Green Finger Wannabe

Brassic

Hi all,

I would like to start growing my own fruit and veg, but am completely new to gardening. Soooo, I was wondering if anyone could answer a couple of questions for me.

1) Am I too late to plant anything this year?
2) Can you recommend a good book for my needs?
3) Do I need a green house, and if so, would something like this do 0>http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7755408584

TIA!
Brassic

Kazonline

Hi Brassic, I'm sure you'll get more info from those who are in the know, but in the meantime I'd suggest lettuce seeds as a good option as they are quite quick to grow. As for a Greenhouse - that one looks very similar to mine, but is rather on the pricey side IMO. Some of our 'cheapie' shops (eg old 'poundstrecher' / b wise etc) tend to have them this time of year for about £15. A friend said she saw one there last week for £10.
I've had mine a couple of years now, but this is the first time I've put veggies in it and my lettuce are thriving (cheap seeds from liddle)
Good luck with it!
Kaz x
PS had another look and it seems that the main difference is that it is a 'walk in'. Mine is similar to the 'four tier' at the bottom of the page - I find it great for my lettuce, but then if you want to grow a lot more you might need a bigger one. Could allways start with a smaller one and see how you go? It's not the sort of thing that becomes redundant when you buy another one later - it just means you've more space.

Penelope_Penguin

Oooh, how exciting, a gardening newbie! :beer:

If you've not grown before, how about trying salads: lettuce, radish, stumpy carrots, spring onions. These will grow quickly, and reward you in a few weeks. Make sure you have a good sunny spot. Weed well, and remove biggish stones in advance. Then fork over the surface (they only have shallow roots, so deep digging not necessary). If the soil is really dry, water it well, to give the seeds a moist bed. Rake to a fine tilth (great word, means top soil has a fine consistency) which will help the little darlings come up. Sow the seeds in a straight line at depth specified on the packet, and mark the rows with a label. This will mean that you can distinguish seedlings from weedlings.

Feeding pobably won't be necessary in the first year, but keep well wartered, but don't drown them.

As for fruit, strawberry plants will be available in the autumn.

Also, try the seed exchange thread. Seeds for free (or possibly cost of a couple of stamps). I'll let you have some for next year, if you like. :cool:

As for books, my favourites for basics are the Expert series by DH Hessayon. I still use mine 20 years after I was a newbie. They're pretty cheap (about £5 each) and give great tips on how, where to plant, aftercare, varieties, and great gory sections on pests and diseases.

Not big greenhouse fan - we have children, footballs, children's friends, therefore a polytunnel. Much cheaper for the area covered, but arguably not as attractive.

Sorry it's a bit rushed - bed calls. Have you any further questions? What else would you like to grow? What do you like to eat? Will be delighted to chat later in the week.

Penny. x

PS, with your name, you have to grow the cabbage family in the future, their latin name is brassica.

Brassic

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm really looking forwards to getting started, and much encouraged that I can do some planting straight away. Thanks for the advice on how to prepare the ground, I was a bit in the dark about that (I really am totally new to all this!)

I will take your advice on the salad, sounds good as we eat loads of it (can I grow cucumbers?).

Would also love to be able to grow runner beans, spinnach, herbs, potatos, sweet peas - however, as my husband has just pointed out, ease of growing is probably more important than my taste preferences :rotfl:

Cabbage would definitely go down well though

Thank you very much Penelope Penguin for the offer of seeds too! Off to check out the seed exchange now

Thanks!
Brassic - off to look for threads about home made pest control.

demented_2

Brassic wrote:

Hi all,

I would like to start growing my own fruit and veg, but am completely new to gardening. Soooo, I was wondering if anyone could answer a couple of questions for me.

1) Am I too late to plant anything this year?
2) Can you recommend a good book for my needs?
3) Do I need a green house, and if so, would something like this do 0>http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7755408584

TIA!
Brassic

HI Brassic,
No it's not too late to plant things.
you could plant lettuce, Courgettes, Sweet peppers, Runner Beans,Leeks, Broccoli Brussel sprouts, Cabbage all these from plants bought from Nurseries or Fete's or donated from friends, Freecycle.
You can still sow peas, Lettuce, Beetroot, Lettuce, Radish, Parsley or Herbs.
Don't know much about Fruit though so sorry about that.
I do agree with Kazoline about the Greenhouse, you can get one much cheaper as she said in Pound stretcher.
The book that I would recommend is "MY Bible "for the garden, so clear and simple to follow also with dates to sow/plant and harvest, depth that seeds or plants should go in, Trouble shooting for each Vegetable, basically it covers aspects from digging the soil to harvesting the crop. My recommendation is The NEW Vegetable & Herb Expert by DR D.G. Hessayon.
ISBN 0-903505-46-0 by Expert Books. Good Luck in your Gardening.

demented_2

OOh! Brassic, I forgot to say that you can still plant spuds in an old dustbin
or tub now and be able to have new potatoe's at Christmas. And don't forget you can still get Tomato plants and plant them in Grow bags if you don't have any room in the veg plot.
Hope that helps... I love gardening. Going to bed now, after the dog has taken me out for my last stroll of the evening.

Brassic

Have just been reading about the spuds - will definitely give that a try, along with the garlic - yummy! And have been googling for my local pound savers etc for seeds (can't seem to find the seed exchange though, is it external to MSE?)

A very silly question now - should I be planning my beds in the sun or the shade? (I'm ebaying for the books recommended so far - but may have to sell some on Thursdays 50p listing day first). I have an area to the back of the garden which has big fir trees behind it which I was considering using, or I could use an area to the side. Also, the soil seems really stony, lots of people talk about raised beds, if I did that (is there a big advantage?) do I just pour bought soil on top (is that expenisve?) without doing anything to the bit underneath?

TIA and sorry for all the questions,
Brassic

Gingham_Ribbon

What's the difference between 'seed' potatoes and just planting some spuds from my organic delivery?

We've got a big, deep tub in the garden not being used. It seems daft NOT to use it if I could have a tattie crop for Christmas, but I don't want to mess up incase it disheartens me.

wigginsmum

Hi Brassic - SeedExchangeUK is not part of MSE; it's a newly set-up Yahoo group so we can pass on our unwanted seeds:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SeedExchangeUK/

Also, check your private messages.

Brassic

From reading one of the other threads, I think the seed potatos have been specially grown to be disease resistant etc. However, I think quite a few people on here have had good results using just the normal ones you have left over from the supermarket. That's the ones I'm going to try anyway

wigginsmum

Yeah I think I'll try some leftover spuds too; as long as they have eyes growing hopefully they'll be okay.