The Vegetable Patch

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Now bookbook has sadly left us, and stirred into action by @DobbleDobble, I think it’s time to start a general thread for those of us who try to grow edible produce, fruit, veg, herbs, to share successes, failures, questions and answers

Thank you @deplorabelle and @MereDintofPandiculation for the coriander advice, I'll give it another go this year.

The purpose of divided seed trays is so you can dig out one seedling without disturbing the roots of another. Before the days of plastic, all seed sowing was in wooden undivided seed trays.

Slightly bigger pots not a problem, as long as you can envisage it being filled with roots within a few weeks.

Just popping on now I've seen this thread. Despite it only being January I'm behind on my plans. Haven't managed to get any garlic in the ground yet, do people think it's still worth a try?

I think this year might be a bit of a write off tbh, the puppy takes up a lot of my time and over winter the empty raised beds have become her playground and I'm not sure how easily I can stop that now! Also my space for chilli and tomato seedlings indoors is much more limited now. Never managed to get any sort of greenhouse sorted last year.

@tizwozliz you’re not too late for garlic. We got our allotment mid February (2 years ago) and planted garlic. We had a great harvest and it kept us happy as we were fighting the weeds and clearing beds.

Can I join you all?

First proper allotment this year. No clue what we're doing. Everything currently under straw. So I should probably be making plans and ordering things at this point

Why do people bother sowing indoors to plant outside, when if you wait you can sow directly into the soil? Are there any advantages?

We have quite a lot of slugs, certain plants would be gone before you spotted they'd germinated if we put seed in the ground outside. It depends on what you're growing and what pests you have to deal with.

It also extends the growing season, if I was growing courgettes outside I wouldn't be able to sow until mid May at the earliest, so no fruit until July at the earliest. If I start indoors I can have fruit in June and throughout the rest of the summer.

Hi, I would like to join you too. I have 3 veg beds in my garden and try and cram as much as I can in them. Last year wasn’t too successful as I didn’t foresee how much damage a kitten could do to seedlings !! I only currently have Brussel sprouts and a little bit of rocket ready to harvest.

I'm really excited for this growing year. I will have five 6 x 4 foot raised beds, a 6 x 8 foot greenhouse and space on the patio for pots. Have various fruit trees and soft fruits growing all over the garden so the beds and greenhouse are just for veg really. I just can't make up my mind what to grow and always think "it's not enough space!"

Yes, @tizwozliz has just about summed it up. I could sow runner beans in May and have emerging seedlings two weeks later, or I could plant out decent sized plants instead. For anything that just continues cropping until the frosts, extra crop at the beginning of the season is pure profit.

Slugs like tender young growth, and will nip off emerging seedlings before you even see them.

Also space - it’s possible to grow seedlings in trays ir pots ready to take over the instant an earlier crop is finished - you wouldn’t want your winter cropping broccoli to be occupying a whole row of your veg garden in midsummer when they’re still tiny seedlings

Finally, if you sow direct something that’s going to end up at a final spacing of 50cm or more, there’s all that space between the seedlings to be watered.

@Wildernesstips

Hi, I would like to join you too. I have 3 veg beds in my garden and try and cram as much as I can in them. Last year wasn’t too successful as I didn’t foresee how much damage a kitten could do to seedlings !! I only currently have Brussel sprouts and a little bit of rocket ready to harvest.

It’s not just kittens. You have another 16-20 years of this

@StyleDesperation

I'm really excited for this growing year. I will have five 6 x 4 foot raised beds, a 6 x 8 foot greenhouse and space on the patio for pots. Have various fruit trees and soft fruits growing all over the garden so the beds and greenhouse are just for veg really. I just can't make up my mind what to grow and always think "it's not enough space!"

It’s a lot more space than I have! I grow seedlings, tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes (for slug protection) in the greenhouse, ClimbingFrench, runner and broad beans, sugar snap peas, purple spouting and tree cabbage, beet, chard in pots.

