JCC The JCC Gardening Club

So, my father died in January leaving me with a large garden and his greenhouse to take of.

Dad was the gardener in our family and I was happy to let him "get on with it" so now he's gone I find my thrown in at the deep end.

Course I have picked up some tip's over the years watching him do it but I still kind of find I'm a bit out of my depth.

I'm going to (try) and grow tomato's, potato's, peas (this is our own local/family pea so I've got a big responsibility on my not to kill them off, LOL) runner beans, sweetcorn, carrots, leaks and brassica's (cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels, etc.)

So I've already got my peas, carrot, leak and potato seed in the garden (they've all been in around a week so nothing is showing through yet) while tomato's, sweetcorn and brassica's are all growing in door in trays.

I think I'm currently at the point with brassica's where I've got to thin them or "prick" them out. And I'm wondering whether tomato and sweetcorn plants now need transferring from trays to pots (they've been in trays for around three week and are three inches tall)

Although I feel a bit out of my depth, overall I'm quite enjoying getting out into the garden. It gives me an interest away from my website and is probably good for me to be out in the fresh air and away from the computer for a few hours a day so it's not all bad news.

Any other gardeners here? All advice and tips welcome.

 

I garden an area roughly the size of a postage stamp, but I learned a bit from from my farmer grandparents. I can weed a garden and know how to pick vegetables. There are some great YouTube videos on greenhouse tomato gardening.

I only grow hot peppers, because it's the only thing the rabbits and raccoons and squirrels don't really eat.

 

I've been looking at YouTube tomato growing tutorials. I think while I find my feet I'll use tomato grow bags rather than planting them directly into soil in greenhouse.

However, it's the peas I'm most worried about as I don't want to be responsible for killing of the family pea seed!

The tutorials I've looked at suggest they are fairly easy to grow (you have to provide support and keep the pigeons off them and they are seedlings) just requiring loads of water when flowering and you don't want them to get too hot.

 

I've got 12 "apple mint" plants arriving in a couple of weeks (you can't have new peas and potatoes without a sprig of mint)

Can I borrow your "lady" when your finished with her.

 

I do have fencing around my pepper garden to keep the bunnies out, but everything else can either fly or climb in for the attack. Tomatoes are the worst. I had to pick them a bit green to keep the varmits from eating them. They all know when to eat vegetable at exactly the right moment when I'm thinking "I better pick these tomorrow."

 

That's awful. A TWT level crime, almost.

 

This book covers everything:

 

i really want to sign up for a community garden plot but i just don't think i have the time.

 

My father grew grapes in his large greenhouse (he was quite successful with them as well. TBF the UK is not known as the best place in the world for grape growing, LOL) His brother/my Uncle is taking care of them for me as I just don't have time to look after them with everything else I've got to do.



tom

I think you should do it. It's really rewarding when you see the little seedlings growing into actual plants... Then you put them out and you get to watch them maturing until finally you can eat their harvest... (Which always taste's better than anything you buy from shops IMO)

Obviously time is always the problem but if you can make the time it's definitely a rewarding pass time.

Have removed sweetcorn from trays into their own individual pots. Amazing how big their roots had got in three weeks... I'm hoping I didn't do any damage when I transferred them.

Tomorrow I think it'll be time to put runner bean seeds into pots and I've also been told I should check the pea seeds to make sure they aren't rotting (its been hideously cold and wet in the UK this week which could have caused problems for my pea seed )

 

I put up fencing today to keep bunnies in.

 

you have your own bunny herd?

 

I will be growing 4 plants this summer, and some hot peppers.

 

My Father used to grow loads of peppers (and chilies) but I never liked them much to be honest.

Have just had a dig down where I planted the pea seeds (I put buried them about one inch deep) and it looks like the seeds are alive. They've swelled to about double the size and sprouted roots but no growth pushing out of the top of the seed yet.

I've got a feeling this awful cold weather is delaying their progress. Fortunately its going to warm up this week so hopefully that will get things moving.
.

 

4 legal plants

 

Riiiiiiggggggghhhhhttttt

 

We will next week. I succumbed. Ideals and lofty intellectual positions are like vapor in the presence of the girls' unabating demand for fluffiness.

 

Good lord, I wouldn't mind moving into that! When we did our home exchange outside Amsterdam, we had to take care of the Dutch family's rabbit for a week, and my younger son was in heaven.

 

I bet you could learn a lot. I see lots of elderly folks at those places and I bet they know all kinds of old school tricks.

 

Do it! I had one a few years back where all I did was plant stuff and come back when it was ready. I got one dinner's worth of sweet corn and tomatoes, and a good haul of pumpkins. Best feeling ever.

 

My mom and sister set up a vegetable garden roughly 5 years ago, and it's still working like a dream.

 

Watch out for squirrels if you grow runner beans. I tried them one year and all the plants went. One of the neighbors said the squirrels (grey in my area) ate them. Not sure if they'd do the same with peas.