**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.

[gardeningmum05]

sunflowers! lupins! must read through before i post

[Ineedsomesleep]

Thank you PistachioLemon. Think I will sow half now and half in July.

[NormaLeighLucid]

Hi all, very excited about this thread.
Relative newbie to gardening too, this will be my 3rd year but still lots to learn and indeed eat.

Veggies that were sucsessful the first year were, Radish, corrotts, parsnips, potatoes, peas and courgette.

Partial success from tomatoes - didnt seem to ripen

2nd year I tried, cabbage (caterpillars 1 - 0 me) Boccolli (caterpillars 2 - 0 me)

Potatoes - blight?

Sweetcorn, (rabbits assure me it was delicious)

Aubergene (flowers fell off)

Successful - Lettuce,greenbeans, raspberries and strawberries.

This year - Beans, peas, garlic, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce... wish me luck

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

I've grown a few veg for years - French beans , runners, peppers , cucumber lettuce and tomato. This year I'm trying some new stuff.
Sweetcorn, leeks, carrots, spring onions,swiss chard and spinach beet. I read a great book by Sarah Raven called the Great Vegetable Plot. Full of ideas and practical tips. One of her ideas is to sew seeds into a length of guttering (cost me £3.00). When the plants are ready to go out you just slide them off apparently. The swiss chard and spinach beet are coming through nicely in the gutter and I plan to slot them in a gap in a flowerbed. Will see whether it works according to plan.
I also grew curly Kale last year. Again I dotted them among the flowers. By September however I acknowledged defeat to the caterpillars. There was not a shred of leaf left. But I forgot to dig them up and over the winter the plants sprouted again and are now cropping beautifully.

[PistachioLemon]

Oooh, I love the guttering idea - let us know how you get on, I'd love to give that a go.

I'm also planting in amongst the veggies this year as have almost run out of space in the designated veggie plot! Did you have any problems with doing that (apart from the catapillars which presumably would have munched away no matter whereever the kale was growing)?

[PistachioLemon]

That should be 'planting in amongst the flowers' obviously!

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

No problems really except that of course Kale is not pretty! I just put a couple here and there in different flower beds and so there was not too much to spoil the look. Also put the loose leaf lettuces and herbs in among flowers.
One thing I noticed was that the vegs did better in some places than others, I suppose the soil varies a bit in quality.

[callmeovercautious]

I am just bumping this for the Easter weekend. I will catch up tomorrow when Dh is taking DD out!

My aforementioned BB are leggy and need planting out but I just love seeing them there all green and full of life

[PlumBumMum]

Hi can I join please I had a veg patch last year with
Potatoes
celery
parsley
cauliflower(it got attacked by cabbage root fly, but still got 2 nice cauli's out of it)
salad onions
this year I'm doubling the size and I'm abit scared, I have some leeks growing on the windowsil at the min, and Im hoping to make a start getting my patch in order this week, it has been too cold here

[artifarti]

Hello - can I join? Fairly smallish garden here, lots of shrubs and perennials but I leave them and the lawn to DP. I like fruit and veg and have been growing things for a couple of years (well, less last year as I was too enormously pregnant to either bend or stretch and refused to touch any soil as it is a fox and cat public convenience round here!) Anyway...

Had some success with tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, salad, runner beans, little squash varieties, herbs, new potatoes...and my crab apple tree is festooned this year after a miserable show last year.

Wish I had a bigger garden...

[PlumBumMum]

Okay so we have just tipped our compost out(I know its abit late but dh is going to rotavate it into soil) I was a bit dissapointed I expected it to look like the compost you buy in the shops, Should it?

I have another compost bin on the go and there are loads of very small black flies dh is insisting this is fine, I've read you shouldn't have any flies [grrr]

HELP

[artifarti]

Our compost never looks like that either! But as long as it smells okay (not rotten) and is fairly crumbly it'll be good stuff. We have flies too, no idea if they're meant to be there or not but they don't seem to do any harm...

[snorkle]

Our kitchen compost doesn't ever look like shop compost, but we have a very old compost heap on our allotment and the compost from that does. Perhaps it's an age thing, or that old weeds & greens rot down differently to eggshells & banana skins.

Positives this week: we are eating our own lettuce and the potatoes in dustbin are flowering (this means they should be ready to harvest soon)!

