New season orders

Hi guys

Well the ground is prepared, found some lovely fertiliser called 6X fantastically smelly thats down and mustard seed is in (if a bit late). When is to early to start ordering next years seeds its just i've had the week of work to sort things out and i have found that i'm at a loose end so i went thru me Dobies catalogue today and this wot i came up with

Beetroot - Moneta
Carrot - Flyaway F1
Onion - Forum F1
Radish - Sparkler 3
Pickling Onions - Pompei
Broccoli - Purple Sprouting
Leeks - Toledo

I'm also growing 4 lots of spuds and cut and come again lettuce. I've also got the seeds from this years Runners Wisley Magic done really well with those. Just wondering if you guys had any ideas on my selection if so i'm open to sugestions also if it makes a difference tested the soil and it ranged from a ph of 6.0 to 7.0.

Terry

 

Your seed choice looks OK to me First Timer.
I like 6X too. Anything that smells so ripe must be good :D

 

Thanks guys wot sort of peas will grow in a sheltered area coz thats all i'll probably have left. I think the best thing about 6X is you don't need tonnes of it. Also think my weed problem was down to 2 thing last year 1 me being lazy and 2 the soil improver i got was from the local waste tips brown bin recycling something i won't be doing again.

 

"the soil improver i got was from the local waste tips brown bin recycling"

I would expect the heat they get in their huge compost heaps to kill most seeds - doens;t mean to say they did it right, or you didn't get a bad/cold batch though.

Your weeds may have been there /blown in. The saying goes "One year's seed, seven year's weed" - so important not to let any weeds go to seed.

"When is to early to start ordering next years seeds"

They should come sealed in foil packets, so keep well enough. Some people put them in the fridge in a sealed container (tupperware box for example) as the cool keeps their viable for longer. DO NOT freeze them though. Whilst not recommended I just chuck mine on the table in my home office so I can browse through them easily. Some packets have been there for years and are still OK, but they catch the afternoon sun so definitely not ideal.

I think as soon as the seed companies start selling "this season's seed" its fine to order. Most seed will last several years, although some (such as Parsnips) are much better if you use fresh seed.

 

Do you know the 100th person to tell me that about parsnip's. As said the main weeds i had this year were bind weed nasty blinking stuff and stingers, tried to remove every bit of bind weed root so hopefully not much next he says crossing fingers, toes, legs, arms and anything else i can cross the stingers i'll just deal with. Not sure if its sad or not but brought a diary yesterday to mark sowing dates also going to plan days in the garden to stop me getting lazy......Hopefully it works.

 

"Do you know the 100th person to tell me that about parsnip's."

No

"As said the main weeds i had this year were bind weed nasty blinking stuff and stingers"

You did? some other thread maybe ... quite possibly one I didn't read. Certainly one (of many) that I don't clearly remember now. Sorry.

Bind weed and Nettles are unlikely to have come from council compost as then should have been killed by the heat of the process - but not if they didn't get enough heat in the process.

I think more likely that they were in your soil. Nettles are good - they don't grow if the soil is not fertile. Cut them (when they are growing strongly) and put them on your compost heap, they are very good at helping to increase the temperature. Obviously those in your cultivated areas need to be removed :( but in my experience they aren't hard to get rid of from soil that is cultivated.

Bindweed is another matter. Careful, deep, digging and painstaking removal of every tiny fragment of root will help. Hoeing the tops off at least once a week will weaken the plant. Roundup / Glyphostate will help, but I doubt one application will be enough (and that is assuming you are happy to use Herbicides in your veg patch).

"Not sure if its sad or not but brought a diary yesterday to mark sowing dates also going to plan days in the garden to stop me getting lazy"

I think its an excellent (actually I would say "essential") idea :thumb:

Whatever you find easiest - Pencil and Notebook, Little document file on your computer, Blog or even a Thread here that you just post what you did - folk can comment, you can look back over the weeks, months and years ...

If you are into using computers for this type of thing then I have a spreadsheet if you are interested - details in this thread
http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/when-should-how-long-will-t20227.html?p=318826

 

Be very lucky if you have gotten rid of all that bindweed. It goes very deep and very wide and any little bit of root left in acts as a whole new growth point.
I've been told the best way (without the use of chemicals) to get rid of bindweed is to dig out the affected and leave it fallow for a year.
Someones also told me that they cut it all back, layered grass clippings over the affected area and when the grass was later lifted the bind weed roots and risen tot he surface, a couple fo years of doing that and it had been eradicated.

 

Thanks guys this all a great help regarding the 100th its missing a word "your" but thanks people.

 

Hi Firsttimer,

All sound advice above. One thing we found this year was that the nurseries didn't have any pink fir apple spuds till maincrop time & we wanted to do them as earlies to avoid the blight.

Mustard will still come up, just that the plants wont get so big as an earlier sowing.

 

Plan to chop it up mid to end Feb is that to early or to late? or does it depend on the last frost date. Talking of nurseries i've found a nice little garden centre near me called lings found out so much info in just 1 visit my head nearly exploded. Still stumped as wot pots to grow coz i'm looking for a main crop, a salad, a baker and an early any suggestions.

 

"pink fir apple spuds till maincrop time & we wanted to do them as earlies to avoid the blight."

I don't reckon you can. We plant all our spuds at the same time, and the Pink Fir Apples aren't ready until around the middle of August onwards. - First / Second early / Maincrop refers more to the length of time they take to mature than when they should be planted.

"Plan to chop it up mid to end Feb is that to early or to late?"

Personally I think digging the ground sooner rather than later is better - and then the frost can get at it and break it up.

"Still stumped as wot pots to grow coz i'm looking for a main crop, a salad, a baker and an early any suggestions."

We like Charlotte (Second early) and King Edward (Main) and Pink Fir Apple (Salad). I also grow some Arran Pilot (First early) because they are blinking quick! I grow one bag (i mean like growing in a tub - rather than a bag full of tubers!) of Arran Pilot, and 5 bags of Charlotte - 3 or 4 tubers to the bag depending on its size - and then whatever is left from the batch of seed tubers goes outside. Don't know about Bakers I don't grow specifically for them.

Spuds take up a lot of space, and are cheap to buy (well, not the First Early ones maybe), so you need to balance whether you have the space, whether there are higher-value crops that could use the space, and whether Spuds taste better (relative to other crops) direct from the garden compares to bought ones - usually not the case for things like Maincrop Spuds that you store, Supermarket will taste the same - although: you may want to grow a variety that you like that you cannot buy from Supermarket, and you may prefer to know what chemicals you put onto the crop, rather than buying from Supermarket and not knowing what has been used.

Sweet Corn, for example, tastes wonderful from the garden provided it is in the pan and in boiling water within a few minutes - can't do that with Supermarket Sweet Corn as its had to travel for a day or two minimum ...

Asparagus costs a fortune in the shops, but also takes up quite a lot of space and needs 3 years (or so) before you get your first decent crop (but then gives you a crop for the next 20 years, or more)

So a balancing act - unless space and your time are fairly unlimited

 

P.S. There is a first early that I hear many people recommend. Forgotten its name though ... was it "Rocket" maybe?

 

Thanks kristen i'm actually popping in 2 bays just for me pots, its been decided i can have the other side of the garden for that if i build a patio at the top of the garden fair comprimise i think.

 

Mid august would do us fine for the punk fir apples Kristen. Thats when we aim to clear the plot of solenaceae. Inches ahead of the blight. Only lifted this years pfa's about 3 weeks ago & we only got away with that as we grew them in the brick cold frames normally reserved for more exotic crops.