veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

heynonnynonny

Fleece - I've just rested mine over and held it down with bricks and whatever I could find.

B and Q are doing peat free compost at same price as their regular stuff.

Took off some tom side shoots and plonked them in soil to see if they'll do anything and repotted some courgettes.

Question - are anyone elses courgees well, a bit broken? They seem to be flopping over where the stem meets the soil and I'm quite worried!!

misskool

heynonnynonny wrote: »

Question - are anyone elses courgees well, a bit broken? They seem to be flopping over where the stem meets the soil and I'm quite worried!!

Can you post a picture to describe what you mean? Courgettes won't be able to stand up (as such) on their own as they are trailing plants.

They do tend to flop (sometimes I put something to keep the stems dry) but if they are healthy plants they will be fine.

I'll post a photo in a bit, but it's cold and I've just returned indoors!

kimmee

heynonnynonny wrote: »

Fleece - I've just rested mine over and held it down with bricks and whatever I could find.

B and Q are doing peat free compost at same price as their regular stuff.

Took off some tom side shoots and plonked them in soil to see if they'll do anything and repotted some courgettes.

Question - are anyone elses courgees well, a bit broken? They seem to be flopping over where the stem meets the soil and I'm quite worried!!

One or two of mine are doing that, but they seem healthy enough - still growing bless 'em!!

stilernin

maximus0983 wrote: »

Hi all, I am also a newbie veg grower. Couple of questions:

Secondly I planted some basil seeds in 6 different pots (10 seeds per pot as per instructions) and one pot all the seedlings have gone grey and bad! Also they have kind of stopped growing? Anyone know of anything i can do to help them?

This sounds like you have been overgenerous with watering.

Plants take up water (with disolved nutrients) to live and grow, water then transpires through the leaves. More leaves means more water needed.

Seedlings have very tiny leaves to begin with and the roots will go down the pot quite some way, so only damp compost is needed, not wet. I always pick up pots to feel their weight (and therefore how damp the compost is) before watering. Also, I always bottom water, which means the top of the compost stays dry.

Sow some more seeds and they will catch up very quickly. Remember though, in nature, it doesn't rain every day and seeds germinate and grow quite happily.

PS. I still find beans can rot on me (after decades of gardening) if I'm not careful.

heynonnynonny

Will try get a photo on soon, that must be why they are flopping a bit, they are healthy looking though so hopefully they'll be ok.

thrifty_fifty

Grrr

Darn rabbits have been nibbling the tops off the onions. How to stop them? Make rabbit pie?

cc369

I use washing up liquid for greenfly if the ladybirds can't cope - either in a spray bottle, paintbrush for small plants or a cloth/sponge. Good luck.

mutley74

abs shatterred today! just started the raise bed. Its a 2x1m and so far about 9" high. Built on the old lawn at the back of the garden. Digged up the grass into broken bits to give the base some aeration.
Left it covered with plastic bags to let the grass bits decay. Next plan is to cover the area with some brown cardboard, and start filling with top soil from rest of garden, compost bin and final topping is a bag of compost. But also need to add some extra wood to the sides when i get some more from a friend.

moneymabel

Well I can thoroughly recommend beer traps for slugs! Put 4 in my garden last night topped up with Mr T's value bitter ( 95p for 4 cans ) this morning there are at least 10 slugs in each one- urgh! I didn't realise there were quite so many of the little blighters around my tiny garden :-/

lolly5648

moneymabel wrote: »

Well I can thoroughly recommend beer traps for slugs! Put 4 in my garden last night topped up with Mr T's value bitter ( 95p for 4 cans ) this morning there are at least 10 slugs in each one- urgh! I didn't realise there were quite so many of the little blighters around my tiny garden :-/

What did you use as beer traps?