Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: corynsboy on May 26, 2010, 00:20

Title: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: corynsboy on May 26, 2010, 00:20
My Greenhouse allows me to cheat a bit.  I have no need for bagged salad until October I reckon and I hardly ever buy herbs any more.

I have no memory of ever buying rhubarb from anywhere so that doesn't count for me.

What's the next thing that you'll enjoy not having to buy for a while from the fresh veg counter at the local Quickiemart?
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: compostqueen on May 26, 2010, 08:19
you've no need for bagged salad after October either. I sow a few seeds in a tray in the cold greenhouse.  I just sow a short row along the box say every other week and treat them as cut and come again.  I'm still eating lots of leaves each day. I just put a gravel tray under the seed tray and water from the bottom. No feeding necessary.  It's a mixture of about 26 different salad leaves, chicories and endives from Seeds of Italy. Great big packet. You can sow them outdoors too.

The next thing I'm not buying will be cucumbers. Mini ones which don't ever appear in shops round where I live. I love small, crunchy cucumbers. Bliss
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: mumofstig on May 26, 2010, 09:30
Don't forget to sow corn salad..........it's very easy for winter salads and it's in all the baby leaf salad bags that you buy ;) and like compostqueen, I've been eating salads through the winter from the greenhouse :)
It's a toss up which arrives next......I think the Pentland Javelin new spuds may just pip it, but I have a courgette on it's way (parthenogenic variety so doesn't need pollinating :) ) and sugarsnaps are flowering.

It's all happening at once..YAY  :lol:
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: SarahB on May 26, 2010, 09:43
Had a look at the cucumber yeseterday to find that it'd been growing while I wasn't looking and there were about 5 mini cucumbers nearly ready to pick.   As we'd only just got a large one in a big shop, I think cucumber soup and cucumber salad are going to be the order of the day for a bit!   :lol: 
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: madcat on May 26, 2010, 11:08
and sugarsnaps are flowering.

 :( :( :( >:( :( :mad:  Can you tell I'm jealous! I hate slugs!  :mad: :mad:  My poor sugar snaps were set back badly by pea weevils and then the slugs virtually finished em off!  They are somewhere between stumps and 6"!!
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: kingdhesiii on May 26, 2010, 12:43
How often do you sow batches of lettuce and how many plants at a time do you tend to go for? For the average size familly im thinking.
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: compostqueen on May 27, 2010, 08:59
I do the cut and come again mixture and eat them as leaves rather than growing an entire lettuce, but all will grow on to form full lettuces if you let them

You don't want all your lettuce at once which is why you so little and often. You can buy all sorts of lettuce leaf mixes now so just experiment and sow some direct in your garden or lotty soil, or in a box or seed tray.  In a box, just sow one short row across the box, wait for two weeks and sow another. You'll soon see how often you need to resow. 
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: diggerjoe on May 27, 2010, 13:51
I cant wait to get the first salad leaves on a plate. Im off work with a flu thing so being in the greenhouse this afternoon  will be nice warm and give me chance just to sow some more and pot on some other lettuce :D :D
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: Dilly Dom on May 27, 2010, 17:30
We love our salads and are picking cos, cut and come again, rocket, spinnach and next week first pak choi leaves.

Sue
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: Belvoir on May 27, 2010, 17:50
I cant wait to get the first salad leaves on a plate. Im off work with a flu thing so being in the greenhouse this afternoon  will be nice warm and give me chance just to sow some more and pot on some other lettuce :D :D

Is that man flu then?!! :nowink:
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: Belvoir on May 27, 2010, 17:54
American land cress is very nice and its easy!!   :)  very much like watercress! :D
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: solway cropper on May 27, 2010, 22:23
You can have spring onions through the winter as well if you sow in pots and overwinter them in the greenhouse. Picked the last of mine today and the first of this years are only a couple of weeks away. I'd agree with the others that salad leaves can be had through the year if you choose CCA rather than waiting for large heads to form.
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: compostqueen on June 01, 2010, 12:27
I'll try the spring onions as I've got some of those winter White Lisbons. Salad and onions woohoo  :)

I did start off some early spring onions in modules and planted those out in spring and they've done brilliantly and are ready for eating
Title: Re: By mid April I'd already stopped buying lettuce from Supermarkets. C'Mon!
Post by: diggerjoe on June 01, 2010, 17:08
'Lady Flu' Belvoir :D :D Going back to work Wednesday first time ill for 5 years OH now has the man version - mind you its amazing how much you can get potted up between sniffs- learnt not to sneeze when sowing lettuce seeds  :nowink: :nowink: