VERY new, be nice!!

tanyalbeck

Hi! I've been looking at MSE for a while now but am new to OS and posting on forums. I was brought up in India by parents with far more money than sense and never did anything for myself (really... didn't know how to put the kettle on!!) until i lived on my own at 18. I'm now 31 and still struggle! Money is VERY tight as a self employed childminder, mother, student, and charity worker!! I have 2 kids... one is lactose intollerant and a VERY fussy eater who wont eat anythig hot except sausages and scrambled egg so he lives on that as well as bread and butter!

I had the wise idea of planting fruit and veg in the garden this year but went and lost all the tags so i'll have a few surprises!!! In one patch I know there is aubergine and courgette... can anyone tell me which is which? One has little blue flowers and is growing wider by the day, and the other has little pink-ish flowers and is so tall i had to use sticks to support it.

as you can probably tell, I've never gardened/ grown ANYTHING before so all i do is chuck water on things and hope it works.

Also with tomato plants... does it really need any special 'tomato feed' stuff or will a homemade version do?

ALL help is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks
Tanya

Gigervamp

Hi Tanya, welcome to OS.

With regards the fruit and veg, I've also got *unknown* seedlings due to the writing washing off, but courgettes and aubergines look very different. Courgettes have big leaves that kind of spread around whereas aubergines are upright plants like tomatoes and chillis.

Bobbykins

Hi Tanya, The courgettes normally have quite big yellow flowers, I don't know of any that have pink or blue. I'm not sure about aubergines as I've never grown them.
The only thing I wonder is if the ones with little pink flowers are actually a weed? I know I have some on a wild patch in my garden that are very tall, very thin plants, (about 2 feet tall) with tiny little pink flowers on, with a white centre to the flowers, and they are definately weeds.
HOpe this helps

McKneff

Hi Tanya, i am no gardener and leave all that to the other half.

I just wanted to say well done for grabbing life by the balls and giving it a go.

Re the tomatoes, ask a neighbour because apart from just feeding them you have to nip off the 'struts' to enable
more nutrients to get to the fruit. (so I'm told) lol

Annie

midnightraven3

**waves hello**

as stated the courgettes will have big yellow trumpet flowers
(delicious stuffed, battered and fried!)
the flowers i mean

i dont know the pink flowers either sorry

and you need to feed your toms once they are producing fruit
poundland does one, and i use that
last year i had over 80 kilos of toms so it seems to do the trick
i dont use anything else on anything in my garden apart from that

Charis

Someone on the Greenfingered section of the forums would no doubt tell you straight away. They do sound like Traveller's Joy, a weed, especially if the stalks are very thin. Pretty, but useless :-(

Do hang around on Old Style for more hints though. Lots of good advice and uplifting messages and we always try to be nice.

Charis

ginnyknit

Welcome Tanya and congratulations on making a start. Maybe a basic gardening book from the library would help you ready for next year or ask for one for Xmas? I put all my used teabags in a plastic jug and top it up with leftover hot water at the end of the day, next day i feed my veggies with it. Tomato plants don't need specific tomato plant food till they flower and then only once a week - I think Im right here I buy the nearly dead herbs from the supermarket ie 15p a pot, replant them and they thrive (cheap way to start a herb patch) You can also plant ginger root in a pot and eventually you get a plant and more root to cook with.

Every little victory you make will make life easier for you so take your time and read the many great tips on here when you have the time.

Pink.

Hi Tanya,

Welcome to MSE. :wave:

Courgette flowers, as others have said, are usually a lovely yellowy/orange colour and are enormous. Aubergine can be purple (at least my black beauty is) so the purple one is likely to be aubergine.

I usually feed tomatoes once a week with poundland tomato food, once the flowers appear. I think it's worth doing to give the plants the nutrients they need to help the fruit to form.

We have a gardening section where there are regulars who will be able to give much better advice than I can so I'll move your thread over there.

Pink

[Deleted User]

As u obviously have access to the net.., just put courgette and then aubergine (seperate search) into the net and see if u can come up with some pics. If they don't look like what u've got them I'm afraid u probably have got weeds rather than something intentional.

To make life easier.., find a poundshop.., buy some pots and put your seeds in them. Then u can plant them knowing they are intentional plants once they have grown into seedlings. As a childminder.., the children u care for might love to get involved.., I know my four year old fights to help with the watering and there's some seeds he helped (sort of) plant he calls 'my plants' lol. He loves it!

Here's a pic of my rather large courgette taken about two weeks ago. I'm afraid its since flowered but I don't have a pic of these.

EmptyPockets

ginnyknit wrote: »

I put all my used teabags in a plastic jug and top it up with leftover hot water at the end of the day, next day i feed my veggies with it.

This is a great tip, where did you hear about/learn to do this? Does it really work? :T

Zanderman

If the flower i.d. advice doesn't work for you check out the leaves - aubergines often have tiny little spines at the base of the leaves and on some of the veins on the leaves (on top or below). Courgettes don't.