Newbie veg gardener! MERGED

heather38

for a cheap drip system, take a 2l pop bottle, drink the contents, wash well, drill a small hole or two in the top, fill with water, turn upside down and push it into the soil next to the plant and voila one drip system.

Solomon_Broad

MushyPeas wrote: »

Thanks Solomon. If people were to pick one veg to be their first attempt at growing, what would they choose? I think I might need to grow in pots as the landlord might not like me digging up the garden!

Personally speaking, I'd go for lettuce. It's easy to grow, and the only real problem is slugs. If you're growing it in a pot, keep it well watered. To stop slugs, smear vaseline round the base of the pot. If you can't water them for a day or two, put them somewhere more shady, and give them a good soak before you go away.

Go for a cut-and-come-again lettuce. Lollo Rosso springs to mind. You can harvest leaves, and the plant will continue growing. The "leafy" or "iceberg" types you often see in the supermarket will grow a "heart". This is a central core of leaves, and they need to be harvested in one go. CACA lettuces don't form a heart in the same way, so you can just pick what you want.

If you have somewhere with a trellis, try some runner beans. Very easy to grow. Just pinch the tops out when they get to the top of the trellis.

Have a look for the Vegetable Garden Expert book by D. G. Hessayon. It's got pretty much everything you'll need to know, explained really simply.

MushyPeas

Cheers guys, thanks for all the tips. JW and solomon I'm going to try lettuce. Will let you know how I get on. But first I think I need to [STRIKE]buy[/STRIKE] borrow a gardening book. Maybe this is just the excuse I need to sign up to my local library?

Great tip on the slow release of water heather, thanks.

MPxx

hex2

Mushypeas,

not the best of advice and i am sure I will be shot down, but our greenhouse used to be over a road and 30 metres down the garden. With two toddlers it was a long way to go with a watering can so they got done once a week. I planted them in pots, then stood the pots in big trays of gravel which I filled to the brim with water once a week. Worked OK for cherry toms, good crop which my little ones used to strip and eat on the weekly visit. I bought the plants from the garden centre, and used potting compost with a bit of water retaining gel.

MushyPeas

Cheers Hex. I ordered my free Which Gardening guide, details here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=4889133&postcount=1

Looking forward to trying to grow a few things in the greenhouse!

emmy2007

hi, if you get this months copy of gardeners world it has free lettuce, tomatoes and chive seeds on the cover, and also insde a coupon for free compost. I brought mine last week and the lettuce has already started to come up

Storm

Ok, I've never done gardening, and once even managed to kill a cactus, so I will need things explained very simply I'm afraid!

I've decided that I want to try and have some herbs growing on my windowsill (live in a flat, so no garden ) and at the weekend I bought a basil & a coriander in a pot from the supermarket as I needed them for recipes I was making.

I went into a garden centre yesterday & ended up completely confused about what I needed to get to transfer them into a bigger container (read on here last week that supermarket plants do better when transferred). So, heres the questions...

Should I get one big pot to put loads of plants in or smaller ones?
There seemed to be a wide variety of compost too, just bog-standard or are the posh ones worth it?
How much water do herbs need (the 2 I've got are going through about a pint a day!)?
Where is the cheapest place to buy this stuff from?
Are there any herbs that do particularly well or don't grow at all indoors?

Thanks for any replies

KatrinaC_2

Storm wrote: »

Should I get one big pot to put loads of plants in or smaller ones?

That's up to you. If you are putting them on the windowsill then smaller pots will fit better and will allow you to remove dead plants without damaging the others. On the other hand, one big pot looks nice and might e space saving.

Storm wrote: »

There seemed to be a wide variety of compost too, just bog-standard or are the posh ones worth it?

Most herbs don't want feeding but want plenty of water. Have a look for compost that says it is suitable for pots and hanging baskets. Don't bother with the really expensive composts that contain additional feed as your herbs are unlikely to need it.

Storm wrote: »

How much water do herbs need (the 2 I've got are going through about a pint a day!)?

How long is a piece of string?! As a rough guide feel the weight of the pots before watering. If the pot feels light it's ready for watering. If it's heavy then check again in the evening or following morning. Most plants don't like being too wet as it rots their roots.

Storm wrote: »

Where is the cheapest place to buy this stuff from?

I think Homebase is relatively cheap for copost, but then I tend to buy 240 litres at a time - you're unlikely to need more than about 10-15 litres. Wilkos are generally quite good.

Storm wrote: »

Are there any herbs that do particularly well or don't grow at all indoors?

I grow mine outdoors in windowboxes so I'm not sure.

Kat

katskorner

Basil grows well indoors and poorly outside as it requires Mediterranean temps. You should pot on to a slightly larger pot then they are already in and keep them moist, not wet. Supermarket herbs are never as good as seed sown ones but you can keep them going with a bit of tlc. You can plant several herbs in one pot if you like. Just keep them in a sunny spot. Most herbs grow well on poor soil and even sand.

kittycat07

Hello

I'm after some help if at all possible. My mum's got a decent size garden but doesn't grow much in the way of fruit and veg. She's said that I can grow some - so I wondered if anyone can help with good (and easy!) fruit and veg. It's a fairly sheltered garden and gets the sun. There are huge blackberry plants which will remain and are flourishing. I was thinking of raspberry canes, peas, tomatoes and peppers. Do these sound ok? Is there anything else you would reccommend? All suggestions gratefully received!