growing own veggies in bags and pots (Merged)

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

It's a great thing to do - I've got RA and have had a pretty bad flare of the last couple of years, so I had to find something that didn't require a great deal of lifting, carrying or bending. I started at around about this time of year, thinking about what I wanted. I'm guessing, but I would imagine that you want things on as many levels as possible whilst still being within reach. Hope I don't sound patronising, but I'm assuming you have never grown anything before.

Plants at the basic level need soil, moisture and sunlight to grow. After that, the conditions in which their ancestors would grow in the wild are a pretty good indicator of where they would like to be. Chillies grow in tropical countries (curries for India/Asia, chilli con carne from South America, most foods from Central Africa) so therefore, they enjoy sunshine. Parsnips feature in cooler countries, so are more likely to prefer cooller weather, in fact my granddad maintained that they only tasted sweet once they'd been covered by the snow.

First, I would have a go at a few herbs and salad leaves indoors over the winter, just to get the hang of things growing/not growing. Most of them will grow in something about the size of a bean tin, as long as you have a few holes punched into the bottom to let excess water out and a saucer or something similar to catch any overflow. Rather than get all hung up on technical stuff, try and get seeds that say something like 'chuck it in a pot and throw water on when you remember'. Bung some bulbs into pots now - daffodils, tulips, whatever, in the soil to a depth of about 3 times their own height (pointy end up as a general rule) - and shove them outside. You can't eat them, but suddenly seeing them in Spring will remind you that you need to get cracking on the food crops - and cheer you up!

By the long cold days of December, I'd be accumulating pots, tubs, buckets and hanging baskets - you can get brackets put on the wall at standing height and then add rise and fall hooks, which means you can enjoy cascades of things like strawberries (and it keeps them away from slugs) or tumbling tomatoes from the position of your chair. Soil and compost also tend to be a bit cheaper then - some places deliver and you can get the pots filled early if you wish. Once the soil doesn't feel drainingly cold when you touch it (the traditional phrase from Granddad was if it didn't freeze his **se off when he sat on it) you need to start planting.

Following the instructions on the seed packets (including what time of year to sow), start planting stuff and see what happens. You will need to sow successively, which means plant a few seeds each week or so to get plants coming to peak at slightly different times and thus avoiding a glut of anything (hopefully). Beans will climb up bamboo sticks stuck in the ground to make a wigwam shape and look lovely, even if no beans come. Sometimes things die, or the weather is terrible, then I would suggest you get some young plants. Catalogues often offer 'plug' plants - get the biggest you can afford if disaster has struck - it could save you from a barren garden.

For watering, I would suggest a coiled hose, bit like a green kettle lead/telephone wire. Having tied myself up in knots trying to handle a normal hosepipe and as carrying watering cans is pretty much beyond me nowdays, these are really useful, as would be one with a kind of lance on the end (like the ones in car washes, I suppose - or that pubs use to water their hanging baskets). It's better to water sparingly but regularly than it is to let things dry out and then flood them. Water in the early morning when the plant will take in the water before the sun can boil it on the leaves, causing leafscorch, rather than late at night if you can avoid it. But late at night will have to do if they will dry out otherwise.

Some things, like beans, think when you pick the produce before the seeds have swollen, 'oh my, I've been eaten by an animal, quick, flower some more or I'll never set seed and reproduce'. As a result, you get more flowers and more fruit/veg. This doesn't work with things like carrots as you are eating the root itself.

After year one, when there may be successes, there may be disasters, start thinking about the next year. If you enjoy it, perhaps you could round up someone to build you some properly raised beds and the like , ones where you have 3 foot of soil underneath the plants and you can reach both sides of the beds, at which point there are next to no limits as to what you can grow!

Anyway, if I carry on, I'll probably have enough for a book, so hope that's enough for you to start with. Hope you don't feel that I'm patronising you for the plants need water bit.

Gardening's a wonderful thing to do - frustrating, heartbreaking at times, but the sheer pleasure of taking a tomato you have grown yourself and popping it on your tongue - it's wonderful!

Enjoy!

almar_2

Thanks for a brilliant post.

Ive been busy looking at all the gardening websites, catalogues and suppliers who have lots of useful info. Ive also been looking at square foot gardening which looks good and does away with all the weeding and so on.

Im going to try and get a compost bin, raised beds, tubs, pots, and so on to prepare for spring.

I hope to be environmently friendly or green and read that peat based compost is a no no - so any tips on what a good compost mix would be for veg, leeks, lettuce, Toms, strawberries, spuds and mushrooms. Is it the same compost mix for all or do some prefer a different mix.

cant wait to get started and post a pic of my home grown veg.

best wishes
almar

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Look forward to seeing your piccies too!

Lotus-eater

If you search on google for disabled gardening, there are quite a few sites that might have some useful information for you.

almar_2

:kisses3: Thanks Lotus-eater, ive just googled disabled gardening and joined a gardening club for disabled gardeners.

They send out lots of info and also provide grants at their discretion to help disabled people who plan to get into gardening, so fingers crossed I may get some help with the raised beds. :j

Lotus-eater

almar wrote: »

:kisses3: Thanks Lotus-eater, ive just googled disabled gardening and joined a gardening club for disabled gardeners.

They send out lots of info and also provide grants at their discretion to help disabled people who plan to get into gardening, so fingers crossed I may get some help with the raised beds. :j

Thats excellent, very good luck to you.

To answer some of your general questions.

You want well rotted horse manure if you can, stick it in the raised beds etc as soon as you can, together with any compost/soil you can get hold of and cover with cardboard until spring.
That will get a good start for you, for just about everything. Apart from mushrooms, you grow them completely differently and I have little experience with them.

Ignore the peat free stuff atm, we can't all save the earth all at once.

Look at http://www.realseeds.co.uk/beginners.html
Invaluable information.

I've not done square foot gardening as such, but I do something close now. I use raised beds, ignore the planting distances quoted in the books/seed packets etc, plant the veg in short rows across the beds. You do have to have a bit of experience how close you can plant them, a good guide would be half to 3/4 of the distances given on the seed packets. For this you must have good soil, hence the manure.

greyhoundcrazy

Just a word of warning with regard to sourcing manure...

There have been some problems with manure this past year, due to a herbicide that is used by some farmers. People have found their allotments ruined by herbicide left in their manure - their food is deformed and they are not sure whether or not it is safe to eat. It takes a few years for the harmful substance to break down and your land to become usable again. This hasn't been an isolated problem - it has been widespread.

Here is an article about it:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture

almar_2

Do you think that lquid manure will be affected by that?

arkonite_babe

We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up

greyhoundcrazy

almar wrote: »

Do you think that lquid manure will be affected by that?

Almar, I'm sorry but I've no idea. If you can't get an answer here, feel free to pm me cos I do know an allotment forum where you will probably get an answer to your question.