redhotchick Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Spring isn't far off and I'm getting excited about growing food in my garden again! The things I have found easiest to grow in the past are Courgette, Broad Bean, green beans and salad leaves. I have struggled with peas, tomatoes, cucumber, brassicas, leeks, asparagus and strawberries! But I will keep trying! What do you find easy and difficult to grow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueSilver Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Easiest is any of my fruits; I've tayberries, ligonberry, honeyberry, raspberry, strawberry, apples, pears, cherries, mulberries, currants...and I think I've forgotten a few! They're very forgiving actually (what problems are you have with your strawberries, if I may ask?) - all I really tend to do is give them a top up of farmyard manure mulch in winter, then a handful of fish, blood, bone meal and compost as a topdress in spring. A bit of pruning here and there to the plants but for the most part I just leave them to do as they like. Same with the edible hedge I put in this year. Plant, and wait! What I can't seem to grow for the life of me are leeks. I have severe leekfail, and I've no idea why. I just get some rather spindly green-onion looking things which promptly stop growing. I've given up and I just buy them now from my local village shop, which gets all its produce from farms nearby when possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhotchick Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 I think my strawberries aren't in a sunny enough spot. Maybe poor soil and attack by chickens, and slugs! I will try again in a different spot this year. I didn't have much success with leeks, I think I overcrowded them. I forgot to mention baby corn. That worked well for me previously. I might go for the full size corn this year. I do want to have another grow at cabbage and broccoli, maybe purple sprouting broccoli? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Leeks need a good fertile soil I've found the best way to grow them is to sow the in a 6" pot about late march early April early march if you are South or the Midlands and plant the out May into a hole made about the size or an old fork or spade handle and about 6" or so deep and 9" apart both directions the just drop a leek in each hole use the biggest first the fill the hole to the top with water from a watering can keep the weed free and feed them with a nitrogen based feed a couple of times over the summer and you should end up with a reasonable crop of leeks the only other thing you need to do is buy the right variety of leek for your needs personally I go for a late one called St Victor if I can get it as I don't want the ready before November this year I'm also trying some saved seed from leeks I left in for seed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 My successes/failures are more or less a carbon copy of yours, redhotchick, although in 2012 I did manage to grow strawberries very successfully, only for the slugs to eat them all I also find currants very easy, and raspberries, and runner beans, but I don't have the patience to wait for purple sprouting or similar, it feels like the plant is there for an eternity before you can eat it....and then the pigeons visit I am not very good with potatoes either, although both sets of neighbours succeed, so it must be me, not our conditions. I don't bother with any root crops, we are on clay which gets very wet over winter and I'm quite happy to buy them. I cheat with both leeks and beetroot which I can't seem to germinate and/or they don't thrive after planting out, I buy plants grown in modules and then they romp away However, now I am in Portugal my list has changed. I can grow tomatoes and peppers brilliantly which is a first for me, its obviously the sun, not the grower! But courgettes don't do so well - their demands for water are enormous and the flesh is too firm to be as enjoyable as it should be. Melons are hit and miss, apparently you can never tell if an individual plant is going to be productive or not, but the hits are delish Lettuce grows well until its gets too hot, so the season is early but quite short. I am trying broad beans which have germinated like a dream with a massive root growth, so I am hopeful, but I'll give the runners a miss as I think they will need too much water and fertility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueSilver Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Cheers about the leek tips; I suspect my soil is nitrogen poor due to me growing in waist high troughs; the soil needs a lot of fertilising between crops and I suspect I just haven't kept them fertilised enough! I'm considering dedicating a bed solely to leeks and onions as I use them year round but that will be a project for next year. Having da Henz means at least I've got some good fertiliser on the go once it breaks down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Cheers about the leek tips; I suspect my soil is nitrogen poor due to me growing in waist high troughs; the soil needs a lot of fertilising between crops and I suspect I just haven't kept them fertilised enough! I'm considering dedicating a bed solely to leeks and onions as I use them year round but that will be a project for next