Starting again from scratch - help & advice please

Polytunnels, cold frames, greenhouses, propagators & more. How to get the best out of yours...

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Stravaig
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After moving from pillar to post for months on end, we've now managed to rent a flat in Kent - for a year - ie some stability.

(We had 11 darned house moves - during two evacs - one for Covid and then because of the Russian invasion. But now that posting is over and we'll be based back in Blighty for a while at least.)

This is a nice flat, smaller than we're used to but with a bit of imagination it could be great. It doesn''t have a garden but it does have a decent-sized south facing roof terrace (paved), which gets nice and sunny when the weather is nice. (9m long x 3.6m wide)

I've had some success before in this area with growing a nice herb garden in a large container on the patio of our house (which now has tenants in). I'm thinking container gardening is the way to go.

More info:

I love Asian food so I tend to buy exotic things you'd not normally find in the supermarket, although items like Thai basil, etc, are easier to find these days. They can often be expensive and it's nicer anyway to grow your own and use it as soon as you've picked it. Also, you don't have to buy a big bag if you only want a few leaves or sprigs.

As a keen cook, and not much of a gardener, I only want to grow edible plants. (If I want a bunch of flowers to put in a vase on the table, I'll pay a fiver and get it from Sainsbury's.)

In Kyiv we had very large windowsills so I had hydroponic systems on them, which basically meant I could ignore the seasons.

QUESTIONS

So, what do I do next? I realise that this isn't the growing season. But is there anything I could or should be doing now?

I'd thought to get the containers from B&Q or similar, plus compost. Any better ideas and what kind of compost should I go for?

I'd expect to buy my seeds online from a company which specialises in "exotic" plants/seeds.

I'd be glad of any advice you might have to get me a kitchen garden again. I have serious mobility problems so an allotment is out of the question.

Thanks in advance! :D
tigerburnie
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The first thing to find out is how much weight will the roof terrace hold, don't want to overload it with heavy containers, maybe consider growing in growbags, which will be lighter?
Been gardening for over 65 years and still learning.
Stravaig
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Many thanks. Maybe I'm stupid but I'm not seeing a "thank you" button on this new system, otherwise I'd have clicked "thanks" to you. :D

I'd not even thought about the load-bearing capacity of the terrace. So thanks for the heads up on that!

Anyway, I'm not a terribly ambitious gardener. And we have a major supermarket next door - literally! LOL! Nah, I wasn't aiming for self-suffiency and "The Good Life". I was thinking along the lines of just a few (maybe three of four containers). One would have the usuals - parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (and chives). One would have my Oriental herbs. One for edible flowers. And maybe one other for odds and sods. I had to attempt to grow green beans in Kyiv because they're often used in Thai food but we so very rarely saw them in Ukraine, and only then in Kyiv's equivalent of Harrods. I can easily get stuff like that next door at the supermarket.

We're still in moving-in chaos and discovering things all the time. There is a door to the outside terrace - no suprise there. But there's also a large window the same size quite close with the same sunny south aspect, which doesn't have a door but it does have a window sill/step big enough for plenty of pot plants on shelving units!

I expect to start exploring farmers' markets once we're a bit more settled in. Is there any such thing as allotment markets? You know, you get a glut of crops during certain seasons and you might be glad of someone paying to take some of it off your hands.

Thank goodness, we'll be getting a fridge and freezer tomorrow. We ordered it from Currys on Saturday but they couldn't deliver until tomorrow. We do have a tiny portable fridge which comes in handy sometimes but I've found it really difficult to buy only what we can use "today".

Oh well, at least we don't have to move house tomorrow, yet AGAIN, that'll make a nice change.

Does anyone here live in the Medway area of Kent? I'm sure we could do things for mutual benefit, especially if you're a gardener and I'm a cook.
Colin2016
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Lettuce cut and come again only need a few .

Been growing kale & chard in pots for same use as lettuce.

Garlic & onions spring/main.
Not Asian unfortunately.

As for compost get any from 3/4 different places and mix it all up.

As for herbs may be easier to get them from supermarket and grow them on rather trying to get them going from seeds.

Good Luck
Stravaig
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Terrific advice, thanks Colin.

Very interested to hear about getting compost from different places and mixing it up. I'm guessing that a mix is better than the one thing... no idea why.

I've previously had good results with buying supermarket potted herbs, especially when we were moving around so much. Considering this isn't the growing season and I gave my hydroponics units away to a Ukrainian man, (very nice guy who was helpful to us) buying ready grown plants from S'bury or similar will get us off to a flying start. :D
Westi
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Our local market has a herb stall with just about any herb you could think of is available. I bought my Lemon Grass there, a liquorice plant & lots of interesting basils. Might be worth checking out the street markets & any nearby asian supermarkets.
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Stravaig
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I really didn't want to wait several months to start sowing seeds again so I gave in and bought a couple of "grow pods" (small hydroponic thingies). And now I've ordered two more!

Sainsbury's had a good offer on packets of edible flower seeds and I got the rest of the seeds online at a fraction of average garden centre prices. Dunno if they're any good yet but the Thai basil is being planted today.

The nasturtiums are doing great in a very short time and the cornflowers are looking good too. (No flowers yet.) I know, cornflowers don't really taste of anything but the dark blue ones can look quite stunning, eg on scrambled eggs.
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