David K

Soft seed potatoes

Netherfield....how great to see you here! Hope things are well with you.

Soft seed potatoes

sotongeoff wrote (see)

Quite simple-plant the potatoes-don't fill the pot to the top just yet-and as they grow keep adding more soil until they reach the top- keep feeding and watering -hopefully a pot full of potatoes at the end

That's the traditional way, Geoff. Don't know if you know, there is more recent way of thinking that suggests just planting the tubers at the bottom of the pot & filling to the top with compost.

As a experiment I've tried both methods this year...this is some 'Rocket' grown by the latter method and harvested earlier this week:

Autumn sown sweet peas

HyppyByker wrote (see)

Some sound advice here so thanx to everyone - I love sweetpeas with a passion and ordered some special ones this year but I did everything wrong and they're frankly pathetic

October sowing this year and no molly-coddling!

I introduced a couple of sweet pea growing tutorials to the BBC boards (and others) If there were sufficient interest, I would be prepared to do the same here. I would imagine it would need to be located in the Potting Shed.

Let me know.

Talkback: How to prune roses

Kevin Eastment wrote (see)

I Have got 6 rose plnts comming (bear root) I want to plant them in pots what do i buy to plant them (compost or somthing eles)

John Innes No2 compost, Karen.

Autumn sown sweet peas

gardengirl6 wrote (see)

Great!   We need to nuture an interest in gardening in children.    I always wish it had been done wih me, although I did watch my Dad - just wasn't allowed to touch anything.   I'm a pensioner now, but if I had my time over again, I would try for horticultural college!

I certainly would agree with that and do all I can in that respect, with visits to a local primary school helping with advice...the children are so interested and eager to learn.

Myself, I had had a wonderful introduction into gardening with my dad being an excellent gardener and my granddad being a head gardener for a large estate.

I could thin a bunch of grapes by the time I was twelve.

When do you buy your seeds?

Hi, Tina

Many gardeners used to send for seed catalogues in the autumn and spend the long winter evenings planning and perusing them before placing their orders.

These days however, it seems more usual for people to buy their seeds from the vast selection available from garden centres or online. I would just add, that garden centres usually stock popular lines & catalogues offer a better selection.

You say 'I'm a bit worried to buy too early and find the seeds don't do so well, how good are the sow by dates?' The sow by dates are pretty reliable, although seed viability varies widely i.e. tomato or beans will remain viable for three or four years, while root-crops such as parsnip should be sown fresh every year....all this comes with experience.

Potatoes should be bought just after Christmas, as they will require a period of about six weeks of chitting before planting out.

New site - is it easy to use?

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Testing.

How to give feedback about the new site

My 'edit' doesn't and hasn't worked for some time.

I'm using IE & Windows 7 Home Premium.

Autumn sown sweet peas

Don my Ton wrote (see)

Ever notice how the first sweet pea stems are very long,and gradually they get shorter in time !

Don - It's a fact that after the first flush of flowers, the stems do tend to get shorter. It helps if you remove the tendrils and grow quality seed from a sweet pea specialist, such as Eagle Sweet Peas.

Carol Klein's, Life in a Cottage Garden

The A to Z of TV Gardening

Happy New Year

Left handed tape measure:

Growing Sweet Peas

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GW memories 1991

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Sweet Pea Queries

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