VEGGIES 2011

[diamond lil]

Are we all growing veg this year ? What are we doing ? I have probs with gardening, in that I love it - but things tend to take a look at my weather then scream & expire. I used to believe seed catalogues and buy fancy posh plants that were too delicate/tall/refined for my poor soil and constant cold wind. We get frosts until 1st June and its a short season, but this will be my third year trying and this time I want to do a LOT of veg. Flowers I give up with although herbs I love.
I want turnips, lettuce, onions, and tatties. Enough to do the two of us all year if poss (hahaha) What is everybody else doing, and have you any tips ?
God I feel like Gardeners Question Time now But I feel its an absolute basic for preppers - if TSHTF then we need to know how to grow food after all.

[itsybitsy]

Well, once I've got my grow bags and some deeper pots then I'm going to get cracking on some new potatoes, tomatoes, red peppers, salad onions and chillies. Herbs on the windowsill too.

[hobo]

Going to meet a garden owner round the corner on Wednesday. It's part of a project called 'Growing Opportunities' which matches people who have land - but don't use it... with people who want to grow veg - but don't have land.
Will aim for basic spuds, onions. carrots and peas.
On our balcony we'll carry on with gooseberries, strawberries, blackcurrants and raspberries.

Hobo

[diamond lil]

So will you maybe get some land then Hobo ? Will it be a garden or an allotment ? I found home grown onions absolutely gorgeous. Want try a lot more of them, nothing at all like shop bought. I grow lovely tomatoes on the windowsills, I have big 6ft windows, two face south and 1 north. Might try lettuce on the back one, see how that works.
I have a big old window and wanted to use it for a cold frame - but now dono what to put in it

[Pedalpusher]

Hi All,, I'm would you'd call a serious vegetable grower although based in the Scottish Highlands so blessed with lots of wind rain and even summer snow I manage to produce enough to keep the family all year round in most “standard veggys”.
For a start only plant non-hybrid seeds forget all the marketing hype, back in the “old days” they grew veg to eat! Not look good on the supermarket shelves modern varieties are to prone to pests and just delicate for up here. With non-hybrid seeds, you keep the seeds from one year to the next yourself, something the big sheds don't like, so if you have great success with only one plant out a whole crop, guess which one you keep for seed? That simple, 3 maybe 5 years down the line you have the best plants for your patch as chosen by you!
After doing this for 20 years I've ended up with a store of seed I know will do well in the garden.
Change your way of thinking, the object is to produce delicious wholesome vegetables with minimum effort, so plan ahead I've already mapped out this years planting, have too, because things like spinach, sorrel, or lettuce I expect multiple harvests all throughout the year so are planted out between the longer term plants such as Brussels or winter radish.
Mushrooms easy to grow and can produce 8 months of the year, easy to dry and store. Even flowers for the front garden, lots of varieties are delicious when added to salads or used as decorating for flans.
Anyway I look forward to reading every-bodies success stories, and even swapping seeds!
Pedalpusher

[southernPrepper]

What I know about vegetables in my garden is that the slugs will eat them all.

I need to lay in raised beds with gravel surrounds to have a hope of harvesting anything. I've been composting for a couple of years to get enough bio-mass to counteract the sand and if a suitable quantity of sleepers fall from the sky then I'll lay it in.

Carrots did well, until the slugs ate everything else including the spring onions.

[preppingsu]

Well, the horse poo has been going onto the plots the last couple of weekends so the soil is looking really good this year. This will be our 3rd year growing.
We will have early and maincrop potatoes, carrots, beetroot, runner and french beans, sweetcorn, pumpkins, might try sweet potato too.
plus succession planting of salad crops - mixed lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, spring onions, radishes.
I want to plan the winter veg better this year - to include swede, cabbage, parsnips (which can stay in the ground and are lovely at christmas) curly kale, maybe sprouts
Also have in ground already - summer and autumn raspberries, 2 beds of strawberries, blueberries.
Rhubarb hasn't done well at all so might look at purchasing another crown and plant elswhere in the garden.
Autumn 2011 will see the purchase of some fruit trees (apple, pear, plum)

[the-gnole]

What I know about vegetables in my garden is that the slugs will eat them all.

I need to lay in raised beds with gravel surrounds to have a hope of harvesting anything. I've been composting for a couple of years to get enough bio-mass to counteract the sand and if a suitable quantity of sleepers fall from the sky then I'll lay it in.

Carrots did well, until the slugs ate everything else including the spring onions.

A good way to get slugs off the veggies is, so I hear, a couple of strands of copper wire around the raised bed, or a copper strip.

[diamond lil]

Ok pedalpusher I think I need you LOL! I seem to be in a colder zone than you - I'm in that navy blue bit in the Southern Uplands -
http://www.trebrown.com/hrdzone.html
I'd like a month by month planting guide, if you could be assed ? And the southern preppers could just go a month sooner maybe. I want to grow onions, lettuce, syboes, turnips, kale (yeugh), leeks and tatties.
I can do herbs but flowers are a bit hit or miss because of the wind.

[hobo]

So will you maybe get some land then Hobo ? Will it be a garden or an allotment ? I found home grown onions absolutely gorgeous. Want try a lot more of them, nothing at all like shop bought. I grow lovely tomatoes on the windowsills, I have big 6ft windows, two face south and 1 north. Might try lettuce on the back one, see how that works.
I have a big old window and wanted to use it for a cold frame - but now dono what to put in it

Iits a garden, already dug. The owners are off to Oz from April - Nov. Perfect!

H