Help MBE grow his dinner 2010

kirsty822001

What a lovely weekend for gardening:-)
Got my flower seedlings in the ground along with chives,strawberrys,carrots and poppy seeds.
Have beans and courgette and another 3 types of flowers on windowsills.

Lemonjelly,,how do u manage to keep slugs away from ur salad leaves?? Mine get eaten as soon as they have a couple of leaves,,have tried copper,pellets,,have re sown in ground and pots this week so fingers crossed !

I grew runner beans last year along with my sweetpeas they looked lovely together and the beans were fab!
I am growing french beans this year may put more sweet peas in with them,I have already stuck sweet peas in between my rasps, will see if it works.

I will try cucumber and have planted my courgette seeds,,no idea what happened last yr prob was too much water or not enough,,they just didnt seem to grow very big,,,are they better small though? I 'acquire'little wooden coffee stirrers to use as labels but i have also got a pot with no label,,i think its broccoli,,i try to write down whats planted where in a notebook,,even the pots!! (yes its sad but has helped later in year when labels have come off,also i can see what does well etc)

Mr Badexample, I have a plastic compost bin (free from council a few years ago)
Today I put it on the concrete next to our summer house. We used to have it on the ground but it was over run with rats all the time,do you think it will 'work' directly on concrete??
How lovely to be able to cut an area out of the grass for growing, instead of a football pitch that i have to have for the kids! I am slowly stealing more and more garden around the edges!!

kirsty822001

Scotsaver how much are those morrisons buckets? Could do with a couple for my garden. U mentioned aubergine, do they need warmth/heat? Just wondered if i would need to keep them indoor then if they would be ok in my unheated plastic greenhouse thingy :-)

scotsaver

kirsty822001 wrote: »

Scotsaver how much are those morrisons buckets? Could do with a couple for my garden. U mentioned aubergine, do they need warmth/heat? Just wondered if i would need to keep them indoor then if they would be ok in my unheated plastic greenhouse thingy :-)

Hi kirsty - the Buckets are 99p for 8 - a fantastic bargain, apparently they get their flowers delivered in them and then they don't need them - so much cheaper than any pots etc from any garden centre that I've seen. You should find them for sale in the flower/plants area of the store, they are black and usually under one of the displays. I've already filled 2 and sown some Chantenay carrots in them, apparently carrots are harder to grow in the ground cause as soon as they hit a stone they go all knobbly so in a large tub is perfect for straight carrots.:D

As for Aubergines - this is the first year that I've grown them and I'm going to keep some of them in the Greenhouse as it looks like from mags/books I've read they like a lot of sun, although I'm down south just outside London and maybe keep one on the Patio as a test to see if we get warm enough - depending who you talk to some people are saying we are going to have a heatwave this Summer.:D

I've sown loads more different seeds this weekend as my free seeds arrived from the BBC dig in, 5 free packets which included some French beans that I've never grown before so looking forward to those.

I've put my spuds in up at the Allotment and also onions and put both in the Garden too. All in all quite pleased with how things are going although my Tomatoes haven't poked through yet so have sown some more at the weekend just in case. I'm trying 3 varities as we use a lot of toms in the Summer and I also like to make sauces for the freezer to throw into lasagne/spag bol etc. If the original ones do eventually pop up then they won't go to waste as I've got plenty of people I can swap with.

Good luck everyone.;)

lemonjelly

kirsty822001 wrote: »

What a lovely weekend for gardening:-)
Got my flower seedlings in the ground along with chives,strawberrys,carrots and poppy seeds.
Have beans and courgette and another 3 types of flowers on windowsills.

Lemonjelly,,how do u manage to keep slugs away from ur salad leaves?? Mine get eaten as soon as they have a couple of leaves,,have tried copper,pellets,,have re sown in ground and pots this week so fingers crossed !

I grew runner beans last year along with my sweetpeas they looked lovely together and the beans were fab!
I am growing french beans this year may put more sweet peas in with them,I have already stuck sweet peas in between my rasps, will see if it works.

I will try cucumber and have planted my courgette seeds,,no idea what happened last yr prob was too much water or not enough,,they just didnt seem to grow very big,,,are they better small though? I 'acquire'little wooden coffee stirrers to use as labels but i have also got a pot with no label,,i think its broccoli,,i try to write down whats planted where in a notebook,,even the pots!! (yes its sad but has helped later in year when labels have come off,also i can see what does well etc)

Kirsty, wasn't it a lovely weekend!:)

Slugs are the perennial bane of my gardening life! Last year, they did quite well out of my garden. This year, I'm striking back!

There are a few options. Crushed egg shell spread around where you have planted out your veg is an option (in theory the slugs won't go across the sharp egg shells).

This year I intend to put some nets over (to protect from moths/caterpillars). To protect from slugs, I'm going to use slug traps which you bury, put a little beer in which entices them to go for that & not my plants, & they fall in.

I'm not planting anything outside just yet - feels a little early for me. I'll be putting some of my plants into larger pots soon, but they'll stay in the greenhouse for a month.

Slugs like new plants. I noticed that they went for mine as soon as I put them out last year. In a way, it is a sign I feel. ait until the plants are bigger/stronger to put them out.

My cucumbers last year were too small - but that was because I left them in pots which were too small for far too long. I actually thought the plants would die, but started flowering then giving fruit! I kept watering them, & the fruit itself was tasty, but small. This year I plan to make amends! I will put them in a sunnier place, & in either a grow bag, or a very large tub! Courgettes I've never done before - this is actually only my 2nd year having a go! Did quite well last year - hoping it wasn't all a fluke!:D

mrbadexample

kirsty822001 wrote: »

Mr Badexample, I have a plastic compost bin (free from council a few years ago)
Today I put it on the concrete next to our summer house. We used to have it on the ground but it was over run with rats all the time,do you think it will 'work' directly on concrete??

