gardening by a (very) busy road

kezbradley

Hi gang, firstly just wanted to say this is such a fantastic new board.

I've never really been into gardening, the only thing I've ever managed to grow were pumpkins for the kids for last halloween, I've even managed to kill cress (I kid you not). But I'd really like to try to grow some veg this year. Trouble is our garden backs directly onto a really busy main road, is this a problem? I know that we breathe in the traffic fumes anyway, but am a bit paranoid that if I do manage to grow anything that we may be getting even more nasty chemicals because they have been grown so close to so much traffic.

Please be gentle, I know this is probably a daft question but as I say I am a complete novice and any advice would be more than welcome.

Thanks in advance

Kerry

rubix_76

You should be fine as long as you SHOUT AT THE PLANTS WHEN YOU TALK TO THEM SO THEY CAN HEAR YOU OVER THE TRAFFIC.

Sorry to make fun, I couldn't resist it:rotfl:

I am no gardening expert, but I can't see why fumes can be any more harmfull on food than you breathing them in when outside anyway.

Also do we really know how harmful pestisides and insectisides are to us anyway. Are they worse than trafiic fumes ??

You never know they may cause global warming, everything else does.

Linda32

Hi, its not a daft question at all. I reckon you'll be fine as well.

So what do you fancy growing, these an easy answer to that btw, its what you eat, so what do you eat?

kezbradley

Linda32 wrote:

Hi, its not a daft question at all. I reckon you'll be fine as well.

So what do you fancy growing, these an easy answer to that btw, its what you eat, so what do you eat?

Thanks for that. Was thinking of growing some easy things like carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, at least I've been told they're easy and fairly foolproof. There seems to be loads of threads on here from novices like me so am going to have a good look through. We eat loads of veg in our house so anything goes really. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Oh a friend of a friend has a chilli plant, which I would love to have a go at, but it seems a bit advanced....?

fishpond

Even though I have no idea how to go about it, I would be inclined to have the soil tested, to be certain there are no long term build ups of toxic chemicals/substances.

smk77

kezbradley wrote:

Thanks for that. Was thinking of growing some easy things like carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, at least I've been told they're easy and fairly foolproof. There seems to be loads of threads on here from novices like me so am going to have a good look through. We eat loads of veg in our house so anything goes really. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Oh a friend of a friend has a chilli plant, which I would love to have a go at, but it seems a bit advanced....?

I planted 5 chilli seeds last night (the packets says to sow in Feb). I am pretty sure you just treat them like tomato plants. There are lots of different varieties. Some of which are suitable for growing indoors.

I did try Chilli seeds last year but they didn't do much. At the end of the season there were only small green chillis. I think that was because my father-in-law took them out of their pots and stuck them in the ground in an exposed area when we were on holiday! I only asked him to water the tomato plants! ;-)

Last year was my first year and my carrots and potatoes did brilliantly.

Good luck!

Linda32

kezbradley wrote:

Thanks for that. Was thinking of growing some easy things like carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, at least I've been told they're easy and fairly foolproof. There seems to be loads of threads on here from novices like me so am going to have a good look through. We eat loads of veg in our house so anything goes really. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I couldn't tell you about chillies as I've only ever grown one pepper, it was meant to be more

Carrots generally need nice soft stone free soil, which most of us are not blessed with. They like to bury down deep you see, however, you can now buy stumpy carrots, which if /when I grow them, I would certainly go for just to be on the safe side. We do have an allotment where the soil is a dream to work with, wish we had that at home, :rolleyes:

Lettuce, I beleive these a sort known as "salad bowl" basically its all different sorts and colours, very pretty and these cut and come again, we hade great sucess with this in a pot, basically you do what it says on the packet, pull off a few leafs as you require them and they grow back again. Rather than pulling the whole plant.

Tomatoes grow just fine in a grow bag, three plants to a bag is all you need. But you must be prepared to water, water and then water some more, every day. But it really is worth it and you get loads and loads.

They do not like frosts though, so you can't do that just yet, no matter wher you are in the country, unless you are possible on the Scilly Isles.

Hope thats helps.

Jayar

Don't have any more that the above great advice you've already been given, but just wanted to say, welcome to the wonderful world of gardening and I hope you realise that after this season you will be well and truly hooked.
Mwahaahaa (meant to be an evil laugh there)

angie_loves_veg

If you have grown pumpkins, I could easily recommend squash and courgettes as easy to grow - they are quite good for 'new plots' as they have large leaves and smother any weeds. They are hungry feeders, so adding manure to the soil before planting helps, as does lots of water! Squash is quite rampant (1 plant per metre), stores well and there are loads of varieties to try

If you fancy some 'easy' greens, look into chard (rainbow chard comes in loads of colours so is attractive too). Bit like a flavoursome spinach and the plants keep growing for 18mths or so - about 1ft apart is ideal.

kezbradley

Thank you all so much. Am itching to get going now, but am under about 6 inches of snow at the moment (like the rest of the country). May try to brave the drive and try to get some seeds. Thanks to Linda32 for explaining what cut and come again means, was wondering about that, but now it makes sense (told you I was a novice). Am so excited, I have a new hobby:T