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.

Aggh posted too soon.
I've got lots of peas early onwards, French dwarf and runner beans. Probably more than I can handle. Potted on my tomatoe seedlings, peppers, basil and coriander today. Also have potatoes (in shopping bags), carrots, scallions, lettuce and rocket. Have fingers and toes crossed that I dont kill them all.

And raspberries that I thought were dead!

@whysorude I have spuds in bags too I can't stand using those canvas shopping bags but they're coming in handy for something! And I'm in awe of your coriander growing, I can't keep any of the stuff alive...

Can you pluck potatoes from the plants when they are growing in pots? I don’t want to wait to have big potatoes so thought I could pull everything out of the pot - pick off suitable small ones and put it back but not sure if that will kill the plants

i have taken off potatoes from a plant in the ground before when dug too close to them by accident and the plant has been fine it I think it would be harder to do in a pot. I haven’t done them in pots before but suspect they won’t get as big as in the ground and it depends on what variety you have planted.

@Ihavenoidewhatsgoingon I wouldn't uproot the plant - it'd be really difficult to get it back without the remaining potatoes falling off. But you can feel around the base of the plant with your fingers and take off some of the potatoes.

Once the roots are established they will slide out of the pot in one clump and goes back in easily if you don’t disturb the roots so you could do this and get an idea of the size of the potatoes them do what Mere says - further in the pot.

Thanks. Will see if I can get the whole plant out of the pot next week to see if it will work

I would wait as long as possible so roots are as established as possible.

@RubySlippers77 the coriander are still seedlings. Plenty of time for me to kill them yet.

Lots of things I planted as seeds are still seedlings. Many seem to have got to a certain point and just stopped. Why could this be - run out of nutrients in the compost?

@TyneFilth Still filling the pot with new roots?

I wouldn't say filling no, but they've got roots. I've just had two bulk bags of compost delivered though so I'll give them some lovely new nutrients and see if they take off!

Anyway, I finally got round to raising the soil level in the large planters I asked about some weeks ago here. I used bubble wrap in carrier bags to half the capacity of the thing, then compost. Hostas seem happy so far...

I wouldn't say filling no, but they've got roots. In that case they may be concentrating on building the root system before they trouble with top growth.

More ponderings this morning... yesterday I heavily mulched my borders with my new lovely compost. I am now wondering whether I should try to dig it in or let the worms do the work. Would it help prompt the worms' interest if I give it a good drenching with the hose? I have another long under-hedge border to deal with as well, where the soil is probably pretty good once I get all the brambles out, but I want to build it up a bit so will enrich with compost.

It's just one job after another!

Thanks for the thoughts @meredintofpandiculation, I will keep my patience. I wonder if the greenhouse is the right place for one of these groups of seedlings now - lavandula angustifolia. May try the outside, haven't lost anything if they don't perk up, lavenders are cheap to buy as small plugs I recall.

I’m wondering if I can join you? I must admit I’m usually pretty hopeless at keeping up with these type of ongoing threads (on any subject - this is the first gardening thread I’ve joined!), but I will give It a go.

I’m a relatively new gardener. We moved in to our current house around 2 years ago. Prior to that we’d had a flat, and then a small garden with grass and a patio but no borders. What I inherited here was a lovely, well planted mature garden - turns out the previous owners had had the professionals in! I’ve mostly just had to maintain it, but there are lots of areas that are looking shabby now - areas where my pruning has Obviously not been done “properly” and when you look closely lots of unwanted growth between the plants in the borders, so this is all stuff I need to get on top of and lockdown has given me time to start!

What I have been successful at for quite a few years is vegetables in pots - especially tomatoes but also spinach, rocket, various salad leaves and herbs, strawberries, chillies and last year a small crop of Brussels sprouts (they were in the ground, not pots). This year I’ve added sweet peppers, peas, french beans, potatoes and carrots, which are all coming along nicely. No greenhouse, but we do have a south facing conservatory. We’ve also been composting for around 18 months and really getting to grips with it now.

The biggest issues I have are the fact that the garden is heavily used for football by my son, so anything too delicate can take a bashing and my lawn is constantly wrecked. Plus I struggle with the feeling of being overwhelmed! I feel safe with vegetables and fruit because I know what they are and how they work, but other types of plants overwhelm me. I find it difficult to remember what many things are and I worry about putting things together that won’t look right - I’m too much of a perfectionist. I’m learning to accept that I will make mistakes though, so some progress there!

I’ve already picked up tips from this thread, so thanks to everyone for sharing.

Hi Caroian. You poor thing! - it sounds as if the garden is a source of worry for you, and it shouldn't be. it should be a source of joy!

It's difficult growing vegetables in pots, so you can be confident in your gardening skills since you're managing that.