Focus on things you enjoy eating (obviously) than on things which are either expensive or difficult to obtain in the shops

MereDint I hear you on the cat front. I have an 11 yr old cat as well but he isn’t as naughty 🤣!

Puppy has completely cured the cat shit in the raised beds issue, she brings her own problems though!

Harvested: some Brussel sprouts.

Jobs: Cut some of my Christmas tree and mulched my blueberry which is in a pot. I’ve never done this before but I read about it in Kitchen Garden magazine. I’ve also been working on turning a barrel into a pond (tried to grow beans in it last year, but obviously it got waterlogged (being a barrel), so I’m hoping to attract slug predators like frogs instead). The mix of stagnant water and soil is very smelly.

Frogs are overrated re slugs. Even when we had a breeding population of 170, we still had a slug problem

I’d like to join in too. Ive been gardening for years but never really got started on veg, but I now have time and space - at last - to grow food.

Raised bed constructed and no dig cardboard going in at the weekend with manure and compost .1 down, 5 more to build

Well done @Dobbledobble I do mostly no dig too. Yesterday I tipped out the first bag of 2020 leafmould to mulch my new pear trees. Gorgeous.

The rhubarb I ordered has just been dispatched - need to work out exactly where I can put it

Mere, what is your advice re slugs. Last year was knee capped by the battalions of slugs which invaded. I can nemotoad (fromMarch if necessary), I object to salt and after a day at work, slug picking and drowning isn't likely to happen. Many thanks

@indignatio

Mere, what is your advice re slugs. Last year was knee capped by the battalions of slugs which invaded. I can nemotoad (fromMarch if necessary), I object to salt and after a day at work, slug picking and drowning isn't likely to happen. Many thanks

I have no solution! I grow tender thing in the greenhouse and make sure plants are big before they go in the garden. And I avoid anything said to be susceptible.

The three things that seem to work are 1) beer traps (but will kill a lot of other things too) 2) going round at night and picking them off (but how do you then kill them? I have heard of people cutting them in half with scissors. Sorry, but no) 3) nematodes - too expensive for other than small spaces

Most of the “barriers”, egg shells, coffee grounds, seem to be largely placebos. Copper tape works less well once tarnished. RHS has done trials.

for anyone with raspberry maggots try the trap - i got mine from harrold horticulture. worked really well.

I like to try something new each year. can anyone recommend something slightly unusual that they have found productive please

Morning all. I've really been enjoying the sunny frosty mornings we've been getting but the frozen ground is not helping my efforts on getting the veg area ready. I'm not completely decided on raised beds or not? I'd like to try no dig I think. Need to read up on it. First order from Real Seeds has arrived of early start things like chillies, aubergines, tomatoes etc. And the builders are going to be putting in the greenhouse base so I can order my greenhouse! In the meantime I have fruit trees to plant and lots of cleaning and organizing of equipment ready for seed sowing. Oh and my seed potatoes have turned up!

I'm trying a few different things this year @dreamingofsun but can't swear to their efficacy. We did grow Turks turban squash a couple of years ago though and they were really prolific and really tasty. Stored for ages too.

Oo @styledesperation what aubergine variety/ies are you planting?

I will be frantically waiting for the ground to thaw because I have a budded piece of Fulton's Strawberry Surprise rhubarb to go in.

style - charles dowding is the no dig guru. He took all his wooden sided raised beds down as he said they encouraged slugs. So i think he's ended up a bit like mine with 3ft beds and paths between. it works for me.

@deplorabelle so far I've ordered Czech early. I've never grown aubergines before (but this will be first year with a greenhouse) and I have a tendency to get carried away ordering too many varieties of everything and getting overwhelmed! I do have my eye on a couple of other ones though...

@dreamingofsun thank you! I've just lost a couple of hours to reading his site. That should would perfectly as we have combination clay/chalk soil (greater London) with lots of stones, but very fertile. Most of the area we plan to grow on is grass and the usual culprits like daisies, and it is very slightly sloped. Sounds like no dig could be great for us and the ground.