Guinea Gardeners: Growing for Piggies

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Mine are going well and we have all meals from the salad leaves, me and the guineas. I shall take some photos.

I have bought 9 small cabbage plants yesterday reduced to a pound so will be finding somewhere to plant them soon. I have also bought LOADS of timothy grass seeds and a huge tray to plant them in. I have also bought shepherds purse seeds after losing dink I want some here incase I need it again. I have also bought edible flowers that are suitable for guineas and more dandeliions.

I planted plantain a while ago and its just started spouting so I shall soon have a tray of that - and I have LOADS of it left.

If anyone wants some dandelion seeds and plantain seeds let me know and I will send a small amount to you. I should be getting 1000 dandelion seeds today so will have spare!
 
When did you sow the salad leaves, Lisa?

I sowed mine on 1 May and they're looking great. The Mizuna lettuce is big enough to harvest now (I assume - it is bigger than the stuff available in Tesco salads!) but the romaine, chard etc. has a long way to go yet.

Will PM you re the dandelion seeds, I picked some earlier in the months and they adored the greens.
 
My parsley came back after my cat destroyed it and I had to pick it all to feed to the pigs before it died. It's looking great and they had some this morning :)

And I have a few more things growing but forget which is which!
 
I'm very interested to hear about growing kale, as it really doesn't keep well in the bags (I throw so much away). Can I grow it indoors?
 
Okay here are some random shots of my stuff....

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Those are my shelves, they have various things on including flowers the slugs were eating.

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Here are the two large planters that have green beans, cucumbers, carrots, purple sprouting brocolli, little gems

Then this is the square planter with way too much stuff in it that I am thinning out and eating and feeding us all from

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There is a small peach tree we got last year on the right of the shot that's just started growing it's first peaches and a currant plant on the left

And finally the green house thing - it's full of humidity and my tomato plants are HUGEEEE

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Laura lettuce planted 2 months ago or so.
 
Live in a flat, so no garden or yard unfortunately ut I do have Spinach growing on our windowsill and it is going canny, loving the sun. Would also like to grow kale and be interested on how easy and where best to get the seeds etc.
 
Wow Lisa, they're looking brilliant!

Finally got a few pics of some of mine...

LaurasVeg30May.jpg


Lettuces (the "Salad" seeds from the BBC)
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Lollo Rosso
LolloRosso30May.jpg


Cucumbers (I am amazed they survived after the dog was digging in this patch!)
Cucumbers30May.jpg


Carrots
Carrots30May.jpg


All were sown on 1 May. We have caught the growing bug, the twins are growing pumpkins and sunflowers, and my mum and I and the twins have all got flowers in pots on the patio. :)
 
Don't forget the secret ingredient

I love this thread, especially the pictures. I, too, am trying to grow veggies for my crew.

I wanted to mention the secret ingredient that helps plants to grow. Here is picture. Mix it with the soil or put it on your compost heap. It is a great fertiliser. LOL
 
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I finally got round to reporting in this thread! I just stuck to carrots and timothy grass after all, as space is a bit of problem. I cheated and bought a parsley plant from Tesco ;)

Both seem to be growing well. I'm especially pleased with the carrots as I had a bit of a disaster a month or so ago when the container they're in overturned :( Thankfully I managed to scoop them back in and they've continued to grow :)

My mum took my kale and parsely seeds and these have started to sprout too xx>>>
 
Yes it's a bit of a bug here too! It's raining here but I was going to plant my cabbages and wild stuff that should arrive today (hopefully).

Laura in the square planter some of the seeds are the BBC ones too.
 
I'm so envious of your spacious wooden planters and raised beds, Lisa & Laura - very posh!

My garden isn't big enough for that and the beds are already full of flowers so I'm having to grow all my veg in pots. I have no idea how I'm going to find space for the amount of seeds I have....I think I may have got carried away but seeds are soooo cheap, I can't help myself!

For the things which require quite deep pots, I've been planting in these buckets:
http://www.focusdiy.co.uk/Hardware/Payless-12L-Green-Bucket/invt/247470

They were cheaper than plastic pots of the same size (30cm dia) so I just pulled out the handles and made some holes in the bottom. So far they're doing the job perfectly and once the plants start growing the bucket spout is easily hidden so they just look like bright green pots!
 
They are such a good idea! I am going to copy that! I have a pepper plant that needs a bigger pot but I have spent alot on pots and stuff, my husband has a few of those buckets - going to steal one later hee hee.

I planted more herbs yesterday - my herbs are my biggest disappointment (except the mint which is good). It's spindly and I don't seem to have had much seed to plant in each pot, it's better value at the supermarket so far. I planted loads more yesterday so hopefully it will work out.
 
My strawberry plant has strawberries on it. Can I feed the leaves to the guineas? Anyone know? The strawberries have been bagseyed by Eva!
 
I've not fed them myself, but I believe strawberry leaves are safe - they're sold a lot when they've been dried. And the strawberry tops can be fed too, not that mine were interested. rolleyes

How long did it takes for the strawberry plant to reach that stage?

I do understand the herbs thing, yesterday I sowed some parsley seed. I also repotted my coriander, it has been looking utterly pathetic since sowing it on 20 April, but the root systems were rather impressive, the coriander is definitely doing something!
 
