**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]

just got back from holidaying in cornwall on saturday and my potatoes are nearly as tall as me my new potatoes are sprouting too...great
just put my caulis and courgettes out into veg planter bags.
now what can i plant
started eating our own lettuce over a week ago, and got some little gems ready in my cloche, yippee

[ShannaraTiger]

Hello, please help required
Ordered Dd packets of vegetable seeds free from Green Ballon Club aka bbc. They arrived this morning.
Contains: Squash, tomato, Beetroot, Carrot and Lettuce.
Do I need to start digging up our very sub-standard lawn or has any one successfully grown in pots / grow bags etc. BTW we live in a ground floor council flat our section of garden consists of front & side which gets lots of sun and a tiny strip in the back 90% of which gets very little sun.
Thansk for any suggestions.

[pumpkinsoup]

Hi, can I join?

This is our 3rd year growing food (we do fine with fruit), but only the second for veg. last years squash, fennel, and sweetcorn didn't work, peppers and carrots were poor and only the beans, toms and chillis were successful.

We are doing those successful ones again, as well as squash, peas, caulis, carrots, parsnips, garlic and turnips. So far no squashes have germinated and most things are smaller than I expected

ShannaraTiger, I would guess the tomatoes will be a bush variety, so big pots, old sweet jars, hanging baskets, growbags etc will be fine. I'm going to try sweet jars this year. But check the packet to be sure. Carrots go well in a deepish bucket, squash love good compost/well manured soil and loads of spreading space, so digging up a small patch of your lawn and digging in loads of compost might work well, but I'm hoping to get away with a big bucket in a sunny corner this year. I know very little about beetroot and lettuce. I wouldn't try any of it in the shade in the back garden.

[blissa]

My tomato plants have started sprouting, 5 out of 18 isn't bad is it!

I think I have given up hope of any strawberries this year and the peppers don't seem to be doing much.

Bought some lettuce seeds today which I shall sow when the rain stops in our old recycling box. Looking forward to next month when I can get the beans and carrots in

[creditcrunchedmum]

Check out thriftymums.com/content/grow-pot-full-veg

I've spent all day trying to untangle a web of teeny leek seedlings. Any tips?

Also, I'm trying to grow potatoes in containers. Should I earth them up when the leaves appear, or wait til the stalks are longer?

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

You should earth up the potatoes as soon as you see green. Mine started off in rubble sacks about 1/4 full and are now up to the top of the bags. It's my first time doing it this way so we'll see.

[creditcrunchedmum]

Thanks - have just earthed up! Radishes, lettuces, cavolo nero, spinach and spring onions all peeped up today after lots of lovely April weather...

[thell]

Hello!

This is my first year properly attempting to grow stuff. I'm really excitable, and having had lots of seeds germinate I can now barely pass a garden centre without stopping to buy something

I have two very small beds in the back garden which don't get much sun, so I'm nurturing the plants there that I like, pulling out the ones that we don't, and planning to put lots of things in pots. There's a sunny strip at the bottom where I've got pots of hardy seedlings, and am planning to turn our little SW facing front garden strip into a mini copntainer allotment!

Seedlings include - calendula, lavender, coriander, chives, rocket, land cress, lettuces, spinach, tumbling toms, and garlic cloves have shot up nicely

Waiting for parsley, nasturtiums, mint, thyme, sugar snap peas and dwarf beans to germinate. I have a smallish straggly rosemary bush, which I've had for a couple of years. It's not lush or anything, but I'm just pleased I haven't killed it yet!

I've also got a bag of Charlotte potatoes from the supermarket that have chitted in the kitchen! Shall I stick a few in a bucket and see what happens? I'll drill some holes in the bottom obviously, and allow space to earth them up.

[creditcrunchedmum]

Give it a go with the potatoes!

I'm spending loads in the garden centre too... Keep telling DH that this is a long-term investment - if I give up after this year our carrots will have cost us about £3 each!

Look out for plant sales - loads around at this time of year - lots of experienced gardeners trying to clear space in their potting sheds by selling off surplus plantlings...

[gardeningmum05]

what does earth up mean

[HelensMelons]

I think it means put put earth over them - potatoes go green when exposed to the sun!

My vegetable patch is realistically a disaster I am in the middle of studying so all plans have been put on hold which is disappointing but just haven't got the time this year.

However, I have just weeded the vegetable patch and planted 5 strawberry plants. It's a very small start, and possibly all that gets done this year, but small steps, etc.

[SalVolatile]

Gardeningmum - quick, tomorrow, get out there and heap earth over the green shoots on you potatos, just leaving the very very tips pointing out if you must , then wait a couple of weeks and do it again. When they have set flower, you can harvest the tubers. If you don't earth up the potatos will go green where the light gets to them through the soil.

[creditcrunchedmum]

I've been reading up on this a bit. It seems all wrong to cover up the leaves, but if you cover them up, the leafy bits turn into potatoes once they're underground.

