Veg growing newbies 2nd year common room 2010-2011

Furny

Hi Everyone
Thats it, I have finished ordering seeds now for this year (Furny repeats I WILL not buy any more seeds!). I went & got my seed potatoes & onion sets yesterday & sat flicking through my last years gardening magazines for a re-fresh & sorted out my seed box planning what to grow.
I am waiting until later in the week when my son is back to school after been off for two weeks with chicken pox,( we have been housebound) until I can sort my shed out & pots etc & start some sowing in peace, by then some more of my seeds will have arrived, I also have a coldframe to put together.
Loooking forward to this year just need the weather now!

lisa26_2

Hi all, I've done a few odds and sods of growing before but last year was my first 'proper' year with 2 good sized raised beds that OH built me and a good few pots too! This year I have a lovely new greenhouse that my parents bought us for an engagement present so I can't wait to get lots of lovely toms and peppers in there! Toms are my favourite things to grow so I'll also have lots of tumbling ones outside in pots and baskets too.

I'm also growing chillis (jalapenos and black pearl this year), lots of beetroot, will do some lettuce but not as much as last year, lots of runner beans, some mini outdoor cucumbers, spring onions, I need to get another blueberry plant. I'll also be doing courgettes and mangetout as they both did well last year.

I bought 3 strawberry plants last year and took runners.....I now have 33!!! Although 1 or 2 may not have survived the winter. I'll be making one of my raised beds a fruit bed this year with the strawbs and 2 gooseberry bushes plus some rhubarb I put in last year. Will be growing a row of runner beans across the back to make use of the wall space!

Any suggestions of things that climb would be appreciated!

janibrown

Any suggestions of things that climb would be appreciated!
May be try Rasberry or blackberry ?

I have also turned one of my raised beds into a fruit bed as soft fruit is so expensive and they come up every year so thought it would be a little less work for myself i have
3 goji berries, 5 gooseberry 2 Rhubarb and lots of strawberries also in a different bed against a wall i have 6 Rasberrys 2 blackberry and in pots I have 2 redcurrent 1 very large blackcurrent a cant wait I got the goji berry last year from Aldi and they have been in the bed all winter how long does it take to fruit, gooseberry also in all winter and they all have loads of buds and leaves appearing will I get something off the gooseberry this year ?
Any help much needed
Thanks Jani x x x

loucroft

Try planting onions in between greens (brassicas') and carrots to prevent pests.

janibrown

The sun is shining not a cloud in the sky :T:T:T
Have been planting and weeding and pottering about will plant my last cherry tree this afternoon hubby will go mad says that the front garden looks like a mini orchard :D lol I love it I dont think 4 trees is ott is it ?

floyd

Hi all,

Last season was a decent success for me with most things that grew cropping reasonably well and the asparagus crowns settled in nicely for their first year. The only failures were the dwarf Hestia beans that didn't even germinate and the caulis that suffered from damping off every time I planted them even when other stuff in the same tray was fine

As my time is pretty limited I tended to grow most stuff in pots next to the back door so I could just nip out before work to water everything without having to trek down the garden in my boots. So this year I have ordered the following seeds:

Beetroot Boro F1 Hybrid (Grew Pablo last year so fancied a change)
Lettuce Tintin (Fabulous variety and stores well washed in a Lock and Lock box)
Chili pepper Cheyenne (Never tried chilies so thought I'd have a go as we use tons of them)
Leek King Richard (Nice compact variety and meant to be good as a container variety so might try in a potato bag)
Carrot Flyaway F1 (Decided to try a carrot fly resistant variety as I'd gutted to lose the lot at my first attempt)
Spuds King Eddies
Spuds Wilja
Spuds Mayan Gold

I also have my Autumn Bliss raspberries and asparagus from last year

I'm still debating whether to try other stuff or not and whether I will have the time to take care of things that need regular attention and pinching out like tomatoes, we'll see

I just bought a basic plastic covered cold frame in B & N for £2.99, must remember to weight it down as I remember people saying theirs blew away last year

sharloid

My first little shoots are appearing! I've got a couple of cells of turnips, lettuce and kale showing through. Yaay.

mossy

Looking forward to getting growing, we're about to move but the new house we're renting has a south facing large yard and balcony (will probably need to check with the local association to make sure you're allowed plants on the balcony as they can be a bit fussy in this neighbourhood).

I'm going to be planting:
Courgettes - black beauty (green) and taxi (yellow)
Cherry toms - gardeners delight and beams yellow pear
Sugar snap peas
Dwarf beans
Lettuce little gems and mixed leaf salad
Spring onions
Mini corns
Maybe potatoes - deciding whether to take advantage of an offer

Flowers:
Marigolds - companion planting for the toms
Mixed flowers - bug friendly
Dwarf sweet pea - because they're pretty and hopefully attract nice bugs.

Just need to pack, unpack, get new house sorted out and then start planting!! Was thinking of getting one of those little plastic greenhouses...any thoughts or words of wisdom/experience??

So excited, can't wait to eat that lovely veg...must try not to be on holiday when all my lovely crops are producing!!

Very glad I found the seedswappers website, will be able to share some excess seeds and get to try out a few other things without spending a fortune.

BTW The chaps garden in London is sooo beautiful, it looks good enough to eat ha ha!!

loucroft

Does anyone have experience of growing ginger? Indulgently bought a thing (seed / root!!!) from homebase. Costly but I haven't seen them anywher else lately!

loucroft

No about the ginger then, I guess it is unusual lets hope it grows.

Of my cucumber and sweet peas there are a whopping great two sweet pea seedlings growing - thanks to a rescue dog that thought climbing on the window ledge would be fun, knocking everything off as he went !! :-(