veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

lynzpower

Raised beds do seem to be quite expensive to be honest. In the seed catalogues there are lots of companies that sell them. I personally wouldnt bother if you are mainly paved and go with containers till you know if you can do it and start with the easy stuff.

We only have a roof terrace so everything is being done in pots & containers. If you have a look at my homepage youll see what im working with.

The root veg im doing is beetroot, potatoes and carrots.

Megansmum

I'd have to agree with lynzpower on the raised bed issue. Whilst those plastic ones look nice they are pricey and not very money saving!! :eek:

I have done a raised bed from old scaffolding boards i begged from a scaffolding company. My new raised bed project will either have edges of tyres (free from any tyre garage) or old fencing boards (free from housing asscoiation - spares when they re-fenced nearby).

I also grow a lot in flexitubs (£3 each Asda), and this year i'll be using old flower tubs from Morrisons 8 for 99p.

You can use old chests of drawers (minus the drawers) lain on their side (free on freecycle perhaps?). Anything with 4 sides really as long as you can get drainage holes in it! Even old baths,sinks and toilets! :rotfl:

I think it adds interest and quirkiness to a garden to use different recycled and brightly coloured things! (Saying all that i'll admit to a BIT of jealousy when I saw Katholicos's beds!!

katholicos

To be honest with you, and i've no reason not to be. The raised beds i bought work out about the same price as the large pots i bought recently, if not cheaper. A 1m x 1m foot high raised bed (100% recycled plastic, cost me £20 and will take approximately 240 litres of soil/compost. The cheapest large pots i have seen are the ones that hold about 60 litres and cost £6.99 each. Working on that basis, i would need 4 large pots to hold 240 litres and it would cost £28 for 4. Looking at it that way, i actually saved £8 by buying my raised beds. They last for years and years and are so easy to put together that even i could do it.

As a disabled (to some extent) gardener, they are the best option for me, relatively inexpensive of you do a google search and do price comparisons like i did, they are also durable, easy to put together, low maintenance etc.

I couldn't construct a raised bed for less, not just physically, but i don;t have the resources to do it and would therefore have to buy them. When my raised beds were delivered, they were assembled 20 minutes after opening the box and lined and filled within an hour. Simples.

[Deleted User]

Hello,

Please may I join? My hubby has grown green beans with some success but then last year everything we planted was decemated by slugs while we were in Italy

So at the end of last year my hubby sowed garlic, spring onions and red onions in our raised bed. He had planned to build another one (from leftover decking boards) but time got away from us.

Today I have been to wilcos and got seedlings of chillis, plum tomatoes and red peppers. My son (2) bought a seed kit with sweetcorn, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots. I think I will get some containers to put them in though when I go up town tomorrow and grow them in them as we need to get em in now. I love those flexitubs though I might get them! We don't have an Asda nearby though would mean a trip over to Sheffield but if I could get 5 or 6 of them that would be ace. Is £3 an offer price or are they always that price??

alliwantistosave

shelvis wrote: »

We don't have an Asda nearby though would mean a trip over to Sheffield but if I could get 5 or 6 of them that would be ace. Is £3 an offer price or are they always that price??

I think they are on offer but in the Asda I went to they were £2.50 :rotfl:
So we are going to use 4 of them for sweetcorn.

Good luck with your growing

schumie

I was also thinking about doing a spreadsheet but I think thats taking it too far
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:[/QUOTE]

If you do a spreadsheet you couldn't email it to me could you - yes its taking it too far but bloody good idea.

I am now really worried though because i planted potatoes in containers today,
mangetout and spring onion in pots and its started to frost. Will it all be ruined?

lynzpower

The larger ones are 4.00 in Wickes if there is one of them nearer Shelvis I also read Home bargains do them too for 2.99

schumie

What's a flexitub?

Sorry just googled it and realise they are exactly what i bought today and my potatoes are currently in them!

Furny

Yep, i saw them in home bargains, £2.99 but only pink ones in my store which the blokes may not want!. I got two from Asda for £3 each. I also saw some green ones in Lidl i think they where £3.99 each.

schumie

ok i have done a spreadsheet - couldn't get the idea out of my head!! It has the following column headings

Todays date
Plant
Quantity Sown
Sown Indoors (enter date here or N/A)
Ready to plant outdoors (enter approximate date here or N/A)
Sown Outdoors (enter date here)
Ready on (approximate Date)
Resow date (approximate)
Notes (what do i need to change next time)

Yes this is very geeky and nerdy but this is how i work at work so it will do me the power of good and then next year if it all works I will have a record of what i did and when. i can also change the dates of when things will be ready and learnt from it.

I've also downloaded the form for allotments and posted that today. It's like a million year wait for an allotment but you never ever know!!!!

Suer no one will want it but would be happy to email the spreadsheet to anyone that wants it.