ALL of the seeds that I planted a couple of weeks ago are now sprouting.

Any tips on when/how I should thin them? It seems horrible to throw away tiny baby plants...

[jenk1]

hi can i join?

ive got 2 containers with potatos in and one with carrots,some little pots with tomatos and little gem lettuce.

im really excited because this morning the little gems are sprouting so im wondering if i leave them a little longer in their pots or put them into larger ones.

my garden isnt ready for growing veg yet,its in a bit of a state so my patio is full of containers and im a complete beginner so any tips would be really gratefully received!!

im going to hampton court flower show with my mum in july for a couple of days,really excited about that as this is the first year ive got into gardening and i get to have a break as well!!!!

[OracleInaCoracle]

hi, can i join? this is the first time that weve had a garden that we CAN plant in. we have toms in baskets, chillies and green beans in pots and lots of bulbs and bedding plants (although i cant remember what exactly)

[snorkle]

Had home grown new potatoes for tea today mmmmm. Sadly though the dustbin only had enough for two meals in it. I have two other large flower pots of potatoes on the go too, but it won't be enough to last until the ones on the allotment are ready. I think next year I will use more smaller containers and also move them outside when it's warm enogh as growing them somewhere too warm tends to make more leaf growth & less potato, so keeping them in the conservatory might not have been the best thing. I thought I was watering them enough, but maybe that was an issue too.

[thell]

Well, today I pricked out my rocket and lettuce seedlings into various containers in the garden, and hopefully they won't need moving again! I'm filled with trepidation, as the first seeds I bought this year, before I started getting completely carried away, were calendula seeds and in my excitement I planted and germinated them indoors instead of in final position. Too impatient - they HATED me trying to prick them out, so now I have two pots full of big seedlings I'm terrified to move, and quite a lot of teeny seedlings in pots that haven't grown bigger since I moved them.

I'm going to be very cautious with my prized tomato seedlings.

[thell]

PS - I can't seem to find any advice about what kind of sun Rocket needs. I've read that if they are to comfy and warm they bolt and run to seed quickly, but will planting them in a shady area kill them off?

[snorkle]

thell, I would think rocket would do ok in a partially shaded place, like lettuce really.

tomato seedlings are fairly robust & usually respond to potting on by making lots of new growth I find.

[gardeningmum05]

salvol..it seems i have been earthing up my potatoes correctly then
i have 3 lots of earlies on the go and they look as if they will be flowering soon, they are huuuuge
my charlottes are nearly to the top of their pots too now,soon be enjoying my hard work

any advice on runner beans anyone? they are about 6" high now. was thinking of putting 4 in a big pot and growing them uo canes/ is it too early?

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

Runner beans are frost tender so it's a tiny bit early to plant them outside.Perhaps you could put them in bigger pots for a couple more weeks?
When you do plant them outside they need very long canes as they grow tall. Watch out the slugs and snails don't eat them. Iv'e had mine nibbled to stumps overnight before. What I try and do is to stick a cut off plastic bottle over the plant until it has grown enough to fight the beasts off.
Snorkle I 'm interested in your container spuds. I've got some in rubble sacks in a sunny corner and they are earthed up to the top and sprouting about 6" over as well. No sign of flowering yet though. My dad tells me they have to flower before you know they are ready? The ones in the veg patch are much further behind.

[gardeningmum05]

thankyou mumswhen.
i am a very impatient gardener, i cant wait til the end of may and i can get planting
my early potatoes are about 5 feet tall now but no flowers yet
my charlotte potatoes are doing well as well. grown in a potato barrell, potato sacks and an old compost bag turned inside out

[snorkle]

mumwhensdinnerready,

Not all potato varieties do flower ('Rocket' doesn't for example) and others have only very small flowers that might easily be missed (eg 'Swift' and 'Nadine'), so you have to look very closely to see them.

So while flowering is generally a good guide to when they're ready it's not always foolproof. Some people prefer to harvest a set number of weeks after planting (especially for the varieties mentioned above) and others choose to wait until the leaves start to die back.

[snorkle]

further info on potato flowers here.

It reckons they are less likely to flower in containers than in the ground & gives a longer list (with pictures) of varieties that flower & those that don't. Note though, that this lists 'swift' as not flowering, but my (container grown) swift did flower with just a few very small flowers, so treat as a guide rather than definitive.

[thell]

Thanks Snorkle, I'll not worry too much about the rocket and lettuce then. Except for watching out for slugs! I'm away for two nights, so what's the betting the wretched slime-monsters have eaten them all by the time I get home ??

Quite excited about pricking out the toms, but I'll hang fire for a couple of weeks I think. They're going in hanging baskets, and I haven't actually figured out where I'm going to hang them from yet!!

Beginning to think the bucket I shoved the spuds in won't be deep enough. Must find an old sack or something.