Growing Vegetables for Beginners.

wallbash

Is there any likelihood that the leaves from this might have an adverse effect of anything in my garden?

Logic says the leaves from the willow will only be a problem ? in the early winter, months after your veggies have finished. So I would look else where.
Do your neighbours successfully grow 'something'.
If they do , its going to be your fault in some way.
Reasonable soil, water and some sunshine and crops just grow.
So whats the soil like.

forgotmyname

I find growing to be a black art. I grew brilliant garlic on year but the onions in the same area were rubbish. But they are the same family. So not the soil conditions.

Another year, The beetroot was rubbish. But the year before last we had it coming out of out ears. probably still some lost in the bottom of the freezer.

I asked a plot holder how he managed to keep his (almost) weed free, 15 years of doing it almost every day...

Blink and the weeds will be moving in before you spot them.

Any edible weeds that you can live on?

WantToBeSE

I had some luck picking up free stuff today. I put up an ad on the local FB selling pages and have been given some cheap plastic pots for free.

I am going to pick up some more pots tomorrow from an old lady who is moving house and wont be having a garden in her new place, so needs to get rid of her planting stuff. Hopefully she wont charge me too much.


I am going to get some potato growing bags and some compost, and start there. Then, once the ground has thawed a bit, I'll get onto my actual garden.


The library books I borrowed yesterday were an interesting read last, and got me all enthused about doing this

Dizzy_Ditzy

WantToBeSE wrote: »

I meant that I cant use it to grow anything, but I can turn it over, get weed killer put down, make some beds etc.
If I do that then I am hoping I can do something with it in the summer instead of waiting a year. I agree that it doesn't make much sense to leave it another year.

One of my allotments hadn't been touched for a couple of years. I grew loads of stuff on it last year, including potatoes, beetroot, sweetcorn, cabbages, cauliflowers, blackberries, brocolli and rhubarb.

Think whoever told you to leave your garden for a year is pulling your leg!

As previously commented by someone else, spring is the time to get cracking on it. Only by trial and error will you find out what grows well and what doesn't.

If you go to gardeners works website, head into offers, there is a "free" potato growing kit, that you pay just p&p for.mmine arrived yesterday and it came with 5 tubers, bags and vegetable gloves. Perfect for you if you want to grow spuds in bags

Dizzy_Ditzy

RuthnJasper wrote: »

Would you mind if I just asked a quick question (sorry to hijack your thread WantToBeSE )?

At the edge of my garden (other side of the fence) are some Willow trees - not Weeping Willows, but certainly a Willow of some type. Is there any likelihood that the leaves from this might have an adverse effect of anything in my garden? I have lived in my house since 2008 and have never been able to grow anything successfully (apart from geraniums in a put!). Everything - from veg. to roses dies on me.

At first I put this down to my dog Jasper, who was a notorious pickle for eating shoots and any fresh baby "veglets" - but he now harasses the vegetables in the Heavenly gardens, so I'm stumped. I feed the plants, water them properly.

Maybe it IS just me!! Rather sad as my mum and grampy (her father) are/were fantastic gardeners...

The leaves won't have any problem. In fact, gather them all up as they fall, put them in a wire basket type thing (I use chicken wire and bamboo canes) and leave them for a year or so- bingo, you have free leaf mulch which will do fab things for your garden

elisebutt65

I have a black thumb apart from with courgettes. Everything of mine died this year but had courgettes coming out of our ears! Going to start again at half term.
I've been keeping my seeds in the fridge ready to start in my greenhouse. But no more courgettes!!

Dizzy_Ditzy

Elsiebutt you know you don't have to keep seeds in your fridge? They are perfectly fine in their packets- after all, they're not stored in the fridge in the shops

I refuse to grow anymore than two courgette plants this year :rotfl:

Linda32

Elsiebutt, please take your seeds out of the fridge, these no need to do that at all. Please may I add that half term is far to early to think about doing anything with seeds.

Depending on what you are growing, at least another month and then you would want to be using your windowsills to keep your seedlings on unless your greenhouse is very warm.

Please may I ask what you grew last year and what went wrong, perhaps it can be prevented this year so that you don't waste your time and money Gardening isn't an exact science by any stretch but there are certain ways in which you have to do things otherwise you don't stand a chance.

howardtog

Start you vegetable patch this year. but only cultivate a couple of square yards..really what you can manage comfortably.Then make it bigger next year and phase out your containers.Grow a few potatoes a traditional crop for new ground. Buy a couple of courgette plants. Plant out,water if hot and you get a good crop.
Plant a short row of lettuce every couple of weeks. Some will come up and you can eat when small all the way through to a large head.
Preparing the ground...do not use weedkiller. Cover the ground with an old piece of carpet which will smother all the weeds. Then dig it over. Do that now and do not dig until the the first week of April..even later if you are in the north.
Do not do too much to begin with. Better to grow a little at first than take too much on.
Your thank you on Hessayon is appreciated

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I had my first veg patch last year; previously full of ugly shrubs that I dug up. It's all trial and error; some things went great guns (runner beans, peas, chard, carrots) but two attempts at onions failed.

Slugs were the worst problem; my dad said he had never seen so many in one small garden. Why can't they go and eat the neighbours' weeds?

Charity shops are great for classic gardening books. Things may go in and out of fashion, but advice on veg growing doesn't change.