***Grow Your Own 2011***

This thread is ace, does anyone have any links to decent sites for beginners? I'd like to try this once I get my own place
 
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You're best off getting a good book like this one to start with

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grow-Your-Own-Veg-Rhs/dp/1845332938/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1310330830&sr=8-5

You may then have many questions as your crop progresses and any troubles arise. For that, I would join the forum at http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/

They are very knowledgable and helpful over there.

The best crops for novices are (i've been told):

Most crops are pretty easy to grow. Except the dreaded celery. That stuff is a nightmare. Uses so much water that you might sleep next to it with a watering can.
 
quackers said:
This thread is ace, does anyone have any links to decent sites for beginners? I'd like to try this once I get my own place
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I'm a complete novice but I bought Grow your own Veg by Carol Klein which was excellent from tesco and for my birthday I git an even better book Grow something to eat everyday by Jo Whittingham. The last one is fantastic for laying out each month, what you should be planting, harvesting and what pests to look for :)

Anyway I had 2 weeks away on holiday and asked my neighbour to kindly water my plants. Came back and sadly whitefly and aphids have destroyed all of my slad leaves and rocket etc :( Haven't had to buy any for months and now have to start over.

On the plus side my son pulled his first carrots and garlic. He ate both the carrots he pulled and we will make some garlic bread together when it's dried out. He was pleased with himself as you can see.



Also starting pulling some spring onions :)



My potatos look about ready to start digging up as well and next week I should start lifting some of the onion varieties we have.
 
So.... went to Devon for a week, came back, and everything is doing well, except for one poor sorrel plant which had quite spectacularly kicked the bucket whilst we were away. Unmistakably dead, and almost rotted-away in its pot, even. The sorrel right next to it was fine.

Damn temperamental plants...
 
strumpusplunket said:
So.... went to Devon for a week, came back, and everything is doing well
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I've been to Cornwall for the last week. And everything has jumped on since I left. We now have loads of pea pods developing, shallots are bulging and there are plenty of courgettes growing. The Tomato plants have gone bananas... I fear ill be drowned with the sheer number of tomatoes we will have when harvested!
 
My early peas are already done, next year I have to plant loads more and stagger them. God knows what's gone wrong with my tomatos. 9 plants and only one full tomato on them.

I've pinched off the extra tiers as per all the books but I've got next to no vines flowering :(
 
topgun06 said:
I've been to Cornwall for the last week. And everything has jumped on since I left. We now have loads of pea pods developing, shallots are bulging and there are plenty of courgettes growing. The Tomato plants have gone bananas... I fear ill be drowned with the sheer number of tomatoes we will have when harvested!
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Yeah, that happened to us last year. Ended up freezing an absolutely huge batch of tomato-based pasta sauce. Kept us going until the end of November!

dannyjo22 said:
My early peas are already done, next year I have to plant loads more and stagger them. God knows what's gone wrong with my tomatos. 9 plants and only one full tomato on them.

I've pinched off the extra tiers as per all the books but I've got next to no vines flowering :(
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IME, tomato plants are very unpredictable. My dad's plants always flower and fruit long before mine, but by the end of summer, we both end up with a decent crop. At the moment, I only have one plant with any tomatoes on, and the rest just either just starting to flower or yet to. No worries, though. They'll all come good by the end of summer.
 
Tom plants are really slow to get flowers/fruit on for the majority in my greenhouse this year. Perhaps im not doing enough which is more than likely.

Hate leaf mold as i keep forgetting to keep the greenhouse door open now and then but i just keep it shut grr.

Pruned a lot of branches off tom plants today some big bits too as they were getting all over and hard to manage.

Small harvest today.



First early jalapeno harvested. Cant wait to try it. Semi red are the gardeners delight, rest are tumbling toms, and some apache chillies.
 
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Seems like I have left my earlies in too long :(
We got a decent crop from the first bag we emptied yesterday, but I reckon I could have got them out a month ago. Oh well first year, trial and error :)

There is also some skin marks on a few of the charlottes that I think might be potato blight. Very slight and it will peel off but I think If I had got them up before July they would have faired better.



 
Finally got a few toms to ripen. OMG they taste amazing :eek:. So much better than the crappy ones from tesco.

Just wish i could get a good crop. They keep going mouldy or could be blight and just not ripening very well. Going to take some green ones off and put them in a box with a green bananna to see if that works.

Got hundreds of cayenne chillies ripened, if only everything else was as easy.
 
I'm no expert Mark but I've read that happens if you are not feeding them every other water. Also are you pinching off the shoots to make sure they are getting water?
 
dannyjo22 said:
Wow any pictures of the tree, how big is it?
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It's dwarf no more than two foot, last couple of years it's had leaf curl but this year I've treated it at the right time and it's done great, need to re pot it in the autumn when the leaves drop and then it needs to be under cover, the fungus lives in the soil and gets splashed up with the rain.

Pretty fickle :p
 
My first ever heirloom tomato a pink brandywine. Now i used to feed with tomatorite but havent in the last month due to a hose i have been using so maybe thats why its a bit smaller that i hoped but it was still nice.

Very fleshy barely any seeds in bar 2 i think. I expected a stronger tom flavour but didnt, instead i just felt like i was eating mushy tom. Maybe my expectations were too high after the temptation of heirlooms having the "real" tomato flavour that you dont get anymore. I mean it wasnt bad and it was very sweet with no sharpness at all. Tried a bit of salt on as you suppose to with tomatoes but this didn't need salt and in fact didn't taste too nice with salt on.

Anyhow the tom.




1 tom out of about 10 heirloom plants in greenhouse, this is the only one thats actually grew and got to the end ready to eat. Their is another pink brandywine that was next to this one i cut the other day that is green. All the rest of the plants either havent put flowers out or the flowers died. Quite a waste this year with getting the greenhouse and heirloom seeds. Nothing but bother with potato leaf brandywines due to their mould on the leaves if i didnt have the door open much on the greenhouse.

Still i got to try a heirloom which i wouldnt be able to find anywhere I'm at to buy.
 
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