New to gardening

New to gardening
Hello, I'm new to gardening and really want to learn more, it all started when my mum bought me some packets of seeds and said here have ago planting them with the kids at the weekend kids get mucky and have loads of fun doing it, so I thought yeah why not, so I bought a propagator and we planted so
E pepper seeds, I also planted some spuds I had chittin we also planted some radish seeds, non have broken surface yet but we only planted the 6 days ago, tomorrow I'm making another raised bed 8 x 4 ft I'm buying some more top soil and compost to mix the compost is miracle grow , but I would like to start off with something that's pretty easy to grow and me and the kids will see flourish over the forth coming months so any help tips or advice you can throw my way would be very much apreciated many thanks regs Dan

 

Hello and welcome.

Are peas on your list of things to grow? I find peas are always a winner with my young son. The 'seeds' are large enough to handle easily, they germinate easily and quickly, grow quite rapidly, and what kid doesn't like peas straight from the pod?

 

Yes they are I love the idea of growing peas, what can you tell me about growing them, there a climbing plant are they not, so what would I need to put in place so they can flourish ? I don't want to bite off more than I can chew but I also don't want a bare garden bed either so I there is anything else you can suggest that would go along side the peas that would be great ,

 

You just need to poke one or tea pea seeds (peas) into a small pot of general purpose compost. Just push them in so they are just below the surface. I find its best to water the compost before poking the seeds in.

Keep them somewhere reasonably warm. Not too warm. My son tends to just put them in the living room window. They will start to grow after a few days to a couple of weeks.

By mid April, they will be ready to go outside into open ground. Just transplant them out. You may need to take steps to protect them from slugs.

Peas do indeed climb. Most varieties that I know reach about 3ft in height. You need to give them something to climb. Lots of options for this. I used some busted washed up fishing net last year, suspended between two stakes. You can also just run strings between bamboo canes, with several strings maybe 6 inches higher then the previous.

 

That's great thank you, but my next question would be how do you fend off the slugs, my garden before I got into gardening was a battle field for slugs , I'm a little concerned about using pellets as I have a dog and I'm not sure how he would react if he laps them up, I have cordened a section of my garden off with a fence but the bugger if not watched will sneak under into my veg patch .

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

 

Thanks zigs

 

Hi Dan & welcome
You can get Doggie safe slug pellets. Otherwiase, just get a torch & a plastic bag & do the late night patrol.
When my little darlings were little, I bought a cheap packet of runner bean seeds from Tescos & they were amazed - and they ate every last one of them!!! Cherry Tomatoes are another favoutite with the kids too.
My kids are now teenagers, and this evening I have had a request to grow Butternut Sqashes, LOADS of chillies and radishes....

 

I'm glad you mentioned radishes. I thought I had all my seeds bought for this year. I've forgotten to get radishes.

I love radishes, and they are so quick and easy to grow. You can grow them in the same ground as potatoes, because the radishes will be out long before the spuds need the space.

 

So it's just a case of find the slugs pick them up and bag them, I have another question, I have made my raised bed today turned over the soil within it also bought some more top soil to mix in with it and some Miracle grow all purpose growing compost, I noticed there was also a peat free compost, what's the difference and should I have bought the peat free to mix in my soil ? Also picked up some peas, and runner beans today, as suggested looking forward to planting them but I hear were due some snow/ ice this coming week so will wait until it passes before I plant them

 

Peat free compost is to satisfy the conscience of the subset of people that are worried about the environmental implications of using peat.

There is a school of thought that harvesting peat destroys local habitats. There are good arguments to support this claim, but then there are also good arguments to refute it. If you're worried, it is worth doing some research on the subject so you can decide which school of thought you are in.

As for the peas and beans, sow them any time now, but start them indoors.

There's a little poem about sowing beans direct outside, it goes like this:

One for the mouse,
One for the crow.
One to rot,
And one to grow.

 

No not worried about peat politics ... Haha, as for the peas I'll get on them straight away would you recommend I use just compost or the soil compost mix from the garden to start the peas off ?

 

Just compost. Soil from the garden will have weed seeds in it, and fungal spores (some good, some bad). Shop bought compost is usually sterile, so nothing to compete with your peas.

 

Brilliant, thank you very much you've been very helpful, thanks for your patience too must get a lot of new folk on here asking the same questions day in day out. Thanks again you've been great, certainly a friendly forum worth sticking around!