Newbie gardening question

pickledonionspaceraider

Hi there, I know there is a newbie thread already on here, but it is so long, I thought I might get lost little old me!

Ive not tried to grow anything before... and brought some plants at a car boot, lettuce (cut and grow again), tomatoes and courgettes. do I need a little green house to put these in? and will they be OK in pots/ growbags?

I know I will need to secure my toms to a trellis etc, as have seen them grown before, but I have never seen a courgette plant..so (silly question possibly) do these grow tall, and are they the type of thing that needs support, growing upwards?

Many thanks in advance

kimmee

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

Hi there, I know there is a newbie thread already on here, but it is so long, I thought I might get lost little old me!

Ive not tried to grow anything before... and brought some plants at a car boot, lettuce (cut and grow again), tomatoes and courgettes. do I need a little green house to put these in? and will they be OK in pots/ growbags?

I know I will need to secure my toms to a trellis etc, as have seen them grown before, but I have never seen a courgette plant..so (silly question possibly) do these grow tall, and are they the type of thing that needs support, growing upwards?

Many thanks in advance

Hi Pickledonion - you don't need a greenhouse for anything that you mentioned - growbags will be fine for toms and cut and come again lettuce, think the courgettes will do better in pots. I've never grown courgettes before but the Dig-In website gives you lots of really good info, I would suggest you check it out especially as courgettes are one of the seeds they sent out this year.

Here's a link for advice on growing courgettes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/digin/vegetables/courgette.shtml

Good luck

(btw - it's very addictive!!)

amcluesent

Outdoor tomatoes risk getting blight

tim_n

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

Hi there, I know there is a newbie thread already on here, but it is so long, I thought I might get lost little old me!

Ive not tried to grow anything before... and brought some plants at a car boot, lettuce (cut and grow again), tomatoes and courgettes. do I need a little green house to put these in? and will they be OK in pots/ growbags?

I know I will need to secure my toms to a trellis etc, as have seen them grown before, but I have never seen a courgette plant..so (silly question possibly) do these grow tall, and are they the type of thing that needs support, growing upwards?

Many thanks in advance

1) All the stuff you bought in the boot sale are unlikely to be hardened off. depending on where you live, this may be more or less of a problem, but the solution is the same.

Hardening off is aclimatising the plant to the colder outdoor temperatures - plants don't have coats! Ideally what you need to do is when you get up put them outside the back door and in the evening, bring them in. Do it for 14 days and they're much less likely to die when you put them in the soil.

2) they may be in pots too small - you may need to buy some bigger pots and some more compost.

3) no need for a trellis - you'll need a bigger pot for tomatoes than you'd think and a few bean poles and plant ties to support them. Once they start flowering, you start feeding them with a tomato feed (you can get this from all gardening shops, wilkos, even tescos sells it.)

Courgettes can go straight in the soil after they've hardened out. if you sink a pipe into the ground next to them it makes watering much easier (same with tomatoes)

4) Lettuce is a doddle to grow - get yourself a packet of seeds and sow it anywhere you have bare soil and you'll have lettuce - it's like a weed but the slugs love it. Doesn't need deep soil either.

No need for a greenhouse or similar if you harden them off! Never had a tomato with blight on a busy allotment site with plenty of other tomato growers for four years, I'm sure you'll be fine with outdoor tomatoes and I've seen people with indoor tomatoes getting blight as well so not sure if that's fact or fiction.

Lotus-eater

Actually from all the reports I've read on forums over the last few years, the chance of getting blight is very high. Obviously it depends on where you live and tim must live in a blight free area.

You can certainly get blight on greenhouse tomatoes, but the chances are less than on outside toms.
The only way you are going to know, is try it.

pickledonionspaceraider

ahh this is brilliant, thank you very much indeed. im really exited about all this and am really hoping i get at least one good result
Thanks for the tip, tim, about ''hardening off'' the plants. I shall do this as you suggest, and then plan to do the toms in a growbag and all the rest in pots, ive got loads in the shed from tiny to huge lol - sinking a pipe into the ground for watering sounds a great idea, i will have to dig around in the shed to see if theres any lying about.thanks for the link and advice kimmeee, im off to have a look at the link now. thnks everyone

tim_n

You'll end up with a forest of pipes, but you'll be watering less. Doesn't just have to be pipes - cut bottom off a 2ltr bottle and sink it into the ground - does the same job (just take the lid off) but has a bigger resevoir.