Slight problem with my potatoes. The Red Duke of York potatoes in my kit have gone all floppy. The Charlottes and Vivaldis are absolutely fine. Have been advised by those in the know that I am not watering that particular bucket enough. (See pic – is the furthest away planter). So am now watering the hell out of it. Fingers crossed….
Archive for category Novice Veg Growing
Droopy Potato Plants
Jun 22
Slugs slugs slugs
Jun 19
Back when I embarked on this little gardening journey of mine – I had the best intentions. I would not use any chemical pest control. I would be the epitomy of hippy organic earth mother. I would go out every night and pick the slugs and snails off and only use copper rings and “deterrents” as opposed to actually killing anything.
Firstly, my neighbours’ cat, who seems to have taken a liking to me started “visiting” my garden. I am NOT a cat person. In my head, I was all set to trap her and fashion a sort of iron maiden from bamboo canes and leave her in my garden as a warning to all other cats. My boyfriend talked me out of it, as he didn’t want to visit me in jail and I got some cat repellent, which I just put where I thought the cat was coming into my garden. Strike One…
Then I lost ALL my baby salad leaves to slugs, which was annoying but I didn’t worry too much. I planted out my tomato seedlings in that spot instead…. they had those too. So, I ended up getting some plants and some bright blue slug pellets (which according to the pack – don’t harm wildlife). Strike Two…
Finally, I noticed that some flower bulbs that I put in weren’t coming up and on closer inspection, they had all been dug up and were just lying on top of the soil. After asking around the office – the general consensus is that squirrels had something to do with it. So I scattered the cat deterrent there too in the hope that this would discourage the squirrels or whatever was digging them up. Strike Three… You’re Out!
I am fully aware I am making excuses – but I don’t have time to go and pick slugs off my plants every night and chasing cats et al from my garden. Infact, I am not sure whether “staking out” my garden waiting for the cat to return would be a healthy past time. Plus copper just doesn’t work or I happen to have “pro-copper” slugs in my garden
But I do have wildlife in my garden – found this little fella leaping about my runner beans having a slug lunch amongst the slug pellets. Have seen him a few times so am relieved that he isn’t being hurt by the pellets.
Turns out I won’t be an earth mother after all.
Easy grow bag watering
Jun 18
I’m trying out a Growtube on one of my grow bags this year – I saw it in the catalogue and thought it was worth a try – I use grow pots in my other grow bag. If you’ve ever used grow bags, you’ll know that they can be a hassle to water because the compost washes out of the bag.
I’ve found that the growtube is good, easy to put together and to use. On the down side it does leak a little but it’s better than losing compost. And overall I think that Grow Pots are probably better products to use.
Starting out…
Jun 16
This is my first year of veg growing – I did try to grow tomatoes a few years ago and kept forgetting to water them. As I am now a couple of years older and, in theory, more responsible, I am venturing back into the fray. After discussions with various colleagues and a well-wishing neighbour I have decided to grow the following:
Potatoes in a Potato Kit, runner beans from seed, tomato plants, chilli plants and strawberry plants all in containers.
Wish me and my plants (they are going to need it) luck.
