veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

elantan

He he he I meant to say marigold ... I don't know where on earth I got magnolia from ... Hope no one takes tins of paint and plants them next to their toms lol .... Sorry

kimmee

Hi all

Well it's raining cats n dogs here and is forecast for the rest of the day so more decorating for me but it's meant to be nice tomorrow so I'm going to plant out my onion seedlings, pot on my courgettes and cucs & plant out my mini peach tree and blueberry bushes that arrived yesterday :j

My tomatoes are still looking very poorly though I did what elantan suggested and have sheltered them from any sunshine and will keep them inside for the time being, they must be growing to some extent as I had to pinch out the side shoots this morning on the Gardeners Delight but still very worried about them.

I have got the first tiny tiny seedlings from the basil that I sowed last week but nothing from my french beans. Also I know they aren't veg but I got some begonia corms a few weeks ago and have done everything that the instructions say but nothing is happening

Have a good weekend everyone

savingmummy

GarnetLady wrote: »

Welcome back . I was just wondering yesterday if you had got moved in okay.

It is a stressful thing isn't it? I'll be happy if I never have to do it again!

What size are your moneymakers? My toms are now in flower buckets, but if they're too small for that, then just a pot that'll give them some good growing and rooting room.

SO stressful
All the ringing round and getting things set up is the worse part i think!
As it is a new build the address and postcode wasnt on anyones data base and then we had to try and get all info from builders regarding who was supplying elec/gas took a week to sort out!!

My moneymakers are approx 5" tall all identical and it appears i have 16 seperate plants :eek: Should i put a few in 1

I have got some canes ready which i got from tesco a big bundle for £1:T

On Thursday i sowed some more salad and rocket, i got a pot for my carrots but ran out of compost so will do them next week as we are going on a small uk holiday Monday.
Weather is so bad after 5 weeks of sun and no rain :rotfl:

heynonnynonny

I received some free seeds today with a British Lamb catalogue, I think it may be late now to start any more off.

Tomato gardeners delight seedlings doing well - I hear they like to catch a breeze so that they grow strong stems...I wonder if I could sit there blowing on them for about ten minutes and NOT look like a loon (they are in my windowsill) :rotfl:

heynonnynonny

elantan wrote: »

please please please if you are going to buy compost by peat free compost ... yes it is more expensive and i know that can be an issue ... but the worlds peat resources are under serious threat and we really need all the peat we have ... was on a peat bog today the sun dew are starting to appear they only grow on bogs and the thought of them becoming extinct is not a nice thought ....

and ofcourse come on here ask loads of questions (we all have them) its a great way to learn

B and Q are selling peat free for same price as normal compost, cannot remember the price but very reasonable.

heynonnynonny

vatic wrote: »

Can anyone give any recommendations of places to get 30" containers on the cheap for my courgettes? They've definitely outgrown their little pots that I sowed them in and need to move them up to bigger pots this weekend!

I bought my 36cm containers off eBay but on hindsight should have realised I could have grown in plastic trugs, buckets or anything instead of forking out for proper containers!

The roots get big very quickly in 9cm pots don't they, didn't take long to have to pot mine on.

icecreamdogpark

Hi am new too!, i`m growing tomato`s,potato`s,courgettes,pumpkins,chilli,french beans, peas ,So far am having a whale of a time tending to their every need ie light, water, feed and potting up.I only have 1 problem at the moment it`s i`m growing gardener`s delight (Dwarf?) and f1 sweet Million although the latter looks legging compared to the other bit unsure if thats because the GD is meant to stay small/short.I have bought some rubber coloured tubs from Asda starting at £3 with drilled holes in base and should last for yrs! hopefully.

vatic

Any hot tips on where to get trugs cheap then? I'm headed off to town this afternoon

My poor courgettes are leaping out of their tiny pots! I think I'm going to get some thicker compost like John Innes #2 on the recommendation of my neighbor too because my little courgettes are leaning somewhat, and I'll be getting lots of tomato seedlings soon too from him and my OH's sister.

sarymclary

Vatic - I found my local Instore to be really reasonable for tubs & trugs. I think most of the large supermarket stores are stocking them too at around the £3 mark. I got mine from my local Co-op because I can walk there (literaly a few yards from my house), so I save on petrol to do a 20 mile round trip to a larger store or retail park. I noticed that a local independent decorator centre/hardware store has them at a good price too.

Well it's been chucking it down all night and day here, but that's good news to the garden.

I've put a load of netting I bought last year in Homebase to cover the rabbit run (rabbit is now in bunny heaven) (4x8 metres for £9.99) and it's quite hard wearing compared to some of the flimsier stuff. I've put it over the top of my raised bed, using some 3ft canes to support the structure on all sides, and tacked onto the fence at the rear with some cuphooks. I made sure it draped down onto the ground in front of the beds, and have sat some planters on top to stop cats wriggling underneath. Seems to be doing the trick so far, and will keep pets & birds off.

Well yesterday was a bumper day for free stuff. A friend of ours has purchased a bungalow, that has an enormous back garden, split into 3 parts, and small orchard. He is planning to level it all, and clear the majority of the garden with a view to developing the plot. He offered us the chance to see if there were any plants there we'd like. I got a mass of rhubarb plants (wish I'd not bought one for £5.99 now) and even better a gooseberry bush. I often can't find fresh gooseberries and we love them. They've been planted already, watered in with gallons of water, and the rain today is even better. I also got a lovely old stone birdbath, and some ground cover plants and wild primroses. No idea what the ground cover plants are, but they look nice, almost like a succulent type leaf, with pink flowers. Last and by no means least, I got a heavy metal dustbin, which I'm thinking will make a perfect incinerator for the larger garden waste, and some guttering off the concrete garage which I'm going to put around the greenhouse to maximise water harvesting.

love2love - you could plant some peas, lettuce, radish, courgette, carrots, etc. Have a look at the seed packets for those you can plant directly outside at this time of year. You're probably not too late for many, and lots of veggies are harvested in the autumn, to benefit from the summer sunshine. If you want some tomatoes to pick then I'd look at the plants available in the DIY stores. I know Focus were selling tomato plants and other veg plants for about 99p-£1.50, which is still very reasonable. It's never too late, and it'll give you some worthwhile experience for next year, when you can have more of a plan.

I'm itching to be outside to play in my garden, but it's too wet for that. I may still wrap up and go into the greenhouse. I have seedlings that need thinning out more. I did aubretia yesterday, and today will be lobelia. I want to start getting my hanging baskets planted up soon, but it's still been too cold and windy to get any outside.

I guess I'll have to iron instead for now.:( The housework has definitely been neglected since the sun started to shine a few weeks back.

kimmee

heynonnynonny wrote: »

I received some free seeds today with a British Lamb catalogue, I think it may be late now to start any more off.

Tomato gardeners delight seedlings doing well - I hear they like to catch a breeze so that they grow strong stems...I wonder if I could sit there blowing on them for about ten minutes and NOT look like a loon (they are in my windowsill) :rotfl:

On Gardeners world about 6 - 8 weeks ago Toby said you should kinda ruffle the tops of them while they are still quite small so that they think it's wind and will grow stronger stems - I did that daily (lot of good it's done me tho!), felt a bit of a twit cos if my neighbour had been watching from her upstairs it would have looked like I was really in love with my plants :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: