veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

katholicos

Went to WHSmiths this afternoon and bought Alan T's 'Kitchen Gardener' book. Reduced from £20 down to £6. Bargain!

Megansmum

kayl wrote: »

I am hoping for some help from you experts.
My husband has left me - he was the one who was into gardening. Money is extremely tight, as I am trying to keep on the house on my own, and I want to grow as much veg as possible to save money. We already have a bit of the garden with brambles, raspberries and rhubarb. This leaves a bed which is about 3 foot by 7 foot for veg. can you recommend what would be easiest for a complete novice and would give a good crop.
Live in Scotland, so need to take temperatures here into account! Also the fact that I work full time, and need to factor in the time I spend ferrying 3 children about
I have seen that Poundland have various seeds - are these worthwhile?

Kayl, what fruit/veg do you like to eat? And of those, which cost you the most in the shops? By thinking about this you can figure which will be the best financially for you to grow. Time wise you will be fine, it tends to be a quick watering once established and ages waiting for them to BE established! :rotfl:

Any questions you have as you go along will be quickly be answered on here, so always just jump in and ask!:D

I'm the same as wssla - i have plenty of packs over so if you pm me and let me know what you want to grow i will send you any I have.

ictquizzer

I'm new to all this too - been following this with interest over the last few weeks but now time to join in!

I'm planning -
carrots
potatoes
spring onions
parsnips
onions
garlic
leek
runner beans
beetroot
strawberries
as well as various herbs, which I grew successfully last year.

I put carrot, spring onion and parsnip seeds out a few weeks ago (either 2 and a half or 3 and a half) but nothing seems to be happning. They are in the infamous Morrisons buckets in a sunny position. I'm in Scotland. Should I re-plant new seeds or is there still time for them to come good? I'm got fleece, is it any use while they are still seeds or only when they start growing?

Thanks in advance for any help, I was so excited but now a bit disheartened!

red-boxer

ictquizzer......i also planted carrots and spring onions a couple of weeks ago (in pots) and there is no sign of life in mine either. They were in a plastic greenhouse, and i put fleece over them at night, i've a feeling that the cold weather has just delayed their growth for the moment.....well thats what i'm hoping anyway. Good luck

berkshirelady

Hi all,

after reading all the posts on here last week I decided to go for it! so on Sunday I planted out salad & charlotte potatoes (in compost bags turned inside out), carrots & spring onions (from seed), & some late flowering bulbs - all in big pots or buckets with holes drilled in the bottom.

As I'm skint, and the forecast was threatening frost, I blagged some big clear plastic carrier bags from Focus where I bought my compost, cut a few air holes in each one, and then covered each pot with a bag, to try and protect the seeds and keep the heat in. It looks as though it's working at the moment, as there's condensation on the inside of the bags, and they have kept a lot of rain out, stopping the compost from getting too soggy. Is this OK, do you think, or should I have invested in one of those mini plastic greenhouse thingys?

also, while at the shop I spotted pots of 5 garlic seedlings for 99p, they were already a few inches tall and looked fairly sturdy, and they seem to have taken well outdoors in the pot. Any idea what sort of yield I can expect from these - 1 garlic bulb per seedling?

thanks :-)

seraphina

Can't believe how much stuff is growing at the moment - I swear my toms shoot up every time my back is turned! It seems like they've gone from shoots to leaves in a day!

anyone else have trouble identifying what's what in beds? I spent ages thinking I had some lovely beetroot coming on when I saw green shoots - then yesterday and today the pink beetroot shoots started to appear - I've got weeding to do!

lynzpower

wssla00 wrote: »

Kayl,

PM me your addy, I have some seeds you can have

Me too I have plenty spare

Megansmum

yay! They all germinated!!

I now have 7 cucumbers and 5 tomato seedlings poking through the soil!!:D

(Is it sad that i KNOW that'll be the highlight of my day?):rotfl:

kimmee

Hi everyone

All my seedlings doing well

Can anyone tell me when you can harvest garlic please? I sowed mine in pots last November, thought they weren't going to do anything then a week or so ago they had all shot up. I know I won't be able to harvest them for quite a while, but when do you 'know' they're ready??

Good to see everyone's successes

tinksy

Hi

Im sure i posted this question yesterday buts it gone missing so we will try again!

Im a newbie, got lots of stuff in pots in my conservatory germinating, cress seems particularly fast which is fun!

I had some potato's which had got the long white sprouts which i planted but now im thinking they were the wrong type of sprouts, should i take them out and start again? or leave and see what happens?!

xx