The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

A question about : The highs and lows of growing your own dinner 2015

I've been waiting for days to do this, I wanted to do it on Boxing Day!

This is a follow on from the Grow Your Own Dinner 2014 thread. Come on in, introduce yourselves!

Post your ups and downs of growing your own dinner what works well for you? What doesn't work so well for you?

What do you want to grow this year? Anything you've not tried but would like to?

Best answers:

• I have two allotments, on different sites. In a massive coincidence, they are numbered 6A and 6B, so they will be known as this from now on. 6A is the more established of the two.
  I shall be going to 6A shortly to start as I mean to go on- get a cabbage and some brocolli for tonight's dinner. I hope to be able to have a general tidy up while I'm there, now it's "warm" enough
  6B is a different project. I'm having chickens on that one It's split into two halves, so one side will house the chooks with some growing going on around it, and the other side will be put to full use.
  I want to grow everything! The most unusual thing I'll try is bananas. I've had to bring the plants indoors over winter but as soon as the greenhouses are empty of palms, they'll be back out there again!
  Last year, I got 6A in June so didn't get a full season out of it. This year I can get two full seasons
• Did grow my own in 2013, but last year we adopted a dog and she likes to trample over everything. So this year I am going to build some raised beds that she can't get into and grow some stuff in them. She is an english bulldog so anything about 18" she will struggle with.
  Keeping it simple though, carrots, onions, kale and beetroot. I have some containers that I use for potatoes, salad and spring onions and in my greenhouse there will (hopefully) be tomatoes, peppers, chillies, cucumbers and cucamelons.
  I also fish, so hopefully the freezer will be full of trout, codling and pollock (but that depends on my fishing luck!)
  Well that's the current plan anyway
• My granddad used to grow masses of veg and fruit and he made it look effortless!!!!
  Following on from him, I have tried ....with varying success levels.
  Have grown peas, they never make it to the pot, I eat them fresh!!
  Runner beans, went ok, not a big crop. I grew them in containers and am sure they didn't have enough soil.
  Radsihes, just went leafy and never grew the radish.
  Aubergines, died a death.
  Peppers grew really well!!!!! ....... then I saw at the back of all 3 they had been half eaten by a slug or something.
  Strawberries never fruited.
  Courgettes I got about 5 edible ones n the end.
  Tomatoes, hit an miss there too.
  I grew mainly in containers, I am thinking I should dig up some ground and make 2 raised beds?? each would be about 2 by 2 meters.
  I also don't have a greenhouse.
  This year I am attempting....
  French beans
  peas
  radishes
  spring onions
  carrots
  tomatoes
  cucumber (last year they were prickly and bitter?????)
  strawberries.
  aubergine
  courgettes
  and squash, also grew last year and nothing appeared.
  HMMMMMM still got a lot to learn
• Morning team, and happy new year!
  In a few weeks me and missus will be moving to a place in the country which has a greenhouse and an established veg spot, which is nice!
  Never had a greenhouse before so am rather excited! Have had little gardening experience- I had an allotment once but everybody down the allotments were all nasty, spiteful bitter people who were more interested in infighting and politics than growing spuds. Sounds bizarre, but that's how it was. On my first day there when I was looking at my weed strewn mess, an old mon warned me not to get involved and 'keep my head down'! I thought he was a bit mental but his advice was spot on!
  I got thrown off in the end for not bringing my plot up to speed quick enough- I work long hours and struggle with back pain so concerntrated on small patches.
  Anyway. I digress!
  Am hoping to be able to have a successful year this year. Would love to be self sufficient, food wise, but I think that's pushing it a bit!
  I have friends that shoot, so I always have game in th freezer and we have chickens for eggs.
  Rather looking forward to it!
  Remember the name- I feel lots of stupid questions coming on. Bear with me!
• hello can I join in?
  We got an allotment last year, with zero growing experience. We did manage to get a good few courgettes/marrows and the carrots, onions and parsnips did well. More than we were expecting considering the conditions - clay mixed with glass and rock :/
