Allotments 4 All

Thanks to the members who answered my runner bean question posted a while ago. I have only just found the answers..... :-[
However, I am excited to report that they have started to sprout. Yay!

I have to admit it's taking me a while to find my way around A4A - I keep ending up in the wrongplace!
As you can tell, I am new to forums. But I have been reading the posts and I love that you are all so supportive of one another. What a great network of people, resources compassion and information.

Hi, well you are one of us now, so give yourself a pat on the back!!

It is exciting when beans sprout they seem to pop up as you are looking at them.

XX Jeannine

good to hear about your beans and your navigation of this site  ;D I remember it took me a while and there's still stuff I regularly forget  ::)

1066

I remember that when I was new and not making many posts I kept forgetting to look at the website.  So I set it as my homepage and now it's the first thing I visit on the web.

I'm glad your beans have started to grow!

Glad to hear the beans have started, i've not even sown any yet :(

The main way I  use the forum is click on Home and on the left side of the screen are unread, Show replies and Show own posts.


Neil

My bean sowing epic is supposed to begin tonight.... got so many varieties from various swaps and the only thing I've done so far was a few Speedie adn Puerple Queen to grow under cover to get an early crop.... they're up and well into leaf, hopefully will beat the others to a few helpings of green beans, next year might well repeat as by then I should have a proper GH not a polytunnel.....

Also going to try growing dwarf beans in a herb planter on the patio.... if that works then I might do it again next year oin a bigger scale...

chrisc

Ooo, this is exciting - all your replies!! How lovely. Thanks so much.

I have always wanted to be a gardener and grow lots of veggies and never have. I was a weird child who loved eating vegetables. The smell of runner beans cooking, and eating them evokes memories of my childhood - hence my attempts, finally, of growing them.

I don't really have a garden conducive to a vegetable plot right now, but one day, maybe........

I started to grow veggies in my garden - small, walled with a few extablished plants. Increasingly more stuff in pots. When I ran out of space and had a bit more time I got myself an allotment  ;D

Good luck with the runner beans - I think they are fairly easy, and usually very prolific, so hopefully you'll be able to recreate those childhood memories  ;D

Starting off small, by growing in pots, sounds possible. Any ideas of what might work? I seem to remember I tried tomatoes once and they didn't do too well.

I have a raised walled bed (made by the previous owner) but it is dominated by a bay tree (actually growing in it), which must be sucking the nutrients out of the soil, not to mention creating too much shade. My hubby doesn't want to remove the bay tree as it also gives us some privacy.

You can grow pretty much anything in pots if you follow a few rules.

Use big pots, grow in good purchased potting soil, water regularly, feed  well and buy the right varieties for containers, eg there is a dwarf runner bean called Hestia that is for pots, there are mini veggies in all types, in  fact I am doing a mini veg demonstration patch on our lottie, it is only 3 foot x 8 foot,so I am using all mini varieties of cauli, broc, cabbage, toms,carrots, pumpkins, peppersetc etc....

The idea is to demonstrate what can be gown in a small area, all the varieties can also be grown in pots.

Go for it, you will be surprised, I can give you variety names if you want,

XX Jeannine

I'm doing everything in pots this year as we're in the process of moving house & there's currently a patio where the veg beds will be.

Hoping to do pretty much everything - toms on the go on the windowsill already, and plenty of seeds of everything else ready to go. Got garlic, spring onions and shallots planted in buckets already, spuds will be going into compost bags very soon. Aiming to do a couple of courgette plants, carrots, parsnips, leeks, spinach and plenty of herbs. Might be more in the seed pot, but I can't remember at mo. Succumbed to temptation and brought a squash in the garden centre the other day, but have no idea how it'll cope in a bucket.

Planning to just chuck everything in and aim to pick it fairly small. Most of the varieties are designed to be picked as baby veg so should be ideal in buckets. Not sure whether it'll all work, but it's worth a try. Have been gardening for a couple of years and find the best way to figure out is just to try it. If it doesn't work so well this year, then try a different route next year. Or ask on here & someone will put you straight  ;D

Thanks both for your replies. I feel inspired!