year. Having da Henz means at least I've got some good fertiliser on the go once it breaks down! don't grow them in the same bed every year as that builds up pests and diseases that we domestic gardeners can't get treatments for, as for the soil dig in plenty of rotted chicken bedding or use the partly rotted as a mulch it how I grow my spuds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueSilver Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 That's hat's the plan with the bedding I've currently got in there; I'm putting some in a secondary composter to rot down, but a fair bit will go on the berry bushes in the fall. How does it work for spuds? I was always under the impression nitrogen encourages more foliage than anything else - or does the bedding in with the chicken poo counter that a bit when it breaks down? Oh, yep, I know about the diseases issue, the plan was to get a few more raised beds in that I can grow in, but right now I'm trying to deal with some very treacherous decking in the back which all needs to come out first. I want to be able to grow on with some biannuals for some seed-saving before that sort of thing becomes outlawed! Another thing I can grow Like a Boss is tatsoi, which is a Chinese leafy cabbage sort of thing. It's very hardy, much like kale can be, but it's more succulent. Plug it in, forget about it, harvest as needed. Between that stuff and rainbow chard, all the greens are sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I just use it as a mulch around the spuds as I don't earth them up that way as it rots down over the summer the goodness get washed down to the roots and not down into the subsoil and most years I do all right it's draught years when I suffer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancing cloud Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Squashes, of all shapes and sizes I was good at growing salad stuff - lettuces, leaves, cucumbers (depending on sunshine) and tomatoes. Couldn't grow root veggies as the soil was full of stones and potatoes were always more like peas, but squashes always grew well. They also grow very quickly and chickens don't eat them - a real bonus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhotchick Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 Thanks for leek tips from me too. I tend not to feed my veggies other than add a lot of compost to the bed initially, so maybe my leeks would be better with a feed! Has anyone sowed chillies or tomatoes yet? I really need to get a move on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I'm going to start my toms off in a week or 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueSilver Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Mea Culpa; I started my toms ages ago and have some small seedlings! But I grow them under cover and I have a lot of south-facing space. I find with the short summers in the UK it pays to start mine early; I just end up with a lot of green-tom chutney if I wait too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 My tomatoes are sown, I find them easy to grow in my small greenhouse. I also do well with radish and lettuce, last year we had amazing turnips and Swiss chard, but the pigeons ate it all over the winter We have good soft fruit at the allotment, have tried to grow strawberries at home in a raised bed and hanging baskets, I even grew some from seed, but they are going back to the allotment, they just seem to rot at home. We have finally after about 10 years improved our soil enough to grow good brassicas and our potatoes are ok if we get enough rain, but I think that we have altered the PH too much with chicken poo, because we get a lot of scab on them now and splitting too. We gave up on asparagus, too much perennial weed, this is also an issue with the strawberries and raspberries. We grow amazing carrots because we have sandy soil and we grow them under enviro mesh to stop carrot fly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 spuds splitting is down to irregular watering normally in drier seasons but if the soil is to well drained it can have the same. effect they start to grow then stop start to mature then start to grow again but as the skins have started to harden they end up splitting scab can be caused by either to alkaline a soil or by dry conditions or some soil types . personally I stop worrying about scab years ago the more I tried to stop it the more I got it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Just started peppers and toms, parsley and basil in the greenhouse in the propagator last week. Something has shot up from the pepper pot - probably a weed! Leeks I sow in the greenhouse - not under heat and they don't get any special treatment other than watering. When they are nicely spiky I then transplant them into something called root trainers which I have had for many years with good success. Unfortunately they don't sell direct now so have to get the whole kit and caboodle from a garden centre. Luckily I stocked up in advance and only have the very long trays rather than the square short ones. I will leave the plants to grow to a pencil thickness and then transplant them into the veggie beds. Although our soil seems to agree with leeks. Can't grow carrots to save my life!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