As regards the rest - remember it's your garden now. You don't have to keep it as it was. Just because something's been growing there doesn't mean you have to keep growing it. And it doesn't matter if you make mistakes - if something doesn't look right where you've put it, dig it up and replace it with something else.

The secret to unwanted plants in border is to plant so densely that there isn't room for anything unwanted (and even if there were, you wouldn't be able to see it). Avoid bare soil. Pruning - a good rule of thumb is to prune after flowering - except if it flowers very late, so instead of pruning in early winter you might like to prune in early spring. And don't prune after flowering if you're hoping for berries!

An experienced nurseryman once said to me "I don't give up on anything until I've killed it properly three times".

@Caroian my DC dug a big hole in the lawn as they were excavating mud for a dinosaur bath unsurprisingly all my fruit and veg is in pots too to keep it away from them!!

@whysorude I gave up on coriander growing, I just buy the stuff in pots from the supermarket and try unsuccessfully to keep that alive instead

MereD until I read your post I don’t think I’d really thought about it as a worry, but I suppose it must worry me a bit! I’m a perfectionist to the degree that sometimes I’d rather not do something at all than do it and have it not work out - a flaw I’ve been training myself out of for years! But I do worry that I’ll try things and that people may laugh at my mistakes (also worry too much what other people think) or that I’ll waste time, or money, on things. Fortunately I like the way the garden was done, so it’s not so much a case of wanting to make big changes, just that I want to try to keep it looking good!

This afternoon I’ve made a bamboo stick wigwam and planted some sweet peas though - I love sweet peas and I’ve decided it doesn’t matter if the colours don’t “go” with the surrounding foliage, or even if they don’t end up coming up at all. I like them enough to try!

RubySlippers sounds familiar. It does add to my difficulty trying to balance the use of the garden for growing things and relaxation, making it look nice and having it be the training ground for the world’s next greatest footballer (ha ha... no chance, just need to break it to him gently!)

Hello! May I join you? Nodding at the perfectionist stuff...

I've dabbled a bit with sticking shrubs in the ground and planting sunflowers with the kids, but my lack of commute this year has meant I've had time to actually tidy up my garden. It's technically N facing but on a really steep slope towards the house, so the massive retaining wall at the back is a huge south facing surface which one day will have fruit trees on it. Needs work (pointing etc) before I go anywhere near choosing those though.

I've got a big area of concrete steps/terraces in the middle, with borders round the outside. Again, one day the concrete will come up, but that's not now though. The borders have all been filled with too much soil so they all slope down towards the concrete, and so the soil falls down into the concrete when it rains. And I've had a massive pile of prunings and weeds which has largely disintegrated.

So, I swept. And made a pile of something resembling soil on top of the concrete. And grabbed some of the breeze blocks and other bricks and stones lying around and made a wall round my pile. So I now have about 12" of soilish stuff on top of concrete. About 4' by 6'. The "walls" are porous so it will have some drainage sideways out of the bottom, but no idea whether it's going to be soggy or dry, and I reckon the soilish stuff is pretty poor. Probably rather alkaline (based on what grows round here) but haven't tested it.

So, question. What can I grow in what is essentially my storage heap of soil for later plans? I'm looking at plants recommended for containers because I reckon they won't mind the shallow soil so much, but do you reckon my pile is going to be soggy or dry? I need some creeping something (thyme?) to cover the breeze blocks (though we've got calendula on all the walls so maybe that'll colonise).

I have big plans for my garden eventually, but it's really nice to see it a bit tidier! Very excited.

calendula campanula on the walls

But I do worry that I’ll try things and that people may laugh at my mistakes Come on! Most people don't know anything about gardening . You're already way ahead.

@MereDintofPandiculation

But I do worry that I’ll try things and that people may laugh at my mistakes Come on! Most people don't know anything about gardening . You're already way ahead.

I know it’s a bit daft, but I worry too much about what other people think of me - no idea why! There are plenty of “armchair experts” out there though too - a recent post on a local FB group about gardening - in which I did not participate - turned pretty vicious. I know, I know, some people are just nasty and most are very supportive!

I totally know what you mean - the thought that my neighbours will chuckle at my attempts to plant that plant there. But I figure if I keep the brambles, bindweed and snowberry away from the wall dividing our gardens, and if I'm getting some exercise and fresh air, then all is well.

I know it’s a bit daft, but I worry too much about what other people think of me I do too, though it's better than it was. I trained myself,as soon as I had worries about what someone else would think, to turn it round and consider what I thought of them (fortunately I can be very judgemental if I wish )

I've been on the internet since 1997, in the old days of "usenet" and newsgroups, and the most vicious group I was on was a gardening group!