Negatives: The broad beans and peas on the allotment have got weevils and today I found a number of carrot flies under my cloche with the carrots & beetroot and not far from the parsnips .

[PlumBumMum]

Wow snorkle your really far on I don't have anything planted yet but I planted late last year and it was fine so I'll not worry yet
(Plum takes note to be more organised next year)
Its horrible hope you can save something, I had cabbage root fly last year on my cauliflower
I found site about composting my compost looks like the second last picture but it didn't smell bad so its on the patch now!
dh going to rotavate next week

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

snorkle your own lettuce already? I'm envious, how did you manage that? Mine are only about 3" high. I usually sew loads of loose leaf stuff so that I can start to go round the plants taking just a few leaves from each as soon as possible but I doubt I'll get any for another 2 or 3 weeks.

[blissa]

Hi all, please can I join?

I had success with runner beans last year, and lettuce, although allowed it to go to seed.

We rent our house and the garden doesn't have beds so am growing things in pots. So far have planted seeds of cucumbers, peppers, thyme, rosemary and strawberrys (don't hold out too much hope for these tbh), today planted tomato seeds with the hope of potting them on in hanging baskets. Will also plant carrots and runner beans next month. My dad planted some potatoes for me in sacks, and I've just noticed some are sprouting through

Will probably plant more in the next few weeks, would like to do lettuce again and actually eat it this time. Would be lovely to eat a salad that is all home grown!

[mummylin2495]

i hope that you will be growing some mint to go with your lovely new potatoes.You can grow it easily in any pot or even a bucket.The most common kind is called apple mint although you can buy several different sorts if you dont like this one.

[blissa]

Hi mummylin, yes I think I will. All my pots are in the house atm and I'm rapidly running out of free windowledge space!

[mummylin2495]

you could put some of your pots outside ,but they will probably need to be covered by fleece in the evenings as its still quite cold.I love my garden although i dont grow veggies.I used to have 4 greenhouses and make and sell hanging baskets,i dont have them now i am reduced to two but still make all the family baskets and of course my own

[snorkle]

The lettuces we are eating are a quick growing early variety and I started sowing them on 12 Feb (in windowsill propagator), they were then moved to troughs in the conservatory. The outdoor sown ones are still very tiny. I will definitely grow some indoors again next year though.

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

I'll try that too. Mine were started off indoors, then moved to greenhouse, then planted out about 2 weeks ago.
What I do have in my conservatory though is French beans. I sewed just a couple very early and potted up in a big tub. They are now up to the roof and flowering! I think I'll have beans in another 3 weeks, though only enough for 1 meal probably.

[LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits]

Hello! I am very much a newbie (my mum usually comes and does my garden ) but yesterday I planted some spinach, courgettes and basil.

Question about the courgetters, I don't have a seen propogator so is covering the pots with cling film ok?

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Covering the pots with cling will be fine Libra, I think you are supposed to soak courgette seeds overnight if that is any help.

Other things I use to sow seeds are old cottage cheese containers with holes punched into the bottom, the little plastic lid covers the top, especially good for herbs etc. Also old plastic takeaway containers with holes in the bottom. The plastic punnets from things like plums are useful to stand pots in, loo roll middles are great for things with long roots like peas and sweetcorn, then cut in half they are housing DS's busy lizzie seedlings.

Plastic drinks bottles cut off act as mini cloches outside over my mange tout and the other end with the spout gets shoved in the soil so I can water down to the roots.

DS is my paper pot maker, directions here

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

And whilst I'm about it, I just want to link to two sites I have found.

Moreveg.co.uk has a great selection of seeds at really good prices, you don't get huge amounts so great for first time growing trying different varieties. Free postage over a fiver (I was the numpty who kept an eye on the total figure at the bottom of the basket and thought I had a fiver's worth when I didn't). Came very quickly in little plastic bags with planting directions.

Haven't tried this one yet but have read of lots of people who have. No F1 hybrids and instructions on how to gather seed to use for next year - realseeds.co.uk

[snorkle]

I'm using realseeds for the first time this year - in fact my lettuces are from them. Bit early to recommend, but they were efficient sending the seeds out, there are plenty per packet & the lettuces at least are good. Their website has better info on the different varieties than most imo. And they support small farmers which is nice.