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.

Hello again all. Thanks for the tree advice (sorry too far back to see who it was!) I will add those to the wish list.

Here I have great plans for the long weekend. My timber and ground spikes have arrived for building pergola and potting shed. The pergola will be rustic in style, for two reasons: my lack of experience with a circular saw, and that once it's up it will hopefully be completely bestrewn with climbing plants. It has to function as a hammock holding structure as well, so we didn't want to put up a kit which might be strong enough but would not be guaranteed strong enough. The potting shed will be heath robinson esque. It'll have new verticals but a mishmash of horizontals and cladding. We had a garden building done last summer by friends just starting their business and we had a lot of tongue and groove larch left over. I rescued even some quite small pieces from the skip and have (6 months later) now made them into bird boxes.

Seeds are coming on ok - I am using many which are years past their dates, but I've chucked them all in and I'll give them 3 weeks to show up. Some already are - candytuft, a James Wong exotic "radish" which is actually a fruiting part rather than a root, and the curl of the first tomato plumules is just showing. I have nearly 12 seed trays... Not sure I have enough small pots to move them on into, but I could certainly do the newspaper method.

Picture is my birdboxes in situ. This end of the garden only a year ago used to be 3m deep in leylandii - by taking it out, and some very leggy Holly/privet hedge, and some horrid invasive bamboo, I think I have "found" nearly 40sqm more garden than we started with.

Many thanks for all the compost tips, it's looking much better now and I am happily collecting peelings and apple cores. Dd was not impressed at me retrieving her banana skin from the kitchen bin! I even found myself examining the compost bins in the community garden while out with the dog. Who knew compost could be so fascinating!

I managed to get enough compost out of the bin to fill quite a few containers so today I have started off some tomato, sweet pepper and dwarf bean seeds on the window sill and have some cucumber and salad leaves to sow tomorrow. Even if it's not very successful it's keeping me amused!

I picked up a grafted tomato plant yesterday when doing my grocery shop. He’s about 20cm tall. I’m planning to put him in a Quadgrow - would he need more gardening off before going outside? I’m in fairly central London so frosts aren’t common in April.

I only have one type of tomato seed at the moment. I went out yesterday and bought some weird organic tomatoes and have planted those - fingers crossed some come up.

I think I will put my plants outside next week but cover them with plastic bottles for a couple of weeks

what is a pair of leaves? The first pair of leaf like structures you'll see are the seed leaves or cotyledons - they're part of the embryo within the seed. Most veg have two of them, but grasses including sweet corn and onions/garlic have only one. They're not what is meant by "the first pair of leaves".

The "first pair of leaves" are the first two leaves actually produced by the seedling itself, and look different from the seed leaves. Even in plants which produce their leaves alternately up the stem rather than in pairs, the first two leaves are produced very close together.

The seed leaves are easy to knock off and the young stem is very fragile, so you can't sensibly handle seedlings at that stage. But you can hold them, carefully, by their true leaves.

Who knew compost could be so fascinating! You may get hooked! I regard my garden as a machine to produce compost - vegetables are a by-product.

meredint that's very interesting, thank you!

I decided to risk planting my dwarf beans outside yesterday. They've been grown in the greenhouse so far. I'm v far south so pretty warm here and hopefully no frost over night!

Busy day building a new gate arch with David Austin climbing roses arriving next week.

I'm almost running out of jobs to do! I just need the seedlings to grow on a bit so I can pick them all out.

Hopefully got some baby plug plants arriving before the end of April too.

Hi all, I've read through this wonderful thread! I too am new to this. We've planted a fair few seeds so far and have packets that need sowing soon (mainly flowering plants that haven't been done yet).

I have a question. I have got tomato and onion seeds germinating in egg cartons. They are doing well. In fact, I think I went overboard! Do I need to thin these onion seedlings out? How likely is it that they will all actually survive and produce an onion? I ask because I have far too many! Can they be grown in pots? They are sturon. When do I pot them up and when can they go outside?

There are no leaves at all on the onion seedlings? But I can see the Tom seedlings only have their first seedling leaves?

Thank you

The pic!

Are the onions spring onions ?

Hi Pitts no they are sturon (I think that's a white onion?).
I feel really daft. I thought I had planted around 50 seeds. In fact I've planted about half a packet of 750 seeds!

I have two large containers in which I would like semi permanent displays. So far my best idea is phormium and hosta, but as you can see in the picture, the pot is only half full. It took 2 of us to carry it across the garden (and we are, as Miss Jean Brodie would say, in our prime).

What could I put in the bottom of the pot to take up space without adding weight? Becoming top heavy will not be an issue - the pots themselves are made of concrete. Things I have to hand are chicken wire, chain link fence, bubble wrap, builders' plastic sheeting...

I meant the soil level in the pot is only to half way. Not that I plan to put twice as many plants in the pot. Probably.

Things I have to hand are chicken wire, chain link fence, bubble wrap, builders' plastic sheeting... Bubble wrap is the best out of that lot. Expanded polystyrene would work too. But unless you're planning to move the container around, why not simply fill it with soil in situ? Things that will be light will not be water absorbent (otherwise they'd get as heavy as the soil), and a greater volume of soil will mean less frequent watering in summer.

why not simply fill it with soil in situ? - well it's sitting on decking which is probably strong enough but I don't want to test that to the point of failure!

