STW – Garderners and allotment users – Friday chat

A question: If I put 'weed and feed' on the lawn, can the cuttings be put into the compost heap? Or will it be bad for the veggies in a few months when rotted down?

Thanks.

241!

hamsters not like gardening then?

ah we're back 🙂

most pesticides and herbicides are broken down by UV and in the soil so it shouldn't be a problem

it should tell you what the active ingredients are and there'll be plenty of info on the web about their properties

Mike… our spuds are only really just coming through and we are further south than you, so I think yours should be okay.

At the moment our garden looks a little thin on the ground, with only the garlic, cabbage, brocolli and purple sprouting broc in the ground, and most of that won't be ready until this winter! Everything else is still in the greenhouse… which I am quite thankful for seeing as we've had several frosts in the last few weeks!

But, tomatoes are coming on, as are the courgettes, cucumber, pepper, chilli, aubergines… and we've been cropping salad leaves and lettuce for about a week now… which is nice.

Here's the veg patch from a garden I designed a couple of years ago – went back today for the first time in ages and thought of this thread. It was meant to have a bit of an orchard at the far and a couple of cherries either side of the path at this end, but the client's obviously had other ideas.

Meanwhile at home (on a slightly smaller scale!) we've got toms, courgettes & french beans busting out of their pots but don't want to stick them out until the nights start warming up.

really wish we could have a proper greenhouse, i might build a triangular one in the garden but it's still limited space. I miss the smell of my parents greenhouse and would love to have one with space to grow on shelves and off the floor.

beans seem to be suffering with the cold nights so we've fleeced them for now, they got to big for pots anyway so they had to go out

Having the greenhouse is great… although I am already thinking that ours is too small! D'oh!

It's certainly made a massive difference for us in growing things like tomatoes and peppers..

Next stop a polytunnel as well maybe.

:o)

if the grand plan comes into fruition then a move is on the cards anyway (shame as we've only just started enjoying the raised beds and the back garden has only just got really established) and room for a greenhouse/polytunnel/pump track/north shore/bike mansion will be on the list of things to look for

Our 15ft diameter dome greenhouse is great, though two normal ones would have fit better and given just as much growing space, if not more.

If you want to feel some poly tunnel envy, have a look at http://traffordecohouse.wordpress.com/

We had a light frost last night, so we're hoping no damage has been done 🙁

Quick question – what plant food do you use/recomend for your potted plants(not veg)?

Someone mentioned a pellet version that is slow release and can last up to six months or the growing season, but cannot remember the name of it 😉

Ta.

Last of my strawberries this year!

Had a great crop compared to last year, waiting for the runner beans now, how is everyone getting on so far this year?

Masses of gooseberries, salad, tomatoes are appearing, chillies showing, potatoes in full flower, pumpkin leaves taking over a large area, french beans growing and a greenhouse full of, mostly, perennials! Great year so far in a small garden 🙂

Sugar snaps have been and gone – first planting took ages to germinate so we went from nothing to overflowing. Climbing french beans (purple ones!) just starting to crop now. Courgettes are slowly taking over – hacking leaves off to get air inside the plant so fruits ripen rather than rotting. Carrots starting to crop well too – couple of different varieties – one purple (skinned) carrot too, hmmm what have i got about purple veg? Toms are slowly putting on bulk but still green. Turnips, beetroot, radish etc all plodding away but the parsnips are looking enormous already. And MrsP's growing some broccoli which i shall avoid at all costs.

I reckon I've had about £60 of raspberries already!!! And there's still so many more that are ripe and ready to be picked/munched.

I've already had some awesome beetroot, broad beans, peas and gooseberries from the allotment. Sweed looks to be doing fab as does the kale which is just massive already.

Had a few bad croppers. Parsnips seemed to have failed to produce… I have about 5 coming up. I'm trying celeriac this year aswell – hopefully that'll do nicely.

Peas and mange tout are doing well here. Potatoe plants are HUGE. Had some mega beetroot this year as well and all the salad is lovely lovely. I've also had the best crop of strawbs yet! Parsnips failed to germinate (forgot about them and sowed late anyway) I've got my first flower on an achocha plant though (first time I've grown it, never tasted it before – excited!)

My shed has been raided again on my allotment!

Lost a petrol mower and strimmer this time, they left my prize old fork but decided to take my crop of apples and spuds too that were sack and boxed up for storage.

If anyone has a cheap petrol strimmer going, not far from Worcestershire, please let me know.

On a positive note, sweetcorn is amazing this year, just started to pick my grapes for making wine, last of the Toms baked and stored & I have a new plot neighbour who makes a great cup of Tea 😉

Any ideas on what to plant this time of year, apart from green manure 😉

Isn’t it time for brocolli, sprouts etc? I was advised by TV gardener the other day to plant seeds in a greenhouse (flowers in this case) as they put down stronger roots and do better in the ground next year. I’ll give it a go.

Having managed to buy a house I now have my first ever garden to play with. It is currently a blank canvas of gravel and concrete in which I intend to build some raised beds over the comming weekends.

