veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

dreamywings1

Are anyone elses strawberries beginning to flower???

heynonnynonny

Hows everybody progressing? Mine so far -

Raspberry from Wilko flowering - very excited, never thought it would fruit this year!!

Strawberries - only 2 out of 6 bare root ebay jobbies survived, one is very promising and has a large white flower, lovely.

Carrots look slow but have not pulled up yet, presume they are building root system first.

French beans - managed to get 2 germinations as yet!

Chives are actually doing well and a few cm high now.

Salad leaves thriving, I'd have never guessed it's so easy to do these.

Courgettes, have had some problems with leaves snapping off and wilting slightly, fingers crossed.

Beet spinach is quite slow, thought would have done as well as salad leaves but not so.

Young tomato plants doing well, the one I'd bought established has finally got flowers (I pulled off the first lot not knowing quite what to do for the best!).

Chilli in 9 cm pot is very slow

Pepper 'Jolly Giallo' or summat is slow but has done well with recent hot snap!!

Sweetcorn is planted 3 per 40cm pot but don't think will survive as haven't really bothered with them much!

I'm excited now.....OH has just said he wants to go to Focus for a bike pump....I'll be heading straight to the reduced plant section

izzwizz_2

vish wrote: »

Just bought some onion sets (turbo) half price at Wilkos. Can anyone tell me if too late to sow them now?

Thanks

hi vish - I'm sure they'll grow although don't know if they'll bolt (produce flowers) before you get onions. I would plant them and use the green shoots as onions (much nicer than the bulbs anyway :beer:)

Vampgirl

Thanks very much for the tip about flower buckets in Morrisons....got some last night 8 for 99p (bargain!) just need to make some holes for drainage and they'll be perfect for my tomatoes

bertiebots

:DThis thread is great ! I started trying to grow my own last year but it was a bit of a disaster tbh! I managed a couple of cabbages ,runner beans and beetroot. Everything else failed due to awful weather and inexperience! Hopefully this year things are going a bit better.
I have got 4 small raised beds and loads of pots etc.
So far I have growing:
Dwarf green beans
Sweetcorn
White raddish
Lettuce x 2 varietys
Kale
Strawberrys..and they have been flowering for about 3 weeks;).
Tomatoes (cheated to get a head start and baught 3 from mr s on wednesday)
Cabbage
Beetroot
Spring onions
Various herbs (but I didnt label them and have forgotten what I planted:o)
Cucumber is on death watch as its looking bad:(
Leeks havent come up yet.
I have loads of tomato seedlings as they took ages to germinate so may have a glut later.
We have 3 cherry trees which produce loads of cherries .
I have also grown loads of marigolds and nasturtiums from seed.

I cant wait to have a meal from the garden and am keeping my fingers crossed.:D

Would it be worth my planting some more cucumber seeds in a tub outside or is it too late now? It was one thing I was really keen to grow:oas they cost a fortune!!.

soullessfire

I used the asda stuff for seedlings and it was ok to be honest, my only concern was that the grassy bits got all interwoven with the roots so I had some trouble separating the seedlings.

The Morrisons flower buckets are great, I'm keeping my eye out for some more lol got my newly acquired strawberries in them and my tomatoes too.will be using the rest for corn and beans when they germinate.

Quick report on the germinating on wet paper trick. SO far 8/10 corn have germinated, 7/10 beans and 4/6 sage. Rosemary seeds didn't like it either so glad I bought one for cuttings. I sowed the seeds into the wet paper 2 times so am pretty hopeful that I'll get 100% germination from these. |I just transferred them to damp soil when they started growing shoots.

Kath, I wish I had your space! I'm stuck with a concrete yard and a dog who poos and wees over everything so I'm classing him as much of a pest to be watched as the snails! lol

Really jealous that everyone's plants are further on than mine. Someone should have told me that plants don't mature over a weekend lol I guess I need to grow some patience while I'm at hte rest.

izzwizz_2

Ok heynonnynonny since you asked...:o

Aubergines & peppers - planted in between toms in greenhouse border & pots, about 6" high & looking well

Toms - first flowers on some, doing well & in final positions

Salad leaves - had to chuck some little gems out to the hens (growing too well and too close together & noticed first signs of grey mould). Finished first two window boxes of rocket so hens got the dregs of those too - at least it's stopped hubby buying them lettuces for the moment (the hens are our pets!) Still sowing these every two weeks and planting into window boxes.

fennel - surviving outside & putting on some fresh growth.

onions - growing like mad, had to take the cover off the raised bed and am just hoping the hens don't get in there!

shallots - growing these in windowboxes in greenhouse and have been using them green in everything (salads & cooking). Very successful.

cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot - all doing well in second raised bed, but no signs of any veg yet!