Polystyrene packing is good for taking up volume in pots. Your bubble wrap would be ok. I probably wouldn't use metal things (rusty?).

I'm not much help with onions. With the tomatoes, once they are a bit bigger you can gently ease them out and plant them into individual pits so they have more space to get to a decent size before their final location.

User I would do a couple of things with your onions as you have a fair few. I’d let them get a little bit bigger then I would take some of them and put them into small pots or the inside of toilet rolls to get bigger then after that plant out in the garden with about 9 inches between them which will hopefully get you decent size onions.

With the rest I would leave in clumps and put into ground or pots and hopefully you will get groups of smaller onion bulbs that you can use as spring onions. Don’t feel daft, we’ve all been there !

The tomatoes need to bigger before you do anything, they need a decent sized set of leaves with serrated edges so they are strong enough for you to handle and put into individual pots.

Tyne depends how much you have of anything. Possibly a frame of chicken wire scrunched at bottom then bubble wrap on top to make a nw raised floor to the pot.

Livingthegoodlife, arch and roses sound wonderful, would love to see a picture later this summer.

My fig is currently in existing pot in a basket by the front wall, need to sort some planting stuff before staking it out of pot and have been busy.

Have gone round garden to collect up the various pots lurking in corners so I know what I have. Sorted shed (kind of) so can finally put away stuff from old shed that has been sitting under an old table which I need moving as want to plant potatoes:
www.zoarsark.co.uk/shop/Garden-and-Amenity-Seeds-and-Bulbs-Seed-Potatoes-C802515

Really fast delivery and thanks to the person who put link on another thread.

Have planted a raised bed with strawberry plants, another with sweet corn and broad bean seed I hope will work together , Park Choi, mange tout and lettuce in another. 2 Gooseberry plants that were destined for allotment are in the ground, rescued cherry tree from under pyracantha and buddleia and found some raspberry canes and a rose in the process,

Have sown cucumber, courgette, butternut squash, basil, coriander, dill, peppers and french beans along with some dahlias and cosmos.

My beans are a good few years old and found in an old seed tin but hoping I can get on the go as they are Cherokee trail of tears which I have found really good in the past, if not I do more recent seeds.

Oh thank you Assassin. That sounds like an excellent plan and I like a plan! Also love how they won't be wasted.

All this talk of fig trees is making me consider one...need to learn to walk before I can run. Or even crawl first....

Another question for the teachers. I have seeds for different salad leaves and herbs. I have an old, massive Belfast sink in the garden I will use for some of them. But also I ordered a mesh/fabric hanging 'thing' which I was hoping to attach to the shed to grow some of these leaves. But it's arrived and the pockets are smaller than I realised. Will herbs or lettuce do ok in small containers? I reckon the pockets are about 4-5" deep and about 6-8 inches wide. If not, any ideas as to what I could put in them? Do all tomato plants cope in baskets or is that certain varieties?

I have identified ground elder in one of my beds. In the flower bed that is. I've been reading up on how to get rid and it sounds like it's a bastard. I've sprayed it with resolve for now. Any tips?

Oh, and Happy Easter 🐰🐣🥚

Happy Easter to you too User 🐣🌷🍫
Strawberry plants would be ok in the pockets if you water well. I’d be tempted since you have them to try a couple of clumps of your onions there, chives another idea and worth trying a small sprinkling of salad leaves.

Not all tomatoes cope in baskets. There are two types - cordon and bush tomatoes (indeterminate and determinate). The cordon ones are usually what you see people growing in greenhouses, basically one stem with flowers and leaves coming off it. They need a little bit of work with what are called side shoots pulling off as they develop so all the plants energy goes into producing tomatoes from the main stem and they can get pretty tall,

Bush tomatoes look basically more of a messy bush and you let them. do their things . There are a few varieties of bush tomatoes that are good in baskets - I think off the top of my head tumbling Tom and 100s and 1000s. No doubt there are more but think those two are fairly widely available.

Not had ground elder so not sure very unhelpfully, sorry.

well it's sitting on decking which is probably strong enough but I don't want to test that to the point of failure! For the sake of calculation, you can assume that pot of soil is roughly equivalent to the same volume of water. Multiply together length, width and height in cms to get the volume. Remember that 10cm x 10cm x10cm = 1000 cu cm = 1 kg, so if your pot is 30 x 30 x 30 = 27000 cu cm, that'll be 27kg. Compare the weight of the pot to the weight of a person, and draw your conclusion.

Remember too that the weight of the pot will be spread evenly across its base, so may be spread across more decking supports than the weight of a person.

Ground elder - I got rid of it in a large bed by digging the bed over and removing all the roots. Then in the next 2-3 years pulling up any re-growth the instant it came through.

So my main tip is to learn what the new shoots look like and what the roots look like.

For those who don't have tomato seeds.

I planted a tomato from Tesco and I've grown 170 plants!

It was easier than seeds.

Not sure what I've grown or if they will be disease free. But I'm impressed at how easy it's been.

Here is one of the three boxes I grew!

Here's a first world problem/21st century peril of gardening... My phone's fingerprint unlock function doesn't recognise my gnarled digits!! Well in my view that's a sign of time well spent. Broke a sweat before noon by getting on with potato patch dig over.