Well folks, I guess this is my first grow diary

Am a noob to growing plants of any kind, have done cress and mustard before.. helped my folks grow some peas before.. Did some basil on the kitchen window last year, got told basil was an unreliable bitch to grow by my uncle (who really should know) so planted half the pack and ended up getting a wicked germ rate & having basil on every window in the house - ended up with like 60 of the buggers even though i culled the runts.. some of which are still alive now, shockingly.

But, it's something I've become interested in since getting interested in growing our favourite crop.. and with the economic crisis, a little money saving and free luxuries will be very welcome in Casa Stoner later on this year.

Just ordered some fruit trees from shopping tv, £30 for secateurs, blood & bone meal, a braeburn apple, a plum tree, and a conference pear tree. Those are long life things so i'm just putting them in the garden, kinda seperate from the rest of my project. They're self-fertile trees and the "expert" said they will fruit a little bit this year, but progressively more as they grow.

As for the rest of the project, I'm trying to keep it a bit simple as I am a noob and have.. er... motivation issues so i don't want to do too much first time, don't want it all to get on top of me so i give up. To this end I have purchased Potato grow bag-type things, deep grow bags for cherry tomatoes, some seed taters of a breed called Sharpe's Express which is supposed to be a good all round eating spud, and some pea seeds. Going to be getting the cherry tom plants in soon.

Have also bought one of those mushroom kits, one brown mushroom grow kit. Dunno a thing about these, don't know how much i'll get off one (surprisingly small) kit...

I've picked basically the 4 things we eat most of - cherry toms, mushrooms, spuds, and peas (my favourite vegetable) - I don't expect miracles, I'm not converting the whole garden, just putting a few trees in, and growing a few bits of food in pots.. Mainly to see if i can do it, if i'm going to enjoy it as much as i think i will, and to see what we get. Hopefully a few months of various super nice produce to gorge on will be the result.

If it works, next year, i'm going to put a proper (100 sq ft +) veg patch in and do loads of stuff, the dogs wont be happy as they will lose half their toilet but oh well..

I'll document this grow if people want me to.. Won't be like "wow" but will hopefully show what a young (26) techni-genius stoner can do to give some extra niceness in his life.. If anyone's got any nice tips, tricks, or comments please do post them, and we'll see what we can do

CS out

right on captain. nothing like cherry toms warm off the vine. good fortune m8
gen

ill pop in on this one ..love growing stuff ,hope you remember to keep those pots well watered during summer ..and why not make your own feed for them out of your kitchen scraps too..go the whole organic root with your veg .

herbs are a good way to start growing veg dude ..

just bought one of those spud tubs meself ..gotta love cooking your own spuds (not a euphanism)peas too ..talking oof which you just have to grow some mint to go with those ...tastes divine

Yeah we've got some mint.. thyme and rosemary too if the dogs dont pee on it

thought about doing some lavender because i love the smell but.. meh don't wanna put too much on my plate because i know me, if there's too much to do i'll say "oh i'll do it after this spliff.. tomorrow..tomorrow.." then it'll be july and there will be some dead trees and a load of wasted other stuff..

Part of this is therapy for me, got to get my noggin sorted out, and i've found the whole grow thing quite therapeutic.. even helps me to a degree in times when there is no bud. I'm hoping i can find some new sense of peace or relaxation while i'm out there and stop my head from doing flip flops rolling at 5,000,000,000,000mph all the time.. or at least some temporary deceleration.. I get that from bud but can't be relying on it as a crutch all my life..although i'd like to

i know exactly where your coming from ..lost me job and at a loss as to what to do next ..the mind races..but gardening and being our with plants slows the noggin somewhat ...focus on one thing at a time and itll be ok im sure .

Good on you CS those sharps express are tasty spuds and there is nothing like your own tom's.
Happy growing

like it, a lot cap'n. my plot is tiny so only grow stuff that will defo get eaten, but last year banged a few radishes in
and read somewhere that in asia they dont eat the bit we eat, they let em' go to seed and they produce hundreds of these little pea type pods, taste just like radishes with the snap of fresh peas. peice of piss to grow i.e stick the seeds in a dont bother again till you harvest, and proper tasty!!

It's a common mistake 'new' gardeners make, so it's good you have recognised it in advance.
Most 'new' gardeners attack a garden with great gusto, often even hurting themselves in their rush to do it all at once.... Then don't go back to it because they remember the blisters and aches and pains.
My advice to any 'new' gardener is to keep it small. Keep it manageable, and do so by selecting what you'll grow very carefully so it won't get the better of you.
Your fruit trees, once planted, will need little maintenance but will cast shade when they grow, so bear in mind their final size when selecting their location, as vegetables need as much sun as they can get as most of them do all their growing and fruiting in the same year.
Good luck with it CS. There's not much that's more satisfying that eating your own garden produce.

