Delia Online

Re: Help - I am a first timer!
08 Apr 2008 21:25

I have ordered from Rocket Gardens an Instant Patio Container Garden to grow my own veg in containers or grow bags. It contains established plants such as :

Tomatoes x 5
Courgettes x 2
Yellow courgettes x 2
French Green Beans x 10
Runner Beans x 5
Mixed Lettuce x 40
Mizuna x 20
Rainbow Chard x 5
Rocket x 20
Garden peas x 12
Strawberries x 6

But when they arrive I haven't a clue what to do!! Do they all need an individual container? What sort of soil should I use? Can anyone give me some hints and tips please as I have never grown anything before.

To make matters worse I have ordered an Instant Herb Garden and strawberry plants also to be grown in containers.

I really am going to have to stop working from home cos I watch daytime TV and think ooh that sounds good I'll have a go at that, this time it was Alan Titchmarch!

Replies

By Biggles: Re: Help - I am a first timer!
08 Apr 2008 23:28
Ermmm, give us a clue; have you got a garden you can dig plants into? are you wanting to grow all these plants in containers and grow bags on a patio or balcony?
Tomatoes and strawbs need plenty of water when the fruits form. Tomatoes generally do better when they are well spaced out. Runner beans can be grown in grow bags but they tend to perform better when they have a 6 - 8 foot pole to twine around. I used to grow courgettes on the compost heap. We have just planted lettuce out and they are less than 12 inches apart, I'm not sure we have given them enough room but they are the big floppy ones, if they don't go to seed !
Can you get an allotment? Good luck. Biggs
PS just a thought won't you be sent growing instructions with the plants?

By Amanda - Ashford, Middlesex: Re: Help - I am a first timer!
09 Apr 2008 11:06
I hadn't thought of an allotment but I think it may be too late now. My garden isn't big enough to plant anything and I am hoping to grow everything in containers - I am hoping growing instructions come with the plants!

By mascapone: Re: Help - I am a first timer!
10 Apr 2008 12:15
Hi Amanda, as you are at home go on to the uktv website or bbc gardeners world.com, both of these are very good. For the tomatoes they can be grown outdoors in grow bags but if you can find space for a mini greenhouse (woolies are selling one @ £15) even better. The courgettes will spread so be careful where you plant them. Hope this helps. l Liz

By gerry: Re: Help - I am a first timer!
10 Apr 2008 16:00
I'm pretty useless but courgettes grow well on scads of compost, esp. farmyard manure.

By *Bramble: Re: Help - I am a first timer!
10 Apr 2008 16:11
Well for a start you want 5 pots 50cm/20inches across, these will do for your french beans (2) peas (2) and one for runner beans. You will want support over these, you can make them yourself with bamboo poles and string.
The other plants will go in smaller pots, and the strawbs in a strawberry planter. This will nicely give you different levels. Your tomatoes want to be indoors on a window sill, and your lettuces and rocket would feed the whole town - I keep five lettuces to pull bits off as required, and they last us all summer! You will not need to spend a fortune on expensive potting compost, the cheap growbags do for stuff that only lasts one summer. Hope this helps to get you started :-)))
Bramble xxx

By *Bramble: Re: Help - I am a first timer!
10 Apr 2008 16:13
Just looking at that - 50cm or bigger please, your pots, and make them plastic as the heavy terracotta ones dry out as soon as your back's turned :-)))

By Sam, worthing west sussex, uk

Re: Help - I am a first timer!
10 Apr 2008 17:46

1...allotments take years to become available....get your name down on your local one...now! you basically have to wait for someone to die or just cancel their plot...and then there will be at least 100 people in front of you...but sometimes, alot of people are full of good intentions then get bored. you might be lucky and you might only have to wait 6 months....but around where i live the waiting list is 3 years...and you get points if you are active and known in your local community.

2...these saplings that you will get will be supplied as what is known as plug plants where the veggies are basically half started, and will be in little containers, and will need potting on as soon is viable given weather conditions.

3...type of compost soil, well.. depending on what outdoor space you have,,, you have various options.

you can take yourself off to b&q or homebase and get their "own brand" compost in 45 litres bag...which is pretty big and weighty but is sufficent for first time growing skills, but you should mix in with it some decent fertiliser for example miracle gro little ballys can;t think of the name, but they look like coriander seeds, or 6X in pellet form...also get water gel...which helps retain water in your containers for times when you are at work ie, water in the morning before you leave for work, and the water gel, helps conatin the water so it doesn;t just pour out of the bottom of your conatiners, then water again in the evening.

or you could go for miracle grow, 3 bags for £12 which is excellant but for some reason it doesn;t seem to go very far, but its good stuff.

with regards containers.

now you can buy grow bags, long thin bags full of good quality compost, that you could grow flat 3 tom plants in...but the best advice i can give with grow bags is to make your own 2 plant pots out of one bag....seems extreme but excellant for tom's cucumbers, couregttes and french beans...basically take one grow bag, cuddle it in the middle so you can feel the soil seprating in half, then cut the bag with scissors and then you will have a lip of bag to contain water when watering rather than the water pouring off a grow bag if left flat.

saying that grow bags are good for lettuces. laid flat, you can 2 rows cut into a grow bag and grow 10 lettuces in one bag.

strawberries, i would grow in pots that were at least 20cm in diameter, using the compost as mentioned above.

rocket grows in any condititions under any sized pot or trough.

peas i would grow in a pot that was fairly large, as you can get 4 or 5 plants in a decent sized round pot that was about 2ft or more in diameter, and get some garden canes that are about 4 foot high and make a wigwam for each to climb up. don;t need to be that deep at least 8inches,

sammy