Dizzy Blonde
Oct 27, 2009
at 12:43 AM

Don't despair! Keep at it! We managed to grow mainly grass and slugs this year!

My parents have been growing veg for years and they seem to either grow a huge glut of something or fail miserably, for them, there's no middle ground. For the first few years they just had to see what happened and go with what grew well, we had a few summers where we ran out of things to do with strawberries and couldn't give them away quick enough, so the job in the winter was to thin out the strawberry patch! They now know the spots in the garden that particular veggies like, which I guess is where experience helps, and which varieties to grow. Despite all this they still fail every year to grow a decent pumpkin!

Apart from that I'd say stick to a few easy vegetables and once you've got the hang of them, add more. Also, get the whole family involved (strange how kids of a certain age like weeding!). I was teaching in a school earlier in the year and we grew veg from seed. We managed to kill the peas (oops!) but beetroot, lettuce, radishes, beans and nasturtiums were all successful and the kids loved it ... until the rabbits ate the lot! (Didn't see that one coming!) The beetroots survived though and we've been digging them up over the last month.

Don't lose heart, it'll work out eventually, just keep going and you'll find out what you're good at. Personally, I've been attempting tomatoes for the last 4 years and have had about 7 fruit in total! I'm still going to try again next year, its all part of the fun!

Good luck!

hermit message > view profile >
Oct 28, 2009
at 12:58 AM

I think you tried to grow too many hungry plants on the site, corn,marrows and potatoes are space taking and goodness taking plants.I would forget potaoes on such a small plot and go for more delicate sized veg ie carrots, dwarf broad beans, a purple sproutig broccolli that cuts and comes again etc. I find pak choi is a good veg for a small plot as you eat it young as letuce then as cabbage when older.If you buy too many books you can get overloaded with info . I recommend the veg and herb book from the expert series and stick to that Dont give up. Hermit

Pawpower message > view profile >
Oct 28, 2009
at 08:07 AM

Don't give up I started to grow 3 years ago, and moved the plot last year as where I was growing when it rained the field next door flooded the patch - hmmm nice when the cattle had been on it!!!!! This year is the first year I have had toms although I did get blight - even in the greenhouse so gave in and treated with stuff my neighbour recommended - as the French do tend to put everything on anything!!!!!! It will get better we had some lovely fat slugs this year as they ate 4 sowings of carrots and parsnips!!!! But when you do get a glut - and you will - you'll wish you hadn't planted - mine was dwarf french beans!!!

I found the Carol Klein book really good as is her fruit book, as Hermit says try not to get too bogged down in books and just go for it!!!!

Keeley message > view profile >
Oct 30, 2009
at 07:29 PM

Put in some autumn onion sets now and some garlic (not out of the fridge, the right sort for our climate from the garden centre). Plant a green manure crop over the rest of the bed ( it's not too late for rye grass or mustard) ready to dig in once spring arrives. It'll improve the soil structure, add nutrients and stop any soil erosion over the winter.
What's your soil like? Is the plot in shade or sun and does it drain okay? With the right plan, 3m x 3m is plenty for production! Let me know if there's anything else!

gball message > view profile >
Oct 30, 2009
at 11:18 PM

Buying plug plants from garden centres are a great way to get started. Cheating a bit, I know, but it can be a steep learning curve and a leg up every now and then is no bad thng. Plugs are good as the initial hard work of germination is done for you, and you're starting with healthy strong plants to begin with. Once you've gotten the hang of that, then move on to growing from seed.
I grow a lot of veg, and I would still use plugs every year for certain plants and to get a head start with others.

Regarding the marrows, it's a common thing at the start to try and grow everything! I've always stuck by Hugh's advice from the River Cottage Cookbook...only grow what you really like, and you won't have too much trouble with the inevitable glut!!

Don't give up, though, growing veg can seem really daunting but start slowly and enjoyyourself!! It's really addictive when you get going, and even if you make loads of 'mistakes' and fail at some things, you'll do really well with other things.

Good luck!

Blonde message > view profile >
Nov 27, 2009
at 01:23 PM

Hi
I might be on the other side of the world, But I could teach you gardening....

Before you plant your plants/seeds in your garden, there are jobs you need to consider first.

