The Cottage Smallholder

More veg, less no flowering greenery, pots, lettuce, toms, herbs for cooking, beans , carrots etc

Ditto, Eileen.

No, not Ditto, after all, can't spare precious room for Brassicas, as the damn Pigeons from the nearby Estate, have them as they appear. Can only grow Lettuce outside under cover.

We've just spent an hour working out what veggies we're going to grow this year, based on what we eat the most, what we've found easiest to grow, and what I can process and store well for future use during the winter.  Will also try a couple of new things....e.g. we always grow butternut squash, want to give acorn squash and pumpkin a go this year too. 

We currently have leeks, red and white onions growing, some of the leeks are ready now.  The rest, and the onions, should be ready in the spring. 

We're not attempting aubergines, peppers, parsnips, swede, caulis or cabbage this year.  The only potatoes we're going to do are first early salad ones.....maincrops just get eaten to death by slugs and eelworm.  Plus we're not eating maincrop spuds now anyway....too much starch. 

So this is what we're growing:-

Roots - new potatoes, Chantenay carrots.

Brassicas - PSB, sprouts

Salad - Radishes, spring onions, salad leaves

Others - Red/white onions, leeks, peas, yellow waxpod and dwarf French beans, yellow & green courgettes,

butternut/acorn squashes, pumpkin

Polytunnel - Beef/salad/orange cherry toms, ridge cucumbers

Done the planting plan as well.  My head is spinning now 

I have to be organised Iris, as husband is COMPLETELY disorganised - I blame it on his dyslexia, his mind is a total muddle most of the time, bless him     E.g.  he's got seeds saved from last year.....all well and good, except that some of them have no labels in them, and obviously he cannot remember this far on what they are   

I will probably do too many tomatoes and chillis as usual, I plant enough seeds in case some don't sprout and then once they do, I can't bear to throw any away, so prick them all out.

going for baby cucumbers too, I love them and they aren't seen that often in the shops.

will do courgettes/marrows in the veg plot, sweetcorn if I get it planted early enough this year, yellow wax beans, borlotti, French beans and this year am doing runner beans at Mikes request, not keen on them myself, but will give it a go, might not bother with broad beans this year.

Wasnt bothering with onions, but Ita asked me to plant some for her, so have a small bag of sets and may end up putting a few in.

a few experiments will no doubt also be sown. Disappointed with the size of my beetroot this year, s not going to do them again, but will sprout the seeds for salad instead.

Good luck to us all