sage, thyme & chives - hardened first pots off and am planning to plant out today

spinach (actually not real spinach, but perpetual beet) - still bursting out of their 3" pots, but have managed to get hubby to make a start on 3rd raised bed, so they'll be planted out as soon as its ready (I agree that it's too slow for salad leaves)

french beans - I'm embarassed after everyone else's problems, but I have 26 plants all nearly 5 feet high! Split them into 5 pots with wigwams and am risking two pots outside at the moment, but think I may have lost 1 of the plants. The ones outside are drying out much quicker and I didn't notice until yesterday

mangetout - started these off a bit late and they're only just an inch high, in troughs with tent wigwams, still in greenhouse at the moment.

black kale - only managed to raise 6 plants from a free packet of seed, but they're ready to plant out when I have room.

courgettes - in second pots now with 6 leaves on each. Still in greenhouse & no flowers yet

parsley, coriander, rosemary - all still too small to put out - had a hard time getting them to germinate.

failures so far: chicory, first 3 lots of courgettes, landcress, all the flowers I tried to grow from seed except Nasturtiums that we saved from last year, spring onions (just flopped), chinese leaves, 1 of the cherry trees we bought from B&Q looks very ill (sap coming out of main stem and buds above that have died)

strawberries - had to kick these out of the greenhouse too early when they got whitefly. Plants look ill, but they have lots of little green strawberries so I am hopeful.

asparagus - didn't have anywhere outside for the crowns we bought, so they're in big pots in the greenhouse, and each has a fern (the tiny little flowers smell like almonds )
That's all I can think of at the moment:o

marjoram - lots of little pots of this - grew too many, but they'll look pretty when they flower later in the year.

kiwi & fig - plants from T&M offers are growing away in greenhouse and upt to a foot high each. Haven't done anything to them since they were potted up, so would appreciate any advice!

pear, plum, cherry trees potted into large pots outside and all in leaf now (cherry is flowering, but the other cherry isn't well so nothing to pollinate it sadly)

nettles - thriving - I have plans for another nettle risotto next week

bertiebots - for what it's worth I don't think it's worth trying to grow cucumbers outdoors - they can be very tender

GarnetLady

Hi everyone!

You're all doing so much, makes my efforts seem a bit tiddly in comparison.

Strawberries - 1 lot almost finished flowering and the next (which were bought a bit later) and about to start. Both lots are in the greenhouse.

Tomatoes - 6 plants in flower buckets seem to be doing well, even with the spider mite episode and the fact I'm sure slugs have been climbing them for a munch! 1 plant in hanging basket is a bit slower.

Broad beans - 9/10 germinated (last one rotted). One has black tipped leaves and has been quarantined but the rest look good *crosses fingers*

Carrots - first lot have popped up, planted some more yesterday.

Chives - have also popped up, now about 2 cms tall.

Lettuces - think these might have got a bit leggy before they went outside, but they are coming on.

Sowed silverskin onions, leeks and pumpkins yesterday so I'll wait and see what happens with them.

We've got part of the area for the greenhouse dug and that'll be the first thing to go up, have decided the shed can wait!

It's a lovely day here, I'm sitting outside typing even though it's a disaster zone at the mo. (Although possibly not as bad as inside - found water coming through the kitchen ceiling last night :eek:)

Have got some tidying to do, grass is appearing between the slabs again, but think I'll have lunch first.

GarnetLady

katholicos wrote: »

I've been enjoying the garden and am really pleased to see things growing. Rather than add zillions of photos in this post, i'm hoping this link works so you can have a look around my back garden - it's a work in progress, almost exclusively fruit and veggie growing for me at moment.

Link

All looks fab and I particularly like the last pic... It's what we're all aiming for. :T

Orange_King

heynonnynonny wrote: »

Hows everybody progressing?

Seem to be having a mix of success stories and disasters, though thankfully the disasters are in the minority!

Success Stories

Potatoes - 8 planters at various stages, some close to flowering, plus some volunteers who insist on appearing in the veg plot despite my best efforts.

Strawberries - Virtually all of the 25 plants bought in March have flowered and some fruit will be ripe in early June I think.

Runner Beans - first attempt and they are performing well snaking their way up the bamboo canes. Aphid attack has been repelled!

Carrots - the leaves are now starting to thicken out and should do well both in the plot and a 10" storage tub that developed a crack or two for drainage!

Garlic and Onions - very well developed in the patch.

Rhubarb - excellent with already two lots gathered and consumed.

Courgettes - several plants about to flower I think.

Beetroot - doing very nicely in the plot. Planting more to keep the supply up.

Leeks - appear to have taken OK in the new raised bed.

Parsnips - germinating slowly but surely.

Raspberry Canes - starting to flower but not expecting too much in their first year.

Peas - coming along nicely in their planters.

Lettuce - OK but in need of serious thinning out.

Disasters

Basil - just won't last for me

Brocolli - after a promising start they appear to be shrivelling in the new plot - could they possibly not like my home made fertilizer?

Cucumbers - just seem to shrivel up after an initial growth spurt. Possible that I give them too much to drink!

Tomatoes - first batch really not progressing, second lot catching them fast but planted a good 6 weeks later.


NOT Sure About

Chilli Peppers - seem to be OK but just a couple of long thin leaves showing.

Peppers - seedlings germinated but still just a few centimetres high.

Green Beans - just starting off now - 3 out of 8 showed.