What have you learnt now that you wish you knew then

wssla00

Hiya,

I am one for saying I wish I knew that when I was doing X Y or Z. So I am trying to preempt any other cases of this lol

What did you wish you knew at the time?

for me it is: Understanding just how long potatoes take to mature. I thought my crop was rubbish this year. Turns out I was just impatient. I had left some tubers in their bag behind the bench wondered what they were and found tons of teensy potatoes on them- so next year I will wait a LOT longer for them!

Let me know yours!

Karena_3

Don't take a call on the homephone while watering the tomatoes and then put it on the car roof while you finish.......it will end up either stolen or on a road some way from home next time you drive the car.:o:o:o:o:D

TravellingAbuela

Last summer I bought 2 slate blue hexagonal shaped pots. I thought they were lovely and really different. Throughout the severe winter the soil in them froze, expanded, and the 6 seams came apart! I found a pile of frozen compost (complete with plant) and the 6 sides of the hexagonal pot laying beside it! So I have learned to stick with round pots!! (Surprisingly the plants left stranded in the frozen compost survived the winter, which shows us that most plants are more resiliant than we think!)

mcgrow

If a small black fly appears out of a compost bag as you open it, then it's likely to be fungus gnats. They aren't that bad, but I would have done more to stop them for the indoor plants. I'm not allowed to post links, so you'll have to use your initiative to read about them.

lizzyb1812

Don't plant anything anywhere near a butternut squash.:( In fact don't plant butternut squash at all - they take up far too much room, smother other plants and to add insult to injury, despite having lots of buds the bloomin' things are refusing to, well, bloom!

I don't use them for cooking much anyway and planted them as a bit of a novelty to see if I could grow one - well I now think I'll be buying my squashes and planting lots more carrots, beetroots, etc which do grow well for me.

Lizzyb

frazzbo

I'll be planting everything a lot further apart next year! It's really difficult when you're growing something for the first time to know how big it will get, so I now know to leave plenty of space, even if things look a bit sparse to start with because they soon start taking over the place.

And I'll know not to complain about courgettes being too slow because when they start, they really do keep on coming!

midnightraven3

that mollycodelling ANYTHING is not necessary
i have lovingly tended my green babies for years, and produced good results

this year, an impromptu, yes impromtu, kitchen extension meant the garden was seriously neglected
result, lovely produce thats been delicious so far:)

for instance, i planted peas, 30 peas to one 24" pot
just so i could have pea tops for salad
planted the rest, measured apart as they should be

intense planted ones were left in the pot once i harvested the tops several times, and i now have a "pea mass" in the pot with hundreds of fat juicy pea pods
lovingly planted ones not fairing as well
i think they like cuddling each other:rotfl:

Principia_2

I shall stick to annual veg in my hanging baskets like tomatoes. I have strawberries at the moment and someone (rightly) pointed out that the compost will probably be exhaused after one year.

I'm going to do my best to save them for at least another year by adding some pellet type compost but we'll see.

I shall grow more french beans - I have six in one post and three in the other with a cane joining the two three stem bamboo tents and there is plenty of room for more.

Not sure I'll go with potatoes again - I hadn't anticipated how much compost I would need to earth up. I haven't tasted the results yet so if they taste wonderful then I might run with it again.

Must do something about the ordinary size strawberries as the slugs keep nibbling on them. I'm thinking of planters on the fence for next year.

midnightraven3

i grew strawberries in may different ways this year
they were my experiment

i grew in strawberry pots (as normal) those flower bags that hang, planters on a fence, and i made (because i am too tight to buy) tumbling pots

the strawberry planter was ok but i shant bother again, i shall use it for more herbs next year
the flower bags were rubbish, no fruit, but the plants produced LOTS of runners, so not a total waste
planters were ok
but the resounding success was my tumbling pots
lots of fruit, no slugs, took up little space and looked fabulous in an otherwise useless corner

the other "accident" i had this year
something was eating my toms & cucumbers in the growbags
so i got a pop bottle, cut the top and bottom from it
and put it over my plant, and into the soil to try and protect them
watered as normal, but also filled up the bottle bit as well
this seemed to make a difference as the more established plants without them are now smaller than the ones with

not sure if it really did make the difference but it seemed to, to the point i will do it again next year

Primrose

I've learnt that despite my enthusiasm for getting out in the garden on the first sunny day after a miserably cold winter, there is ABSOLUTELY NO POINT in sowing all my vegetables seeds. The soil will still be too cold and they will all rot and fail to germinate, wasting good money. It's far better to wait until the soil has warmed up, when everything sown will grow much more quickly anyway. But it has taken me many years to learn this simple wisdom.

Yes, and I can echo Lizzie's advice not to grow any kind of squash unless you have adequate room. They smother everything in sight and need a whole allotment or garden to themselves. Far cheaper to buy what you need in Sainsbury's and use the garden for other more productive crops.

smallblueplanet

Principia wrote:

...Not sure I'll go with potatoes again - I hadn't anticipated how much compost I would need to earth up. I haven't tasted the results yet so if they taste wonderful then I might run with it again...

We 'earth up' our spuds (which are planted like bulbs - ie dig small 6" deep hole & drop spud in) with grass cuttings from the lawn - only a handy tip if you've a lawn.