**Newbie Gardener Thread** support, advice and ideas swap shop!

[NattyPlus2andAHalf]

this is a thread for people who have just started out with gardening, in pots or ground, that wish to swap ideas, share stories of triumph or sorrow!

everyone is welcome! so introduce yourself and get chatting.

[lucysmam]

Erm . . . my front garden is just a layer of soil over concrete . Been put there just for show by the looks of it!

So, I wasted 3hrs this afternoon clearing every last scrap of crap off the soil for nothing! Other than to create the job of finding something vaguely attractive to do with concrete now

On the back garden front, I have found out today, the council workers are digging about 5ft into the gardens to lay the foundations for the new back walls . . . so there goes half of what I was planting in Going to have to scale down my plans quite a bit now I think & just try a few things out this year

[SadMarg]

Hi everyone, can I join you?

I am renting, so will plant most things in pots, so fingers crossed for me. Have bought a few heated window sill propogators and will be getting some seeds going this week.

I have started some first early and second early potatoes chitting. I have about 1/4 of each bag left, is there anyone in East Surrey who wants to try them? You can apparently just use some old plastic potting mix bags or any other large dark plastic bag if you don't have room in the garden for them, no need to go and buy specific potato bags (which I did anyway, but will also be using the plastic bags as well!)

When I lived in Australia I had some butternut squash grow from some seeds I buried in the garden, and had great success with them, once I realised I had to manually fertilise them. Hope I can replicate this in the UK, but have read that I need to start them early in case we have a poor summer.

[snorkle]

I posted this on another thread, but there's some good (I think) guidance for growing carrots in containers here. I've started off a pot of carrots in my conservatory this week & am hoping for some nice early ones, maybe by late May.

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

Hi sadmarge, I was planning my first attempt at potatos this year. I have very stony soil so was going to try the compost bag thing. Due you fill them up with soil when the potatos are ready to go in?
I have some Arran Pilot chitting in the conservatory.

[callmeovercautious]

Lucysmam - that is bad news Can you look at making some raised bads? then soil and turf the other areas?

Mumwhensdinnerready and Sadmarg - pots on Pots are great. Just use anything that blocks out the light, stick the tubers in under a few inches of compost. Once they sprout a few inches top the compost up to a few inches above. Do that 3 or 4 times until there is a foot or so of soil in the container. Then water loads.

Carrots in pots have been good here too but we get lots of carrot fly so you might have to cover them in fleece.

[lucysmam]

A couple of raised beds would be nice callme, I think I'm just a bit disappointed because after a whole afternoon of cutting straggly bits of hedge that the contractor left & clearing dog muck etc, I was hoping to be able to do something simple & quick at the weekend while MIL has the lo for us. If not raised beds then I may get a couple of large-ish pots for some flowers & maybe gravel or something along those lines for the rest.

How is everyone else getting on? Everyone sounds like they've got a lt further than me. & there's still loads of work to do in the back garden before I can do anything in it but we have no space in the house to start anything in here unless it lives in the bathroom temporarily

[Sibble]

mumwhensdinnerready - I'm in NZ so everything is topsy turvy on this thread for me but still hoping to benefit from everybody's tips. I'm getting ready to plant more winter veggies. The temperature's quite temperate here so there's quite a few things that can be planted all year round which is great.

lucysmam - how disappointing. Hope the pots work out.

[hillbilly]

Oh my goodness this thread was made for me

I renovated my garden 2 years ago and it does look lovely in summer but I neded inspiration and tips.

I did not get around to bulb planting, they are still in the boxes in my shed, what would happen if I planted them now? Irises, daffs and tulips.

Anyway I am looking forward to the continuation of this thread!

[Ner1993]

This is a brilliant thread. I moved into my new house in september and was lucky enough to have inherited a lovely good sized garden with a mature shrubs and a wonderful vegetable section.

I have to be honest and say that up to last weekend I had done nothing in the garden and it was looking a bit rubbish over the winter however my father-in-law spurred me in to action when he said seriously 'this used be such a nice garden; you'll never get it looking nice'. Well I am now determined to prove him wrong! I spent the entire weekend in the garden, digging, chopping, tidying etc (almost killed myself - God it's hard work) and I loved it! I really surprised myself and I have to say it's looking better already!.