1. Turn all your soil over in the bed you eventually want to grow some thing in. This will kill all the weeds. Leave alone for approx. a week.
2. Add some organic manure such as pig manure or chicken manure..make sure it has been composted for some time otherwise it will be too hot!
3. When the manure has been added turn this is a week or so later. This gives the weeds time to yellow off and die. Weeds help to build up the organic matter in the soil which is important for water holding capacity.
4. When the manure has been turned in leave for another week. Keep moist.
5. Check with a Ph metre on the soil. The soil should read about 7.0 Ph and this is good for most of the vegetables that you will want to grow.
6. Decide during the free time what you want to grow.
7. Try to put the vegetables in for the time of year.
8. You can Lunar plant or just put them in.... What ever suits.
9. Take a stick, and put a line in your bed, not deep. take the seeds out of the pack and sprinkle them along this line. Cover and water. The depth of the seed is usually " twice the diameter is the depth planted".
10. Give the line a water and keep moist until the seeds germinae. When the seedlings come to the surface there will be a two leaf stage.. T he stronger seedlings should be transplanted in to another part of your bed or you can just pull out all the weaker seedlings and leave the stronger ones to grow. This is called "pricking out" in nursery terms.
11. Keep the seedlings watered and watch the growth of the plants.
12. If they need support then a wire round made out of chicken wire is a good way to go. Or bamboo sticks if it is beans or tomatoes.
13. Work on the next part of your vegie patch creating beds all the way down. 14. If you have a path down the middle you can split up some of the area or in half. Things such as beans, peas, cucumbers, can grow on a trellis. Pumpkins, run across the ground and put flowers out every where and grow their fruit where the flowers are pollinated.
15. Root crops should be planted out when at the "two leaf" stage or have the smaller plants removed and left to grow.
16. Corn needs to be planted in rows and in combinations of blocks as they pollinate by releasing their pollin and the wind blows it from one plant to the next. If the block is not planted then the cobs are not produced. They also need good water to get them to fill out. Corn is also a heavy feeder and might require some liquid feed.
17. A drum filled with water and to this you can add some solid ferilizer (chicken or pig or cow or sheep) and leave to ferment. Like tea.... When the brew has developed (6 weeks)you can take some out of the drum and dilute it down with more water and use a watering can or spray unit and add more to the crops that are heavy feeders. Can use on the leaf and not burn it as long as it is a weak solution.
18. Plants will take nutrients in via there leaves, but the also release water through their leaves. Water is gives via an irrigation system ( time clock), or a sprinker that you set for a short period of time.
19. Set up a compost heap and when you want to start to add more to your beds then compost is a good start. You can also add the leaf matter of your old crops to your compost heap along with a bale of straw, some manure, some paper shredded. Lime if it is a little acid and keep it moist
20 . Dont keep it in a plasic bin, as a compost heap needs to breath. It is full of life.

I hope this helps. Let me know what else you plant to do and I will guide you through.
You should look foward to the best garden in the street with the most amount of vergies....never buy any more .....try it. Once mastered you will be giving them away.....

desperate to grow message > view profile >
Nov 29, 2009
at 03:24 PM

wow! you guys are great thank you for all the USEFULL information! i am going to have a good planning session tonight after work using all the info from here! thank you all for being s encouraging! i am no defeatist and i will continue to grow, since the last time i posted, i have found that although the carrots that i planted are not very big (about 4cm,) they are very sweet and lovely eating as baby carrots, same with the parsnips! even though my other half takes the mickey out of their size! lol! next year we are also going to attempt bee keeping.... yummie honey! happy days! next year will be a better year all round i believe!

film_boss message > view profile >
Dec 04, 2009
at 10:14 AM

It sounds hippified but, stay with it - consider the allotment like life itself; you can only control so much, accepting that things can go wrong, do go wrong as well as accepting that there are positives as well. I can grow carrots one year, the next year naff all. I was reknowned for the size of my onions now, they are recession sized. Perhaps, I over stressed about failure when I needed to view the allotment as a learning curve. And, if there is anything that I've learnt about the allotment experience: successful planting is about quality preparation, not over-stretching your aims (be realistic) and reading the environment (soil, weather etc). Things go wrong, things work - literally, trial and error. Keep trying - in a year from now I hope to be toasting your success!

toppy message > view profile >
Dec 05, 2009
at 05:45 PM

you say hundreds of marrows, have you got room for anything else lol, give your patch plenty of fertilizer, thin those marows out., do a, ph, check on your soil , you can get these kits from the garden shops, you need fertile soil to grow alot of plants, and dont overcrowd your patch.

