Advice for a hopeless gardener

[jennyjj01]

The salads are grown in 12” pots ,new potatoes too. Carrots I grow in ten litre sausage seasoning buckets They work really well.The climbing beans I grow in cut- off 50 gallon plastic drums. Sorry about the mix of metric and imperial measures

Just to show I was paying attention....... Those pot and bucket sizes for the spuds and carrots sound tiny, especially the carrots. They would seem to have hardly any legroom in a reqular 10 litre tub (I saw your carrot pic from when you mentioned these tubs before ). What yield would one of those give? Maybe a dozen carrots? Or can you cram them in?

I'm embracing the idea of a few trugs and buckets and assorted windowbox sized containers, as I can pop them out on the patio and move them about easily, rather than manage my bigger raised beds (1200x 800). Most of my back garden is flagged and will stay that way.

[jansman]

The salads are grown in 12” pots ,new potatoes too. Carrots I grow in ten litre sausage seasoning buckets They work really well.The climbing beans I grow in cut- off 50 gallon plastic drums. Sorry about the mix of metric and imperial measures

Just to show I was paying attention....... Those pot and bucket sizes for the spuds and carrots sound tiny, especially the carrots. They would seem to have hardly any legroom in a reqular 10 litre tub (I saw your carrot pic from when you mentioned these tubs before ). What yield would one of those give? Maybe a dozen carrots? Or can you cram them in?

I'm embracing the idea of a few trugs and buckets and assorted windowbox sized containers, as I can pop them out on the patio and move them about easily, rather than manage my bigger raised beds (1200x 800). Most of my back garden is flagged and will stay that way.

Carrots,I grow Amsterdam Forcing - baby carrots if you like. 2 dozen per pot? Of course,you are free to grow in whatever size pot you like. I grow ‘meal size’ amounts for Mrs J and me. I sowed more of those carrots in September in the barrels vacated by the marrows. Still got a good 5 dozen carrots to harvest.

[jennyjj01]

Carrots,I grow Amsterdam Forcing - baby carrots if you like. 2 dozen per pot? Of course,you are free to grow in whatever size pot you like. I grow ‘meal size’ amounts for Mrs J and me. I sowed more of those carrots in September in the barrels vacated by the marrows. Still got a good 5 dozen carrots to harvest.

Thanks and SORRY. I wasn't trying to disrespect you or second guess what you have done so brilliantly. It just seemed a tight squeeze.

I like how those carrots can be sowed year round. That's exactly a feature I'm looking for.
Still hesitant to grow carrots though, because they are so cheap... at least pre-apocalypse

Now... If Looks like Parsnips can do the same, so I'm a convert*. Still trying to figure what needs deep soil and what needs big surface areas. Expect more dumb questions

*Shout out to https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/parsn ... w-your-own So easy for a newbie to read and work from.

[jansman]

Carrots,I grow Amsterdam Forcing - baby carrots if you like. 2 dozen per pot? Of course,you are free to grow in whatever size pot you like. I grow ‘meal size’ amounts for Mrs J and me. I sowed more of those carrots in September in the barrels vacated by the marrows. Still got a good 5 dozen carrots to harvest.

Thanks and SORRY. I wasn't trying to disrespect you or second guess what you have done so brilliantly. It just seemed a tight squeeze.

I like how those carrots can be sowed year round. That's exactly a feature I'm looking for.
Still hesitant to grow carrots though, because they are so cheap... at least pre-apocalypse

Now... If Looks like Parsnips can do the same, so I'm a convert*. Still trying to figure what needs deep soil and what needs big surface areas. Expect more dumb questions

*Shout out to https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/parsn ... w-your-own So easy for a newbie to read and work from.

ZERO offence taken You have to grow what YOU eat. If you can find a better/ easier way,please tell me.I am a big fan of energy conservation- especially mine! Gardening is a constant learning curve. My dad taught me so many years ago,but if he saw the way I do it now,I really don’t know what he would think.His was the old way.

The RHS website is superb by the way.

