New to this site

Hi, I have just joined this site and am new to forums so please bear with me if I have started in the wrong area. I have a small garden in Essex with a 27ft x 4ft raised bed I use for veg growing. Also lots of pots, some used for veg growing but mainly for plants and flowers. I also have a small area of shrubs. I avidly watch Gardens World and read the GW magazine but always want to know more. I am looking forward to contributing and learning more via the forums. Would love a potting shed but haven't the room.

Do you have a small greenhouse?  I have 2 small plastic greenhouses which I grow most of my flowers and veg from seed and I have a few raised beds at bottom of my garden 1m or just a bit larger each raised bed.

Do you like to grow your veg and flowers from seed?

I have a small lean-to greenhouse and a plastic one as well. I grow all my veg and most of our flowers from seed, sometimes with success and sometimes not. Tomatoes (Sungold), carrots, courgettes and swiss chard did extremely well this year. Runner beans and peas were rubbish. Had my best year ever with sweet peas and cosmos. Ive got cabbages, swiss chard, red onion and garlic in the raised bed at the moment.

Sweet peas smell really good I had no luck this year as did not grow very well for me, last year there were loads Great for cut flowers.

Same with my runner beans slugs were eating them a lot before growing much I put this down to the wet weather must of seen loads of slugs and snails this year, most of the stuff growing got eaten and not by me.

Runner beans are my favorite vegetables to grow and eat

Did you suffer with a slug/ snail problem this year?

Had loads of Swiss Chard last year (welcome Pepperted) but thought I would follow M. Don's advice and grow Winter Giant Spinach - well the seeds have been in for weeks and nothing has happened; is there something about growing spinach that I ought to know as I do seem to have big problems with it.

Pepperted, re the forum,the people here seem to be very patient; I'm not a technocrat at all and seem to muddle through.

Hi PepperTed, welcome. This, IMO is a very friendly forum and generous to a"T".

I hope you enjoy being part of it and enjoy the gardening.

Hi Pepperted.

I have not been here long. The information you can get is really good. 

I used to manage with a little plastic greenhouse affair and grew hardy seeds using it. I have had a proper greenhouse for a year and love it. I am still trying to get the hang of vegetables, so that there is something all the time.

artjak wrote (see)

Had loads of Swiss Chard last year (welcome Pepperted) but thought I would follow M. Don's advice and grow Winter Giant Spinach - well the seeds have been in for weeks and nothing has happened; is there something about growing spinach that I ought to know as I do seem to have big problems with it.

 

It is all in the preparation Artjak, the bed needs to be deeply dug with plenty of well rotted manure dug in then dress the top with granular fertiliser. Winter Spinach is more often called Spinach beet, you only use the leaves which taste like spinach.
Sow in late July or August for a winter crop in a sheltered sunny site and thin out when the first shoots show then thin out again to about nine inches apart when they grow taller, the thinnings can be eaten.
The summer crop should be sown in March and progresively sown for a continuous crop, this needs to be out of full sun as it will run to seed so a shaded spot will do nicely.

Frank.

Palaisglide, thank you for the info - I had not realised that spinach was so greedy. Could I sow some winter spinach now in the greenhouse?

artjak wrote (see)

Palaisglide, thank you for the info - I had not realised that spinach was so greedy. Could I sow some winter spinach now in the greenhouse?

You never know until you try, gardening is one big experiment as all gardens differ so give it a go, a bit of shelter plenty of any light going and remember to thin it as it grows, "err" if it grows. heat not needed or it will go to seed fast.

Frank.

Slugs and snails were about but not too much of a problem this year. I think I must have been lucky. I did use used coffee grounds around the most vulnerable plants/seedlings. I think I read somewhere you are not supposed to use coffee grounds - sometime to do with the EU, but maybe I just dreamt this,

A friend of mine picks up the slugs with tongs and deposits them in a bucket of salty water. Not sure if I can do that but maybe if they are a real problem perhaps I will give it a try.

Ted, as an old gardener I have tried everything and the bucket of water with domestos in is the quickest then dig a hole and drop them all in.
The winter garden clean up is a good way to reduce them, search them out behind old pots bits of wood and often under greenhouse staging.
In spring a lamp comes in handy walk round and catch them waking up then fingers are best up and into the bucket. All the weird and wonderful cure alls are just that weird and wonderful pity they do not work so fingers it is and constant watch, they can multiply in no time if you leave them to it.

Frank.

artjak wrote (see)

Had loads of Swiss Chard last year (welcome Pepperted) but thought I would follow M. Don's advice and grow Winter Giant Spinach - well the seeds have been in for weeks and nothing has happened; is there something about growing spinach that I ought to know as I do seem to have big problems with it.

Pepperted, re the forum,the people here seem to be very patient; I'm not a technocrat at all and seem to muddle through.

Hi Artjak

Never tried Winter Giant Spinach but did see Monty Don extolling its virtues. I have only grown Perpetual Spinach and Swiss Chard which are easy but may well try Winter Giant next year, although with only a small garden I always get a little uneasy when the word "Giant" is mentioned. Good luck.

Bjay wrote (see)

Hi Pepperted.

I have not been here long. The information you can get is really good. 

I used to manage with a little plastic greenhouse affair and grew hardy seeds using it. I have had a proper greenhouse for a year and love it. I am still trying to get the hang of vegetables, so that there is something all the time.

Hi Bjay

I have had a little plastic greenhouse thingy for a nunber of years and am surprised at how good they are, but got a small lean-to "proper" greenhouse the year before last. Oh how I wish I could have a full size greenhouse. I am not sure if having a tiny greenhouse is a good idea at all. I just seem to cram more and more into it and find it frustrating not to have enough room in spring for all my seedlings, but at least the plastic greenhouse gets an airing then. Apart from runner beans, salads and tomatoes, I am fairly new to veggies but I love it. Roll on spring.

Palaisglide wrote (see)

Ted, as an old gardener I have tried everything and the bucket of water with domestos in is the quickest then dig a hole and drop them all in.
The winter garden clean up is a good way to reduce them, search them out behind old pots bits of wood and often under greenhouse staging.
In spring a lamp comes in handy walk round and catch them waking up then fingers are best up and into the bucket. All the weird and wonderful cure alls are just that weird and wonderful pity they do not work so fingers it is and constant watch, they can multiply in no time if you leave them to it.

Frank.

Thanks for the tip Frank. Bleach and water it will be from now on. I'll just have to grow up and learn to pick the blighters up and drop them in the bucket.

Thanks to everyone for such a warm welcome.