Sara Venn message > view profile >
Dec 10, 2009
at 02:41 PM

Bless you. These are some things that have helped me in the past!
Only grow whaat you will eat and go for easyish crops to start with-try some tomatoes, beans,peas, strawberries.
Don't beat yourself up over it-unfortunately we watch TV and everyone has the perfect plot but they are worked on every day and kept up to scratch by a team of people behind the scenes-whatever Joe whathisname on Gardeners World says!!
Involve the whole family even if you have to resort to bribery and an amount of corruption to get them to do what you want them to do.
If you have time find your local allotment site and go talk to an old man about growing. Once he's recovered from the shock of someone actually wanting to glean some knowledge from him you will find a never ending source of facts. For example, one old boy told me once that runner beans grow far better if they are twined around their ploes clockwise. I just thought ha ha but did a little experiment and lo and behold he was right!!
But most of all just try to enjoy it cos its not doing you any good if you are so stressed over it that you end up a gibbering wreck. But...we have all been that gibbering wreck from time to time so take a deep breathe and start to plan your crops for next year!

IGrewThisEarl ier. message > view profile >
Jan 13, 2010
at 11:18 AM

Hello, I have just joined in on the River Cottage blog and so I may be a bit late in replying.

I have a little plot in my garden which I have been growing veggies on for the past couple of years. Some have been a great sucess, others have not. We can all get carried away when we watch programmes on the telly about people who have been able to give up their supermarket because they are growing vast amounts of their own amazing produce. I personally think that unless you have a big plot that is not going to be the case, so just enjoy what you can grow and find a good organic veg box scheme to bridge the gap.

My rule of thumb is - only grow what you and your family will eat, but try to grow a variety. Even those who love marrows will not want them every day. My favourite things are peas, carrots and cabbages (because I can grow them). I have grown them in raised beds the last couple of years in normal compost and they have been good. Spinach is a favourite but, like you say, it bolts. Grow it in a pot, then it does not bolt as far! I am on mission this year to produce some chillis and some squash. Also, buy good quality seed.

Books:- Don't always buy a book because it is on the bestseller list. Take time to browse the book shops or Amazon.co.uk. My favourites are The River Cottage Handbook No4 simply because it is very very easy to read. There are technical bits in it but you just ignore them until you are ready to read them. The other I like is A Girls Guide To Growing Your Own by Alex Mitchell. Again is is easy to read and very amusing.

Blogs: Last year, I started reading gardening blogs which have proved very useful because for the most part they are written by people who have been in the same boat as you and have normal sized gardens. So have a scout around and sign up to a couple. I like Born Again Gardener (http://bornagaingardener.blogspot.com/), and my own blog (obviously) I Grew This Earlier (http://igrewthisearlier.co.uk).

Help: If the Landshare website is not providing the help you need, why not stick an advert in your local post office or paper shop?

Be Realistic: We are not in War time and veggies will always be available in the supermarket. Treat your growing as a hobby to start with, enjoy the fruits of your labour and don't expect to become Alan Titchmarch overnight!

Good luck.

alchemist message > view profile >
Jan 26, 2010
at 09:57 AM

desperate, if you are going to keep bees, I would suggest joining your local beekeeping association. There have been a couple of forum threads on bees that you might find helpful.

Best of luck with your crops this year. We all have failures, but generally win with something in the end.

Rupert Bear message > view profile >
Feb 14, 2010
at 10:49 AM

Hi- sorry to hear of your despair. The tv shows making growing veggies look easy. It is easy but takes a bit of planning and constant care. But if you managed to get corn on the cobs you are doing something right.
My tips are
- feed the soil not the plants,
-keep the veggies happy by constant watering- not feast and famine.
-if possible start your seeds in a cold frame, window cill or greenhouse where they can be cosseted in their early days
and finally remember there are a lot of creatures out there who want to eat your veggies too. So use companion planting to attract the good guys and netting etc to keep the bad ones out.
Hope this helps.

jonstix message > view profile >
Feb 24, 2010
at 04:47 PM

Don't give up!! Try again this year with perhaps a less ambitious list. One golden rule is to only grow what you know people will eat. Perhaps start with some of their favs and go from there. You could grow the space heavy potatoes in bags if you have a patio or deck, it is something I'm going to try this year as I found a year round supply of spuds was very land intensive.

