veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

kedvoidal

Hi everyone,

Just joined and I am keen for some info as to what to grow in a small ( 2metre x 1 metre) raised bed. I have never grown veg or herbs before and want to start a small raised bed project this weekend. Am I too late to plant anything for this autumn? Any help would be appreciated.

izzwizz_2

Some of our tomatoes have started to turn red all of a sudden this week, but they are all on "Gardener's Delight" plants (all still green on Moneymaker & Roma). Can't wait to try one! From memory, ripe tomatoes give off ethylene gas which encourages others to ripen (bananas give it off too, but watch out coz bananas will attract ants & wasps).

It's been pouring down here, on and off. Heavy showers then bright sunshine - watering is a nightmare. Have been potting up lots of little seedlings for next year (the globe Artichokes look like fun - can't wait to see how they grow).

Found some really sturdy & deep hanging baskets in a local Garden Centre, and couldn't resist. Will be using your tips to grow on some runners from the strawberries for them for next year, in the meantime it's somewhere to put the T&M plug plants from the Chelsea flower show offer (mine are just about big enough to plant out now, and two of the petunias have started flowering, though completely different to the colours I was expecting from the labels!!)

Currently harvesting broccoli/ calabrese (nearly over), cauliflowers (brilliant), french beans, mangetout, spinach, pak choi, salads, black kale, small courgettes. Did a whole load as tempura the other night and it was fantastic - lovely to have fresh vegetables to cook. Great to read about all your successes. Have been really busy this week and haven't had much time to post, but will probably be around more over the long weekend (ha ha, one of the perks of living in Northern Ireland is an extra bank holiday next Monday )

soullessfire

janibrown wrote: »

My Uncle has told me to put a red tomato along with the green ones to help them along with the process of turning Red it has worked for me in previous years as long as the tomatoes are big enough, something to do with some smell or something they produce when ripe they set the other ones to turn ripe more quickly, hope this helps
Janice xxxxxx :D:D:D:D

Any fruit will do, any ripe fruit produces ethylene which makes other fruit nearby ripen, but only if they're close to ripening. It's how you get apples and bananas and stuff all year round, they pick them green and feed them with the gas when they want a set to ripen.

izzwizz_2

P.S. Welcome to the new faces and hello to kedvoidal - lovely to see your first post with us on the newbie gardening thread

You're not too late to plant. The first question is what do you like to eat? I think there's still time for salad leaves, spinach, pak choi, radishes, baby carrots, dwarf french beans, cauliflower. I'm sure there's more and others who know better than me will be along to advise

kedvoidal

Thanks izzwizz. I will try anything so all help would be appreciated :-)

Mrs_Veg_Plot

kedvoidal wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Just joined and I am keen for some info as to what to grow in a small ( 2metre x 1 metre) raised bed. I have never grown veg or herbs before and want to start a small raised bed project this weekend. Am I too late to plant anything for this autumn? Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Kedvoidal. Welcome to the site. I have just sown some pak choi, radddish lettuce (has not germinated yet) carrotts, turnip and swede seeds for autumn eating. I'm new to this to so will have to wait to see if it is sucessful. Good luck

mutley74

was really hoping for a good rain shower, but that did not happen here.

i notice this morning one of my large courgette leaves is starting to yellow, what does this mean?

sarymclary

Mutley - could it have lacked a bit of water recently? So long as the flowers or courgettes are looking OK, it should still be fine I'm sure.

Well I've been out and given the whole garden a good soaking today. Even some of my shrubs are showing signs of drying up, and I don't want to lose expensive plants for the sake of a few weeks without rain. I'm not sure if we're on a hosepipe ban here yet, but I'm just going to have to do everything with a watering can instead. We could do with a few overnight storms to restock the water butts really.

I have my first red tomatoes ripening in the hanging basket. The plum tomato has gone completely beserk, and must stand about 4ft tall now, with lots of flowers, and fruit starting to show. It's having to be held up by 3 canes though. I'm harveting calibrese broccoli, which is scrummy - even if it does give my OH the most awful wind!:eek:

I now have plenty of cucumbers growing on the plants in the greenhouse. To think a few weeks back I was desperately worrying that the seeds simply hadn't got much beyong the small seedling stage after about 3 months, and now they're taking over. The largest ones are currently about the size of a dill pickle, and they're growing at quite a fast rate. I imagine we might end up with a glut, but fortuntately my youngest 2 boys like to eat cucumber like fruit, so it's not going to go to waste.

My chilli plants are all showing flower buds. I didn't expect so many of them to grow, but I must have a dozen. They were a free packet of seeds I got with the Grow Your Own magazine, and having never grown them before, had no idea they'd all take. The red pepper plant in the growbag, beside the cucumbers, is showing buds too, so looking forward to getting something off of that soon.

My carrots are surviving, and I tried picking one, but despite looking very fat at the top, near the leaves, it was a disappointing 2 inches long! Not a shower or a grower there, so I've decided to leave them all in the bed for a good while longer yet, before beginning to harvest.

I've found even more tomato seedlings in the greenhouse floor, so have dug them up, and put them in pots. We may get a late crop of tomatoes at that rate, but will ensure I don't leave any tomatoes to drop and rot into the flowerbeds again this year. It has given me free tomato plants though, so ....

Wobbledoos - I have uprooted & moved my strawberries about 4 times now. This year most of them have just been dumped in pots, waiting for a permanent place to end up. I had mine in a terracotta strawberry planter, but it was always prone to drying out too fast, and they never bore fruit. Having put them in individual plant pots, they've become more lush, and some are fruiting too. I planted 5 plants in the edge of my veg bed, and they've put out runners for the 2nd in a row, which I didn't think they would do, and they're bearing loads of fruit, albeit a bit late in the season. They're definitely doing better being in a proper bed, so I'm going to put the potted ones into the ground near my rhubarb, and plant my raspberries there too; creating a fruit bed. I have a goji berry I got for £1 last year in Instore, and it's grown like a demon too. Not tasted a goji before, so that'll be a new one on me. They have pretty star like flowers too, so it's an attractive climber.

If we end up with the hosepipe ban too, I'm going to have to resort to doing a rain-dance every night. Do they require a special outfit do you think? *hopes it's not naked*

betony

Mrs_Veg_Plot wrote: »

Can anyone tell me how long it takes lettuce seeds to germinate? Planted some 10 days ago and nothing showing yet.

Hi Mrs V P :wave: Lettuce will not germinate well in higher temperatures. It's best to sow them in shade at this time of year (well THIS year anyway :rotfl:) and make sure they aren't allowed to dry out at any time.

Good luck with your garden - make the most of this weather :beer:

wssla00

Hello all hope all is well!

Well...it's chucking it down up here but it means I don't have to worry about watering!

The garden seems to be pretty ok at the moment, I cut all the old growth off of my strawbs yesterday and they have popped up with brand new growth already so that is good. I have also been eating many a raspberry even though I said I didn't like them I seem to like them when they are off my bush! That has only a few more to ripen then I will cut back that growth and then replant it in it's final position for next year.

I have pots and pots or rocket to plant out so will try and sort that out when the rain stops. Hopefully I can get out sometime this weekend.

I also have about twenty little chillies growing on my chilli bush and I have learnt that when a flower goes brown it has pollunated and behind the flower is a teeny tiny little chili! So now it's a case of LOADS of little chillies and loads of little tomatoes.

Also ordered my greenhouse and will look to put it up in a couple of weeks, but it looks like a HUGE lego set so may take a few days to fix. Still, I like building stuff so should be ok!

Have a good day all