Vertical garden diary

[Dave Rennie]

Unlucky there with the foxes/cats.

This is the only house I've ever lived in where slugs get in through the back and front door.
Only smallish ones around an inch, but still not nice to have in the house.

I was a smoker until last year.
I only smoked outside, and on many evenings stepped on slugs with bare feet.
Such a disgusting feeling

[Potstubsdustbins]

Lovely project for all the family, if you like salad leaves have a look at mesclun which is mixed cut and come again leaves and with a little protection in a winter will grow more or less all year.

[Dave Rennie]

Lovely project for all the family, if you like salad leaves have a look at mesclun which is mixed cut and come again leaves and with a little protection in a winter will grow more or less all year.

Thank you, I will look into that.
All year round salads is definitely the aim of the game for me.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I love salad leaves myself a couple more worth a look is lettuce Lollo Rosso you can pick a few leaves when you want leaving the plant to grow on and Provençale Salad mix which is winter hardy, very tasty.

[Dave Rennie]

I love salad leaves myself a couple more worth a look is lettuce Lollo Rosso you can pick a few leaves when you want leaving the plant to grow on and Provençale Salad mix which is winter hardy, very tasty.

Excellent thanks, I'll look into both of these.
Do you grow these outdoor through the winter? Are they suitable for the shallow green pockets I'm working with?

[Dave Rennie]

Making use of the paddling pool

[Dave Rennie]

Quick update.
A few of the planted seeds are coming on strong, but only about 10% have sprouted so far.



After giving them their 2nd soak of the day, I gave the kids a good drenching too.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I am fortunate I have a 6 x 8 GH but the Provencal mix should be good in a sheltered spot.

[Dave Rennie]

I am fortunate I have a 6 x 8 GH but the Provencal mix should be good in a sheltered spot.

Thank you again.
I've watched a few videos today on "cut and come again" salads, and the species you mentioned.
This fits right in with what I'd like to achieve.

I will be giving this a shot at some point soon.

[Dave Rennie]

The seeds made a burst for sunlight today.
I noted earlier that around 10% of seeds had sprouted around lunch time, well now we're closer to 40%.







I noticed that the alpine strawberries in the green pockets are starting to grow some fruit too...

[Dave Rennie]

Popie (my lovely Mrs) has just followed something she remembers seeing her mum do as a child. Throwing chopped chillies onto soil and watering.
Let's hope this works, as we go through loads of chilli...

[Dave Rennie]

So, we’re a week in, and here’s a quick update on the vertical systems.

We’re well above 50% sprouting on the seeds in both the EBay planter and the seed trays.







Hopefully by this time next week we’ll be able to see some form of the leaves.

The IKEA shed door planter has done so so.



The mint has grown quite a bit, and we’ve all been nibbling leaves from it throughout the week.

[Dave Rennie]

Today we spent the day at a local farm/theme park.
Chickens, lamb, pony’s etc. It was a nice day out.

[Dave Rennie]

We’ve also started a Microgreens project as another experiment to grow our own greens.
I like this concept for it’s very fast turn around, can be achieved all year round, and takes little space and investment.

So we bought some cheap seeds from Wilko’s, Labled them into plastic cups and….

[Dave Rennie]

soaked them for 24 hours.