veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

Plasticman

Greatexpectations wrote: »

Hi all

I'd like to join in too! I grew a few things last year mainly from plants I bought/was given - toms, peppers, courgette, herbs mostly.

This year I am hoping to grow much more from seeds - I've just sown some peppers, chillis, strawberries, aubergines, basil, chives, parsley, for starters. I am a bit worried that I've made the compost too wet. I do hope something grows & I can't wait! I'm not sure whether I need to keep them out of the light until they germinate or not?

I have splashed out on a cheap small heated propagator -I'm not really sure what I'm doing but have stuck some in there; others are in the airing cupboard.

I also fancy growing leeks this year -anyone tried these and have advice? My veges were all in pots/growbags on the patio but I am hoping to sort out a raised bed this year if I can get it organised in time...

Hi Greatexpectations :hello:

No problem with getting the compost very wet when first you plant the seeds, but after that just keep it damp (not too wet). You need to keep them in the light.

A lesson that I learned was that you need to remove the lid of the propagator (and turn off the heat) when the seedlings pop up.

Can't help with the leeks I'm afraid - but good luck!

gillian62

I have read that you should sow leek seeds in a nursery bed, where you want them to carry on growing, because i makes the roots bend if they are sown in a small pot.
Then when they are a fair size, and ready to be moved to their permanent location, you can move them into deep holes which you make with a dibber, about 6" deep, and then you can build soil up around them as they grow. I will be trying it this year as the knowledge is all theory so far.

lynzpower

Definately check with your local authority if you can get a composter for free.

In london most councils give away composting bins and wormeries.

We had a wormery from Tower hamlets council. It was a wiggly wigglers one and retailed at almost 100 quid!

flis21

Hi All,

Just found this thread, can I join you all? I am a complete newbie to gardening and veg growing, only recently moved to a house with a garden, so this is my first year doing anything!! I would like to grow carrots (my 2 year old lives on carrots!), potatos and runner beans. Am tempted to try butternut squash, as I love them, but am not sure if they will be harder to grow? Also would like to do parsnips as we eat a lot of those, are they easy to do? And am going to do some herbs in pots and maybe a rosemary bush? I have so many plans!!

Am going to dig over the top end of our garden and do some raised beds, to try and keep the kids off the veggies!!

Can anyone give me any tips about what equipment I'll need? I had awalk round B&Q at the weekend, but there seem so many different tools, most of them I have no idea what to do with (e.g. a hoe?!!)

I have bought a few seeds and fibre pots and a small bag of compost so far.

Am really looking forward to doing this.

kimmee

hex2 wrote: »

kimmee - don't let me put you off, after all we may get some sun this year! This is only my third year of growing veg in Leics. The first year my sweetcorn was lovely - last year it just didnt ripen at all because we had so little sun. If you have the seeds already I would sow them anyway. I just wouldn't part with £1.49 in B and Q for a single plant (like my DH does!) that may not produce anything. Realistically DHs plant has to produce four mature squashes to pay for itself (based on Aldi 49p per squash). Also Squash are big sprawly plants like Pumpkins. Not sure how well they cope in pots.

Thanks again hex2 - I got the seeds free from Dig-in last year so I think I'll try again and plant them in the border that gets the most sunshine (and hope for a very sunny summer :rotfl:) and cross my fingers!

kimmee

flis21 wrote: »

Hi All,

Just found this thread, can I join you all? I am a complete newbie to gardening and veg growing, only recently moved to a house with a garden, so this is my first year doing anything!! I would like to grow carrots (my 2 year old lives on carrots!), potatos and runner beans. Am tempted to try butternut squash, as I love them, but am not sure if they will be harder to grow? Also would like to do parsnips as we eat a lot of those, are they easy to do? And am going to do some herbs in pots and maybe a rosemary bush? I have so many plans!!

Am going to dig over the top end of our garden and do some raised beds, to try and keep the kids off the veggies!!

Can anyone give me any tips about what equipment I'll need? I had awalk round B&Q at the weekend, but there seem so many different tools, most of them I have no idea what to do with (e.g. a hoe?!!)

I have bought a few seeds and fibre pots and a small bag of compost so far.

Am really looking forward to doing this.

Welcome flis21 - I have to say that I'm a relative newbie to veg growing but I've had my own garden for a few years and it's slowly getting there! I've got a trowel, a hand fork, a small spade, a hoe and a fork and use them all at some point. If you take a look at my previous post about butternut squash you'll see that I didn't have much luck last year (huge plant but very small squash) but after hex2's advice I'm going to try again but rather than planting in pots I'm going to plant in the borders.

