Lessons learned 2014

Most valuable lesson learned this year is to put more stones/membrane in the bottom of my tubs before I fill them up.

Good thread f c

Val

 

But at least I've managed to plant mini-bush tomatoes in my window boxes this year, unlike a couple of years ago when I accidentally planted them with full size cordon tomatoes, now those really did hang down!

 

Lessons learned:

1) Don't go on holiday at end of May and leave brother in law to water seedlings. He didn't, they died. Not had the time really to resow with taking on a new job role at work, so I've given up this year. I have bought most annuals and veg plug plants.
2) Don't put weeds and seed heads in compost as they are germinating in the raised veg beds. Looks like I will have to take the top layer out and replace at huge end of he year, I cannot keep on top of them.
3) Don't sow as many Broad Beans as I have found out I am the only one in the house that likes them.
4) Finish one project before having a brain wave and starting another. Now got three unfinished projects on the go.
5) Give up on a wildflower patch, sown 3 not one has germinated (all different seed packets)

Plus point:

Re did my front garden this year and am very pleased with the results so far.

Rusty

 

Been there, done that! Dad killed all my Deppea splendens (very, very rare) by over-watering them

Or chilli, pepper or tomato seeds for that matter.

At least you can smugly comfort yourself with the fact that you're the only one with good taste then! Of all the "traditional" type veg broad beans are my favourite (excepting mushrooms of course).

 

Who is B & M

Val

 

This is a difficult one as I don't know whether I'll be still living here next year. Assuming I am there'll be a revision of my two tier bed. It's a mixture of perennials and annuals, the annuals I grow from seed myself and this year they've been a disaster. I was hoping to introduce more red and yellow, I've got the red with Nicotiana but too much of it, the so-called mixed seeds all turned out to be red. As for the yellow that failed miserably too, even the Calla lilies I've grown for the first time this year turned out to be a bronzy colour and not yellow.

It's so annoying that seed suppliers on the whole these days don't produce 'one colour' packets for annuals. If they don't fleece us by putting mainly one colour in the packets, you can guarantee the predominant colour is not the one that's wanted!

I have a much hated Potentilla hedge against my front garden wall and haven't got round to replacing it. Because of my intended house move it will now remain but for a couple of adjustments. At one end there is a Berberis, that's coming out. At the other end there is a space that's going to be filled. I hate it when things don't 'flow'. Today unwillingly I took cuttings to grow on so I can get this hedge in order and complete.

 

FC.....Can it be stickied until the new season starts next year please. It would be good to look back at this thread to remind ourselves of resolutions made and mistakes that we don't want to make again.

 

Yep - a Maskotka at each end and a Tumbling Tom in the middle= 3 Toms per box. There are 2 boxes,
Jenny

 

A cheapo shop which sells bare root roses and shrubs for about 1.79 each in spring.

 

I can't resist commenting on some points, I hope that is OK?

I learnt how to sow Petunias too. Fell in love with a couple of single-colour varieties, grew them year after year. Had almost total failure one year - did nothing different. Might have been old seed from supplier 'coz, e.g., maybe they had crop failure Anyways, 'coz Petunia are a slow-to-germinate and slow-to-get-to-life-sized-plants I should have had a backup plan, but didn't. I re-bought the seed to have another go, and they were far too late. After that I bought twice as many packets as I needed, and sowed each packet separately, Belt & Braces ... and then grew tired of Petunias and moved on to something else.

There is probably a lot of sense in buying plugs, if you can find a reliable supplier. Kernock is probably who you want - except for their 10-tray minimum order ... a local nurseryman who buys Kernock plants and will add-on your order might be a good alternative (but you will still need to buy in multiples of whole trays)

Grew them for years (decades probably!) and have now moved on and want to try different things each year. I still have a few trailing lobellia and pelargoniums, and large flowered begonias in the display, but they are one-plant-per-tub rather than 99% of the tub!

