A complete beginer that had a mad moment

Can i explain and please excuse my spelling and gammar im dyslexic :flag:anyway i have older kids (19 18 and 16) and the little lad who is 5.
I went into town today with my wife and i saw this plastic green house and seeds i had this wild idea and thought would'nt it be great to grow some things with the little one.
So guess what i bought them :lollol:got some seeds ( tomatoes, carrots , lettuce , and spring onions) we have had a great night building the plastic green house :D
My older son 16 said you can tell your getting old dad (jesus im 41) :lollol: so i explained to him it would be nice for the little one to see things grow and enjoy them.
I am no gardener we have the easy low maintinance garden and very small so this is a massive thing for me to do.
I got some trays i would say 5 inches deep i put old broken pottery in the bottom for drainage then filled then about an inch from the top with compost .
i then got my finger dug it down about half an inch and made a line down the trough and spinkled the seeds anlong it and put a thin layer of compost on top.
I only plant the tomatoes and the spring onion in seperate one as i was worried if i was even doing it right.
I will buy some more troughs btw i covered them with a thin layer of compost and watered them.
I know im going on abit but i have no idea about gardening or growing anything and i know ive took a massive risk but the time i have spent with the little one tonight has been well worth it
So any advice or help would be great i would love for him to see hem grow and taste somthing we have put effort into
many thanks Mike old i dont think so maybe a new tallent :thumb:

 

Hi Mike, sounds like you've got the first bit right, although make sure the trays have drainage holes in the bottom to stop them stagnating with water build up under the compost. The trays will be fine for the lettuce and probably the spring onions but it depends on what sort of carrots you've planted? The tomatoes will need transplanting into larger pots when they are big enough to handle, again depending what sort of tomato plants you've got, some are low growing bush plants and some grow vertically to several feet in height. Keep us updated and welcome to the forum

 

Hi Mike and welcome to the forum.

I don't know who is going to have more fun you or your little'un!:hehe:

Like with all things in life we don't know how well we will do at something unless we give it a go and there is no doubt of you giving it a go so well done to you.:thmb: I dare bet you will get just as excited as most of us do when the first seedlings start to pop through the compost.

Keep the compost moist but not wet through and your seeds should pop through in a week or so maybe even sooner. Watch out for slugs if they can wipe out your young plants.

Most of the 'stuff' you are growing should be ok although as Terrier says carrots do tend to need depth if they are the long ones.

You may find that if your tomatoes are the bush or the tumbling forms you will not go far wrong in fact you will be rewarded with a great many toms as these sort don't require pinching out of the side branches like the 'tall' types do, if you leave the side branches on the tall tomatoes you will get more branches than tomatoes which was something I did last year lol.

If you could get some lettuce called 'Salad Bowl' (Wilko sells these seeds for around 59p) you might find these worth buying as with this type of lettuce you just keep picking the leaves off as they grow and new leaves appear in their place .... my neighbour loves this type.

Keep us upto date with your progress and good luck.Hel.xxx.

 

Mike what a wonderful way to introduce the young to gardening, I have done the same with my grandsons . They bought me seeds for my birthday and helped me plant them, the youngest looks most days to see how much they have grown. I myself am fairly new to this site and have had a lot of encouragement and plenty of helpful advice. Welcome to the site, we can only get better[fingers crossed]. your 5yr will love it. Cheers Barb.

 

You are hooked now,no escape,next step an allotment.

 

Thanks for the encouragement we planted the tomatoes and sping onions yesterday :gnthb: hope its not to late ?
So today i planned to do the lettuce and carrots today, but after doing some reading this morning i realised the carrots grow downwards and need space to do it DOH
SO i had this idea my carrots will need a new bed so i stayed indoors and gave up at the first hurdle ( only messing :hehe
Nah i thought about it and got to thinking i stripped my skirting boards out a few months back and they are sitting in the garden waiting to got to the tip
Our back garden is small and paved so i cant plant them in the ground so i needed something deep and ideal for my baby carrots :hehe:
I got my mini bench saw out my mitre saw my hammer ang glue and nails and hey presto i was off :wink:
Ive spent all day building my own carrot bed that i hope will be deep enought for them its 3ft long 1.5 ft deep and 1ft 2 inches wide.
So my old skirting boards have been recycled and put into use i'm not quite finished but i'm tired now so i will finish it tomorrow :thmb:
if this works its a picture of it and you may get the idea how im restricted in space in our garden.
If somebody had told me i would be doing this a month ago i would have called them mad lol
i cant get the image to work so here is the link thanks mike http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=6h02ee&s=5

By the way ignore that dog poops tess did we have a german shepherd pup we should have called her two scoops not Tess :D

 

This is great, and was how I started off... I just bought one plant, some seeds, had a go, chatted to people, made some mistakes (don't feel bad if you do, everyone does, it's how you learn - trial and error) read loads, and it is loads of fun!

Good luck and keep us posted!!!

 

I hope we get somthing from it for Johns sake :hehe: was very funny last night when we put up the little plastic green house.
Its abit like putting up a wendy house when i was finished John said to me dad if i i go get my ben 10 pillow and duvet can i sleep in it :D

Btw im going to line the new carrot bed with plastic sheeting i have and drill in holes for drainage hopefully i should be able to plant them tomoz

 

Mike you are a star. I have enjoyed reading your posts. Your kids are so lucky to have a Dad like you. I hope everything grows for you and you reap the rewards of your labours. Thanks for making my night

 

Thanks i dunno why i'm so new to all this but i appiciate it :gnthb: I think john has felt abit left out today.
Not alot he could do with the dangerous power tools out so he has been alittle left out im affaid.
Thats something he needs to learn that power tools are dangerous if not used correctly and i dont want a couple of fingers hanging around :hehe:
We did have a a good morning watching How Clean Is Your House on channel 4 on demand :hehe: sorry but me and John love Kim and Agie :thumb:
Anyway i got in the garden about dinner time and started working power tools out ect :yho:( i just love them)
I got the sides on and my nephew turned up so he started helping me :hehe: we put the bottom on the bed and then got the plastic sheetin in using my staple gun.
we finished about 19:30 anyway its all done but i never got anything planted as i well under estimated the amount of compost it will take
So them carrots are still not planted and the bed is still only about half full of compost i recon.
On the plus side its dam heavy already and will give me time to place it in a good positition becuase when its full i doubt iw will move at all :hehe:

 

Just an update :thumb: the tomatoes are doing great and growing fast :gnthb: the spring onions seemed very fast and i was so proud of them.
Then it happend (as life is full of twists and turns) I had put them in the front window in the morning then in the afternoon in my plastic greenhouse in the afternoon.
I was upstairs when my wife shouted (Mike did you hear that bang) and no i did'nt but the wind had pulled out the poles from the plastic grips .
All my little spring oinions were sat on the floor in a pile off compost were the tray had fell .
So i scooped them up the best i could in my hands and from the short time i had them replanted them back in the way they looked.
It might be more true to say i plonked then in but there seemed so many anyway the good news is yesterday some are showing again so all might not be lost.
So today i have been into town and me and John have planted the carrots, lettuce, cress, and onions.
I hope i have not bitten off more than i can chew but we are having fun doing it :gnthb::hehe: even if we have.
But thanks guys for your help and support me and John appiciate it :thumb:

 

Don't despair - even if it all goes pear shaped. As you say you're having fun and you're learning loads. Next year you'll do even better.

Its still early in the year - plenty of time for lots of growth