June is always the key month for the 'summer stuff', and this year it was mostly cool and dull until the short, sudden heatwave at the end.
Oh, boy. That thing killed me for over a month. My first year of growing and what better way of showing me what the definition of "bolting" is, than having it happen front and center in real time. I can laugh now. No, seriously!
My apologies. Wall of text. Genuine excitement at my first year. Again, apologies.
So this is Christmas, and what have we d... sorry. Wrong start.
So this was my virgin year for trying to grow my own crops. It was glorious fun, with a few disasters, one particular ongoing war (
slugged it out), and yet a (for my first try at least) enjoyable yield. My main problem was that I started way too late. But once the bug hit me, I wanted to try a lot of things, just for the learning experience.
At roughly the end of May, I decided I wanted to grow my own bok choi. I love my stir-fries, and was unimpressed by what the supermarkets sometimes offer. I went online and found a oriental stir-fry and salad seed collection. So I tried all six. Mizuna was one, and has been a stunning revelation to me. Lovely salad mix and I'm still harvesting the last batch from the greenhouse this week. Wow, does that grow fast!
A few different types of spinach have kept me happy. Plenty of spring onions and garilc chives... yum, yum. I went mental for mung, adzuki, kidney and dwarf beans. The adzuki and mung didn't do so well (again, I started too late) but got enough of a yield to encourage me next year. I only chose those beans because I wanted to experience the romanza of drying and storing. So, prolong my experimental/enjoyment process.
I was introduced to the notion of
bolting, which ruined a lot of my initial batches of lettuce, but come October, I was learning what to plant and when. Some fine mini crops of komatsuna, tatsoi yukina (again, still harvesting the last greenhouse crop). Had fun with radish, beetroot and my first attempts at preserving and pickling. I grew sweetcorn just because I love the shape and texture of the leaves and multiple layers. They were missing a month or so to reach the edible stage, but I didn't care. I enjoyed them as others may enjoy the whole flower beds thing. Next year I'm looking towards the three sisters plan, so they will have more purpose.
Does anyone grow any type of corn as an ornimental? Or is it just me being mental?
I was bitten by the bug so bad I wanted to have a go at all the things that are aesthetically pleasing to me... cactus, palms, bonsai... I bought a mini fridge for stratification, a few heat mats and some lights. Luckily the greenhouse was already there when I moved in, but had to spend a little to fix a few panes of glass and replace one of those "turney, turney things" that (painfully) slowly opens one of the windows in the roof.
All in all, I think my first year of experimenting with growing my own vegetables, and the trying out of other things has cost me close to £400. Sure, a lot of that was initial purchasing of pots, containers, seeds, tools (how much for a half decent pair of secateurs?), bags of potting compost, pickling jars etc... and stuff for indoor propagation... but I genuinely feel like it has been money worth spent for the future. Next year (hopefully) will not cost me much more than £15.
I didn't even get to my new found love of micro greens, chili plants (a main focus for next year) succulents and lithops, but this is a wall of words already. I'm just honestly very excited for next weekend, where I get to wash my greenhouse down, haha... Please, don't ruin it for me. I know it may become a chore very quickly, so let me enjoy these naive times to their fullest. There's that old saying that is something along the lines of "
why wake a person from a deep and untroubled sleep, just to deliver bad news?". Be gentle with me. You can ease me down into reality next year.
Regards