Grow your own course at Lym Comm Centre

[Kate Collison]

I went to the first of the 3 week course evenings on Grow your Own Fruit and Veg in Lym last Thursday night. There were 8 of us (all female!) plus Judy the teacher and it was great. 2 hours of chatting about growing fruit and veg, dispelling myths and collecting top tips. But above all, we gained confidence to give it a go!

 

Strange words like F1 variety, succession planting, bed rotations, chitting potatoes, pricking out, green manure,.... all became clear. There really is no mystery to it (apparently!)

We even have homework! This week, we have to decide what fruit, veg and herbs we like to cook with / eat so that next week we can start a plan.

So having just got home from work, I am about to pour over my book "Allotment - month by month" by Alan Buckingham, and check out what I need to do in Jan. Then its a trip to SCATS to get seeds and chitting potatoes and onion sets. Oh how that sounds like I know what I'm talking about! I really don't!

I have ordered some reclaimed sleepers from Romsey Reclamation, and when they arrive, my 5 raised beds will be laid out in my new garden. We moved from a tiny 2 bed end of terrace with a tiny garden in New Milton, to a dilapidated detached bungalow with a 100ft garden in Lym in June - lovely, loads of potential, but rather daunting! Till the raised beds are down, my seeds will need planting and raising on a warm window sill until they are ready to be planted out in a couple of month's time.

I'll keep you updated about my successes and undoubtably my many failures too!

[Kate Collison]

Hi again folks.

Ok, so the course finished a few weeks ago, and since then I have made 5 raised beds in my garden, and planted out those things that the seed packets say need to be planted in Feb.

Sugar snap peas, spinach, garlic and parsnips straight into the soil, and aubergines, chives, peppers, tomatoes (cherry and beefsteak) and basil into seed trays in the greenhouse. Nothing has actually come up yet after 2 weeks of eagerly going out everyday to check for the first signs of life, but I'm sure they will. Oh, and my potatoes are happily chitting away in egg boxes in the lean-to at the back of our house.

One of the best tips I picked up from the course is how to do your planner, with all the variables taken into account - date planted, which bed, when to pick, what goes in next... So far, it seems to be working a treat and serves as an easy to use table of what to do when. Also, I will be keeping a kind of diary of what works and what doesn't, so that next year I can learn from any mistakes. I never knew that growing fruit and veg needed so much paperwork!

Happy growing to all of you out there,

Kate xxx

[SarahF]

Kate, Hi

The course sounds great! Its really got you enthused.

I think the homework of going away and asking yourself what you like to eat is obvious, but so true. Last year we planted a load of spinach, and no one in my family eats it! We might put it in a curry every now and then, but that's it. I could also have planted 10x the number of onions I put out, just because of the volume we eat.

Keep us up to date of how you get on!

Sarah