I am now really keen to do more so will be doing more stuff this weekend.

One fly in the ointment though is my dog!! He just walks on everything!!!!!!

[kittenloren]

Hello chaps!

Not got time to post properly as as dashing out to the post office (fun!) but am loving the thread and will be back later - am a relative newbie to the veggie growing, have done some bits half-heartedly for a couple of years but like DisasterArea last year I built a proper raised bed (proper - heh, I'm a make & make-do type girl!) and grew with varying amount of success. Basically everything early did brilliantly and everything dependent on our crappy British summer to come good failed absymally.

Anyway - last week tidied up garden, dug over raised bed & topped back up with compost so am getting excited about this year's prospects already - did mean to crack on & plant up onions, garlic & shallots earlier in the year (according to my mum it's a Boxing Day job - madness!) but it's been tooo coooold!

Going to miss PO if I don't stop now - but will be back to read more later, looking forward to picking up some pointers, (or at least having someone to commiserate with if this summer goes the way of last year!)

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

Well my garden doesn't know what's hit it over the last 10 days.
I had flu in October, then ill off and on until January, then deep frost and snow....those are my excuses for months of neglect.
A few mild days and I've regained my gardening enthusiasm. I've only really grown a small selection of veg before , concentrating my efforts on the flowers,but decided to work harder at it this year.
I've bodged up some semi raised beds, cleared out an old Pyracantha that was past it's sell by date , moved the compost heaps and generally made more room for veggies. I've dug everything over and scrubbed the greenhouse. I know you're supposed to do it in the autumn but who does?
I have loads of seeds and I'm goig to try all sorts of new things along side my favourite runner and French beans.

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

Hillbilly I'd stick those bulbs in, you never know.Do you have a greenhouse? If so you could put them in some big pots in there and that might spur them into growth.

[mygirllollipop]

Can I join in? We tried growing veg last year for the first time. Some success, some not.
Have lemon, blueberry, orange, raspberry, kiwi, grape, strawberries.
Tried tomatoes and peppers with a little success.
Also hoping to do flowers too.

[hillbilly]

Thanks mwdr - no greenhouse but we have a sheltered area which may work. I'll put them in tomorrow and cross my fingers. What about doing in pots and keeping indoors for a couple of weeks? Would that help?

[flake]

Hi All

We've been thinking of growing our veg we are inexperianced but done some few yrs ago potatoes-good, tomatoes-rotted too much rain not enough sun,lettuce-grew well then eaten by rabbits!herbs-good. We would like a veg patch perhaps raised is best but the only spot in our garden is not sunny area anyone know what grows best there so we know what to attempt first?
looking forward to some sun this year!and hopefully a bit less rain too.
Thanks

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

hillbilly - worth a try, the worst that can happen is they won't grow. If they do come through then you can put the pots outside and plant them in the garden later.

Hi flake. Most veg like the sunniest possible spot so a shady veg bed is tricky. I think lettuce will do ok and chives.Outdoor tomatoes really need a sheltered sunny spot and a good summer to do well.

I'm going to try spring onions, garlic and leeks this year. I've tried spring onions before but not had much germination. I read a tip is to sew a few seeds per module and germinate indoors, then harden off and plant in clumps. I will give it a try.
I thought garlic at the garden centre was too expensive so I've planted some cloves from a supermarket bulb in a pot on the windowsill and they've all come up in less than a week.

[SadMarg]

hillbilly if you plant the bulbs, they might at least grow, if not flower. The green leaves will give the bulbs the energy to flower next year though.

Mumwhensdinnerready - I think the point of cleaning out your greenhouse in Autumn is because then it's clean and ready for you to start early planting over winter if you want. Clean is clean, who cares when!!! And callmeovercautious is spot on with the advice about potatoes. Mind you I'm only going by what the books have said because I've never done it myself!

[SadMarg]

Ooh, I've been a good girl this week! . I've sown some seeds into my heated window sill propagator.

