u/RubyRossed

I grow flowers and veg no problem, but salad leaves never come to anything. It's been like this for years and it's annoying because the salad leaves I can't grow are a lot more expensive to buy than the onions, potatoes, beetroots, and tomatoes I grow without problems. Also, I don't like buying salad leaves - the handling, the plastic wrappers, the soggy waste if you don't use it right away.

I've tried sowing pak choi, Chinese cabbage, lettuce of various kinds, spinach. They usually produce a seedling and then stall and come to nothing. I've tried in containers on the windowsill, in a raised bed, in the greenhouse, and different times of year.

Does anyone else struggle with this or does anyone have a floolproof plan for getting salad leaves?

I've grown onions for years without problem - the odd one might go to seed late in the season, but generally a good crop that stores well.

This year they all went to seed early. When I pulled them up, they had hardly grown. They had roots, but the bulb size was miserable.

Is is the completely erratic weather? I did put them in raised beds rather than the ground for the first time and I used a pack of mixed bulbs (some reds, whites, yellows, and shallots) so I'm wondering if might also have been that.

I have an only child with no cousins or neighbours so activities seem important, but I don’t know where to start. There are so many options.

I just want my child to have fun, meet other children, and learn something new. I’d like him to learn a music instrument at some point but is it too intense to do classes on that at 4? Would kicking a ball around be better?

Interested in what activities your kids got into and how you found it.