  This year we will trymore of the same, hopefully will actually get some brasiccas as they all died/got eaten last year. We got some fruit bushes this winter, including currents and cranberrys (I love cranberry sauce) and we will try something new - vegetable spaghetti. Our popcorn which the kids grew did well, so we'll try that again.
  Where does everyone get their seeds from? Too many places to choose from!
• Welcome all
  There's no such thing as a stupid question
  I've just come back with kale, cabbage, brocolli and mint. My mint doesn't seem to mind the winter at all. Shame it's beef for dinner tonight and not lamb i have taken some spinach out of the greenhouse too
  I've already learnt this year that if I grow kale again, it'll be double debris netted. It took me ages to get rid of the dreaded cabbage whitefly
  I think a seed swap is a great idea but we will have to figure out the best way to organise it maybe a private facebook group or something... MSE roolz are such that we might not be able to do it directly via MSE
• Quick hello from me thanks for starting the thread I love veg growing. I've got a very small back garden so my veg patch is only 2m x 9m but I have four espalier fruit trees and two fruit bushes in that space plus a hexagonal greenhouse which is being used to its full potential.
  Bought my seeds already mainly doing salad, squash, winter squash, peas, beans and spinach. Green house for flowers for pots and cucumbers I don't like tomatoes. I'm on a low carb diet so shouldn't really grow spuds but new ones are the best so one small bag will have to fit that in.
  Slugs main problem here but nermatodes are good if not expensive.
  Look forward to reading all about your ups and dowas on here.
• Hi!
  I'm fairly new to gardening but I'm full of enthusiasm so fingers crossed by this time next year I'll have lots of fresh home grown produce stoked away!
  So far I've planted some strawberries and my herb patch is well stocked although it could do with tidying up a bit. Once the raised beds are built I'll hopefully be able to get the garden being much more productive but we all have to start somewhere.
  Looking forward to picking up loads of helpful hints from everyone!
• I'm interested in this. I've never grown anything but want to try salad stuff and strawberries. I have a tiny garden though so it's going to all be in containers
• For those with limited space, is vertical growing an option for you? I've "acquired" a few pallets that I'll be using up against fences and walls to maximise my growing space- although I've not yet got as far as deciding what I'm growing in them yet strawberries are popular but I've got a bed at the allotment full of them so don't want to repeat myself.
• Count me in please, just got our own allotment
  If anyone in East kent reading has any rhubarb going spare, I would be happy to swap something for that.
  Looking forward to reading how we are all doing with this
• Well...
  I've only been doing this since 2013 - that was a good year for tomatoes & apples. Last year was not so good on the tomato front, and i think a ended up with two apples. However i'm still building up raised beds, and cutting back abandoned areas of the garden. 2014 brought me potatoes for the first time, oca (very nice), plenty of herbs, and i was self sufficient in salad leaves for a few months. I think i've a long way to go in terms of volume still but thanks to Masterchef i've a new buzzword - microgreens (!) Earlier today i proudly handed my better half a small tub of green things, like peas only much much smaller - "look honey... ...microsprouts!"
• Hi Queen of Cheap:- Thanks for the new thread. I've just posted a link on the 2014 thread to send folk across to the new one.
  Going to join in again this year and hopefully will be as self sufficient as possible. I'm going to grow only those veg which we eat in reasonable amounts. foraging on the place will be high on the list and I hope to work towards planting an orchard next autumn.
  Review of 2014 The good and the bad
  The soil type is acid sand, deficient in potash. I have 12 x raised beds plus other ground, green house, large fruit cage and a new solar tunnel which hasn't been erected yet.
  2014 growing season started in June. After 2 yrs I was able to walk again after being mended - a fantastic feeling, but can you imagine the state of the veg garden after that period of time and I still haven't completely cleared the mess.
  I really only managed:-
