veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

GarnetLady

Hey everyone.

I was thinking about the fact we're not newbies next year too the other day. Great minds and all that.

I'm not doing too badly for supplies next year, got enough seeds to feed an army, got 5 bags of compost, and enough plant food to do from now until doomsday.

The rest of my lakeland order arrived yesterday, in 3 big boxes, 1 of which was pretty much all plant food. The raised beds look good as does the patiogro.

I haven't been very well so not much has been getting done in the garden. Need to get out and sort the greenhouse soon. I thought about lining it with bubblewrap... I have some plants to overwinter and being up here it does get cold. Hmm, needs some more thinking about I think.

Picked more or less the last of my tomatoes the other day and got some more carrots pulled last week. Carrots have been sooo slow, not sure if I needed to feed them more. Leeks are looking pretty good though.

Hope everyone and their gardens are well.

loucroft

Ooh forgot to ask, just got a hollyhock head and there were tonnes of seeds from it. How can I rate my chances of growing them successfully?

wssla00

Lou- Ive just sowed a load of hollyhock seeds and they are pretty rampant- I put them in seed modules with normal compost and watered them then kept them in the greenhouse where they will stay until I am ready to plant out next spring!

I have got loads of salads in the ground and have winter pots in as well. Can't believe how well my onion sets are doing- they have just shot up! Going to do some indoor sowing this week too- some winter spinach etc, as I had to buy a pack in asda today as I had run out of it in the garden- NOT IMPRESSED! Going to sow some more LOL

Garnetlady- I got the patiogrow too! It's so big and a really good piece of kit. It's going to be my cutting garden for flowers next year.

Have a good day all

lolly5648

My French and runner beans have just about finished, a couple of beetroot are crowning, no sign of the others or my red onions. I cant wait for it all to be over.

Quite honestly I have had enough. I think I am a fair weather gardener. I found it exhausting, all the feeding, watering, worrying etc. I am definitely not going to overwinter anything.

I will probably have forgotten all this by next March and will start again but will be much more selective about what I grow. I will probably buy plug plants of peppers, tomatoes and aubergines and just sow runner and French beans and also peas. Not sure about tomatoes - I have never grown them from seed but the beefsteak plugs I bought were very successful.

berkshirelady

oooh gawd, I think I'm addicted. everything's slowing down and I miss being outside and doing stuff! I can't grow winter root veg (no space), so I'm chancing it on winter salad and foliage instead. I saw an article by Alys Fowler in the Guardian last weekend, so I went online and ordered some seeds from Suttons.

I'm trying out : Cos Lettuce 'Winter Density' - seeds go out in Sept, seedlings overwinter outside, then grow on for March/April harvesting. 'Speedy Veg Leaf Salad Winter Mix' - Sow any time between February & October. Autumn sowings ready to eat any time between November and January. It says on the packet they can be ready in as little as 3 weeks. Corn Salad (Lambs Lettuce), sow Sept, harvest any time from Dec - Feb. Apparently lambs lettuce is OK even if sown in tiny 3" pots, so I've sown loads today and will keep them in my propogator on the patio and see what they do.

According to the instructions, all of the above should be fine over winter under cloches in the most severe weather and if kept from getting too wet. Lets hope we don't get really bad weather like we did in January!

also... Kale (Nero Di Toscana) - I planted these out in small pots in early August, have now potted on to big pots, should be ready to harvest from November onwards. Lovely sauteed in butter! yum.

I've started off some cress, mustard and alfalfa in trays on my window sill, for some nice crispy green stuff in our packed lunches.

I'm looking forward to keeping the vibe going over the dark days. Usually I feel like I am going to lose the will to live over winter, but I am hoping that the prospect of more lovely green stuff will keep me going!

and if anyone else has any tips for stuff that can be grown in pots or in a propogator over winter, that would be fab.

Thanks :-)

BL x

loucroft

cheers for that wssla00 - how did you come up with that name its fab!

So can I plant the hollyhocks indoors now? wasn't sure, be a great help

Lou

lovelife_3

lolly5648 wrote: »

My French and runner beans have just about finished, a couple of beetroot are crowning, no sign of the others or my red onions. I cant wait for it all to be over.

Quite honestly I have had enough. I think I am a fair weather gardener. I found it exhausting, all the feeding, watering, worrying etc. I am definitely not going to overwinter anything.

I will probably have forgotten all this by next March and will start again but will be much more selective about what I grow. I will probably buy plug plants of peppers, tomatoes and aubergines and just sow runner and French beans and also peas. Not sure about tomatoes - I have never grown them from seed but the beefsteak plugs I bought were very successful.

know how you feel Lolly, was thinking the same after i had to accept that i was not going to get any red tomatoes from my 40 odd plants:( All the tomatoes were just starting to rot. So i had to harvest them and save what green ones i could, had to throw loads away though, very demoralising! I have made a batch of chutney and got the rest in brown envelopes to see if they will turn red! I spent a fortune on compost, and spent a lot of time watering and caring for them, perhaps it's just not warm enough in the north of England. Will grow salad leaves again and courgettes, my carrots in pots were ok, but tbh,compost probs cost more than a bag of carrots. Dwarf french beans were good, considering i sowed them late. Perhaps i just need to hibernate for a few months and recharge before starting again............

loucroft

Listen to this, just read this today in a supplement we get through school called Primary Times ... Green manure - grow your own. Basically it revitalises plots over winter, harvest it in spring and put it on the compost pile / in the compost bin, turn over the soil and dig in the roots and its good for what you'll grow next in that soil - plus the grass you've put in the compost bin will be good to add to soil the following year.

They recommended for planting now, 'Hungarian Grazing Rye'. Simply looks like grass and handles cold winters, will be googling ~( or using any other reputable search engine ! ) that one!

wssla00

Hey Lou- my Username was an old sign in for a work computer so I remember it LOL!

I think you can plant hollyhocks but they need protection till the first frosts (unheated greenhouse/cloche/plastic bottle)

I use red clover as a green manure. I paid i think £1 for loads of it off ebay. Pretty good stuff then you literally chop it down and mix it into the soil to give it some extra pep for the spring!

izzwizz_2

I'd be up for joining in with a 2nd year thread too. Had great fun this year and managed to lose half a stone in the process. Also, I can bend over now :-) I'm planning on trying out a few new things next year. Have grown some asparagus & globe artichoke plants from seed and have planted in a bed at the side of the house. Also put out three large asparagus plants that I had planted from crowns in large pots last spring, so am hoping for a few spears in the Spring. Greenhouse tomatoes were a great success and the freezer is full of homemade pasta sauces and soup, but none of the outside ones were any good (too cold & Windy here), so will stick to greenhouse for tomatoes next year. Ditto french beans. Everything else did really well outside, mostly down to the insect barriers that dh made that gave e#shelter from the weather as well as the pests.

I know how you feel Lolly, this last month has been exhausting with all the harvesting, foraging & kitchen work. Yesterday I had a real lazy day for the first time in months. Still, it has been worth it, and the food has been great. Will definitley be starting again next Spring! Before that though, there's loads of clearing up to do, and still have a few tomatoes & peppers to harvest in the greenhouse, and some Winter salads to plant out in the greenhouse borders.

Thanks everyone for the support & fun posts this year