Another thing that would be invaluable IMO is a composter, if you have room for one. Either make your own or contact your council as they often sell them cheaply to encourage people to not produce so much waste. If you have trees then you could also gather fallen leaves in the autumn to make leaf mould (great for mulching) and the only equipment you need for that is a black bin bag (with holes punched in it)!!

I'm sure that more experienced gardeners/veg growers will give you a lot more advice - they're a great lot on here

WestonDave

flis21 wrote: »

Hi All,

Just found this thread, can I join you all? I am a complete newbie to gardening and veg growing, only recently moved to a house with a garden, so this is my first year doing anything!! I would like to grow carrots (my 2 year old lives on carrots!), potatos and runner beans. Am tempted to try butternut squash, as I love them, but am not sure if they will be harder to grow? Also would like to do parsnips as we eat a lot of those, are they easy to do? And am going to do some herbs in pots and maybe a rosemary bush? I have so many plans!!

Am going to dig over the top end of our garden and do some raised beds, to try and keep the kids off the veggies!!

Can anyone give me any tips about what equipment I'll need? I had awalk round B&Q at the weekend, but there seem so many different tools, most of them I have no idea what to do with (e.g. a hoe?!!)

I have bought a few seeds and fibre pots and a small bag of compost so far.

Am really looking forward to doing this.

If you are aiming for raised beds then smaller tools are probably better than big ones, and will be easier on your back. I would look at maybe a small border fork or spade(still long handled but the "blade" is about 2/3rds the size of a big one), a rake is always useful and a hoe is good for raised beds. You use the hoe to chop down weeds - they work well in confined spaces between rows, and in raised beds you aren't looking to deep dig over each year so hoeing off the weeds is a good chemical free way of keeping it tidy. Rake and Hoe can be cheap ones as they don't take a lot of punishment, but I'd spend a bit more on a fork or spade especially if you have heavy soil - the cheaper ones can bend irrepairably pretty quickly. You can probably also pick up things like a trowel but other than that I wouldn't think you need much to start with.

Potatoes are a good first crop as they help prepare the soil for future, and beans will deal with soil that has a lot of fertiliser put into it (e.g. manure) and will help trap the nitrogen into the soil. Carrots are a good crop to follow beans as they don't like newly fertilsed soil and will tend to fork rather than grow nice and straight. They can also be a bit tricky so don't be too disheartened if it takes a bit of practice - there was a lottery winner a few months back who had been growing veg all his long life and was quoted as saying that he would use his winnings to get someone to show him how to successfully grow carrots as he'd never managed it! The trick apparently is to give them an easy route downwards by making a deep hole or slit in the ground, filling it with compost and sand, and then planting the seed at the top. Mine on clay soil tend to go down about an inch and then stop so I get little round carrots (and not from the round varieties!) and also the same with parsnips!

yummymummy79

Hi all, another relative newbie wanting to join in on the thread. I had my first proper stab at growing stuff last year and managed to get potatoes, carrots, spring onions and lettuces. Cabbage, red onions and parsnips didn't come to anything, and broccoli grew quite late on but with only teeny tiny heads, any reasons? I'm in Lincoln btw.

Am thinking it's the time now to get started again and with my parents coming up at the weekend, they can help me get the patch ready again. Do I need to completely dig it over and start again? Those pathetic broccoli plants are still there (bless them!) along with plenty of weeds and I was just going to blitz the whole patch ready for new planting. Will be starting some seeds off inside in the next week or so, my son's bedroom windowsill gets loads of light so tend to start them off in there.

Will have a rummage in the shed to see what I've got from last year and what I need to get, and I think a wander round B&M seems to be in order!
Looking forward to comparing carrots with you guys in the coming months!

saxysarah

hiya all ;-) i'm in the middle of turning my building site into a garden but i do have an area which is fairly sunny where i could put some pots/containers etc for veg - what can i grow straight outside without having to hav little pots etc insde first (cos i don't have room or a sunny window) and what could i put out there now to give me some insentive to keep going ;-0

ukmaggie45

saxysarah wrote: »

i do have an area which is fairly sunny where i could put some pots/containers etc for veg - what can i grow straight outside without having to hav little pots etc insde first

Depends partly where you are! We've had heavy frosts the last few days (I'm in Liverpool), but hopefully the weather will improve soon.

Potatoes can be chitted - they just need light, not sun, and a cool but frost free place to chit. Then they can go out in big rubble sacks (use black ones which keep the light out to stop the tubers going green when they grow). There's loads of useful info on growing in tubs or containers on YouTube and on the net in general. Just search growing potatoes in containers.

Carrots and lettuce can be sown now I think, and onion sets, leeks? It all depends on what you like to eat. It's too early for runner beans, but if you like broad beans they are very hardy and can be sown outside now.

How about some fruit bushes in big containers?

Good luck!