[jennyjj01]

OMG. Let's talk 5h17..... Compost! Manure!
Singularly unimpressed by my own attempt to start composting and annoyed by the price and environmental damage of soil and compost, I googled 'local Manure'

GOBSMACKED!

I'd already figured that composting is a slow process, beyond my sensible limitations. But I stumbled across the 'Sort of' classified ads at preloved.com and scoured ebay and gumtree * It transpires that...

1. There are lots of people selling pre-owned plastic composters at a fraction of retail ( quel surprise )
2. There are lots of people giving away or selling cheap or help yourself, 'well rotted manure'. Animal sanctuaries seem happy to flog it at low price, maybe just a donation.
3. Well rotted compost means 2 to 5 years! Holy S**T. that's a long time. No wonder my twigs and teabags still look like twigs and tea bags.

So much I have yet to learn! Going to mentally regroup, scour those sites and probably order a delivery of this 'horse nugget gold' for my planters. (Visualises Wilfred Bramble eating his butties in the Steptoe and Son film, after scooping up Hercules's poop)

I may not HAVE an allotment, but I've decided to 'cultivate' a relationship with someone from the local allotments. Got to be worthwhile for a prepper! Trade pies and homebrew for knowledge and veg?? Going to have to be shameless and a bit forward! Maybe even seek out allotment forums and groups. Now. There's a New Years Resolution worth making!

LMAO, by february I'll be living 'The good life', knee deep in poop. I can almost taste that rhubarb .

Sorry folks. My head is overflowing with the urge to grow stuff.

[Arzosah]

Ooh, your points 1 and 2 are very interesting, and unknown to me. There are some big animal sanctuaries round me, that I'd need to have a car to get to. And I need to spread out my 2nd hand online buying - I've been ignoring everything but Amazon for far too long.

Teabags, though - I haven't been able to get general composting going for ages, but teabags, I just take them out of the bag and spread them direct on the soil, it helps.

Must have a look at gumtree and whatnot.

[rik_uk3]

Cheap £50 greenhouse, containers and watch youtube gardening videos, growing stuff ain't rocket science. Happy new year

[jansman]

I can make two batches of compost per year.I have six bins. The secret is to layer it,I have a LOT of straw.Mixed in with that though,is chicken and rabbit muck.So a layer of that,then green stuff ( my neighbour gives me his grass cuttings - I have no lawn) - comfrey when it is growing,then kitchen waste.Everything gets turned every month or so too.Basically I have one empty bin,and I just turn each one over into it’s neighbour.This keeps air in there -aerobic composting. When you get a bin full of stinky slime ,that is lack of air- anaerobic composting.

But here is the secret: you can buy compost accelerator/ magic dust / etc. Don’t waste your money. All that rabbit and fowl muck adds nitrogen.Even without that,you can add nitrogen.The old boys called it Night Soil. Urine to you and me.We all pass gallons of it ,so why not use it? I keep a receptacle in our outside loo,and I add the night soil to the heap(s) on a regular basis. It makes mincemeat ( relatively speaking in compost terms) of that straw.

It does take time ,but the addition of quite small amounts of home brewed compost only needs to go onto your garden once a year.Also,don’t be in a hurry.Get into the seasonal,steady rhythm of the gardener. You WILL start to watch the weather ,there WILL be too much rain,there WILL be not enough rain,it WILL be too hot,too cold. You cannot change it.

Another plus to composting,is that it takes waste from landfill.As council waste disposal gets more regulated and draconian,it’s one less thing to be concerned about. Being a Gardener is good for humanity.

[jansman]

Here is a link to Garden Organic ,an excellent organisation.Them and RHS are my go - to advice points.

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/compost

[shocker]

Mollasis, bought by the gallon as horse feed, makes a great yield increasing additive.
Add to compost during rotting down or direct to feeding of pots or beds.

Another, not so organic, yield booster is estrogen. Birth control pills dissolved in water or liquid feed have a surprising boost to flower and fruiting.
Now, I wouldn't advise anyone to go this route without serious study but it is interesting nevertheless.

Food for thought as well as plants.