What I'd like to grow next year, achievable?

[Cadalot]

We will easily eat 100 cucumbers. I eat a pack of those mini cucumbers for lunch every day.

The point is if you look at the dates on the first cucumber and glut in the flower bucket there is only about 2 and a half months of harvest. I grow shed loads of spring onions because we consume 2 - 3 bunches a week, each to their own, but as BM said look at successional sowing and plan.

[sparrow100]

On a 5-rod allotment, even with successional sowing I don't think that you can fit all that in. Obviously feel free to prove me very wrong!

I filled my greenhouse with 14 tomato plants, plus had 4 Crimson Crush plants outside. Looking at my harvest totals that gave me about 13kg/26lb tomatoes in what was a difficult year. To achieve 150lbs/75kg you would need many more plants, say 30ish, and if half of those are outside you risk losing them to blight.

Squash plants, depending on variety, will give you an average of 2-5 fruits each. So to get 30 fruits you need a minimum of 6 plants, probably 10. And even if you grow them vertically they take a fair amount of space for their root run.

Courgettes are prolific, but i can never get to 200, which would mean about 8 plants in theory - I don't get the watering right and powdery mildew tends to set in which stunts productivity.

Cabbages are huge plants - even with succession sowing it would seem to me that they would take half your space. Plus your growth rate will slow dramatically in the cold months. I have 8 PSB and 4 sprouts in at the moment and they are most of a 1.2m x 5m bed.

The broad beans, peas & beans look perfectly do-able. Particularly if you have tall varieties of the latter two and some structures for them to grow up.

[Penellype]

I haven't got anywhere near as much room as you, and I don't grow some of the crops (sprouts, corn, shallots, squash or broad beans) so its hard for me to say whether you would fit these in. However, there are a few things that you need to remember when working out how much you can grow, and a few tips I've learned from trying to fit a quart into a pint pot at home.

Firstly, however much space you have you won't be able to use all of it. Some will be given over to paths, compost heaps, shed, greenhouse... By planning carefully you can use some of these areas if you need to. Try growing some of the courgettes or squashes on the compost heap (they love it). Train something up the side of the shed - peas, beans or tomatoes, depending on where the sun is. Rather than a long row of climbing beans, try archways over the paths between the ends of beds, and sow several lots to give you a longer cropping time.

Grow some things in pots that can be moved - you can then put them next to big plants that are still small (like courgettes) while you wait for space to be vacated from earlier crops. I do this with buckets of potatoes, but lettuces, cabbages (planted firmly), spring onions etc are fine in containers. You can even block paths with containers as long as you don't need to get a barrow down, if they are small enough to step over.

52 cabbages sounds huge, but it is only 4 or 5 a month. Start them off in pots once a month and plant out when they outgrow a 3.5 inch pot. You can tuck them in amongst young broccoli or sprouts as they will be ready and gone before the bigger plants take over the space.

Spring onions grow fine if planted in modules 3 or 4 seeds to each. You don't need to thin them, when they start getting too big for the modules simply plant out the whole plug. You can stick them in any vacant space - you don't need a special spring onion bed.

Varieties are going to be the key to success with some of the crops. I had a huge crop of Mountain Magic tomatoes, a variety that is resistant to blight and does well outside. Let 3 or 4 stems grow and provide a strong support! I grew Cucino (all female) cucumbers in the greenhouse - a lunch box size variety. 2 plants sown a month apart (early April, early May) gave me cucumbers from mid June to early November, once they got going there was one ready every couple of days through the warmer months. Trained up mesh and along wires on the shadier side of the greenhouse they didn't take up much space, unlike Vega, which I grew the year before, which needed pollinating and had much more branching stems.

Make use of the windowsills in your house as well as the greenhouse and always have something in pots ready to fill any spaces.

[Lumpy]

What cabbages are you thinking about. If they are summer/auterm are you going to have a go at anything for the winter or spring?

Are you thinking about other winter veg such as kale, swedes, lettuce etc as they will all have to have room and in some cases protection.

[Alison]

As for me stamping on grapes, the beggars belief comment isn't very welcoming to a newbie

Things come over differently in text format, you said you were a newbie (even your name says that ) so it's not unreasonable that people think you don't know the basics like successional sowing - I know loads of people that have sowed an entire packet of lettuce seeds at the same time when they've started out. It was good advice, well meant (as have been several other posts on this thread which people have spent a lot of time and effort composing). Your response kind of threw this well meant advice back in the posters face and therefore stamped on that grape. People are genuinely very encouraging and helpful here so try and take that at face value and appreciate that level of effort and you'll find it works both ways

[Lumpy]

My first ever lettuce was, like Alison said the whole packet in one go.

