new to gardening

sweetangel63

hi all

went to garden centre with the kids yesterday ( they are 3 and 6) I ended up buying a cucumber, tomato, strawberry plants and a punkin plant. to be honest i have not got a clue how to grow them. they were 99p each so I thought if they grow ok that be saving money. I have a mini greenhouse. well its 2 tiers high with a plastic zip tent thing on top. love to have a glass one but top of the garden needs to be all sorted. Also got some drawf bean seeds and broad bean seeds. What do i need to help them grow...

just got the seeds and plants at the min. and the mini greenhouse. got a patio in back garden not really got much plot of land to plant things really. until i have dealt with weed nettle thorn city at top of garden. single parent with one pair of hands. also i have loads of conifors in my back garden and they are so big not sure what to do about them. thought about cutting them down! and a big overgown willow tree. thats taking over the garden and going into both of my neighbours gardens......

any advise be much appreicated for an amiture. thought the fruit and veg would encourage the children to grow your own.

angela x

heather38

strawberrys can be grown in pots but cucumbers and tomatoes prefer a greenhouse unless you bought outdoor varieties. its still to cold for them to go outside yet and you are best waiting till late may for these. they can be grown in a growbag against a sunny wall.
beans can also be grown in pots but will need something to grow up and to support them.

aquarian3

Hi Angela,

I'm also new to gardening and having googled for some help I found a wonderful website with a similar forum to this equally wonderful site!

It's w.gardenerscorner.co.uk you have to register etc but I can vouch that all the people there have a wealth of gardening advice to help newbies like us!

Good luck!

Lisa
-X-

lauralla

Hi
Ease the toms out of their pots to see if they need potting on yet - if so, put them in a slightly bigger pot, and keep on a windowsill - turn them round each day so they don't get lopsided. On warm sunny days, you can put them outside, but bring them in at night. They can't stay out yet, until about end of May, and then put them in warm sunny spot. They'll need a pot about 12" across eventually, and a cane or some string tied to something above them to keep them upright. When you have about 6 branches of baby green toms, pinch out the shoot growing at the top of the plant, to encourage the plants to put their efforts into the toms, or do this at end of August, if they are outside, to give them time to ripen.
I haven't grown cucumbers, but they will need a sunny spot too, as they are usually grown in a greenhouse. They'll probably need a pot or something about 12-18" across.
The pumpkin will grow big, probably a spare patch of ground would be better, somewhere sunny preferably.
The strawberries can go in pots, about 5 plants to a 12" pot would be ok, again somewhere sunny.
Keep everything well watered, but try to water regularly and don't let the toms in particular dry out, as they tend to split if dry/soaked/dry etc.
You can always feed with a tom feeder - use it on all the plants, you can buy cheaply in Asda/Wilkos etc. But I don't bother much with feeding, and they always taste great.
Sorry for the long post, hope this helps you! Have fun!

sweetangel63

thats really useful thank you

mapcr77

Hello all,

I've finally got a place with a garden, ableit a tiny one, but I want to make the most of it by growing my own veg.

However the garden suffered probably years of neglect by previous owners and I'm constantly deweeding it, but wonder if there's a more effective way of doing it? I've prepared one section with compost and fertiliser so I can start growing stuff there, but the weeds keep on coming.

Also, I want to grow courgettes, i used the "three sisters" method in one section, but still feel theres a lot of 'wasted' space -as they need so much space between them-, can I grow something else there?

Finally, everytime I'm chopping off fruit and veg I wonder which of those seeds I can actually use, or am I better off buying seeds in packets?

Sorry about the long post, I'm just showing off my gardening ignorance!

Many thanks!!

Jayar

Hi, there are a few threads already that might help you. Here are some
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=387047&highlight=newbie+vegetable+gardening+gardener
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=359179&highlight=newbie+veg
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=374219&highlight=newbie+veg
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=387047&highlight=newbie+veg

If you do a search you're bound to find more

misterthrifty

Gardeners say 'one year of seeds, 7 years of weeds' keep pulling them before they seed and you will win eventually. If they have long roots you will have to dig out all of the root system before they stop, but wait till autumn.

If you have a small plot then courgettes will take up a lot of your room and you will be eating them every day in the summer! Try putting quick crops between them, lettuce, early carrots, spring onions etc and pick them small.

Buy seeds in packets till you have more experience, then you know what you are growing.

Hope that helps.

mapcr77

Thanks so much Misterthrifty!

As for the courgettes, I actually am growing them for the flowers more than anything, they are delicious, but quite underestimated in Britain, so I guess my neighbours will be getting plenty of courgettes while I keep the flowers! ;-)

Cheers for the advice, I'll keep on tackling the weeds, someday I may win!

frugalsar

hi, We've just redone our garden and i've set a section aside for a veg patch, before it was just soil with random weeds, flowers, etc growing willy nilly - I've turned it over and raked out the rubbish bits am I right in thinking that if I cover it with an old pond liner till next year nothing will grow underneath?

thelurch

Depends on what weeds were growing there before you dug it as some can be stubborn !!!!!!s to get rid.

I would get hold of some well rotted horse manure and cover the plot, let the worms do the work so its ready for next spring. If you cant get horse manure then any soil improver ie mushroom compost/compost chicken poo pellets etc

Yes by all means cover it with the pond liner if you want but it will keep the gorund quite dry, you can buy black weed suppressing membrane which is more porous and will let rain through.