Is it otherwise open to the ground? Most compost bins don't have a bottom, so the worms can get in. It will probably still work, but more slowly.

I built my compost bin at the weekend, and have edged my bed too.

dorisday

Hi all, can I join you please, getting a greenhouse on sunday and have loads of pots to put in it. Have taken everything off my window sills and put them into my shed until sunday. I have planted 3 types of lettuce, 2 tomatoes, rocket, chives, mint, carrots, potatoes and I cant think of all the others ive planted.
In my very very small piece of garden which is really just a border around my crazy paving, ive planted some raspberry bushes and in some large tubs ive got some blueberry bushes, cherry tree, 2 apples and i pear.

I tried doing this two years ago, but silly me didnt put holes in the bottom of the containers and when it rained and rained and rained the pots where full of water and floating compost so it all had to be thrown out. But this time ive done it right - well I hope I have lol. The raspberries are confusing me as I planted the canes one at a time but beside several canes I can see other bits of growth coming up from the soil and i dont know if they are supposed to be there or not. I have tried reading about suckers but these are withing an inch of the cane. Anyone any thoughts on this. Shall have to pop into one of the big allotments beside me and see if anyone knows something about raspberry growing.

Im getting all excited about my arrival (greenhouse) and even get up in the middle of the night to see how far my tiny seeds are advancing. Think I might just have to move my bed into the greenhouse. Even bought a heater for it today and got electricity up and running for it. Simple things please simple minds is the saying!!

kirsty822001

:wave: Hi Doris,

now i am very jealous about your greenhouse I too would be very excited!!
My rasps have the same green growth coming up near the canes,,I assume this is this years growth. So hopefully we will be eating rasps later in the year!!

Mr B things are coming along for you then,,with ur compo built and edging done. My compost bin is surrounded by concrete,but i have bribed the kids into finding worms and putting them in for me :rotfl:it is unfortunately my only option as i said we defo do not want rats again and it happened twice before :mad:

Scotsaver thanks the buckets are fab :T thanks so much,managed to get 6 on way home from work,,I love how deep they are as u say fab for carrots. I have lots of things just sown so i plan to stick various things in them :-) You have your work cut out with an allotment and garden!! Nice though to be able to have double the fun and yield Have u put all your potatoes in the ground or some in containers? Mine in ground,hessian bag and an ikea planting bag,,,do u know if i have to water them? Also when the green leaves come up i chuck compost over it all and cover it,,is that right cos i read in a mag i need to just earth up around the bottom of the plant,,,which is it do you know? I am worried i will have a bag of nothing!

Lemonjelly the sunshine continues YEY
The damn slugs grrrr I grew the 4 lots of salad plants in the house, then greenhouse and they were lovely,,giving me lovely leaves,,,planted out,,within 2 days the invites were out & it was a slug party at my house. I am going to invite them all back this time with me providing the beer:beer: mmwwwaaaahh

digitalphase

What an interesting thread, it's great to see other moneysaver's growing their own veg

I'm growing tomatoes, sweet peas, chillis, basil, flat leaf parsley, thyme, chive and mixed salad leaves from seed so far. I am also waiting for my free Dig In seed pack, and will be growing those as well as two other types of French bean, sweet pepper, spring onion and a purple type of chilli pepper from seed.
I have some strawberries and tomatoes grown from small plants, which are coming on well and already have some flowers on my strawbs :j

We're moving soon, so going to take advantage of our new massive garden to plant more veg and stuff!

scotsaver

kirsty822001 wrote: »

:wave: Hi Doris,

now i am very jealous about your greenhouse I too would be very excited!!
My rasps have the same green growth coming up near the canes,,I assume this is this years growth. So hopefully we will be eating rasps later in the year!!

Mr B things are coming along for you then,,with ur compo built and edging done. My compost bin is surrounded by concrete,but i have bribed the kids into finding worms and putting them in for me :rotfl:it is unfortunately my only option as i said we defo do not want rats again and it happened twice before :mad:

Scotsaver thanks the buckets are fab :T thanks so much,managed to get 6 on way home from work,,I love how deep they are as u say fab for carrots. I have lots of things just sown so i plan to stick various things in them :-) You have your work cut out with an allotment and garden!! Nice though to be able to have double the fun and yield Have u put all your potatoes in the ground or some in containers? Mine in ground,hessian bag and an ikea planting bag,,,do u know if i have to water them? Also when the green leaves come up i chuck compost over it all and cover it,,is that right cos i read in a mag i need to just earth up around the bottom of the plant,,,which is it do you know? I am worried i will have a bag of nothing!

Lemonjelly the sunshine continues YEY
The damn slugs grrrr I grew the 4 lots of salad plants in the house, then greenhouse and they were lovely,,giving me lovely leaves,,,planted out,,within 2 days the invites were out & it was a slug party at my house. I am going to invite them all back this time with me providing the beer:beer: mmwwwaaaahh

Hi kirsty - I've planted most of the spuds into the ground but I have a few "spare" which I think I shall put into a large empty bin that I have. As for earthing up, I too just cover around the base, leaving a few leaves showing and then earth up again when shoots get taller again and I've always had loads of spuds. Pleased you were able to get some buckets from Morrisons. Off to put my feet up now.;)

Clarieloo

Hi I've been following this thread for a while now and find it so useful. I'm having a go at a few things this year - potatoes(did them last year and were v. successful), corgettes, onions, spring onions, lettuce, raspberries, strawberries, peppers and brocolli. My question relates to the brocolli - is it at all possible to grow brocolli in pots and if so, what type? My husband is getting fed up with me taking over the borders with fruit and veg and he has banned me from putting anything else in them and cramping the flowers we have. Any help appreciated, thanks