Good Evening, I have never posted in this topic ever and I really have no experiece at all. I was hoping to get some basic advice please

[TrinityIsAShreddingFatRhino]

very basic

Imagine I'm 5 would maybe help

I'll start at the beginning

I bought some tesco 'grow your own' pots of tomatos, sunflowers, cayenne chilli peppers and basil.

Mainly for fun for the kids but dh and I love tomatos, basil and chillis (and we know its possible to grow your own)

BUT I was not looking to the future at all

I know I know

so the tomatos and sunflowers (thats all we 'did' just now) have grown and definitely in need of being repotted (she says as if she knows what she is talking about)

in the meantime, dhs mum bought herself a walk in plastic frame greenhouse but reckoned her garden may be too slopey so gave it to us

thankyou if you're still with me

so tonight, I put up the greenhouse up...eventually

and I had bought 2 compost bags, dowls, gardening gloves (pink! and I know, I dont need them but they were only 50p ) string, and a spray bottle.

I've cut crosses into the growbag 8 in one and 6 in the other and planted one tomato plant in each of the eight holes and one sunflower in each of the six holes in the bags.

the sunflowers and too tall and droopy for just themselves so I have put sticks in and gently looped string to hold them up

the tomato plants are tall enough to yet but I will when they get taller

they are on a up turned box (the sunflowers so they have more height in the house) and a black and decker workmate for the tomaots

I spray them lightly, said goodnight to them and zipped up my greenhouse

so basically, have I dont anything right or anything completely wrong? and what else do I need to do?

lots of typos ansd sorry it's sooo huge

sounds good - water is the answer and don't let the greenhouse get too hot - unzip during the day! Love home grown tomatoes! Enjoy !

Sounds like a good start, well done. You might find 8 tomatoes or 6 sunflowers is too much for one growbag, they normally take 3 plants, it will dry out quickly and get crowded with so many which will weaken them. If you can run to another couple of bags and spread them out that would help. Also at some point you will need to move the sunflowers outside, and the growbags might be tricky to move now they are planted up, sunflowers should be OK outside now. Also is the greenhouse going to be in full sunlight? You will need to leave the door open during the day to make sure they don't overheat too much.

You need to water the compost eally well. Its a bit late now but do it first thing tomorrow. In hot weather a greenhuse gets very hot and the compot will get dry in a day. Dont spray the leaves but just water the compost. You may need to feed your tomatoes and peppers when they get a bit bigger and start fruiting.

Also put the bags on the floor now otherwise will be far too big and unweildy to lift later.

oh goodnees it is going to be alot harder than I though

ok I have two more compost bags

so I should use them all and spread everyone out?
and I should put the sunflowers outside?
and open the door in the daytime?

right watering, should I be spraying lots of water ON them pr should I be poruing water into the growbag?

I really am a gardening dunce

But I'm so excited

thanks everyone

morebeta - lol I though I was doing seomthing nice for them being 'not on the floor'

right so

spread them out
put the bags on the floor
water each morning INTO the bag
keep the door open in the day
put the sunflowers outside of the greenhouse

the other thing is that the greenhouse has no floor and I've put it on grass, is that an issue for any reason?

Sunflowers can go outside...
Spread out the others (just toms I think!) so they are three in a bag or thereabouts....
Open the door of the house during the day and water into the bags, close to the stems (every day!!!!)
It'll be fab...

dh is laughing at me as I have just told him that I hvae been officially welcomed into the gardening topic of mumsnet

and then I rabbited off my 'list' for the morning

soo excited, I love home grown toms, haven't had them in years and would LOVE to be able to do my own

I'm doing cucumber this year for the first time and I've used the Grosure ones, which worried me as I only got 5 seeds, but they all turned into plants and now I'm getting about 3 mini cucumbers a day... E-Coli not for me

The other thing is if you put the bags on the floor you can push the support sticks/canes down through the bags into the earth below which will help them stay upright when the plants get tall and heavy.

ooooh morebeta, I think I'm in love with you
I had been thinking when I put the sticks in that I didn't know how they were going to be steady enough to hold a bigger plant

on the floor it is then

it poured with rain ALL night
I cant put my sunflowers outside
there are only little babies!

Leave the soil to dry for a day and then plant them out in a really sunny spot. They will be just fine. Outside living is what plants do best.

They will love rain! The reason for not spraying in the greenhouse is that water on the leaves plus hot sun may scorch them. My tomatoes are outside now and love the rain (I am on the south coast though, so pretty safe from frost now)

Rocket and radishes are a pretty safe bet at this time of year, both straight in the ground. Good point about the plastic blowing away, I have a small patio one and always put something heavy like a brick on the lowest shelf to keep it in place.

My tomatoes are in a plastic tubby thing. My sunflowers are dotted along the fence and are doing well but must have really tasty leaves, as something keeps eating them. I put a bit of sand around the stems this year try to ward off slugs - don't know if it'll work though.

Something's been eating my sunflowers too, hoping some will survive. I always plant a few extra now because of this.

You will need to get some tomato food too. Very clear instructions on the packs and they are all pretty much the same thing. Start feeding them in the middle of July at the latest or a bit earlier if they have little green tomatoes coming.

DEFINITELY no more than 3 tomatoes per grobag,. You do realise your tomatoes are going to grow around 5 foot tall don't you? and your sunflowers should grow much taller than that?

What do your tomato plants look like now - how tall are they? do they have flowers? are they branching off in all directions? Did the packet say what variety they are (ie are they called Shirley or Alicante or Moneymaker or anything?)

the packet said tomatos..honestly , thats it

they were a sort of grow stuff with your child thing and therefore was not in any way helpful

they are about 3 inches tall with 3,4 or 5 leaves on them

Well, it doesn't matter much which sort they are right now, they will either grow upwards or outwards. We have planted loads of each at our school gardening club but when they got planted out to bigger pots a couple of weeks ago the kids were going so fast we couldn't keep up with the labelling and we haven't got a clue which are which, just going to have to wait and see. You will definitely need to feed them in a few weeks time.