Container gardening

[Moorland Prepper]

We usually go away two or three times during the summer and leave the garden in the hands of two very capable gardeners. We are going no-where this year and so have decided to have a go at vegetable gardening

We have several large garden pots/planters and have just ordered a variety of plants - tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, lettuce, and a couple of other that I can’t remember. A pack of three-foot canes are on their way from Amazon.

Just spoke to a neighbour today, over his garden wall, and noticed a new greenhouse he was erecting.

More and more people seem to be doing this over the summer, so order your plants early as I think that there will be a rush.

If anyone can point me to a site, book or video where we can get more information on this, I would be most grateful. There are a lot available (too many really) but getting a recommendation is always best. My OH has green fingers but not me I’m afraid, so a bit of education in this area is needed.

[GillyBee]

For container gardening you could take a look at the vertical veg website.I also like Charles Dowding's no dig website monthly update for vegetables in general and there is always the RHS and Gardeners World websites.

https://verticalveg.org.uk/
https://charlesdowding.co.uk
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice
https://www.gardenersworld.com/

Many garden centres sell their veg plants too early. They know that if you plant outside too soon, you will be back to buy a second lot if there is a cold snap. They also sell things that are better grown from seed so it is worth learning to do some of this yourself.
Tomatoes and beans can be started in April/May on a windowsill. (Zero cost tomatoes can be sown from seeds in supermarket toms but may not give identical fruit). Pea shoots make a fun quick crop staright into a container outdoors. https://verticalveg.org.uk/how-to-grow-pea-shoots/

[featherstick]

I did a write-up of a container gardening course I attended with Mark Ridsdill Smith of vertical veg - search the site for it.

Watering is key - containers warm up and lose water very quickly and the foliage prevents rainwater from filling the pots. You'll find yourself watering even when it's raining.

[Moorland Prepper]

Thanks GillyBee and featherstick, the links are just what I'm after. Mrs M want to look at these as well as neither of us have done this before.

Mrs M has already explained that the plants will need to go into the greenhouse first, so over Easter I've got the job of clearing it out!

No problem about watering. We have three small natural ponds in the garden which require regular attention as does Mrs M's collection of bonsai trees. I'm quite adept at watering things.

[OperationPrep]

Very glad I waited until now to move my stuff outside. Definitely makes sense about them selling stuff to early. I have done some seedlings and am testing from from seed.

First time having any outdoor space in 9 years...so definitely taking advantage of testing everything I can!

[Medusa]

We are container gardeners. Dwarf french beans are easy, as are runners if you harvest them early otherwise they become stringy. Potatoes are easy to grow in bags, cut and come again lettuce are simple to grow. We seem to be able to grow broccoli easily in raised beds/containers but caulis are another matter. Beetroot and courgettes also grow well in containers as do onions, spring onions and garlic. Our raspberries and rhubarb are also in containers and do great too as do the gooseberries, The blueberries are slow and the blackcurrants appear to be prone to aphid/disease. We also have fruit trees in containers to varying success· The eating apple does well, whereas the Bramley and plum have done better after planting in the ground. Tomatoes and chillies are fine in grow bags outside although the chillies dont always turn red depending on the weather. We normally plant tomatoes in grow bags/containers outside and grew them fromm seed for the first time this year but they looked like they had disease and so got rid. We are not experts but love watching things grow and enjoying the harvest.

[Moorland Prepper]

Finally got the veg. from the growers as there were delays due to the cold weather.

Planted the following:

Lettuce (buttercrunch)
Peas (kelvin wonder)
Spinach (perpetual)

These were left in the greenhouse as Mrs H said it was too cold. It's nice and sunny today so they will be taken outside this weekend:

Tomato (tiny tim)
Cucumber (marketmore)
Sweet peas (califonian wonder)

Besides these Mrs M has planted a variety of seeds - spring onions, carrots and a variety of herbs. Just ordered some French dwaft beans and chilli plants.

We had a variety of pots of all shapes and sizes but have also purchased five troughs of different sizes made by Ruddings:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06 ... UTF8&psc=1

These look good in our woodland/wildlife garden

I've never grown a thing in my life but now I an all set for an interesting summer (which finally seems to have arrived)

It didn't rain yesterday so I'm out to water the plants now

[Medusa]

Really hope that you have a good harvest Moorland Prepper. I watered all my containers and raised beds earlier too. Might harvest a bit of rhubarb tomorrow for a crumble.

[Moorland Prepper]

August in a few days so I thought that I would post a quick update.

Our tomatoes have been a failure – very small tomatoes and not many of them. Next year we shall keep them on the ‘sunny side’ of our greenhouse. My neighbour has a lot of tomatoes and they are doing well, so I’m rather jealous of him!

Our spring onions (grown from seeds) look a bit stringy. We grew the best spring onions by putting the roots from ones we consumed into water and then planting them. For some reason our rocket was also a failure. We had a cold spring and as we are over 700 feet above sea level, I think that this was a factor. Also, the seeds put into old clay plant pots didn’t seem to do too well, compared to the ones in toughs.

The rest were fine. Cucumbers magnificent! Planted some Maris Peer potatoes about three weeks ago and am amazed at how they are growing. We planted the potatoes in one of these grow bags and can recommend them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08 ... UTF8&psc=1

French beans, lettuce, spinach and a variety of herbs are all doing OK.

Recently came across this site which I found interesting:

10 Plants You Can Regrow From Kitchen Scraps

https://www.squaremilefarms.com/post/10 ... hen-scraps

I felt a bit annoyed at our failures but then out neigbour also had a few - apparently it's not unusual as there are so many factors that come into play.

[ForgeCorvus]

You learn as much by failing...... Asking questions is also pretty effective

I'm still just dipping my toes in, but I'm told that everyone has failures (its just some peoples 'disasters' looks very like my 'successes' )