Home grown fruit/veg suggestions please

I've got a grapevine I'm trying to grow against my Dad's shed outside. But everything else I grow inside, so I've I've the warmth and can start mega early. I'm lucky in that my room is double aspect (windows two walls), so to the front, I've got perpetual spinach I just planted up (white buckets), and a colder plant propogator.

And to the rear I've got heat mats and lights on chillis and peppers.

It has taken 3 years/attempts to get my Trinidad Perfume chillis to germinate. This year I soaked the seeds for 24hrs in cold weak tea which seemed to help.

Gold pots are Trinidad Perfume chillis, and the red pots are Red Bull Sweet Peppers. I tend to do them indoors, and use old poinsettia pots I keep each Christmas. I've got 10 old pots now, that came free with the poinsettias. I just put an inch of pea gravel in the base to act as a water reservoir.

I found this helpful explaining the 4 different Vegetable types: crucifers, legumes, solanaceous, and cucurbits. This was incredibly useful as I was trying to find the botany to group together what I cannot digest, so discovered 2 of these & everything in them is safe! https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/Portals/0/Gardening/Gardening%20Help/Factsheets/Vegetable%20Families69.pdf

Also I've found some great sites which explain what veg and fruit will blossom together and which ones need separate spaces. I didn't bookmark them, but it's worth a google. 

Ooh great idea. Did you try it? My dad does home growing with fruit and veg and gets a lot of positive results. I think slugs and rabbits can be a problem so make sure you put up defences lol. I had a go at it to but it was too dirty for me and I can't be outside to long. But definitely give it a go!

Been away from forum for a bit, as was getting a tad addicted. In the meantime have thrown myself into my veg growing. I've had two propagators on the go, have lost many many many tomatoes and cucamelons. Think too hot. But my peppers and chillis have done well, I've managed to germinate my Trinidad Perfume chillis for the first time in 3 years of attempts...

So much so, I've now started transferring to the pots they will spend the rest of the year in. And covering with bottles with the tops cut off... :-)

I use 12w LED lamps to extend daylight hours at the moment. I've also been saving tea grounds for a couple of weeks. Which along with 1/4 perlite, has been mixed in with compost.  

Sprouting beans, as in micrograms sprouting? I've done sunflower sprouts. Boxes of them. You can actually use sunflower seeds for birds, but neighbours weren't impressed when I told them i had used sunflower seeds for birds in the pesto I had made with the sprouts and wild garlic... I had given them a jar as ended up with loads. 

I have had success in the past with runner beans. Radishes are quick to grow and also salad leaves like rocket which I have grown indoors. Tried cabbages outside but caterpillars ate them.

Have grown sprouting beans indoors too.

Went to the garden centre this morning. Been meaning to start my seeds since I posted... 14 days on, still not done. To top it off, I realised yesterday we didn't have any potting soil. So a trip to the garden centre to get soil, and some fertilisers - I use a tomorite and seaweed extract mix for my peppers.

Got a tad carried away though, especially when I found full propagator sets, with tray/insert/lid, were on sale for £2.99!! Total bargain, but may not have needed 3... The peat free jiffy pellets were also 2/3 off!!

Chris, you're very ambitious with your salad vegetables, which have never really been my thing, with the exeption of rocket.

As I'm getting a bit older and slightly disabled I have had to ease back on the heavy work, so have trees, shrubs and a few flowers - large ones like giant poppies and seven-feet tall foxgloves. They can be fun as they attract a large number of bees, much more beautiful creatures than the aforementioned  wasps around the fig tree.

Ben

Hi Ben,

Yes, I've heard about the Asparagus issue, someone I know has taken years to cultivate a patch in his garden, and they have been hit and miss in the last couple of years, he says due to weather??

My grandparents had a double plot allotment between them, well into their 80's! As well as a large chunk of a 0.5 acre garden dedicated as a veg plot. They were keen on their rhubarb (as well as the basics like runner beans) but I wasn't a fan of it either!

