March Update: What are you growing in 2006?

Moll

All this talk about allotments. got me wondering , Do any of you have elderly neighbours/ friends with a garden, as this would work better,.
If you used thier garden for free, and planted whatever you wanted. but provided them with fresh veg in return .,
I know lots of elderly people who are unable to keep thier gardens tidy, and would be very grateful for someone to keep it looking nice for them , so this way everyone wins
Just a thought

GreenFingers_2

Thought I would start a thread on growing our own tomatoes for this year. Following the progress of our seedlings right through to us picking lots of tasty fresh tomatoes..... As you can see from the really superb piccy below my seedlings are wonderfully happy and growing very well…..

The seeds were planted on the 21st February in a general-purpose compost and are now about 3 weeks old. I’ve been growing them on the kitchen windowsill where it’s quite warm and gets the afternoon sun. The seedlings will need to be potted up individually into larger 3-inch pots in about two weeks. They will then go into the greenhouse or stay on a windowsill somewhere – it’s a matter of keeping an eye on the weather, particularly frost warnings.

About the middle of May I will plant two or three plants out in the veggie patch. Two or three plants will be grown in the greenhouse in much larger pots. Grow bags seem to be popular though I’ve never tried them myself. Seeds can be planted up to the end April so still plenty of time to start. Also the garden centres will be selling quite a variety of tomato seedlings from now onwards.

The Old Style good bit is that the packet of seeds was free with my gardening paper – hooray.... The variety is called Moneymaker and is quite a popular variety, easily grown and nurtured either outside or in a greenhouse and produces lots of medium sized fruits. The first tomatoes should be ready for picking towards the end of June – how wonderful is that ….

squeaky

Hiya

We'd finish up with a thread each for every vegetable and salad item in the book, so what I've done is to add your post onto our Monthly gardening diary thread where I'm sure that everyone will be able to track things through.

Good luck

FunkyFairy

just been to Woolworths and they have all there growing kits half price.

I brought DH a chilli one including a lovely tracotta pot and soil.

I also brought 4 tomatoe ones and pressies for the childrens 4 partys coming up.

Hope this helps someone

nicki_2

My sweetpeas are going nuts! They're about 9" tall in 2 weeks :eek: but it's still way too cold to be planting them outside. Also got lots of onions, beetroots and tomatos up. Infact I've just gone to check on them and had to turn the propergators around as they were all leaning towards the light and some were touching the sides of the lid :rolleyes:

DD is desperate to get her little garden up and going so that might be a job for weekend as we need to go and buy a huge bag of compost from somewhere like B&Q, OH can pay for a change Then I need to figure out WHERE I'm going to put her garden, plus the two smaller ones I want to make for my onions and beetroots (not growing them in the ground this year as they struggled last year as we have such a heavy soil). I need to make my mini-bed for a climber of some sort (which I also need to buy), and sort out splitting my larger bed up with paving slabs (found in the alleyway) so I can actually get in to weed and harvest without ending up covered in mud

So here's hoping we have some nice weather soon!!!

wigginsmum

I second that, Nicki - I really want to get out there and implement my plans. It's so hard to wait

bluemoon_3

littlereddevil wrote:

I am not growing anything this year as last year all my potatoes were full of wireworm

That must be very discouraging, and I'm sure it would make me rather squeamish too! :eek:

I hope it won't put you off growing things for life though - maybe you could try something completely different and plant in a different spot?

serena

I wrote a lovely long post yesterday, and when I tried to send it, the site crashed and it disappeared into cyberspace! So, I shall make this very short. Fingers crossed.

Nicki, you can pinch out the tops of the leggy sweet peas, and they will grow much stronger and bushier. If (big IF, I have just seen the forecast...) it gets a bit milder, you can gradually harden them off by putting them outside somewhere sheltered during the day, and bringing them back in overnight. Watch out for slugs and snails. You could probably plant them out in a couple of weeks. They are pretty hardy.

I can't find the post about the cauliflowers right now, sorry! Cauliflowers are a bit fussier than other veg. They like to grow steadily,with an even supply of water. They take up a fair bit of space as they need to be planted out about 2ft apart, and the soil needs to be well firmed. I would !!!!!! out some of your seedlings, enough plus a few extra for luck, into three inch pots, grow them on a bit until you can see roots coming out of the bottom of the pot and harden them off very carefully before planting out in say a month. Protect from cabbage white caterpillars, slugs and snails, whitefly, grey aphids, children, footballs, rabbits and pigeons.

All the best!

annie-c

serena wrote:

I wrote a lovely long post yesterday, and when I tried to send it, the site crashed and it disappeared into cyberspace! So, I shall make this very short. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for all your posts Serena... please keep them up! It's really good to have experienced gardeners helping the rest of us out!! :T

Alfietinker

Well I thought I'd join in - and I have a quick question too if anybody gets time.

I've got aubergines, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, broad beans, corn lettuce, early peas and radishes (+ lots of herbs) in an unheated greenhouse. I germinated the tender veg in an electric progator indoors with 100% germination rate (I counted the seeds sown in each pot, then covered with vermiculite) When they were large enough I pricked them into individual pots and put them in the greenhouse. I didn't have any bubble wrap this year so to keep them cosy I cover everything with fleece to keep the temperature more even. Fleece also stops the seedlings scorching if we get a bright sunny day - I'm not around during the week to open the vents and it's too cold to open them when I leave in the morning. Seems to work OK.

So that's me so far. My question is this. I sowed a tray of leeks and a large container of nantes carrots mid Feb in the greenhouse. Nothing's come up yet. I've not grown either of these before - how long should germination take - or should I just sow another batch?

I'm hoping to start a few more veggies off in the greenhouse this weekend - covering with fleece again.