Beginner Gardener

pmartin86

Afternoon All

I've recently got a house wit a garden and am planning at some popint to sort out a veg plot in the garden, however time and money are short at the moment and this might take another 12 months to realsie the dream.

Anyway, I ramble, in the interim, i've got hold of 5 40 litre "tubs" that I've been told I can use to grow basic vegtables in, simular to these

http://www.diy.com/nav/rooms/storage-shelving/boxes-baskets/plastic_boxes/Strata-Flexi-Tub-40L-Black-13198812?skuId=13679518

can i start anything this time of the year? if so, what, and if not, what can I start thinking about and when? I'm a "keen novice" to the gardening world so nothing too complex to start with please! Basic things I tend to eat a lot of are Potatoes, Carrots, Bell Peppers, garlic, chillies and sweede if thats any help to start with.

Any advice appreciated
Paul.

Farway

First advice, do not grow things you can buy cheaply in the shops, so spuds are out, as are carrots & swedes

You could just try new spuds for Christmas, but they will need shelter from frost, like a greenhouse or close to house wall, and may well fail from frost, but worth a try

Garlic, yep, getting near time to plant the cloves

Peppers & chilli , no chance until the spring, and even then, without greenhouse or sheltered spot you will be pushing you luck

You may have chance of quick salad crop, like lettuce & radish. There is variety of lettuce that will crop over winter, again it need shelter & if Arctic condition prevail it may give up the ghost

McKneff

Err, excuse me but have you seen the price of spuds in the Supermarkets lately.

Linda32

If you want taste, nothing compares to home grown.

You can certainly grow garlic in those tubs. You plant it around November time iirc. It will say on the bag. Once you have planted it as per the instructions, it sits there until June when it will start to die off. Then you harvest. It does need a month of very cold weather, if we do not get that then forget it.

Spuds, you plant around March and can be grown in your tubs. Carrots a month or so later.

peppers and chillies need under cover. Swede you will struggle in pots. The ground is better.

If you do have the time (which you will need if you are going to grow veggies anyway, rather than money) now is a good time to prepare the ground for a veg patch.

I_have_spoken

i've got hold of 5 40 litre "tubs"

Do they have drainage holes - do you want to punch drainage holes in them?

Farway

McKneff wrote: »

Err, excuse me but have you seen the price of spuds in the Supermarkets lately.

No, I shop in Lidl or local greengrocer

Mojisola

Farway wrote: »

First advice, do not grow things you can buy cheaply in the shops, so spuds are out, as are carrots & swedes

The flavour of home-grown veggies beats anything you buy in the shops.

If you grow early spuds or salad varieties, there will also be a money-saving bonus.

pmartin86

First point, I'm not bothered about if the stuff is "cheap" to buy or not, for now I jsut want to get my hand in at growing stuff! Im sure that my tight-fistedness will kick in at some point and ill be looking to gorw the most expensive stuff possible, but for now, just getting into the routine of growing stuff without killing it would be good.

As for preparing the ground, unfortunatly I don't ahve the time or the money at the moment, thus the idea of a few "pots". The garden was left neglected for at least 5-6 years before we purchased the house and is in very poor condition, I've hacked back most of the overgrowth but the ground is very poor quality and is going to take a lot of improving/digging to make use of.

As for drainage holes, none yet, happy to drill some. Paid nowt for the "pots" as they were headed for the skip, so will do what needs to be done.

Mojisola

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=527

https://www.allotment-garden.org/container-growing/garden-vegetables-containers.php

Also stuff on youtube.

Bunnygirl

Good luck here's a list hope this helps


http://moreveg.co.uk/page/5