  Carrots - Early Nantes and a new one called Eskimo, I will grow Eskimo again as I'm still picking them - they are supposed to be frost hardy.
  Runner Beans - Firestorm - good crop, will grow again and freeze
  Climbing French Beans - Cobra, will grow less and only use fresh.
  Leeks - Oarsman - considering the short period of time they have had to grow I am really pleased with them - will grow again.
  Shallots - I think they were Red Sun - again considering the time they were sown I can't complain.
  Nothing was grown in the greenhouse or the fruit cage. This autumn I have bought, blueberries, and raspberries - all are in holding pots until the spring until I have had time to get in the fruit cage and sort it out. There are some strawberries on the plot but they need sorting out.
  Foraging and things not on in the veg garden:- good crop of blackberries, rose hips, blackcurrants and crab apples. I thought I had a good crop of Sweet Chestnuts but when I was preparing them for the freezer some small grubs crept out of them so they ended up in the bin. A few medlars and mulberries and a fantastic crop of very late apples.
  My aim this year is to be as self sufficient as possible. To empty the green house so I can use it again, clear the mess in the fruit cage, and get my DH to erect the solar tunnel. Oops I think I have just seen a pink thing flying overhead.
• Hello there. I'm in again. Already planted during the last couple of months are garlic and shallots. Peas and broad beans are still in the greenhouse in pots, I'm not planting them out just yet. Still getting little gem lettuce in the greenhouse. Need to dig a new plot though and get some lovely hm compost on it ready for spring planting.
• Hello again, fellow diggers and planters!
  Last year was a fairly successful one for me, but each year I make some funny mistakes. I'll share this one with you: as sweetcorn had grown quite well in the tunnel in previous years I thought I'd try the greenhouse. They grew so big that they bent over at the top and couldn't grow fertilised cobs as my greenhouse doesn't have a window. In the end I couldn't get in, it looked lovely though
  I've started this year with pepper seeds on the window sill as the plants I bought reduced last year turned out nice but didn't really give enough fruit in turn so I don't want to pay again for any. When I've tidies up in the greenhouse I will fumigate it as I had a bad infestation of mould. I planted lettuces and chards in the tunnel to give me an early start. I'll keep you posted on how that turns out!
  The best thing I'd done last year was moving the kids old climbing frame into the veg beds and grow beans on it!
  It's a nice day, so I'll hopefully go out and do something, maybe snip some currants and stick them into the ground somewhere. No waste, lol.
• After my dog walk this morning, I kept my coat on and got out in the garden. Threw out the last pepper in the greenhouse, watered lightly the peas and broad beans etc and then made a frame that I will net when my plot is ready. I started to remove the turf from my new plot and then it started to rain.
  So I've come indoors to find my garden magazine subscription is here along with free packets of seeds: beetroot, carrot, chard, onion, watercress and kale.
  A day when I have achieved something greenfingered.
• Hi Can I join in
  We have a large garden. So no allotment. I also work so the only time I get outside is at weekends or evenings.
  I struggle with pests urban foxes dig up our garden and slugs and snails eat more of our produce than we do.
  I only have a few leeks in at the moment.
  I do have a greenhouse which is unheated.
  I use that to plant seeds and early crops. I grow salad leaves in there I also grow watercress by planting it in a flower pot and standing that in a gravel tray I keep the gravel tray topped with fresh water.
  I also have gooseberry bushes, strawberries, red and blackcurrants, loganberries and blackberries plus two small apple trees.
  I love being outside on bright days even if it is cold.
• I'd like to play this year if I can. I'm not very green fingered and seem to have more slugs than garden but it must be worth a try.
  I have some raspberry canes I need to figure out how to plant. I also have some T&M vouchers to use from tesco points so need to think what else to buy with them.
  I have a little conservatory rather than a green house if that counts?
  So are there any fruits / veg the slugs won't eat? or if you had Ј60 of T&M vouchers what would you buy? Then next time they do free postage I'll be right on there.