Any novice veggie patch people want to share the anticipation and hope of growing our first edible things from the garden?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Hi, I've made a raised bed for a veggie patch, spent silly money on soil and compost, and finally planted some seeds in it a few days ago. I'm totally new to this so I've no idea how it will go but I'm quite excited about the possibility of it working. it better anyway after the money I've spent on it

I've only got a 1x2m bed at the bottom of the garden but I've planted:
-strawberries
-spring onions
-spinach
-carrots
-courgette
-leaf salad
All of the above are direct sown (cos I didn't know how to propagate and all that) apart from the strawberries which I bought as plants.

And I've got two separate trough planters for peas plus three bags to grow potatoes. Oh and two blueberry plants I bought last autumn.

I have dreams of nibbling through delicious fruit and veg all summer. Anyone want to join me in the veggie adventures? Or give me any advice?

:)

[lolalotta]

Sunshiney day here today!!!

[SilverSixpence]

Gorgeous weather here too. I moved all my seedlings to a south facing windowsill but now I'm wondering of its maybes bit too warm! The propagator especially has got quite steamed up - is this ok? It's got aubergine and tomatoes in which have done nothing in 6 days so far, so I'm hoping the warmth will give them a boost.

I accidentally overwatered by marrow seeds so they don't look promising

[lolalotta]

Hi silver, no experience of propagators so can't advice! :-s
Hopefully somebody more experienced will pop along soon!
Been out there for 4 1/2 hrs this afternoon enjoying the sun, managed to get bed no.2 in nice and level and general pottering around!

[orangepudding]

Can I join you?

I have just taken on allotment with a friend. Keeping it maintained seems quite daunting at the moment! So far I have cleared a couple of the beds of weeks and stones. The others are all covered with weed control fabric at the moment.
I planted out some cucumber and rocket today. I'm not sure of there is any chance of the seeds coming up. I have also planted some tomatoes and corn in trays. I have used cling film to cover them, read it's fine to do that.

[lolalotta]

All three beds done (phew) now off to livery yard to collect some well rotted horse manure...

[SilverSixpence]

How's everyone getting on? 4 of my marrow seeds have germinated, lots of radish and salad leaves, and one Black Russian tomato seedling has sprouted. None of the aubergines out yet. Also herbs haven't grown at all, what am I doing wrong? They are in a seed tray but not in the warmest spot - will they germinate if I move them somewhere sunnier?

[lolalotta]

Silver, I would try moving them somewhere warmer, we cheated and bought our herbs as little plants! :-S
Have been busy this morning planting runner beans, French beans and stringless beans, I'm just starting them off in the greenhouse and then will harden them off for a few weeks (if they come through that is!) before putting them in the beds... I want to have a go at succession planting so we don't end up with too much of a glut? Do going to plant some now and another batch in 4 weeks or so??? I have no idea if this will work? What a beautiful day!!!

[lolalotta]

Yay for your sproutlings BTW!!! Exciting!

[lolalotta]

6 sweet peppers and a tray of radishes have gone in now!!!

[lolalotta]

I just need to do my Tom thumb lettuce/ spinach and rocket now...probably tomorrow!

[nooka]

Has anyone found that their tomato plants are growing very slowly? Mine don't look any different than they did a week or so ago. They are very small and weedy looking :( On the other hand my beans which I only planted a week ago need to be potted on already - I'd forgotten that using the propagator makes them grow a bit madly (It will be another three weeks or so before I can get them outside - hope I didn't start them too soon!)

[lolalotta]

Nooka, I cheated on the tomatoes too and bought little plants at the garden centre (I feel like I am going to get chucked off this board for not starting EVERYTHING from seed but I have moving house for an excuse! ) so I can't share my experience I am afraid... I did plant lots of beam seeds today though!!!

[lolalotta]

I wish there was done way we could share pictures on this thread and get a little novice gardeners club going!!!

[lolalotta]

*some

[nooka]

You can put pictures on your profile lolalotta (and you don't need to add any other personal details - mine currently just has a picture of my dog).

Nothing wrong with buying veggie plants in pots! I usually end up with a bit of a mix, depending how my seed growing turns out. also I'm a bit impatient. We can't plant out until May so the pots on my windowsill make me think I'm doing something!

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Eek I'm now worried I've been a bit premature in sowing all my seeds outside! I thought you could sow them after the last frosts had been? I've not done any propagator stuff and deliberately bought 'direct sow' seeds thinking I could just pop them in the ground and they'd grow?

Eek maybe I should get a propagator too and try some inside too what you think? I'm off to google germination times since that's been 10 days since I sowed the seeds and nothings happened yet...

[nooka]

Oh please don't worry because I said I wouldn't plant anything outside yet! I live in Canada and it's a lot colder here at this time of year than the UK (well usually anyway!). We can get frosts right into early May. You should be fine. If you are worried you can buy a light cover (can't remember what they are called) to throw over your little plants if it looks like the night might be a bit cold.

[mrscog]

Hi, my advice would be to get some slug pellets and use them liberally. I've tried planting things a couple of years running now, only for slugs to decimate my 4 week old beautifully germinated and growing plants!

[rhihaf]

Hi everyone, can I join?
Moved into my grandparent's old house and inherited an overgrown veg patch which I cleared out last year, and grew potatoes, rocket, carrots, radish and beetroot.

This year I am growing potatoes in bags on the patio, and have bought a really cheap crappy lean-to greenhouse. I say greenhouse, I mean rickety thing with plastic sides that blow off in hte wind and it's a discontinued model from Argos, clearly because the door is so low down you hit your head EVERY time you go in.....

[rhihaf]

Forgot to say, I have planted peas - one lot from a box of LEO supermarket ones, and a 'proper' packet of seeds from Thompson and Morgan. As you would expect [surprised], the cheap 49p ones have all sprouted and are growing away like mad, and the T&M ones haven't sprouted yet...

I did soak my LEO peas in a cup of water overnight before planting out, and it really got them sprouting! The leftover ones were shooting sprouts in the cup after a few days :)

I have chard 'bright lights' just sprouted, some raddicchio, one bulb fennel sprouted. My courgette seeds (planted at the same time) not shown yet, nor the aforementioned peas.

Planted my first early potatoes a week ago. Arran Pilot and Foremost.

I love reading about everyone's veg exploits!

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Ah nooka I forgot you were in Canada! I'm excited though cos hooray I now have some teeny salad leaf shoots poking out the soil and a few other shoots of who knows what have appeared but not in the line where I planted them so I think the wind / rain must have blown some seeds, either that or it's weeds!

Thanks for slug pellet tip, ill need to get some if that :)

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Hmmm I think it's weeds that are appearing cos the same seedlings have popped up in a few random places! I did see two sprouting peas though woo hoo!

[nooka]

That's why I plant in pots!

[SilverSixpence]

Are we supposed to put stones in the bottom of containers to improve drainage? We don't have any stones in our garden so will have to go hunting!

I'd given up on my marrows but they have started sprouting thick green shoots also herbs have all come up (except coriander and Thai basil) since I moved them to a sunny windowsill. The Thai basil is from eBay and hasn't done anything, neither have the aubergines I bought from the same seller. Should I complain? It's been nearly 2 weeks..

[orangepudding]

Silver, which seller was it? I bought some seeds from eBay that should arrive today.
I out some tomato and sweet corn seeds on my window will. The sweet corn has sprouted but the tomatoes haven't which surprised me, thought the tomatoes would sprout first.
Homebase have plenty of small veg plants at the moment. Tempted to get some to stop my patch looking so bare!