I did Basil like this aswell. I did it to disguise the fact I was also germing some cannabis. Click to view attachment But I ended up growing loads of basil some of which lasted over a year. I still have some seeds from that basil which im gonna try and germ this year. The thing about basil is that its difficult to grow outside in the u.k. (not for us cannabis growers though) but on a windowsill your laughing.



Yeah growing cannabis rocks! You get intersested in all sorts of other stuff like growing veg to feed yourself, growing flowers to make your suroundings prettier, appreciating nature, improving cookery skills ect. I trully believe growing cannabis makes you a allround better person.




Im doing cherry tomatoes, potatoes, basil, other herbs this year aswell. My grow diarys in the fruit n veg forum check it out allthough I've not started gerinating anything yet. http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=160615



Yes please do document I'd be really interested how the shrooms go. Also the fruit trees, I havn't got room for fruit trees in my garden but I might grow some fruit trees on one of my guerrilla patches in future years. All the best for this grow be carefull its addictive!

Well, this was a tad bit of a wash-out. Ordered the trees, they came a bit smashed, the feed that came with em had smashed and leaked..
Phoned idealworld, "yes mate 4 days, very sorry, we'll get you a new one out" - a week later, no trees. phoned back "yes sir, very sorry, will be with you 24th march

So we planted the trees we got, they dont look to have done anything in the short time they've been in (they sat unpotted for 10 days.. hope i aint killed em) but am hopeful.. I did place a complaint - and i used to be a customer services dude so i know how to complain in the strongest possible terms - and they did refund the money. Just waiting to see if the free trees, which are planted in a big TubTrug each (drilled drain holes) grow now.. Very disappointed with IW.tv, they only had to come from peterborough to sheff and my ex was in p'boro so i know it aint far.

Got some peas in some cheap pots, germed the cherry tom (sungold f1 hybrid) seeds yesterday on the windowsill. Got a single plant that gives medium toms that are yellow when ripe too - will pop back in later and give the breed name. The taters are in their sacks, going to put some more peas out this week in some growbags.

Ordered 2 blueberry bushes as they were an unmissable bargain, got them yesterday, they're on the windowsill too just waiting to grow a bit so they can be potted up to 6" pots then be hardened off outside.. buy a lot of blueberries and they're like £1.89 or something silly like that for a tiny punnet.. aparently in a couple of years these will be giving LBS each and was told they live for like, 30yr..

so it looks like the trees might not work ( ) which pisses me off as i was right looking forward to going out into the garden and strolling amongst the fruits as i smoke a joint, and other than the peas, they were my main area of interest.. (i love love LOVE fresh peas, can eat lbs and lbs).. prob messed other things up too, but we'll see.

Look in Aldi and Lidl they had great fruit trees last year . Not very tall but they were only £4.99hoping for sum plums this year

Yes just had a look from the 2/4/09 they have 2yr old apple ,pear,cherry and plum for £9.77

My mum and my uncle have just managed to get an allotment but its too big for them so I have a 4 x 6 foot space if I want it. Dunno what to do with it though. What veg should ya start off about this time of year? Obviously I dont want to grow what is already growing and at this moment I dont actually know what they have on the go.

dont give up on the trees quite yet its supprising how much abuse they can take and still spring back to life ,,,
nice selection of easy veg ,potatoes are a breeze especialy in pots ,tomatoes ,"gardeners delight are a great variety ,small sweet and abundant ,if you are short on space the toms can be grown in a container upside down ,
see here,..http://www.gardeners.com/Gardeners-Revolution-Planter/37-850,default,pd.html, dont bother buying them ,make your own version

saves space and no having to support the plant ,,,, peppers are also a good easy crop,
happy growing ..

bit of a noob here so not the best person to ask.. best bet, find out what your family is growing, then look on seed webbies to see what can be planted but they aren't growing. Peas, toms, and taters are good, supposedly relatively simple crops, as are strawberries.

Might have to check out those cheap trees, maybe look for an apricot.. the ones we have are grafts to dwarf rootstock, so won't grow tall thank god.

i only have concrete in my front and back garden so i've just got loooads of pots and some of those storage boxes. I'm currently growing strawberries, onions, thyme, coriander, 2 kinds of mint, tomatos, chilies, jalapenos, lettuce, rocket, cress, basil, sage, spinach, raspberries aaand GASP some red bell peppers. I cant wait for harvesting time! Food gardens are really interesting projects and worth while

good luck with it!

