Growing against adversity competition

[Shirley]

give it a go... and see.. :)

[ina]

I seem to be doing things at the wrong time as a general rule, not the exception... Most years, I do everything too late. (There's that round tuit that's always missing!) This year I did a lot of things too early - in my fear I'd miss the boat again, with the result that lots of those seedling are still in their modules...

Last night I sowed peas; at least a month too late. And after just reading the parsnip thread and realising I should buy new seeds next year anyway if I want to have a fighting chance of getting any to germinate, I thought I might try and grow them in containers in the tunnel now?!

But I'm sure I'll find something to do wrong in September as well! Btw, I seem to remember I planted strawberries about half a year after I bought them in little pots last year; totally neglected them, and they are amazingly huge, and quite a lot of them, too.

[Andy Hamilton]

Sounds like we have an expert it wrong conditions gardening Ina

I grew a tomato plant indoors once and had two toms on it in December.

[bazil]

should grow some pot........i heard its a hardy old bugger

[Shirley]

LMAO think I might grow some pot marjoram lol

[Luath]

Pot leeks? Pot marigolds? That's about as dangerous as I get.............

[eeksypeeksy]

My whole garden's gone to pot.

[Wormella]

I'm removing my offer to judge

We just got ourselves some tomato seeds sO# I'm enetering in the:

Stupid time of year catagory and
Not enough space to do this anyway catagory

[Diana]

OK, so what exactly are people trying, and when did they sow then?

[Wormella]

We have tomato plant seedlings.

I'm very worried I've done what I did with the chillis and planted far too many for our tiny flat to coap with.

[eeksypeeksy]

We've just planted our first ever tomatoes two weeks or so ago. (Next year, we'll start on time.) They have sprouted and are maybe an inch tall now. Most of them are in boxes that we'll grow outdoors as long as we dare, then take inside to put on the window ledge. We also put some directly in the ground that I don't have much hope for.

We also have our first ever radishes, carrots, and beets in the ground, but they seem not to be growing their roots, just getting leafy. The pumpkin plants are also pumpkinless so far. The only thing not particularly leafy is the lettuce, which is probably growing spectacularly bulging roots. Hmm.

In fact, everything in our garden is being grown against adversity, because it's the first time we've gardened anything in our lives and we have no idea what we're doing, and because the ground seems to be mainly broken brick, broken glass, and the bones of (I hope) buried pets. The building is about a hundred years old and probably used to be a nice enough house (since divided into seven apartments), but it and its garden have been through two world wars and 50 years of communism and all the rubble and shoveling under that that implies. Every time it rains and washes away the top layer of dirt, I go out and pluck the newly visible shards of glass from the surface. No bare feet in this garden. But the cukes worked, the kohlrabi weren't bad (though the caterpillars got to them), the broad beans and peas were fine, the corn seems to be growing a few cobs, the dill was great, and the sunflowers are (or were, now) very nice -- we're just waiting to harvest the sunflower heads if the local scavengers don't get to them first. If everything grew like the nasturtiums and mint and basil and marigolds, we'd be real gardeners.

[Millymollymandy]

I sowed some radishes on the 9th August. The reason for this was to see whether it was possible at this time of year given that flea beetles are supposed to be at their worst in spring/early summer.

So far so good - there are a few holes in the leaves and some beetles, but nothing like last year so I am crossing my fingers I might get something edible!

[Millymollymandy]

Success! Munching my way through now 2" long wonderful crunchy radishes, not a single flea beetle blemish on the radish itself!!!

I really must find some time to sow some rocket now, should still be enough growing time left. I really have missed having radishes and rocket!

[dibnah]

planted fennel seeds last week does that count?

[Shirley]

I did some fennel the week before last Dibs.. !

We've had some hard frosts already mind.... I don't know how well it's going to do.