What have we learnt.....?

[lettucegrow!]

I have had a wonderful day,the beginning of the years production.Lots of cleaning and I've sown some seeds in my lovely tidy greenhouse. But while I was going about my chores I was wondering what I could improve on from last year. I had look back in my diary( yes I am very sad and kept a brief diary of what I was doing and when) I am still new to all this and didn't get my greenhouse set up until April last year so I definitely knew I needed to start earlier but the main thing I learnt is that less is more!! I crammed my greenhouse with way too many crops and the result was blight and overcrowding = no produce.Won't be doing that again! Please share yours!!!

[sharonr]

I try to stagger my planting to a few seeds each week of each, I.E. carrots, lettace, in fact most salad crops. So I don`t get everything at once.

[sewer rat]

The one thing I can absolutely guarantee you will learn is that you never stop learning, and I don't just mean the technical side of growing veg.
You will learn what varieties perform best on your particular site and which perform best in wet or dry seasons, what varieties of potatoes you prefer the taste of or which varieties are best for certain methods of cooking, different methods of production to help maximise the yield you can achieve without quality suffering (for example the three sisters method), how to combat various pests and diseases, you might want to learn about companion planting, or alternative uses for herbs, and there will always be new varieties to try out, new vegetables or fruit that you haven't grown before that suddenly take your fancy, how to make life easier with labour saving devices etc etc etc.

[lettucegrow!]

Many thanks sharonr and sewer rat. I like the idea of staggering planting I hate paying for lettuce! and the three sisters method looks a really good idea as I don't have loads of room so would like to get as much out of the space as poss. Lots to think aboutxxxx

[maytreefrannie]

The one thing I can absolutely guarantee you will learn is that you never stop learning,

Thanks, Sewer Rat - that's certainly true of me, I'm always finding out stuff I didn't know (and didn't know I didn't know!)

[kiwirach]

i only started last june and what i will do differently this year is keep ontop of the grass on the allotment. because i was late in starting i just cut out and worked the beds i used and didnt pay alot of attention to the other bits, so this year i'm going to really keep ontop of the grass and hope the slugs will move out cos their homes have been mowed down!!.

this most definately is going to be a life long learning curve!.