May Update: What are you growing in 2006? (Tips here for Fruit, Veggies and Flowers!)

LizD_2

Badgergal - I found copper tape in Wilkinsons about £3.99

spud30

Please bear with me - I am completely new to growing things.

My DS got his Tesco Kids Club mag last week, with a free packet of tomato seeds.

I have planted them this morning and put the pots in my conservatory.

A mum at school said her man did his back in March.

Have I done mine too late? Anyone have any tips for great toms?

tw0906blue

hilary1 wrote:

another week and my lettuce still looks like cress only taller.

new seeds plated notw look like short cress.

is it because I've plated them in seed trays instead of in the garden or growbag?

Don't worry Hilary1, All seeds look like cress to start with. It is the seed pod heads. The recognisable lettuce leaves will soon come through.

Hope you can all help me. I have a real problem with pigeons eating my cabbages. I thought it was slugs and have been out picking them off when I get home from work, but tonight I caught 2 pigeons ripping my cabbages to pieces! What can be done to stop them? At this rate there will be nothing to harvest. Should I go buy something (cheap) to protect them? Am attempting to use non chemical remidies. I don't drink anything that gets bought in plastic bottles so don't have any to cut down. The plabts are now varying in size! Biggest are 6 - 8 inches, smallest are a couple of inches tall.

Good news on the potatoe front. :T After taking advice from here I have earthed up the potaoes twice now and the shoots just come through really quickly! Am very hopeful. OH planted sweet corn which is growing a treat - we did cheat though and bought plants from the local farmers market.

Lettuce is not doing too well in the garden, thanks to slugs and snails, but is thriving in pots. Beans, runner and broad, and peas all doing well. :j

We grew 1 aubergine plant in a pot last year and it was very successful. The plant was the same size as our courgette plant. We had them both in 24 inch pots, those plastic ones that look like terricotta.

I am hoping for a weekend where the weather is kind so I can get out and tend our precious seedlings.....and do something to get the pigeons to go elsewhere for their veg intake. :rolleyes:

Night night everyone.

tw0906blue

spud30 wrote:

Please bear with me - I am completely new to growing things.

My DS got his Tesco Kids Club mag last week, with a free packet of tomato seeds.

I have planted them this morning and put the pots in my conservatory.

A mum at school said her man did his back in March.

Have I done mine too late? Anyone have any tips for great toms?

Ah sorry Spud30 I forgot you asked about this....mind is going I'm afraid.

It is late to plant tomatoe seeds, but if you keep them in the warm they should grow, plant them out in the sunniest spot you have once they are about 12" high and then you should have tomatoes late in the season

Kantankrus_Mare

Only just spotted this thread and as I aquired an allotment about a month ago I shall be reading with enthusiasm.

Reading what some people have grown so far is daunting to say the least!!lol

Our plot had been dormant for a few years so we are starting from scratch so to speak but we've got a decent compost heap going ( work in a restaurant so plenty of suitable materials!!) have a water butt and cleared part of the site.

We have planted main crop potatoes, onions, beetroot, rhubarb and cabbages.

Raspberry canes and a couple of strawberry plants awaiting to go in.

Never grown anything in my life before and its al going to be a bit of trial and error despite having purchased "The Allotment Book"

All seems quite daunting but im enjoying it!!

Nikki

Everything in our garden appears to be growing really well, we have carrots, onions, parsnips, leeks,french beans and broad beans at the mo. Our Greenhouse arrived a couple of weeks ago but DH still has some work to do before we can put anything in it. Our pepper and chilli plants are doing really well, around 20 chillies and 15 peppers growing at present(still on LR windowsil), we had to cut our first pepper off and eat it as DS2 decided he was hungry and took a bite or 2 out of it!! Next door have given us tomato, courgette and strawberry plants, the courgettes are starting to grow. Our biggest surprise so far is that the blackcurrant bush has got berries on it, we didn't expect any fruit from the garden for at least a year or 2. We're going to need an allotment at this rate!!

doddsy

tw0906blue wrote:

Hope you can all help me. I have a real problem with pigeons eating my cabbages. I thought it was slugs and have been out picking them off when I get home from work, but tonight I caught 2 pigeons ripping my cabbages to pieces! What can be done to stop them? At this rate there will be nothing to harvest. Should I go buy something (cheap) to protect them? Am attempting to use non chemical remidies. I don't drink anything that gets bought in plastic bottles so don't have any to cut down. The plabts are now varying in size! Biggest are 6 - 8 inches, smallest are a couple of inches tall.

Once the pigeons find them the only thing to do is net them, keeping the net well off the plants so that the birds are not tempted. I use garden canes with plastic bottles over the top of them, and then drape the net over them. regards
Doddsy

hilary1

I know the garden loves this rain and sun weather as everything is shooting up including the weeds but I have had to move my hanging basket with tomatoes in back to the mini greenhouse as the wind and chill is killing them.:mad:

Badgergal

Ah there is not a Wilko's near me so I will have to search elsewhere for copper tape.

Failing that, the lady who lived there before me left a tub of slug pellets, maybe I could scatter some of those around the base of the tub (I wouldn't want them on the soil where edibles would be but surely on the concrete would be ok?)

Planted mixed salad bowl, Little Gem lettuce, and perpetual spinach. Hope I am not too late?!

annie-c

I have a longstanding problem with a local cat who uses my garden as a toilet. Despite trying all sorts of remedies that I've found on other threads (orange peel, bottles of water, special plants), I seem always to be cleaning cat poo from my tiny veg borders.

What I've found today though really takes the biscuit - I found cat poo in the big tubs in which I am growing potatoes and salad!! :eek: Disgusting! I've cleaned it away and will persevere with the spuds (I think they should be OK??), but suddenly the salad no longer seems appetising....

I'm not at home during the day, so can't stalk the animal and shoo it away. What can I do????? :mad: