2020 new Gardeners’ thread

[FoolsAssassin]

I think there will be a lot of people this year looking to grow veg and things generally. Thought I would be goof if those of us who have been growing for a bit could help those getting started,

I’m far from expert but a few allotments over the years and I know there are lots of people on here who are far more knowledgeable than me. So if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask and will see what we can do.

I am pleased to say I now know what you all meant when you talked about the seedlings 2 leaves vs real leaves as I now have leaves that look like the veg plants leaves on my seedlings.

Just placemarking for later to read this lovely thread. I saw this website to try to avoid nursery plant wastage with the lockdown (in London and surrounds) in case any of you are around there. plantsavers.co.uk/

chewbecca As you're finding out, you can learn a huge amount by just watching your plants.

I have learnt so much just by looking at the seedlings and seeing what works and what doesn't - eg, when to take my cling film off, when to put in direct sun light etc. I started thinking nothing would germinate but much has and I guess I'll loose loads but I'm happy to think I'll do it better next year......

Mere is right I think, we have to learn from the plants.....and develop a little bit of confidence......and ask questions here along the way, people are so supportive and actually answer, for which thanks.

Er, cling film?! What’s that for?

I put it over my pots and food containers of sown seeds to create a kind of propagator effect. But it seems to be unnecessary. I think it just creates a bit of a warm fug to nudge feeds to germinate!

leli out of interest when do you remove the clingfilm? And do you still need to harden them off?

I've had my seeds outside with clingfilm and the first few are starting to peep through - is it time yet?

It helps (but is not necessary) to put a plastic lid over seeds when you've sown them, in order to keep them moist - especially with small seeds which are sown on or near the surface. Remove the lid once the seedlings are too big and start bumping into the condensation on the lid.

Cling film works but has to be taken off quite early. Putting the whole pot in a plastic bag and tying the top works, and has the advantage you can acclimatise the seedlings to removal of the bag by giving them a few days with the bag still there but open. Clear plastic fruit punnets work quite well and have the advantage that their height and rigidity means you can leave them on until the seedlings are a couple of inches tall. Top of the range is a proper propagator cover with air vents.

Yes you still need to harden off. But this is already getting less important. Once I get tp the stage where I am leaving the greenhouse door open by night as well as by day, I don't bother to harden off.

Hello! I used to hang out on the gardening chat thread years ago but haven’t been around here for a while. I do grow veg but my passions is ornamentals really.

For those asking about improving soil, especially clay, I have had excellent results using the ‘lasagne’ method. It’s a fairly long term approach but works extremely well.

First, dig out as many perennial weeds as possible but don’t worry too much if you can’t get them all. Then cover the soil with thick cardboard; if you’ve left weeds in you’ll need a double layer. Water the cardboard so it’s nicely wet and then cover it with a layer of homemade compost if you have it, or well rotted manure if you can get hold of it (you can use fresher manure if this is a properly long term project and you can leave the border for six months before planting). Spent compost can also be used. Then cover with a layer of grass clippings.

Repeat - so cover this with more cardboard, next layer compost/manure, then grass clippings.

How long you keep layering depends on the starting state of the soil, availability of stuff to layer with, and your patience!

You are basically alternating green with brown layers, as you do in a compost heap. So, lawn clippings are the green - you can add veg peelings or any shredded soft green garden waste (but avoid weeds). Brown is the manure, cardboard, compost etc - fallen leaves are great if you’re doing this in autumn, or finely chopped branches if you happen to have a chipper.

Leave for a few months. I used strulch (strulch.co.uk) on the top as this stops weeds germinating while you’re waiting for your lasagne to ‘cook’! But a final layer of grass clippings or woodchippings would do the job.

You can then plant into your lasagne, and when digging down into the old soil below, you should find it massively improved!

Thanks meredint that's really helpful!

So grateful to find this thread, thank you!

We where creating a community group to rescue a lovely but neglected garden as a community garden when lock down struck and everything came to a halt. I was the motivator and main one doing the less fun work, but am a novice, guessing a lot.

I still have to go out daily, so have been calling in at the beginning and end of each day, (actually keeping my sanity!) watering and keeping greenhouse going, and trying to clear/tend bits in greatest need in short bursts.
No one else is currently allowed in by landlord and it looks like I need to get other's veg started off or it will be too late when they're allowed back and potentially they'll lose interest.

there's already a large number of plants in trays waiting to be planted out, bulbs, and seeds, a pond extension half way through being created, turf now surviving on bread trays, materials to make planters, and things in urgent need of painting or weatherproofing before they can be used, and lots of things like trees, bushes, roses, vine etc that probably should have been pruned or cut back over winter that weren't, and tbh I'm a bit overwhelmed especially with what can wait, and what's priority. (though I know in other ways I'm really lucky to have these problems!)

First question - if anyone can help:
V. old vine not pruned for some time/years(?) Lots of grapes on it last year, (weren't picked) but bits breaking off everywhere and local gardeners saying so old and been so neglected it was now finished. It looked totally dead and ivy was taking it over.

I removed the ivy, watered it, and shielded it's base through the frost's and once it warmed up, watered daily. Also created timber supports and threaded wires across to try and support it's 6 foot long 'dead' trailing 'branches.'
Two days ago little shoots appeared all along it.

I've read lots but I'm scared of doing the wrong thing and killing it off.
Should I just tie everything to the wires and let it decide what bit's are alive and what's dead, or should it be cut back so it's trying to support less growth, even though it seems to be wrong time of year to do it?

I would bite the bullet and cut it back. Decide which branches constitute the main ‘framework’ and then cut all side shoots back to two or three buds.

Thanks Venus.

I wouldn't cut it back quite yet, while the sap is rising - likely to get sap oozing from cut ends. So if you could hold off a month ... Then cut back all the long whippy bits. In winter, choose a main stem (or more than one), and cut back all the branches to a few inches. This is a gross parody of proper vine pruning techniques, but it is what I do on mine (which is growing rather randomly through a fig tree).

many smaller wine makers are keen to emphasise that the richness of their red wines is down to the ancient vines supplying the grapes.

Pruning is more for your benefit than the plant's, so don't worry that you've missed pruning of trees, roses etc. There's always another year.

Agree with Mere - it’s not really the right time to do a major prune of a vine. But it’s brilliant that you’ve got new shoots - personally I’d let these keep growing for now. Winter is serious vine-pruning time although you can ‘rub out’ small shoots which are in the wrong place.

I re-grew an old and large vine that had inexplicably stopped and seemingly died....I let one of the remaining shoots grow very long and trained it along the framework so it made a new main stem. Now, a few years later, it flowers and fruits every year. So it can be done

Thank you both that's really helpful. I did google before asking here and found the information too complex for a total novice with little time.

Mere Dint you've caused me to look into 'while the sap is rising' which has given me a fast lesson in trees!
It looks like I shouldn't do too much to an old un-pruned apple tree until late in the year either.
I was concerned because it looks like many of it's smaller potentially fruiting branches won't safely hold the weight of an apple, and before lockdown there was a lot of ominous comments about how this would either harm the tree or a passer by if 'something' wasn't done.

Planted out a bunch of small flower plants raised from seed yesterday - marigold, lobelia, night scented stock, verbena...

Also added acquilegia . Realised that the pack says the plants are poisonous. Does it matter that these are planted within the vicinity of edibles (herbs, strawberries) ? Can move them if I have to. They are about a foot away.

I'm on the brink of planting out my flower seedlings too. Few more days hardening off I think. I don't know categorically on the question if poison but I would have thought they are fine, it's usually only when a plant is ingested that it's poisonous rather than touch. Maybe you can check what kind of poison?

Here's a pic, Community (please ignore the hideously dirty roof which is in dire need of cleaning!). The truncated bit is the old stem which had stopped growing. Underneath is the new stem which I trained to replace it from a shoot. It grew amazingly quickly - maybe 5 years to get to that thickness? - and we've been getting profuse growth, and a healthy crop of grapes, for at least the last 3 years. It goes back about another 10 feet from there.

If you get growth like the example in the picture, you can let it grow and then snip back the foliage later in the summer. In fact the usual thing, in my understanding, is to pinch out the growing tips once they've flowered and started to grow a tiny bunch of grapes (ie don't let them keep making masses of growth beyond one or two bunches per shoot - you want to concentrate the growth on the grapes, if you get any). But just don't do anything major like hacking the whole vine back right now.

Realised that the pack says the plants are poisonous. Does it matter that these are planted within the vicinity of edibles (herbs, strawberries) ? It's not something I have ever worried about. Reassure yourself with the thought that every part of the potato except the root is poisonous, and that doesn't stop us planting potatoes next to other plants or, indeed, eating the potatoes.

How is everyone?

Agree, I wouldn’t worry about the strawberry plants.

Been busy here, the pak choi and lettuce I sowed directly have just germinated. No sign of my courgettes and cucumbers yet but not giving up hope . Spuds are in - the ground, a compost heap and a couple of pots. Sowed some parsnips. Put up beam supports and sowed french beans outside. Pear tree and plum tree that needed planting are in as are the 3 patron apples and the two gooseberries. Very pleased to see a decent amount of blossom on my 2 more established apples and cherry trees.

Found garden paint and a couple of paint brushes so painting shed.

Octothorpe thank you, that's really helpful, and it's nice to see what someone else's vine looks like!
Our vine is behind yours in leaf forming, it's still just shoots, but it is outdoors.

I've been giving it a fair bit of water daily. Should I be?

I'm exhausted tbh and having the weekend off!
Last two days: now eight sacks less ivy around the place. (can Ivy be put in compost bin or does it turn into more ivy?) Removed lots of bindweed as well. ,
Cut back a massive tangled climbing rose that was nine foot of twisted stalks with a few weak leaves at the top of each. Lots of healthy shoots down the bottom though, so decided to go for it. Arms got ripped to pieces doing it.

Lots of the ivy was pulled off an elderly apple tree, and from the ground around it. There's lots of flowers on it, but lots of falling petals as well.

Have also learn't that flowers on cabbage plants aren't really a good thing unless you want seeds! Don't know what type they are, most have been growing as single stalks producing one leaf at a time with big gap between each leaf on the stalks, and now have yellow flowers. There were huge amounts of aphids covering the leaves, which I've been water jetting off. (don't seem to have any ladybirds around yet.)

Painted up some old shelves that I'm hoping to put lots of pots on later when I've planted them up. Probably wont last that long but will do for now.

I'm afraid I don't water mine usually, Community! Or only if it's very, very dry, perhaps. It grows outside and the stem goes in through a hole in the brick wall I tend to reassure myself by thinking of all the hot countries where vines grow outside with very little rainwater.

All that ivy is a beast to get rid of. You've been working incredibly hard - you deserve a rest.