So far, a small amount of:
cucumbers
tomatoes - 4 different varieties (3 of them were freebies so I thought, what the heck, why not??!!)
Hot peppers - patio size
Sweet peppers - patio size
Spinach
Butternut squash
Peas
Mixed Salad

And outside:
Carrots
Parsnips

I've also potted some 2 Dahlias and 1 Arum Lily - just to keep DH from grizzling about there being nothing but veggies!

I'm not sure whether the carrot fly is a big problem here. We have fairly large evergreen hedges surrounding the property, and a lot of open fields around so I suspect not a lot of veggie patches. The nearest allotments are a fair bit of distance. But I've read that cow parsley is one of the hosts for the pest, as are hedgerows. My carrots are earlies, so I will miss the peak of the fly breeding cycle, also if you thin in the evening, the fly is less active (heck, it's in a pot on the patio, I'll thin it in the middle of the night if I have to!!)

(Can you tell I went on a book buying spree??!! Lots of book know how, but next to no practical know how!!! )

[snorkle]

Wow SadMarge, loads of plantings! I think you may find it's a bit early for the squash though - According to my diary I planted mine 23 March last year and they were ready to plant outside by 10th May, which was a bit too early as they're very frost sensitive. I made a note to start them a week or so later this year.

This year so far I've planted carrots, onions, chilli and sweet pepper, aubergine, lettuce and a few cabbage.

Actually, it's a really good idea to keep a diary of what you sow, when and where and keep a note of things like when it germinates, when you harden off/plant outside/etc. It's ever so useful to refer back to.

[SadMarg]

I thought about waiting for the squash, so I only planted a few of the seeds and will probably try a few more in a month or so. However, it's a compact squash, and because it's going in pots, I'm going to put it in a cloche when I first take it out, so the frost shouldn't bother it. I remember reading someone's allotment blog that in poor summers they had a problem getting the squash to be ready by the end of summer, so I thought - just in case - I would give it as long a season as I could. I ADORE butternut squash, and really, really want it to grow well!

If you're planting seedlings into the garden and are worried about frost, you can just use a cut off plastic water bottle as a mini cloche to protect from frosts - not the most attractive look but apparently effective.

My successful Australian attempt was pure chance (grew on its own from composted squash seeds when I was digging fruit/veg scraps all over our sandy rear garden in an attempt to enrich the soil before I attacked it the following season). I had so many I was giving them away to all my family and friends!

[snorkle]

If they're growing in pots & you can protect them you should be OK SadMarge & you will probably be the envy of all of us with the first butternuts of the season! My squashes didn't do so well last year - I had about 3 avocado sized butternuts from 2 plants and just 4 small melon sized 'crown prince' squashes from 5 plants (should have been 4 large squashes per plant). I e-mailed the seed company to ask what I was doing wrong & they said it hadn't been a good year for squashes and sent me another free packet to try again with this year .

I find the cut-off drinks bottle thing useful too, but even the 2litre bottles aren't big enough for a squash plant with more than a pair of true leaves (maybe OK for a compact squash though) - their leaves are huge once they get going! I've got an allotment this year & it's quite exposed, so I suspect anything like that would blow away, so I'll have to be extra careful about not chancing late frosts this year.

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

I tried butternuts last year and got a big fat zero. Maybe it was because of the poor summer.
I also use the plastic bottle thing for snail protection. I cut off both ends so I can lift the bottle off when the plant is growing strongly enough to fight a snail attack.
My FIL was a life long gardener and he used to tell me to sew seeds at Easter. My argument that Easter moves around fell on deaf ears! He can't have been far wrong as they used to be self sufficient in fruit and veg.

[SadMarg]

snorkle - on an allotment, you should really give cloches a try. You can get those tunnel ones which with a good staking might be strong enough to withstand any wind!

Have a look at this allotment website - it makes for interesting reading, and you might find someone who has an allotment where yours is!

Oh and I found the blog about growing squashes here - he's growing them in Liverpool, and started them in March.

[snorkle]

That Liverpool allotment blog is amazing - all those squashes! I was given a small polytunnel for xmas - it blew away about a fortnight ago just after I set it up , but my allotment neighbour rescued it, so inspired by that I may well try some squashes in it (with extra heavy duty stakes and extra guy lines) - should get about 3 plants in it I think. Thanks SadMarge.

[SadMarg]

Lol - I have visions of a squash kite now!!!