Interesting to get the heads up on fig trees! I've currently got a grape vine growing up against my parents shed in a 35L bucket that acts as a large pot... I'm now wondering if maybe this isn't the greatest idea, as if it ever fruits, could make accessing the shed... interesting...

Is there anything else you grow?

I've been looking at a few websites (although from the links below you'd think I stayed on one site!!!) for seed and planting ideas. My list seems to be constantly changing, but I am particularly looking at the following plants (links the potential varieties):

- Peppers (I've got some sweet pepper seeds from my last two Red Bull f1 crops, and some Trinidad Perfume Chilli Pepper Seeds I have left from an attempt last year)

- Cherry Tomatoes (https://www.premierseedsdirect.com/product/tomato-cherry-artisan-pink-tiger-new/?attribute_pa_seed-count=10)

- Red/Purple Spring Onions (https://www.premierseedsdirect.com/product/purple-spring-onion-lilia/)

- Lambs Lettuce (https://www.premierseedsdirect.com/product/corn-salad-vit-lambs-lettuce-organic/?attribute_pa_size=2gm)

- (Probably) A perpetual Spinach

- Salsify (https://www.premierseedsdirect.com/product/salsify-sandwich-island/)

- Samphire (https://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Samphire-Seeds_1)

I'm also pondering lettuces and other bits. I may be moving at some point early this year though, escaping the parents house (again...) so I'm torn between starting off what I could do with planting, but doing so in buckets/tubs/trays, or waiting. My pepper harvest this year was very small due to a late start! I got 3 peppers, which I harvested in December having moved them indoors)

Sorry for the essay,

Chris

Hello Chris,

When I first got a garden, I wondered what to grow and thought it would be sensible to go for something expensive. So, I planted one of my favourites...... asparagus. Great!  I thought, but I had to wait about five years before I got anything edible, and then it was hit and miss for a few years.... and then, alas, nothing.

A previous gardener had left me an enourmous and extremely productive rhubarb patch, but  I just can't stand the stuff, so that had to go. It was disgusting!

On a more positive note, I decided to plant a fig tree. It took several years to fruit but I now pick fresh figs most summers. My only problem is the wasps, they really seem to enjoy a fig feast,  the little $%&@s.

Happy growing,

Ben

Got ya! 

A farm outside Garvagh sells seeds for growing Spuds. 

Sorry Desmond I'm totally lost? haha You've enquired about seed potatoes? I'm looking at a few things now, Salsify and Samphire are two I'm looking at heavily...

Enquired about potato seeds. 

Just read this:

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/garden/1540366/gardening-gardeners-world-vegetables-to-grow-now-january-2022

Gardeners World suggest: Chillies, Aubergines and Basil are planted this month. :-)

Yep! I worked at a local BP (with M&S) garage for a bit, it was horrendously wasteful. I didn't do it for long, mainly as I was easily manipulated into taking on the night shifts which didn't help my mental health at the time. I had been desperate to do some work though.

They should give it away to food banks. That practice is disgustingly wasteful in an environmentally damaged world where so many go hungry.

Just looked up that company. It's called Oddbox

I like this idea, I'll look it up and check prices. We have sooo much food waste in this country its unreal. Cafes, petrol stations, fast food, supermarkets... they all overstock in-store items. And so as not to encourage staff to purposefully overstock and take the leftovers, they insist on it all being chucked!!!

Very pretty as house plants though. But yes, I'd want flavour.

My son was telling me about 'wonky veg', (I think that's what it's called), it seems to be a subscription service which sends you a huge box every few weeks of whatever is British, seasonal and rejected by supermarkets for not being the right size and shape or colour. I like that idea. Supermarkets waste so much perfectly nutritious and tasty food just because it's not pretty enough.

You never know what you are going to get and that he feels is the fun of it. Open the box and get creative with what you've got.

I was looking into rare and heritage breed tomatoes. I was very tempted by 'Micro Tom' due to the size of the plants.

But I was a bit put off when I read the flavour isn't great