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Why wait until the 1st of May, Hash? I'll roll naked in the dew with you, and we'll see what grows.
A nice day.
Spuds were showing signs of movement. (Jersey Royal) Greeny purple sprouts 1/2" long, so that's 3 in the ground, and 3 in a planter bag. I'm apparently waiting for 4 weeks before starting the rest in bags. Somehow I expect that they'll all come at the same time.
Onions sowed last week are already sprouting. Talk about the childish excitement.
Rocket seems to be growing from the ungerminated seed last year. That makes me happy.
Strawberry plantlets are in and seem happy.
Parsley already germinated from the propagator.
Glass is on the raised bed planter as well as a dozen bay yearlings.
Much savagery on some more bushes that had had the indecency to grow too large and woody.
Last year's chard looks quite happy. Some research tells me to expect that it will bolt this year, and I should plan replacements.
My Dad says potatoes should be planted on Good Friday. Hi Hashette btw!
Very excited to find a running gardening thread. Just exhumed my veg patch from under the weeds today (it was that or start mowing it). There was loads of rocket, both self seeded and from the old plants but ripped it all out regardless.
Grow my potatoes in pots, so much easier. Has anyone ever grown Sweetcorn in pots. I grew some on a friend's allotment last year but not an option this year. It didn;t seem to like my veg patch the year before.
After a year of crap tomoatoes have decided to give 'em a miss this year and wondered whether I could use the pots for sweetcorn. Any thoughts oh wise ones?
Chard will probably bolt with longer warmer days (ie any minute now except it is getting colder again next week).
I had a very exciting session with my compost heaps as well today, slightly worries to see I wrote that, I really need to get out more! But there were soooo many red worms in the active one, it was awesome!!!
Evening all!
Time to re-bookmark this thread, methinks!
I'm really behind on doing anything in my garden so far this year, thanks to a very intensive amount of postgraduate study.
But I've now prepared the soil throughout my entire plot, so time to get going!
I'm in two minds about tomatoes, FL. I love homegrown tomatoes, but last year's were a complete waste of time.
And yet I still cling to the optimistic hope we might have a decent summer! 
TBH, you might want to give the sweetcorn a go instead as an experiment! Can't be any worse than a really rubbish tomato crop!
The Good Friday thing is a load of old baloney, obviously. Easter can move by 4 weeks, and whilst Scotland can be 2 weeks late, the southern coastal counties can be 2 weeks earlier than average. So that's a 2 month window. I suppose that it acts as a reminder though- uh oh it's Good Friday and I've not planted my spuds...
Good news on the worms BTW, that's a really healthy sign. I've only got space for one heap in the household garden, so that means it's time for the dreaded harvest. (Remove new stuff, mash old stuff and use it, replace new stuff at bottom). A real back demolisher.
I would wait till after this cold spell we are sposed to be getting Haille dont wanna lose them straight away.
I tried the sweetcorn in a large pot (30" dia) but it was really small when it actually grew, only half normal size and not really edible. They have to be planted close together so they can germinate each other.
I've just planted my potatos as the soil is warm, and put my seedlings out in the sunshine.
There are a couple of mini-sweetcorns that may like being grown in a pot better than the normal sized stuff, but they'll need a lot of watering
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/755/1.html
Not really the same as a big fresh cob that you can cover with butter and stuff your face in though!
Peppers?
Mint. That way it's kept out of the rest of the garden where it can be a smothering weed.
Got mint, in sunken pots in my herb garden. Still tries to escape but I beat it back!
Might do peppers although had some pepper plants last year and they did about as well as the tomatoes, guess it was that kind of a year.
Thanks for the suggestions, I like Hashettes Dwarf Runners esp as Mr FL has already put in a request for runner beans this year.
dug out an planted bed at the weekend as the perennials in there were starting to go mental and take over the place so now have a nice new raised bed for veg - mainly salad crops as it's really too small for larger veg, although I might stick some leeks and chard in for winter use.......otherewise everything else will go in post as usual (toms, chillies, courgettes etc)
we have mint in pots - keeps it controlled although it doesn't crop so well as free running mint
what a great thread.
the only thing wrong with it is i have spent ages reading back when i should have been digging out couch grass roots on my allotment.
My potatoes are chitting, they are leftovers from last years crop that never got eaten. does the assembled wisdom on here think that will be ok?
well done to you all for not giving up after last years appalling summer weather. optimists all.....
right, going now to fork out those ****** roots!
Depends on the size of the seedlings Haille for potting on.
Last years not eaten should be fine Kate
I grow beetroot in large pots Foxy also try garlic too.
Garlic in pots
. Too late now for this year isn't it? When I grew it before it was autumn planting, needs the frost or something.
Now beetroot- I just was given some orange beetroot seeds so that's a plan!
I'm trying broad beans in pots this year - don't expect much but worth a try using some left over compost from last year with added nutrients
Tomato hanging baskets,anyone tried them???
I am going to give them a go this year,I bought a pack of seeds that contained carrots & tomato's specifically for baskets.
My next door neighbour does a variation on tomatoes in hanging baskets - she's got buckets with holes in the bottom that she hangs on the walls of her house. The tomatoes are planted upside down so the plants grow through the bottom of the buckets. Doesn't seem to work particularly better than conventional means, but they do take up a lot less space.
But if you've got varieties specifically aimed at hanging baskets you might get better results. Never tried them myself though!
I planted all my garlics in early October of last year & they are totally flying now.
The elephant garlics have taken really well & are starting to look like large onions.
The Garlic Farm in the Isle of White provide an excellent mail order service for anyone wanting to get into growing different varieties.
Lady P space certainly is one problem with tomatoes,so I thought I would only do 4 or 5 grow bags this year & then try some hanging baskets.
I've done toms in baskets, worked fine to be fair, until the entire lot went crashing to the floor cos of the weight!!
Last year was a bit of a disaster on tom front with disease. Fingers crossed this year - I think a lot was down to the weather last year.
let's hope for a better summer this year - we could do with one
I think I said previously 1 tomato last year from 50 odd plants due to blight,that probably makes me officially the shitest Gardner on RW.
Kinda makes you wonder what Mr Tesco has done to his toms???
Last year was particularly poor for toms where we are. Cool and wet. In fact, I normally compost the lot, but last year decided that it was too risky and they went to the green Local Authority wheelie. I'm not allowed to burn things here.
Our hanging baskets are managed by use of an automatic watering system based on a timer. Fairly easy and saves a lot of effort. Actually, I must re-rig it.
Hello! I've just found this thread and hope you don't mind me joining in.
I bought some land off my next door neighbour last year with the plan of using the bulk of it to grow vegetables. I'm completely new to any of this so I hope it will be ok if I can use and abuse all your knowledge.
After clearing the land completely over the winter, I've now got a greenhouse and 2 fairly large raised beds and I'm hoping I'm ready to now start growing as many different things as possible. At the moment I've planted a lot of different seeds which are just starting to come through in seed trays in the greenhouse and I've got some first early/second early and main crop potatoes chitting in there too.
First quick question (I'll bombard you all with more another tiime), my first earlies don't seem to be doing as well as my second earlies. Have I don't something wrong? and if so, what can I do to 'jig things along a bit'? Also, when should I be thinking about planting them all out?
(ok, so that was 3 questions....told you I would be bombarding you!!)
Thanks, all hints and tips gratefully accepted!
Mr Kwilter will be planting our potatoes within the next week. I can't remember what type we've got, sorry!
He's off to the lottie to plant seeds and take the last few boxes of spuds and onions down tomorrow.