Went and had a look at lidl at the trees but they had already sprouted leaves, which were dying due to the abuse they'd taken - they were utterly dry, i nearly went and gave them all a watering with spring water from the shelves.. they were covered in necrotic spots etc

jeez, did i just say necrotic spots.. learned that from uk420... and keep telling my mother that certain plants in her vast collection of pots need feeding, they're yellowing..

As for our trees - the conference pear looks good, buds really swelling on it now, same as the apple. The plum is looking pretty sorry for itself but i nicked the bark halfway down the trunk and it's green so the tree's still alive - good nooz

Potted up the single tom plant today, what a plant man.. it's like day of the fooking triffids, really outstanding growth rate on it, tis in its final pot now... What does "matures in 70 days" mean with regards to toms? we've had it about a month now, no toms.. so i'm guessing that means it'll start producing toms in 70 days. The little sungold seedlings also got potted up out of their seed tray, they should start exploding now.

Taters doing REALLY well, they've just had their first coverup of soil a few days ago - do i need to feed them at all during their grow cycle? if so, when? they already had some tater feed in their soil when they were planted.

blueberries were potted up some weeks ago, they are just now being hardened off, have started to flower, really beautiful flowers on em too, surprising that such nice little growths could come from such ugly looking twigs.

Our mushroom kit is doing well, thought i'd killed it because the mycelium had started growing before i put it all together and i had to break up the casement layer. They're doing well though, starting to produce (really deformed looking) mushies

basil in the props doing as it did last year, slowly but strongly. Peas going slow, bit too cold oop noowerth for em just yet methinks, I tried an experiment, put some in a prop inside and they've REALLY outdone the ones i planted two weeks earlier, outside E2A: noobs, dont rely on this, i haven't potted them up yet and it says on the pack they must be germed in their final location.. so they will probably die when i stick them in their growbags

We're using Levingtons (it was all they had at the GC) seed & cut, for seedlings, West+ MP for potting up. Not really started feeding anything yet but.. is all looking good

Today i've also decided to do some Cress and perhaps mustard cress too. Was just sat here having a and thought man i fancy some sausage, egg mayo & cress butties - we get these part baked bread rolls which are SO NICE.. my mouth watering just thinking about those butties.. happened to see cress on sale in a greengrocers the other week, its cheaper to buy the seeds at a quid a pack

remember doing cress in school so will be out this week looking for some cheap seeds to do on the windowsill.. weather's been good the last couple days, can see the difference in le jardin, now that i'm watching stuff. Have decided to move the trees into the full sun as they haven't started making leaves yet.

triffidmato is out in a "growbag growhouse" plastic growtent, got some fleece in case of frost, she's in a big pot though.

i guess it'll be warm enough inside a certain veg cab of ascension now to pop some.. other seeds, failing that, prop on the windowsill

sowed some of said cress today, they had polycress (matures as fast as mustard), mustard, and plain salad cress.. 99p each but BOGOF.

Got to love those BOGOFs says i, got two of each.. only sowed plain cress today.. got two old cherry tomato plastic trays, drilled 6 holes in one and put that one in the other like a water catch tray. bout a half inch of seed & cut, plenty of water, covered the whole thing with a paper towel, kept moist till they germ.

nowt much else to report really, things be a-growin, basil is germed and doing well.. worried about the trees, no leaves yet but have more on the way.. tom seedlings seem to be like the big plant was when we got it so they should be taking off soon.

The peas i started off in a prop as an experiment did REALLY well indoors, were hardened off and put in a big reusable growbag yesterday.. don't seem to have died yet.

Righty an update on the capt's haphazard mission for food '09

triffidmato got some kind of crispy leaf/fungal thing, but its still making nice toms despite that - stunted but not stopped.

the sungold F1s.. my oh my, big juicy ORANGE cherry toms, taste like a cherry tom from the shops with an added teaspoon of sugar.. and bugger me are those plants hardy.. they've put up with dogs urinating, strimmer mashing, some kind of minor side branch death syndrome and drying out a couple times.. but they're covered in toms.. i kinda screwed em up but they've made up for it, just eating a sausage sarnie now with about 8 sliced up in it yummity yum

the peas we sowed properly were a success, got plenty of super nice peas, the ones we did in a prop failed, probably due to minor neglect and serious slug infestation.

mushroom kit FAIL. got about 3 mushies from it.

about to harvest taters soon

got one blueberry from two bushes which seem to have gone really leggy, weird.. plum trees died, no fruit on cherry, apple, pear but they're new so next year

sorta a success, going to rig up a watering system for the lazy in time for next season, next year will be much better and the toms are just starting to ripen so they've plenty to go yet