Gardening 2017

Well, I washed a load of plant pots today and have arranged the seeds I have from last year into some kind of order.

Just did my big order for the year, we'll see how the experiments go:
B180 Orcas pear/OHxF333 [SPRING]
D760 Highbush Cranberry 5+: $9.50 [SPRING]
G665 Kinnickinnick-4 inch pot 6+: $5 [SPRING]
E190 Red Huckleberry-Gal Pot 3+:$17.50 each [SPRING]
H1034 Cascade Hops-4 Inch Pot [SPRING]
H340 Silver Bells Akebia-One Quart Pot [SPRING]
H320 Purple Bouquet Akebia-One Qt pot [SPRING]
M581 Empress Tree Lg crown 3+:$9.50 [SPRING]

very average harvest this year: comparatively minuscule plums, the occasional strawberry (usually beaten to by birds), a few sad looking apples hanging off trees and the pear doesn't seem to have fruited at all this season. on the plus side: nearly time to put the various fruit shrubs & wineberrys i propagated over last year into the ground.

Any recommendations for buying raised beds (in the UK)? I know, I know ... I should just buy some planks and nail them together.

My seed purchases for 2017:

1355D Cardoon 1
1310F Zinnia elegans, 'Queen Red Lime' 1
952T Papaver somniferum var. paeoniflorum, 'Black Peony' 1
108W Angelica sylvestris purpurea, 'Vicar's Mead' 1
493 Echinops ritro 1
1275B Verbena bonariensis 1
526X Eryngium giganteum, 'Miss Willmott's Ghost' 1
1602 Agretti 'Roscano' 1
1709C Bean, Runner, 'Moonlight' 1
1372 Celtuce
1359 American or Land Cress 1
1373B Perilla Red (or 'Shisho') 1
1370M Salad Leaves Chiltern Seeds Mixes, 'Chiltern Seeds Fiery Mix' 1
1370L Salad Leaves Pea shoots 'Serge'

Anyone read Rakes Progress magazine? Looks like it might be nice but not sure I can bring myself to buy a £10 magazine without seeing an actual copy first.

I've got a succulent - not sure what it is but it's kind of "flower shaped" - that came in one of those glass jars with moss from M&S. The moss is looking a bit sad. I understand that I should re-pot it into something with drainage but in what growing medium?

Also, any recommendations for "indoor trees"?

Ta.

Right then. What will I get away with planting now (in the UK), veg/salad-wise?

New raised beds coming soon ...

I'm in the US mid-atlantic; I indoor-started some swiss chard, beets (for greens, don't much care about the roots), lettuce, dill, parsley; moved everything into pots outside last week. Fingers crossed!

Is it even worth buying some plug plants just to have something in the beds?

IMO yes; at best you get something to harvest (or at least add to store-bought greens), at worst you're out ten bucks or so.

(UK) Any suggestions as to what?

Hmm. Tiny white mites in the base of an aloe vera plant ...

get some rosemary oil and mix with water in a spray bottle, supposedly does the trick for little bugs

My chickens got into my pots and dug up all my little greens starts :(

They were root mealybugs, apparently.

... And, on closer inspection, were on both my Aloes.

Leaf curl/leaf fall/eaten leaves on my Pachira Aquatica, too. Grr.

Had beautiful raised beds made by here: https://raw-workshop.co.uk/bespoke/

(in Oxford).

I hadn't planned on growing anything this year, but I sort of unleashed a neighbor into being a gardening demon when I showed him my Baker Creek seed catalog. Among the dozens of things he ordered were my two favorite varieties of cherry tomatoes, and he gave me seedlings of both, so I had a late-starting bonanza of Matt's Wild Cherry and Blondkopfchen. Saving seeds of both right now for next year.

I should really seed cover crops today.