So my question: What veggies to start with and when can I start planting in earnest?

the fella with the plot next to mine just…

….oh never mind 😀

Helios – spuds are always a good starter cos the process of planting, earthing up & harvesting does a great job of preparing your soil.

When can you start? I normally go for late Feb outdoors with some peas & carrots – but I’m darn Sarf so there’s a bit less risk of them getting nobbled by the frosts.

Ta muchly thepurist – that means i’ve got a few weekends to get my raised beds made. If I’m buying topsoil to fill the beds with do I need to worry about organic matter n’ stuff as well?

Spuds, peas and carrots here I come… (said in a Forrest Gump accent)

You want to make sure you’ve got a decent nutritious soil in there but don’t necessarily go OTT – for instance growing carrots in recently manured soil can lead to them forking (so can stones) whereas beans will take everything you can give em. Top tips are to work out what you want to grow where then check for any particular fussiness.

Just a quick shout out, if you are not aware, there is a new tv channel out on the 6t March on Sky Channel 166, Freesat Channel 402.

The Horticultural Channel

http://thehorticulturalchannel.info/%5B/url%5D

The Horticultural Channel.tv is a new television micro-channel which is broadcast on Sky, Freesat and available to watch on this website. Broadcast on Sundays at 9:00am. Programmes can also be downloaded via iTunes.

THC.tv provides programmes for amateur gardeners and allotment holders throughout the UK. Giving practical advice on how to grow vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers plus information on how to keep chickens and bees.

Filmed throughout the United Kingdom the shows offer an insight into the people and the places that make up the network of allotment sites throughout the country.

I’ll keep my eye out for that ski 🙂

If anyone wants a beginners allotment gardening book (I can’t for the life in me remember what it’s called, just that I have 2 of them!), drop me an email and I’ll post it to you. Maybe we could have a read it and pass it on type scenario?

Ooo… While plant people are here… I’ve got some seedlings starting off on my kitchen window sill – they are just beginning to germinate – but one of the lettuce seedlings has fallen over. Does that mean I’m not watering enough? And will it perk up again if i pay it a bit more attention?

More water I say, and maybe a bit of food?

it’s spring time folks

the lawn has just had it’s first trim of the season, lots of packets of seeds are starting to appear and the dug in manure has been doing it’s lovely thing all winter.

what’ll it be this year?

We’ve just sowed onion, spring onion and a few other things outdoors and have started our windowsill nursery for the more tender plants.

We were cropping parsnip until last week and have had great spinach since january (outdoors!), garlic that went in last year is doing well and we hope to have yummy garlic shoots soon

We’ve ripped out all the plants we’ve lost too the last two winters and are having a planting marathon in the back (or flower) garden. We even got our local garden centre to do a free planting plan for us.

Any advice on potato barrels, ours is sitting empty at the moment although we have the seed potatoes to go in, what compost? how deep? how many to put in?

😀

I’m planning on getting my fingers green this year as I’ve moved to a house with a big overgrown garden. I’ve already planted a few herbs in a box, but I think its the wrong type of soil, looks like mud, clay and stones..

Is there an idiot’s guide to gardening/growing vegetables!? Or is this it!? 😆

Carol Klein’s ‘Grow your own veg’ is excellent for the edible side of it and magazines are pretty good for picking up general stuff

MrMW – spuds don;t need to go in deep but you need to keep covering them up as they grow so allow at least 18″ or more of space above soil level at planting to do that. How many to put in depends on how big the barrel is & what type of spud they are.

Milkie – there’s probably a billion books on the subject – the ones by Hessayon(?) are OK as a starter, or there’s all sorts of allotmenty type ones. Best get going tho as it’s just about prime planting time for your summer veg.

thanks purist – got all impatient so went on ‘tinternet instructions. about 6inches of good veg compost, 3 seed potatoes (chitted) then just enough to cover em up. There’s about 12 – 14 inches of room left in the lining bag to top up as they grow

carrots, onions, garlic, spinach, beets, courgettes – possibly spuds

have worked out what does best here and I’m sticking with it

let’s get some photos up then, I’ll do some at weekend

🙂

You can use old car tires too, just keep stacking them and add more soil as they grow.

A few people here on our allotment do this, makes it easy to crop too

We got very overexcited about our newly built veg bed and started out some seeds indoors back in february – they all went a bit too leggy but are now starting to thrive having been planted out under polythene…

Either way I’m going to be lettuce’d up the eye balls – but my current favourites are the peas and the pak choi which look amazing so far…

Oh, also doing peas and rocket.

Rocket does particularly well here for some reason. Finished the last batch up as pesto.

going to leave the salads for a couple of weeks i think. rocket is a definite

planted my tatties today, onions, garlick, cabbage, brocoli and rhubarb coming along nicely…. wonder whats next

I’ve currently got garlic, onions, shallots, carrots, beetroot & radish growing outside. Chillies, sweet peppers and courgettes inside in a propagator.

Plenty of other stuff to get going at some point as well.

my overwintered chilli is back in flower. My lemon is producing loads of flowers and a few fruit are developing