What happens with courgettes in pots when they start to trail? I was just thinking I would like to plant some of those. I found one growing in the flower beds once. Goodness knows how it got there....compost heap I guess. They seem fairly fail safe.

Happiness is... totally emptying my fridge of all left over veggies. Just made up a huge pot of lentil veg soup. Yum!

Actually apart from a couple of lesser known ones, courgettes don't trail, they are all bush , it is winter squash that trail(most of them) In the garden they cover an area of about three to four feet counting the big leaves, the courgettes grow quite close to the middle, so in a large tub the important root and fruit parts are over the tub,  You can however grow winter squash in a tub too even though it trails(vines) you can train it up a trellis or fence , the same as a cucumber.

XX Jeannine

bcbeans - well I've done tomatoes in pots, you just need to make sure the pots are nice and big, I also grow tumbling tomatoes in hanging baskets. And they all need a feed when in flower. Salads have always done ok in pots - particularly the cut and come again and rocket leaves.
Last year I tried cucumbers and aubergines in pots, it was ok but I'm going to try them in the ground this year.
Chillies have been excellent grown this way aswell. Plus some oriental veggies like Pak Choi (which, as long as you can keep the slugs and snails off do very well in pots)
Oh and I always grow my carrots in pots and tubs as my soil is heavy clay  :)

Happy gardening !

1066

Trying a climbing courgette this year. Seemed like a good idea at the time  ::)

As Jeannine's already pointed out, trellis is the way forward. Going to try scouring poundstretcher or lidl for some cheap stuff. Hopefully the squash I've got produces small enough squashes that weight shouldn't be a problem, since they'll be hanging rather than lying on the ground. If it comes to it I might have to construct some nets and tie them into the trellis.

Toms do need a fair bit of water and a lot of sun if they're going to do well outside. Might be why you didn't have much luck. I kept mine in grow bags last year (three per bag) against a south facing wall and got a decent crop. Don't want to ask the obvious, but do you know about pinching the side shoots out? Know quite a few friends whose toms didn't do very well last year and turned out this was the problem.

Which one is it XX Jeannine

(goes and has rummage in seed box)

Apparently Firenze F1 Hybrid. Slightly puzzled now I re-read the packet. Sure it was advertised as a climbing one, but the back of the packet doesn't mention it. Just says something along the lines of 'small, compact plant, ideal for tubs'.

Either I've got muxed ip (which happens regularly) or someone's telling porkies   ::)

Think next year I might do a bit more research before I just dive in and buy stuff  ;D


EDIT: have just double checked on the web & I've obviously made that up! No mention of it climbing at all. Never mind - maybe I can get more squash in if I don't need all the trellis for the courgettes. Silver lining if you look hard enough  ;D

We have all done it Mrs G!! If yu tell what other squash you have I can tell you what size, requirements they need  for eg bush vining types and usually sizes XX Jeannine

I went and bought some radish, courgette (zucchini they're called here), beet, and carrot seed packages yesterday.
I can't wait to start planting them in pots. You have all really got me going now. Small potatoes (no pun intended..) compared to what you are all doing...but...it's a start.

Quote from: Jeannine on May 01, 2010, 19:51:20
We have all done it Mrs G!! If yu tell what other squash you have I can tell you what size, requirements they need  for eg bush vining types and usually sizes XX Jeannine

Think I was looking at too many things at once and not paying attention. Not that I do that a lot or anything  ;D

Squash currently residing on the windowsill is 'munchkin'. Beware of impulse garden centre buys!!

bcbeans - glad to see we've managed to pass you the bug!! I'm only really into the first proper season and there's undoubtedly disasters ahead, but every year you learn a bit more! Just watch this lot don't lead you into seedaholic madness. I'm already contemplating how many more toms I can get in next year  ::) ;D