Everybody on here has to learn not just what their soil, location and climate can grow but also find the help and advice they need to succeed!

I hope you call into your thread to have a read..............

[spamvindaloo]

Firstly, you're not going to be able to grow all of that.

Secondly, even with multiple freezers and fridges, you're not going to be able to keep enough produce to see you through winter (I've never personally frozen a cucumber but I can't imagine it would work).

I'd look at what you really want to grow, the things that really taste better when grown yourself and freshly harvested and the things that give you a good return for the area of land.

So I'd be inclined to forsake the cabbages (and maybe the sprouts) and buy them in. Using such a large area of your space for a such a long period of time just isn't giving you the best returns unless you've got the space to spare. Extend your growing space where you can, there's no need to take up precious ground for spring onions when they can be grown in a pot or bucket for example.

Yes, definitely grow things like tomatoes as they are amazing when grown yourself but it's unlikely you're going to be able to grow that many so eat what you can, preserve a bit more but accept that if you want out of season veg, you'll have to buy some.

It sounds like you are trying to be self sufficient, it's a nice thought but hardly anybody manages it.

[Penellype]

It sounds like you are trying to be self sufficient, it's a nice thought but hardly anybody manages it.

I do (for veg)

[spamvindaloo]

It sounds like you are trying to be self sufficient, it's a nice thought but hardly anybody manages it.

I do (for veg)

That's good for you Pene but I'm guessing you eat with the seasons and preserve what best lends itself to being preserved. I suspect a lot of your growing choices are also based on what you can fit in. I think the original poster wants to eat fresh salads and all other manor of veg 52 weeks of the year which he's going to struggle with (if I'm making incorrect assumptions then I apologise).

Hopefully we haven't scared the OP off but I think he needs to rethink his plans.

[rary]

Good evening NG1970, and welcome to the Vine, you have put a list of crops you would like to grow, but dont say what area of the country you come from, coming from an area that is cold and wet most of the year there are some things in your list I couldn't grow at the quantities that you want, I do have a 8x14 greenhouse, but unless I am willing to heat it sweet peppers are out but I can get chili's, squash is a no no and I dont get the returns on corn to be worth the space, so location and experience is important.

Things come over differently in text format, you said you were a newbie. People are genuinely very encouraging and helpful here so try and take that at face value and appreciate that level of effort and you'll find it works both ways

What Alison says is so right putting things in the written word can come over so different from what is intended, so don't take offence, but take it as friendly advice, at one time I took criticism on a personal level but have since learned that people are only trying to give advice. So enjoy your gardening, and enjoy the Vine read what people say and remember we are all different.

[Alison]

I do (for veg)

Me too but Spam is right, you do end up eating more seasonally. I did this before I got a lottie as I had a veg box and personally I don't want to eat the same thing all year as it's fun to look forward to the next crop. I do extend the season in my polytunnel and by preserving / effective storage though. I rarely go in supermarkets but when I do I am confused by what's on offer, even at this time of year they're selling the likes of asparagus or strawberries - they're not as nice out of season and there's so many things that are cheaper and tastier at the moment. (Did not agree with his comment over cabbages and sprouts though, yes they take up space for a lot of the year but they are very low maintenance so long as they're netted and I can grow much better varieties than I could buy)

[spamvindaloo]

Fair comment about the cabbages and the sprouts but I just meant with his limited space he needs to give something up and because cabbages etc are monopolising so much of his plot for a long time, he could grow a greater percentage off the other stuff in exchange for that space.

If he's got the space and doesn't mind sacrificing something else then that's fine.

[Penellype]

I think the most important thing is to grow what you like to eat. My staples are potatoes, tomatoes and carrots but I do like to have fresh salads available all year, and to do this I grow them under lights in my utility room as well as growing the hardier oriental leaves outside. Its amazing how much salad you can grow if you are happy to eat baby leaves, pick a few leaves from each lettuce and grow shoots and sprouting seeds. I do miss things like cucumber in winter, but it makes them seem all the nicer when they appear in the summer.

I do also only have myself to feed, and that is quite different from feeding 2 people or a family.

[Newbiegrower1970]

Fair comment about the cabbages and the sprouts but I just meant with his limited space he needs to give something up and because cabbages etc are monopolising so much of his plot for a long time, he could grow a greater percentage off the other stuff in exchange for that space.

If he's got the space and doesn't mind sacrificing something else then that's fine.

I'm a she ��

[Greenleaves]

Happens to me all the time 1970

I am an avid Brassica grower and I presume you are going to try and store some of the cabbages? Like you we eat a fair bit of cabbage but I can only crop for around 8/9 months. I wish you luck and would be interested to know how you get on.

Welcome to the vine by the way