Your Growing system strengths and weaknesses!

[rary]

I'm perfect me, 10's across the board

Actually so am I burnie it's just that I didn't want VC to think she was the odd one out for example buying seeds a perfect 10 I only buy the seed that I will use

[veggiechicken]

Labelling 10. It would drive me up the wall not knowing what was what.
Taking notes 5. I take them , but not detailed enough. They mean nothing when I look back at them.

I'd give myself 10 for labelling too - I always label, and often use different coloured pots for different varieties of the same thing, just to be on the safe side.

I give myself 10 for labelling too - my labels are generic - "cabbage", "radish" etc - as I often mix the seeds together. A cabbage is a cabbage - No??

[casejones]

Not sure you would call what original poster list a growing system more like a set stages in the gardening process. Since the stages look like the ones I seen when I was researching into how they gardened during WW2.

As for thinning I don't need to because i plant at final spacing, replant where the seeds do not germinate. the only exception this method are for corn and beet (root and leaf)which require a different way to get even results at harvest. With the corn I transplant the seedling and the beets crack seed pod so i can plant them as single seeds at final spacing.

[veggiechicken]

Are you a perfect 10, casejones?

[Thelma Sanders]

Not sure you would call what original poster list a growing system more like a set stages in the gardening process. Since the stages look like the ones I seen when I was researching into how they gardened during WW2..

Everyone uses their own method (system?), the posts show that many of us use the same method, so it can't just be a WW2 way of gardening, can it?
I think in those days most seeds were sown directly into the soil in rows and resulting plants thinned out in stages until correct row spacings were achieved. Many of us now sow in seed trays or modules and then plant out the resulting small plants, often into raised beds at closer spacings than the 'old timers' use/d in their rows.
But each to their own, the point is there isn't just one way to garden. Thank goodness

[veggiechicken]

I'm sure we've been down this road before with a "former" member of this forum.

[Runtpuppy]

My gardening system is so scattered that I don't know how I'd fit myself in the VC score card :\

I grow stuff because I like green things that bloom and unfurl... Since I love them and want them growing around me, I might as well have something to show for it... fruits, veggies, flowers.

In my garden, things happen when the Venn diagram for 'remember to do' intersects with 'at the right time' intersects with 'when I am not doing something else!'. This is because I have a colander for memory, and am so easily distracted that yesterday I looked up the recipe for cookies, went into the kitchen, and started prepping for dinner :|

I tend to buy seeds I may never use because I don't have space. If I do remember to sow them at the right time, I just scatter them, because thinning and spacing may never happen. I weed when the stars align perfectly (Last year, my entire crop of peas was lost in a sea of nettles, and snails and slugs ate the lot before I went to check on them).

I harvest based on need, so spinach, coriander, potatoes and beans got harvested a lot, while the aforementioned peas languished in a corner. Then I didn't go out for a week and found that both coriander and spinach had bolted!

To show you how thoroughly I harvest, I dug out 10 potatoes two months ago out of soil I had already dug up. They are going to be this year's seeds :P You'd have thunk I'd have got them all now, but no... we have 2-3 potato plants rising from the dug up garden soil. I don't know how I get anything done.

I do love seeds and seedlings (I have a few on my windowsill and I coo at them 3-4 times a day, telling them how much I love them) but sometimes I think I should stick to perennials that require a bit of upkeep once or twice a year.

However, home-grown veggies do taste so much better! So, I keep trying...

[veggiechicken]

Runtpuppy - I like your style.

[Penellype]

I give myself 10 for labelling too - my labels are generic - "cabbage", "radish" etc - as I often mix the seeds together. A cabbage is a cabbage - No??

Mmm, sort of. However when I am growing 10 types of tomato, some of which are blight resistant for the allotment, some of which need to go in the greenhouse and they are a mix of bush and cordon varieties, labelling is essential!

[veggiechicken]

OK, Pene - I confess. I do label tomatoes because I save seeds from them - as for the courgettes and squashes - they're either climbers or bushy ones.

[Penellype]

The other thing I do a lot of is test one variety against another - carrot Marion v Nantes Frubund (I prefer NF), Leek Albana v Oarsman (I prefer Oarsman), Calabrese Sakura v Matsuri (don't know yet as that's this year's trial). If I just labelled it carrot, etc and I found one variety was much better than the other, how would I know which to sow next year?

[rary]

Since the stages look like the ones I seen when I was researching into how they gardened during WW2

You could have saved yourself a lot of time if you had contacted VC and asked her how she had gardened then, they tell me first hand experience is a great thing

[Bren In Pots]

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is complete failure and 10 is perfectionist..

Buying seeds - 1 - this year I haven't bought any seeds, even after my charity shop clear out I still enough in date seeds. Usually I have to buy parsnips but they were in the mag.

Sowing seeds - 8 - sowing's my fave bit.

Thinning out seedlings - 5 - I feel bad about those that get thinned out even though I usually eat them.

Planting out - 4 - I never like this stage I feel I've abandoned my plants to the slugs.

Weeding/pruning/feeding once planted - 3 - OK-ish with weeding but feeding's a bit haphazard.

Picking crop when ready - 10 - the best bit, my little shop at the bottom the garden.

[jonahjonah]

This is my first year trying to grow a variety of things on the allotment. Previously I only tried to grow a couple of things from seed or plants in small beds in back gardens.

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is complete failure and 10 is perfectionist..

Buying seeds - 7. I love to buy seeds but I get easily excited/distracted.

Sowing seeds - 4. It would be a 10 for enthusiasm. I'm another who loves the germination and seeing the seedlings poke their heads up. But I could not resist sowing far too early with no grow lights. I'm sure the seedlings would vote a 0 for me on this.

Thinning out seedlings - 3. Utter failure. I try to sow so that I won't need to thin. I am not good at it when it is necessary. I'm also rubbish at potting on. I dislike this aspect the most for some reason.

Planting out - This one is largely untested for me. I'm going with an optimistic 7 because I have a plan to get everything out by the end of this month after hardening off.

Weeding/pruning/feeding once planted - 6? I've been doing an ok job of weeding and I did an ok job of feeding my strawberries and other container plants last year. Plus now I have my exciting stinky weed tea.

Picking crop when ready - 5. I tend to wait too long for ripeness. We harvested the potatoes and greatly enjoyed them last year, but the squirrels ate all the strawberries

Labeling - 6. I have been trying and still not quite succeeding. Most things I have a single variety of and are marked adequately. A couple of tomatoes lost their marks and are not distinguishable at this point and I mixed up some of my brassicas.

[bramble]

Buying seeds has to be one of my favourite things about gardening.
On a scale of 1 to 10 I will give myself a 7.
Sowing seeds, that will be 8. Love watching for them to germinate.
Thinning out, not something I like doing, so that will be a 6.
Weeding and feeding I am quite good at. A 7 for that.
My downfall is sowing too many seeds each year and never enough space to plant them out.
All in all, I class myself as being an over enthusiastic gardener.