veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

kazire

i have now sown more tomato seeds now hopefully these will grow! fingers crossed for me!

Bunnie1982

Have not yet read the rest of the thread for tips but going to post what I'm growing and read back.

I bought a lot of the £1 kids growing pots from Asda (only because in the past I've been rubbish at growing stuff)

Everything is growing well - pumpkins, runner beans, tomatoes and strawberries

They are all baking in my sunsoaked windowsill at the moment until the frosts clear. When payday comes around again I'm getting some really deep pots to put carrots, spring onions, radishes and little gem lettuce in.

kazire

was just looking on ebay and saw someone is selling growbags at 1.00 each which i thought was good, shame for me they are for sale in chester. maybe this will be of use to someone.

jacand

kazire wrote: »

was just looking on ebay and saw someone is selling growbags at 1.00 each which i thought was good, shame for me they are for sale in chester. maybe this will be of use to someone.

B&M sell growbags for a £1, don't know what they are like though. They have three cut out slots for growing.

jacand

I've got a raised bed and so far the only thing really coming along is the cabbages. Should I thin these out? There's quite a few in the row. Also I don't really want to throw away the seedlings, is there anywhere else I could plant them? Would they survive in buckets/containers, or could I just put in my normal garden?

MORPH3US

Anyone know if runner beans need the off shoots pinching out like on tomatoes?

(can take a pic if that doesn't make sense)

Lotus-eater

jacand wrote: »

I've got a raised bed and so far the only thing really coming along is the cabbages. Should I thin these out? There's quite a few in the row. Also I don't really want to throw away the seedlings, is there anywhere else I could plant them? Would they survive in buckets/containers, or could I just put in my normal garden?

You need to work out the amount of cabbages you want to be able to plant in their final space and leave those and a few spare, in case of disaster or slug attack.
Either eat the rest or throw them away, if you have space for them, then of course plant them somewhere else.
But not being ruthless enough with thinning out is a very usual occurrence in beginners. I still feel a twinge of horror when I do it, but I know it makes sense to grow the ones I need to grow, properly.

MORPH3US wrote: »

Anyone know if runner beans need the off shoots pinching out like on tomatoes?

No

Optimisticpair

Refund_Queen wrote: »

Hi,

My lovely hubbie made me a raised bed last weekend and I need to know what to put in it!! Have heard two different ways but unsure which is the best way to go!

Alan T's book says a 50:50 mix of compost and 'organic matter' (does that mean topsoil?!?) And a lady at the garden centre near me said just use topsoil with a bag of manure and compost thrown in with it.

Can anyone help please?!
Thanks x

I think the usual two "methods" you are referring to are Square Foot Gardening and Lasagna Gardening.

If I didn't want to do SFG or Lasagna I would do, as the garden centre lady said - mix all three ingredients on a flat surface with a shovel. Put in a layer and water it if the compost and soil are dry and then another layer.
As for the soil - if it is stony soil I would riddle the bigger bits out it, if clay soil I'd add sand and if it was sandy soil I would add more manure and home made compost.

The "organic matter" is usually manure and wants to be the bulky sort not pelleted chicken manure. I'm a belt and braces sort so I would also mix about a handful per surface area square yard/metre of "blood fish and bonemeal" in the top 6 inches.

If its a deep bed there is nothing stopping you from using up what you have lying around to cut down on what you need to buy in. I would bung a layer of shredded paper or old leaves and lawn clippings in the bottom.

GarnetLady

My dad managed to get me more Morrisons flower buckets today. They only had 1 lot, but as well as 8 of the standard size, there was also 3 smaller ones. :T
I'm planning on doing carrots (nantes, I think) in some of them. Anyone know how many plants I should be aiming to have in each bucket?

Got my broad bean, chive and some lettuce seeds planted yesterday, hoping they do something now!

morg_monster

can i rant please... have SO much to do today in the garden, its 21C outside, gorgeous. Put 2 loads of washing out, then popped in the car to run a couple of errands, just came in and the nob down the road has got a big stinking bonfire on and our garden is full of smoke. the washing is all going to have to be rewashed and it is too smokey to be outside. i'm sitting in the house twiddling my thumbs with all the windows and doors closed.
to top it off i discovered on my errands there's something wrong with the car so i can't even go drive somewhere else. I'm so angry i could just cry.
next door told me that the neighbour in question is a "strange, nasty man" and cautioned me against going to say something to him, even to ask if he was going to have another bonfire tomorrow. To be honest he has one on the weekend about every fortnight :-( and god knows how many during the week when we're out of the house. Now i understand why our car is getting so so dirty, its all the bloody soot and ash falling on it.