Advice for a hopeless gardener

[Arzosah]

A mummy trying to murder her babies is never a good thing

They look like they're struggling, but they're still going, yay! At the moment, I'm cultivating nothing but dust and sawdust - furniture that hasn't been moved in 10 years collects a *lot* of dust, whether you know it or not, and then when you try to saw things up, even "quality" mdf the dust is insane.

My chemist-quality aloe vera, and my air-purifying spider plants are upstairs out of the way, and it's a victory if *they* stay alive

Good luck with all these newcomers

[jennyjj01]

arriving today a couple of moisture/ph meters. Two different models ordered.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08N51TQ13
should be 14 quid well spent.

Dammit ! Arrived in the blink of an eye. I realise that I've been looking to acquire some compost, but not this SACK OF S**T.
Moisture meter couldn't detect saturated mud or a cup of tea.

Frustrating! Does nobody do quality control nowadays?

The other one should arrive tomorrow. If that's a duffer I'll be enraged. Just lately I've been underwhelmed with amazon purchases.

[jennyjj01]

A mummy trying to murder her babies is never a good thing

They look like they're struggling, but they're still going, yay!
Good luck with all these newcomers

Sadly that family group photo was taken before I killed them. There's nothing to see now.

Their later brothers and sisters and carrot cousins have not shown through the soil yet.

[reposting because the forum mislaid my earlier try]

[diamond lil]

Jenny you've got plenty of time, it's too early.

[PreppingPingu]

I have just planted parsnips in loo roll tubes, and planted dwarf tomato seeds. My cauli and cabbage don't look great that I started in a heated propagator on the conservatory window ledge. The first true leaves are coming but the original leaves are looking brown and curled. I have the heating on the propagator at night to keep warmth in the soil and keeping the soil moist but not wet. I had the same issue last year. I am thinking that although they get loads of light and day time temp is warm, the vast fluctuation in conservatory temperature between night and day is not doing them any favours. Maybe now they have germinated I shouldn't be using the heated propagator ... argh!

[Frnc]

Jansman can you grow tatties in the shade? I've no room apart from one patch that only gets the early morning sun and then that's it for the day. Faces due east in a corner of wall and fence. Wonder if a few tubs in there might work?

I'm going to be controversial. Please humour me. Starting from the worthiness of growing the noble spud.

I googled " What vegetables to grow UK " because I have my own thoughts on what is and isn't worth the effort and groundspace. And I'm just not getting it, for me. Spuds were a top recommendation of one site But that seemed to be based on a massive yield, without reference to how cheap they are in the shops. Similar with carrots.

I'm really at odds with the idea of putting effort and resources into 'low monetary value' crops.

YES. I would change my attitude if the shops stopped supplying staples so cheaply!

With limited ground area, and zero expertise, I tried to weigh up the pros and cons of various things to grow.
Here are my thoughts, applicable to ME. Your Mileage May Vary.

If I have a try at spuds or carrots, it will be on a small scale just to see if I can do it.

Am I being totally wrong headed here? Spoiled by our easy access to food?

Crop	Shop Price/kg	Yield by Area	For	Against	Observation	In my plan?
Garlic:	£Stupid/kg	Medium	Long Harvest Season		Easy to grow a small crop	Yes
Herbs:	£Stupid/kg	Low	Easy to grow		Worth a small patch	Yes
Strawberries:	£5.00/kg	Low	Delish	Need lots of care	I haven't succeeded	Yes
Spring Onions:	£5.00/kg	Low/Medium?	Easy to grow		Worth a small patch	Yes
Chard (or similar):	£3.00/kg	High	Fast growing		Not to everyone's taste	Yes
Green Beans:	£3.00/kg	High			VFM, but I don't like them	No
Courgettes:	£3.00/kg	Low	Staple		Not to everyone's taste	Yes
Beetroot:	£2.50/kg	Medium	Fast growing		Not to everyone's taste	Yes
Tomatoes:	£2.50/kg	High	Easy to grow	Need some care	High value Staple	Yes!
Beansprouts (mung):	£2.50/kg	High	Grow on demand		It's a crop	Yes
Leeks:	£2.00/kg	Low	Easy to grow		Worth a small patch	Yes
Lettuce etc:	£1.50/kg	Low	Fast growing	Need some care	Not my staple	No
Onions:	£1.25/kg	Medium	Long Harvest		Absolute staple	Yes
Parsnips:	£1.00/kg	Medium	Long Harvest		Not to everyone's taste	Yes
Spuds:	50p/kg	High	Staple	Risk of lost crop	Why bother	No
Carrots:	40p/kg	medium	Staple		Why bother	No

Any thoughts or additions? Arguments?