Bit of a theme ... and ME TOO

If you don't think it too OTT then measure all the plants towards the end of the season, and record them in a notebook. Name, Height and Spread. Use those figures next year, and ignore the packets / online resources. If you like to overfeed your plants then your recorded sizes will be best-fit for your husbandry, not to mention your soil type and how exposed your garden is. I just take photographs of the tape-measure (i..e the bit of it at the top of the plant ) and then photograph the plant's label / flower whatever so that I know what it is - because I am lazy writing it down, and will lose the paper ... although I now use Evernote APP on my phone for all that sort of plant-related-info (it means I have the Info for planting distance, in my pocket, NEXT Spring when I am planting out )

I have a little text file of all the planting distances of vegetables on my phone too

Are they dying? or being eaten to death by slugs in the spring? I find I need 2 years to get them established; it might be worth growing them in a large pot, placed (or plunged) in-situ for the first season, and grown on at the start of the second season until the new shoots are just large enough to be self-surviving, and then plant out?

Might it be the soil - too compacted perhaps? It might need more preparation if grass is not growing in that spot in the first place. Or there is some builders rubble <Spit!> (if house is a New Build) buried at that point

I found that I needed to incorporate water retaining gel into the bottom half of the compost in the basket / container. Anything near the surface worked its way to the top, dried out and blew away!

Make sure you don't "reuse" the compost (e.g. via compost heap) such that it gets reused on Edible crops - my research suggested that the chemicals that the water retaining gels can break down to could be carcinogenic, but before you worry about that I suggest you do your own research rather than rely on mine. Clearly it has NOT been headline news yet!

F1 seed varieties vary IME. I grow some F1 varieties year after year because they work the best for me. But I have grown plenty that were expensive and gave no benefit. I now only grow vegetables for Best Flavour. If they have rubbish yield, are susceptible to every disease going, that's fine (within reason!). I only want best flavour (otherwise I might as well buy my veg at the Supermarket).

Look out for seeds in the end-of-season-sales. I've got most of mine at 50p-a-packet in recent years - which is a great leveller of F1 vs. non-F1 But I avoid marketing gimmicks, there is a reason that some varieties only hang around for a season or two ...

Best to sow in rows (within a defined "irregular shape"), rather than broadcast seeds randomly. Then you see little rows of seedlings, and can thin them, plus you can assume that anything not in straight lines is a weed

Raising plants (in modules/pots) and planting out is more Faff, but when you plant out the young plant is, say, 6-8 weeks old, so has that much headstart on any weeds than then choose to germinate, so the initial faff can result in a saving of hand-weeding time later on.

If you need an emergency fix put a paving slab over the roots, it will be cool under the slab.

Use 1/2 the recommended amount, but twice as often. The plants will prefer that

You can split your tubers too. There is a good video on it (which I can dig out if you would like?)

My advice is to start at the top of the plant and work down. Start BELOW the highest flower truss that you can find. That will prevent you accidentally removing the main growing tip.

Take some secateurs and trim off (rather than breaking off) all the large side shoots. You can leave one leaf on each side shoot, rather than trying to trim right back to the main stem (which might introduce disease if it heals badly / slowly against the main stem)

Mine too. They are always slow initially, and then all of a sudden they get a wiggle on. I've just started finding all the self-sown ones from last year, which must have germinated in the last week or two - way too late to be any use this year though

If you use your compost only as mulch, rather than digging / mixing it in, that will help. All seedlings will be on the surface of the, somewhat rough, mulch and will be easier to weed and many will shrivel in the sun as the surface of the mulch dries out.

Pick the pods very small - less to eat, and better flavour too - your family might even enjoy them that small

http://www.bmstores.co.uk/stores

I'll shut up now

 

Great post Kristen. You knows a thing or two about gardening and it's always sage advice,
Jenny

 

That's kind of you to say so Jenny, but I talk a lot of Tommy Rot too