Vegetable patch - Help

give the lettuce chance stoney, they may well suprise you!! mine aren't looking that good at the mo. The biggest problem I have with lettuce seedlings is pigeons, they love to pick at the leaves. I poke sticks and twigs into the ground at angles pointing upwards to try to stop them landing. I've also tied some old computer cd's to canes, when the wind catches them, they spin around. It seems to be doing the trick!!

the spuds are easy to grow, and don't need much work through the year. just let me know if you want them, preferably before fri morning cos i'm away for a few days after that.

Can also offer you a few raspberry plants if you like?? they won't give you fruit this year but maybe you could grow them at the back of the patch somewhere. Again, they won't need a great deal of care


keep up the good work mate

 

Stoney - the lettuce just look a bit dry to me maybe? As glen says, don't despair yet. Things often go a bit droopy and pathetic for a while after transplanting then pick up again.
You've obviously done a lot of digging!
When I plant out seedling started in cells from seed, or bought elsewhere, I always dig a slightly larger hole and put some extra compost in there, then set the seedling in, disturbing the roots as little as possible. I have no idea if this helps as I haven't tried not doing it, if you see what I mean! Then give them lots of water before and after planting out.

 

Stoney, No they are my 70cl bags of compost I have laid down and used as grow bags. if you look at the other photos where there is a long line of bags laid down they are the grow bags. A lot smaller but adequate for growing most things. I used the 70cl in that spot because they fitted easily and it gave me more soil depth at the back for three tomato plants. If you want the soil depth and can afford to pay out a bit more then they would be excellent for growing the way I have. I think they were about £10 for the 3 bags where as the grow bags are as little as £1.49 a bag.

 

By the way Stoney, Claire is right when you transplant into your ground as it is still quite hard and lumpy I would dig a hole a bit bigger than you need for each plant and put in some good compost it gives the plant that initial start.

 

Stoney

If you use slug pellets, I'd recommend keeping strictly to the rate per square metre recommended on the container. It's natural to want to give your plants as much protection as possible but you don't want to overdose the soil. I've just switched to an organically approved pellet and the dose works out to about a heaped teaspoonful per square metre. They have to be spread so thinly, I can hardly see them and that's with my best specs on!

 

I'm back!! lol

I never in a million years thought the lettuces would grow when I planted them, on the pic above to the one i'm about to post below there is a world of difference and I never noticed how much they have grown until I looked back.

It feels good to see something grow like that, how long will these take to grow fully do ya' think/will they make it?

 

Hi Stoney.

Welcome back! Your lettuces are looking mighty fine. :D

Ant.

 

Well done Stoney. I was 15 or 16 when I started gardening. My parents were not gardeners, and I saved up and bought a greenhouse. My parents must have thought I was nuts, as they probably expected me to be spending my money on wine, women and song at that age!

No internet back then, but my parents found me some local gardeners - the sort that grow 1,000 Dahlias, just because they like the look of them, or carrots 3 meters long because they like the challenge!

Anyways, I went and sat next to them as they worked, and they told me stuff which, looking back on it, sunk in, and my parents did me a big favour by finding them - given that my parents knew diddly-squat about gardening.

I've got a couple of suggestions for you:

1) plant in a hollow. Its important that the soil level after planting matches the same place where the soil was in the pot - you should not [normally] plant deep and cover the stem. However, I dig a hole for the plant a couple of inches (that's 3-5 cm!) deeper, put the plant in with some fine soil back to the same level the plant had before [when it was in its pot], push it all down firmly, and that leaves the plant in a bit of a hollow; I pile up the soil around it a bit to make a little wall around it (I'm only taking a few CMs). When I water it, or it rains, the water goes towards the plant, where it has the best effect.

2) water generously, but not too often. Sprinkling some water won't do any good, it will just evaporate, and encourage the plant to make roots at the surface. Give enough water so the plant has a good soaking and then leave it alone; that will help it put its roots down deep, which will also help it to survive drought. (If its in a pot or a growbag it will need watering more often, I'm taking about things in the soil).

And (3) I recommend that you seriously think about raised beds. Its quite a project from where you are starting from, but for me its like night & day compared to the way I used to do it ... errmmm ... 35 years ago when I was your age.

You can do some Googling for the details, but basically:

You build up the beds, make them narrow enough that you can reach the middle from each side, and NEVER walk on them. You also won't need to dig them again (that's the good bit!) but you will need some wood to put round the sides. You take the soil from the paths and put that on the beds (not sure if you have enough space for paths, so you might just build a square or two), and you put compost (or horse manure, whatever) on top and let the worms pull it down into the soil. In a small garden raised beds can look pretty smart too. If at the end of the summer you are still up for gardening as a hobby I'm sure the folk here can give you more help on raised beds if you fancy the idea.

And I always have far too much vegetable seed, so give me/this forum a shout in the winter; I'd be happy to post you some seed from things I will have too much of.

And finally (4) think about a compost heap - all your mother's potatoe peelings and other kitchen waste (not meat), mixed with some Horse manure [but not dog poo] and a reasonable amount of grass cutting, can be composted and put back on your garden to improve the soil. Best not to put any diseased plants on the compost heap though.

Best wishes, and I hope you get some joy from your new hobby.

 

Here's a link with an explanation of Raised Beds