walking through Lidl this afternoon and seeing three onions for 95p and knowing that I have over 75 such onions just sat in the ground. I'm leaving most of them there, so long as they have some greenery.

When you raise the onions,dry them the same way as potatoes before storage.

[Medusa]

I thought my crops this year were doing well. Sadly my broccoli has not and cant work out if there is a disease or something lacking in the soil. The heads that I did salvage and rinsed before cooking led to lots of brown beetles crawling into the pan lid ewwww! so perhaps pests. Fruit has done well as have courgettes, tomatoes have fruited well but are not ripening, onions are small but bursting out of the soil, leeks are doing pants and my peppers just do not seem to be fruiting as well as normal in the greenhouse. The baby cucumbers are not babies at all and are huge, one day they seem too small and the next are huge but taste really good. The cabbages and swedes are riddled with holes and I have sprayed them with soapy water and a chemical spray which I hated using even though they are protected by mesh. Beetroot have done ok too and just need harvesting now. Carrots have done ok too. Feeling a bit meh about growing stuff this year to be honest although hopefully I will be back to my usual excitement in spring.

[jennyjj01]

I thought my crops this year were doing well. Sadly my broccoli has not and cant work out if there is a disease or something lacking in the soil. The heads that I did salvage and rinsed before cooking led to lots of brown beetles crawling into the pan lid ewwww! so perhaps pests. Fruit has done well as have courgettes, tomatoes have fruited well but are not ripening, onions are small but bursting out of the soil, leeks are doing pants and my peppers just do not seem to be fruiting as well as normal in the greenhouse. The baby cucumbers are not babies at all and are huge, one day they seem too small and the next are huge but taste really good. The cabbages and swedes are riddled with holes and I have sprayed them with soapy water and a chemical spray which I hated using even though they are protected by mesh. Beetroot have done ok too and just need harvesting now. Carrots have done ok too. Feeling a bit meh about growing stuff this year to be honest although hopefully I will be back to my usual excitement in spring.

I'm gutted for you. critters and pests and disease are a real upset. I see my neighbouring lot holders with their nets and bird scarers etc and i wish i'd done likewise. I also see what a rubbish job i did of hoeing. But it's all part of the learning curve.
Likewise, my first adventure in scaling up has been disappointing. Tomatoes have yet to ripen and what few I see look to be rotting or splitting. No luck with peppers, aubergines or okra. Peas came to nothing and got eaten by critters and swamped by weeds. Carrots coming to nothing, poor germination and swamped by weeds. I have a row of beetroot doing well, but I sowed less than last year. Onions have been my best success with 40 or so big plump ones and maybe 30 small ones. Spuds came out at about 7.5 kg with a few still growing amazingly well in my composters. Strawberries, just a bowlful, Beans about a kilo and as yet very few raspberries, It might sound ok, but this is an allotment worth versus a few planters and a cloche. Happy as I am with my modest crop, it's been far less than I should have managed. Apart from a fiver worth of horse muck, I've bought no compost and let the soil give it's magic.
In my case the worst enemy as been my shameful neglect.
Apart from harvesting what remains bit by bit, I'm likely to spend the rest of the year preparing ALL the ground for next season.

My 1/4 plot is in 5 beds each of which has a ropey, half arsed rotten wooden raised bed timber frame. Into autumn, I'm getting rid of all the timber frames that add very little value, and I'll be going nuclear on the weeds. I've seen the despair of marestail and bindweed and when I weed next time, I'll be FAR more thorough.

All weed roots are going offsite. Only very selected topgrowth will ever get composted, because the composter is maybe my biggest achievement this year. Zero compost bought so far for the lotment. Buying a lot of coir in the sales, 'cos I like it. In 2024, I plan to go big on container growing at the lotment while I tackle the weeds below: Something like I saw a guy on youtube growing spuds in rows and rows of rubble bags.

I'm not giving up on me. I just need to get into rhythm with nature: germinate at the right time, sow at the right time, weed at the right time and generally pull my finger out at the right time.

I'm going to read up and study the type of big crop cultivation used by cannabis growers. They seem to have mastered hydroponics and lighting and compost feeding almost on an industrial scale, If I could grow tomatoes so prolifically as some dodgy weed farmer, I'd be made up. I've already got a flair for growing bl006y weeds!

Time for the obligatory question..... I have 8 bags of fresh horse muck. Should I leave it in bags and progressively mix it in my heap as I get other ingredients, or should I open the bags now and add it all at once. I'm thinking the latter as it will give me more volume now and volume seems key to getting it to heat up. Then each week I'll be adding green waste and mixing it up a bit. Or I could just make a dedicated poo pile to get it fermenting on its own. Ideally I want my compost to be almost ready to use next year. Too ambitious?

[Yorkshire Andy]

This year's been a bit of a bust

Long hot dry spring ...

I went on holiday

Then knackered my foot....

And I got a naughty letter about the plot being uncultivated..

Well




Spuds at the top....

LHS top the one surviving marrow plant...

RHS the triffid artichokes

Soil dug over then tilled and field beans are planted the pedantic me will happily rant and any further complaints as it's a food crop

Other half I need to strim round the black currant bushes fence line upwards beyond the sun flowers

Raspberrys are setting nicely beyond that I've bunged in a few bits the pear tree has a good few on.. apples are poor but the plum tree is sagging under plums again..

Greenhouse is ok 2 tomato plants are late this year but finally settling.. chillies are doing ok but they need spraying tomorrow with insecticide

Chickens are coming into moult so they are slowing down laying

I've taken some cuttings of the berry bushes too and more strawberry plants are coming my way my dad's got me a pile of runners potted up

[jansman]

Un ripened tomatoes are not rare this year. Mine are starting to lean that way but not as swiftly as usual. And that’s in the greenhouse. I have some outdoor ones a neighbour gave me, but they’ll do no good. If I am still here next year,I won’t bother with tomatoes. Too much trouble. Mind you,when time comes I’ll think differently!
The squashes are awesome this year. A massive crop. Runner beans,well there’s more for tea tonight! The French beans are really lagging though. I prefer runners . When I get fed up with them,I let them dry. Some for seeds,rest for storage. They are easier to handle and process than the fiddly Frenchies.

[GillyBee]

I have yet to see a runner bean. They are refusing to set although the French are OK. I just didnt plant enough of them. Tomatoes are looking like a good crop IF they ever ripen. Courgettes were OK for a bit but have slowed right up for some reason. Next year I am sticking to hybrids with downy mildew resistance as I suspect that is some of the problem.