This list is awsesome! Pasted straight into Notes app. Tomorrow will go through it and order some seeds. Oh, re me having too many seed spuds, I still have the grow bags from a couple of years ago, might chuck a couple in them and see what happens.

[GillyBee]

If you can lay your hands on a copy of Joy Larkum's book "Vegetable Gardening" you will find a useful table showing the Value to Space ratio along with details of how to grow each and every vegetable in detail.

It is one of my go to guides for veg. It is quite an old publication now but it is still in print. Roughly speaking the decision is based on how much space a crop needs and how long it is in the ground for. So parsnips are poor value as are other crops where the cost in the shop is low and they are in the ground for over 6 months. Meanwhile cut and come again salad veg gets a good score as it is expensive in the shops and quick to grow and needs little space to get multiple bags of salad.

Very early salad spuds are a nice choice as you can feel smug tucking into your homegrown new potaotes when everyone else is still paying silly money for Jersey Royals. I like Swift for this job but Rocket would be good too. They do need an unheated greenhouse or similar to beat the frosts.

[jennyjj01]

I can give you some really solid advice about using toilet roll pots ; Don’t. Plastic pots are far superior,and consistent.

Thanks.

On Youtube, they make it cardboard pods look like a no-brainer. Easy and effective transplanting, No messing around with thinning, etc. But the watering experience is a b****r to get right. Even worse with the bought paper mache ones. Fact is cardboard pots have been a dead loss! If I can get that watering right, I'll be made up, but to my neglectful, simple self, I concur. The small plastic pots in big trays of 20 from HomeBargain or ALDI are so much more successful for the actual germination. So are the repurposed Flash Speedmop trays with their clear lids.

Since I had LOADS of carrot seeds, I'm also attempting to pre-soak and germinate a few on damp kitchen roll. Saw that on youtube too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkMudOt2Iyw
Maybe not totally practical, but if I can SEE signs of life, I will simply feel more confident and not keep panicking and aborting seeds.Plus it's easy to get 3 to 5 days of germination without daily watering at that delicate time.

[jennyjj01]

Another open question for our expert gardeners.

I've never particularly used garden fertilizer or feed except a little on my tomatoes, because each crop has been pretty much into newly bought compost.

How can i best know whether my compost is depleted of nutrients after that one crop? Is there an easy way to test compost 'goodness'?

E.g. Last year, I got a first humble crop of veg from my one of my planters which had been filled with a mix of soil, growbags and general purpose compost. I never used commercial fertilizer.

The soil/compost that is in there LOOKS as good as it ever did, but I expect it's depleted and tired. Do I just add more compost to it, or do I swap it out, or do i add fertilizer. I'd hate to think i was discarding anything useful if there is still richness in it. If nothing else, it is bulk. I could put some in my composter to mix with 'the good stuff' but is that just padding it out to give me the warm feeling of a full composter.

Would it be a sin to just feed it with Miracle Grow or similar? And how do I know if i overdo that? Damn. that stuff's expensive!
Best value fertilizer to buy? Liquids or granules? Or am I an heathen for even thinking it??

[jansman]

Another open question for our expert gardeners.

I've never particularly used garden fertilizer or feed except a little on my tomatoes, because each crop has been pretty much into newly bought compost.

How can i best know whether my compost is depleted of nutrients after that one crop? Is there an easy way to test compost 'goodness'?

E.g. Last year, I got a first humble crop of veg from my one of my planters which had been filled with a mix of soil, growbags and general purpose compost. I never used commercial fertilizer.

The soil/compost that is in there LOOKS as good as it ever did, but I expect it's depleted and tired. Do I just add more compost to it, or do I swap it out, or do i add fertilizer. I'd hate to think i was discarding anything useful if there is still richness in it. If nothing else, it is bulk. I could put some in my composter to mix with 'the good stuff' but is that just padding it out to give me the warm feeling of a full composter.

Would it be a sin to just feed it with Miracle Grow or similar? And how do I know if i overdo that? Damn. that stuff's expensive!
Best value fertilizer to buy? Liquids or granules? Or am I an heathen for even thinking it??

If you are growing in troughs or containers, you need fertiliser.As per instructions on the box.