gro-bag gardening - help please!

joggyb

I recently moved into a house with a garden that is full of builder's rubble, and tatty lawn - me and OH are planning on overhauling it all at the end of the summer when finances allow.... :eek:

In the meantime, though, I'd really like to grow some veg, salady stuff, and herbs over/for the summer. Trouble is, I've never done this before, and have no idea what can be successfully grown in gro-bags.

The earlier post on this board about growing herbs is a great start, but can anyone give me pointers on what else I can grow (and what I should be starting to plant now, and whether from seed or plants) from gro-bags or pots, please?

Many thanks!

scbk

It's probably been mentioned in previous threads but stack some old tyres up on a patio and you can grow tatties! I'm not into gardening but I might grow some this year

ajaxgeezer

If you like courgettes you can't go wrong in a grow bag. My first ever gardening was with a courgette plant last year - bought it from Homebase for 99p, stuck it in a grow bag and had dozens of dozens of fruits from it. You can;t stop the things from growing - you nick a courgette from it, another one grows straight back! Might just about have time to plant seed now, but if not then the garden centres will be selling the plants off anytime now.

I'm guessing tomatoes would be easy in a bag too, and maybe cucumbers.

angie_loves_veg

toms (3 per bag), cucumbers (3 per bag), courgettes (1), herbs (lots), salad (loose leaf or 'real' lettuces), ball carrots (loads), spring onions, rocket..... why not mix and match?

Loose leaf salads in grow bags were my first ever gardening experiment.... threee years, an allotment and a groaning garden later...... be careful what you start!!!!!! Good luck x

BlondeHeadOn

Melons grow like stink in grow bags too, and cucumbers - just make sure you have a lot of room for them!

A couple of other tips:

1. For crops with longer roots, try turning the grow bag on it's side and supporting somehow (you can buy frames to do this, but they can be a bit pricey) - then you can grow plants that need a longer root run.

2. You can buy 'gro-pots' or make them yourself - these are basically plastic plant pots with no bottoms that you insert into the grow bag, i.e. cut out a hole in the top the size of the plant pot, and sink the pot into the compost until it's stable. Then you can fill the pot up woth compost, so you can have more compost for e.g. tomatoes, and it makes watering and feeding a bit easier too, as you can water in the pot rather than trying to get the water in the grow bag.

Some e.g.s of what I mean here - but you can make your own.

http://www.twowests.co.uk/TwoWestsSite/product/BP.htm

http://www.twowests.co.uk/TwoWestsSite/product/GP.htm

Good luck, and I wish you lots of bumper crops!

RAS

Hi

Have a look at the bag gardens on the Send a Cow web-site. They can produce masses from very little space. This is their school's section. There are other stories about it in the past issues of magazines.

http://www.sendacow.org.uk/schools.asp?active_page_id=245

Jayar

What Blondeheadon said just reminded me of a grow bag tip.
They can be a real pain to water, but if you stick a bit of piping into the hole you plant in (with the top sticking up obviously) you can water in that and you don't have the problem of water going all over the place.

tenzing

RAS wrote: »

Hi

Have a look at the bag gardens on the Send a Cow web-site. They can produce masses from very little space. This is their school's section. There are other stories about it in the past issues of magazines.

http://www.sendacow.org.uk/schools.asp?active_page_id=245

Brilliant RAS! Thanks very much for this. :T

Brockyman

scbk wrote: »

It's probably been mentioned in previous threads but stack some old tyres up on a patio and you can grow tatties! I'm not into gardening but I might grow some this year

Easier still stand a growbag on it's end, cut the top end off, roll the top down a bit and push a potato tuber down as far as you can. You'll get a brilliant crop of potatoes. I grow a few bags of Salad Blue each year, have grown them for about 12 years now, and do it this way because they are fairly rare and I want to keep them disease free. I just lean them up against a low garden wall and water about once a week.
Ian.