I've got my first strawberries too but i cheated and got a ready planted hanging basket from homebase :red however my broccoli and savoy cabbage are massive now I took some leaves off them both I had a few with my roast and the piggies had their greens all from the garden. they had sage, rosemary, broc and savoy cabbage greens, oregano (which had recovered from last year) and thyme (again went totally woody for winter and now has some leaves back on it! ) I also had to thin out my beetroot in its tub so they had them chopped up. Herbs can take a while to mature but once the roots are good and strong they will suddenly go mad! :(|)
 
I had my first home grown rocket salad last night :-)

The guineas had some dandelions.

I've got more Basil and blimmin' Parlsey that I can shake a stick at....

And my carrots have just started to grow shoots! :)
 
Oh yeah my carrot have tops but only 4 seeds survied the neighbours b:xy cat using it as a litter tray grrrr might plant some more in a tub :))
 
Piggies had their first home-grown food today! I gave them a handful of mizuna lettuce leaves. Uncovered lots of oakleaf and romaine in the process - the mizuna had grown huge and was covering up all the other lettuces. rolleyes

All 15 enjoyed the mizuna though, it's made my day feeding them something I managed to grow myself!
 
I think Laura and Lisa tell fibs about being beginners!

:)).... Just kidding. Ok so my gardening is the basic of the basic and already I've noticed so many things I should have done differently which I will do next year I'll be a pro :).

Yes its not very exciting...

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Grow bag.

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Strawberry plant will be beinng moved into a big pot!

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Mini Greenhouse.

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You're plants are looking great Joanne.

Am very impressed with everyone's efforts.

CGilchrist, Sophie and Laura- fresh salad and veggies sound great.

How lovely that piggies are already reaping the benefits of their slaves hard work. :(|)

For my part I have so far managed to keep the parsley (that my dad started for me) alive, so should have a second eating of it soon. I did also have a delivery of the second sowing turn up on the porch this week (my brother's partner dropped it off for me by way of a parsley train from my mum), so the piggies are currently munching on that. The only problem is that it must taste so much better than the shop bought stuff, I guess because it is so much fresher, that they turned their noses up at the inferior quality stuff last week (until they realised that was all that was on offer).

:(|)
 
Looking good Joanne!

My green beans that were savagely assaulted some time back are only just regrouping. Was touch and go for a while but they're getting there. Still not looking as strong as yours though!

Sharon, great news that your parsley is still going, I've not managed that successfully in the pots I've bought before so don't know how my home-grown parsley will do.

Pics for those who might have missed them. :)
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=49667
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
Looking good Joanne!

My green beans that were savagely assaulted some time back are only just regrouping. Was touch and go for a while but they're getting there. Still not looking as strong as yours though!

Sharon, great news that your parsley is still going, I've not managed that successfully in the pots I've bought before so don't know how my home-grown parsley will do.
Click to expand...

They are about the only thing thats doing good... and I never put any labels on anything so it's all a guessing game as to whats growing. I could take pictures and we could guess the veg :))!
 
My dad grew the parsley from seed indoors in a mini propagator, then transplanted into pots when they were big enough. It does seem to need frequent (but small amounts) of water, and eats up the nutrients in the compost fairly rapidly. I gave it a small amount of plant feed and that seems to have perked it up no end.

Good luck. x
 
flips said:
My dad grew the parsley from seed indoors in a mini propagator, then transplanted into pots when they were big enough. It does seem to need frequent (but small amounts) of water, and eats up the nutrients in the compost fairly rapidly. I gave it a small amount of plant feed and that seems to have perked it up no end.
Click to expand...

You and your Dad have done really well as apparently parsley doesn't transplant at all well and if you do attempt to transplant it then the conditions must be just right...even right down to the soil temperature. Your Dad's not a human transplant surgeon is he?!

On the Titchmarsh's advice (via a book which has been sitting, brand new, untouched, on my shelf for years!) I planted my parsley seeds insitu, where I want them to crop - in a big tub (a bucket!) and I'll either leave it really dense or perhaps thin out the seedlings when they do eventually appear.

I've been really late in growing my seeds and my stuff hasn't been planted very long....typical me, think about it for ages, planning exactly what to do and then taking aaaaages to actually get around to doing it! It was only seeing all your fab efforts that gave me the kick up the bum to get planting, so you're all way ahead of me but I'm loving following your progress for inspiration...thanks! :)
 
Just wondering what you're all using to feed your veg plants with. Any tips or recommendations?

I've mixed some Miracle Gro slow release general purpose feed (the tiny balls) in with the cheap multipurpose compost so hopefully it'll give everything a boost. This should apparently be enough for 6 months but I'm tempted to also use a liquid feed once things start appearing.

Does anyone use a potash based feed for anything other than tomatoes? I think you can use tomato feed on any "fruiting" plants but I'm not sure. And I think you use general purpose nitrogen based feed on leafy greans but could be completely wrong (and probably am!)...any resident experts here?

I used to be involved in the gardening industry. I flippin wish I'd been more interested in growing veg back then, when I had market-leading resources at my disposal! Oh well!
 
missy said:
You and your Dad have done really well as apparently parsley doesn't transplant at all well and if you do attempt to transplant it then the conditions must be just right...even right down to the soil temperature. Your Dad's not a human transplant surgeon is he?!

:)
Click to expand...

:)) No, but he has very green fingers. :))
 
missy said:
Just wondering what you're all using to feed your veg plants with. Any tips or recommendations?
Click to expand...

Piggy poo mixed in the soil works great for my plants. I like the idea that my piggies are helping me to grow their food in this way.
 
Ahhh, good one. Not in short supply, but best of all it's "organic" and free!

Will give that a try. :))
 
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