Good luck and please let us all know how you get on!!

nadines message > view profile >
Mar 07, 2010
at 11:42 PM

I think you have done very well for your first year of vegie gardening that is fantastic job well done now every year you will be able to refine your skills work on adding two new veg every year. I have been growing veg for about 8 years now and some years are prolific and others are terrible. Yet again let me say JOB WELL DONE for giving it a go!

tebbsie message > view profile >
May 10, 2010
at 12:40 PM

I started veg patch two yeard ago, I set up raised beds, filled with soil compost, chicken poo and other organic matter, I left them for a few weeks, turned then over a few times and left then again, for a couple of months till winter passed. Spring sprung and planting started, armed with cabbage, cauliflower and brocoli plugs, pea, french bean, and lettice seed, some carrot, and sweet corn (in it's own deep bed.)

All was growing well till my chickens discovered a way into the plot, firts to go were the cauli, cabbage and brocoli from that bed.

Find and fix the gap.

That would stop then, I was sure.

Two days later I returned home from work, the wife had let the chickens out, and there bold as brass, three birds tucking into my row of lettice.

Chase them out again, look for the hole where they got in, fix it, all the time under the watchfull eye of an angry hen.

A couple of days later the carrots and beets went the same way.

Beef up the security again.

By more plugs.

No Hens could get in this time of that I was certain.

Where did all my plants go, sluggs and snails.

Did I give up, NO

The corn grew and fruited I waited for it to rippen, and waited and waited, one viable cob from 9 plants.

The peas grew and fruited, success, the beans grew and fruited, success.

I have decided to try again with the cabbage and cauli, I have some spuds in another bed, some short crops and cut and come crops.

The new 5ft fence should keep the hens out, they now patrol the fence, on the other side looking for a gap in it, the collars on the veg plants should keep the slugs and snails at bay, the cheap polly covers should help protect the plants from other unwanted visiters.

My point is, don't give up. where there is a will, there is a way.
Good luck

homeharvester message > view profile >
Jun 01, 2010
at 12:45 PM

I know I've come in late to this one, but thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth anyway....

You mentioned that your patch is 3m x 3m - have you thought about giving square foot gardening a go? You can get the gist of what it's all about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening

But briefly, it helps you to break your patch down into manageable (square foot) sections, counting out exactly the right amount of seeds to yield a fairly predictable harvest. Best of all, each individual square is easy to manage - by knowing how much you've sown, you can dodge gluts of any one type of vegetable as well. It's also easier to keep on top of things like weeding and watering.

As others have said, the biggest favour you can do yourself is to grow things you actually enjoy eating or find too expensive to buy at the shops. Salad leaves and tomatoes might lack the glamour of your own asparagus for example, but they're day-to-day staples that are easy to grow and you're likely to enjoy eating.
For me, starting out, I gave myself the goal of eventually being able to have one thing from the garden on my plate every day, no matter how small - a radish, some land cress, rocket, whatever...it might sounds obvious, but starting out by picking the sure-fire hits will help you build the confidence to branch out.

Keep trucking, though - as others have said, you WILL get there in the end, it's all trial and error and when things go wrong, the worst that really happens is that you learn from the experience. Enjoy :-)

foodiemumonth eroad message > view profile >
Jul 17, 2010
at 02:40 PM

Cover the area of land you are not using with old carpet and leave it. After a year or so it will be weed free. Concentrate on your 3mx 3m patch. To make things easier for yourselve until you get more experience buy veggie plugs (baby plants) from somewhere like Dobies.co.uk. You can buy good value collections of veggie plug plants for about £30 and these will last you the entire year. Other seed catalogues probably do the same. They also send you instructions on the planting and care of the veggie plugs. Make sure the soil you have in your 3m x 3m is good. Either buy in some compost/top soil or dig in lots of well rotten manure. When you water your plants/plugs water with an organic fertiliser. Especially when fruiting. Good luck!