veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

alliwantistosave

pink_numbers wrote: »

alliwantistosave, thank you for your encouragement on the square foot gardening, I am very much looking forward to doing it once the beds are ready.
How many square foots have you managed to gather together?

Last year we had a 3x3 on the front balcony, we grew carrots, beetroot, radish and some lettuce. We also had 1 parsnip grow(out of 9).
This year we still have the 3x3 but my OH has built a 3x9 outside the back door. We haven't decided on what we are planting where yet but we have the seeds ready and waiting

You have a loads compared to me and I am intrested to see what wonderful crops you have planned. My only 1 little piece of advice would be to swap your onions and parsnips around in your deep container as the parsnip that grew last year was in the middle and when the leaves grew it blocked out the sun for everything behind it. But I look forward to see how well you get on.

Furny

Hi
A neewbie question.
From reading the blueberry discussion about needing Ericaceous feed i have seen on the flyer it is coming in at Lidl on the 4th March 2.5kg for £2.99 it does say Rhododendron plant food though like mentioned.
But regarding the Ericaeous compost what is that normally labelled as will it say it?, get a bit confused with all these different kinds of compost!.

pink_numbers

alliwantistosave wrote: »

My only 1 little piece of advice would be to swap your onions and parsnips around in your deep container as the parsnip that grew last year was in the middle and when the leaves grew it blocked out the sun for everything behind it. But I look forward to see how well you get on.

Thank you ever so much or that advice, I never realised parsnips had such large leaves! (First time growing the snips). I'm one of those townies that have only ever seen parsnips in the supermarket. Do you think it will be best to have the daikon at the front, then leeks, then parsnips? What are you planning to sow in yours?

lynzpower - thanks for the tip about the John Innes compost, did you see what size they were by any chance?

lynzpower

I *think* they were 15litres.

Not very heavy looking as I considered buying them lol

alliwantistosave

pink_numbers wrote: »

Thank you ever so much or that advice, I never realised parsnips had such large leaves! (First time growing the snips). I'm one of those townies that have only ever seen parsnips in the supermarket. Do you think it will be best to have the daikon at the front, then leeks, then parsnips? What are you planning to sow in yours?

Glad to be of help to someone To be honest with parsnips neither did we that is why we planted them in the middle :rotfl:
your idea of daikon, leek then parsnip sounds a good idea, Checked with OH too and he agreed.
We are going to do purple carrots, spring onions, cos lettuce, parsnips, radishes, onions, mustard, cucumber, hopefully a melon, pepper, beetroot and we will include some more marigolds to help with pest control. I have lots more plans but where I am planting where I have no idea yet. Spuds in sacks, tomatoes in bags, sweetcorn in buckets and garlic in blue Ikea bags. Hope to do lots of lettuce though as I love it
Another tip is we have ours on legs and have brought some of the copper strip to put round the legs to stop the slugs crawling up them.

misskool

Furny wrote: »

Hi
A neewbie question.
From reading the blueberry discussion about needing Ericaceous feed i have seen on the flyer it is coming in at Lidl on the 4th March 2.5kg for £2.99 it does say Rhododendron plant food though like mentioned.
But regarding the Ericaeous compost what is that normally labelled as will it say it?, get a bit confused with all these different kinds of compost!.

the only compost I buy is the cheapest multi-purpose one

There are lots of special ones that others swear by but most of my vegetables get standard multipurpose on special. I'm trying not to use peat but all the peat free composts I've used were in not so many words pants.

you can buy seed compost which is very light but it doesn't have many nutrients so will need potting on quickly.

Ericaceous compost will be labelled as such (normally). If you can't see it, it will be labelled rhododendron/azalea/heather compost.

(but i'm still learning lots of stuff so someone else will come along and correct me in a minute)

PinkFishnets

Well, I went to the garden centre today with my folks who are very pleased that they've finally converted me to finding nosing around the garden centre and having a coffee a fun day out (it's only taken 28 years, haha!). My little one loved it too, as the trolleys had a little car to ride in underneath!

I managed to get raspberry canes - 8 for £15.99, probably a little steep, but I am assured by my Dad that they were in very good condition (had seen cheaper elsewhere but they looked a little sorry for themselves), strawberry plants and some red onion seeds. I'll be having fun sorting all of that out this week whilst I am using up the last of my annual leave. My folks bought me a couple of books - the Fruit and Vegetable Expert ones - they used to be combined and my parents considered it their bible, but they decided instead of giving me their 'out of date' copy that they'd buy me the newer versions as a gift. Mum is also hoping that my enthusiasm will get my Dad back into keeping a vegetable patch like he used to, as his garden was amazing (it was about 40 square feet) - he's already talking about replanting some rhubarb crowns and taming the blackberry bushes.

Tuesday will see a trip to Wilkos for cheap grow bags, hanging baskets, plant food and large tubs for planting. Will possibly be looking at cucumber and leek seeds too. Really looking forward to it all!

PinkFishnets

Oh my! Thanks for your post earlier, Furny, I've got a Lidl right near work and they have all the gardening stuff in from Thursday too! I'll still have a mosey over to Wilkos anyway. Now to find a nearby 99p stores!

Edited to add: My local Poundland has raspberry bushes for £1, darn it! Not sure about the variety though or how hardy, but they're earlier fruiting, so maybe I'll get one anyway and we'll just have raspberries through summer and autumn. My son will be thrilled and I'll be giving raspberry jam to everyone I know!

lunar

[/IMG]

lunar

[/IMG]