New to Veg

[zulu]

Hi Folks
Firstly what a great and interesting site. Not new to gardening but have never tried veg apart from the odd tommy plants and tats. Got a front garden - full of flowers but absolutely no spare ground at the back for veg. Not going on holiday this year so will be at home to look after them. Thinking of pots. Would I be able to grow veg such as peas, beans, carrots and maybe even baby cobs, in large pots of which I have a plentiful supply?
I'm really excited this year to try these so I would be very grateful for any tips whatsoever from you good prople. Thanks.

[Wombat]

G'Day Zulu, and welcome to the site!

Yep, you can grow all sorts of things in containers. Carrots need a deep container (for obvious reasons). When you grow legumes (peas, beans etc.) you need to be sure that the soil in the pots has the Rhyzobium bacteria which the legumes need to help them fix the nitrogen in the air. The bes way to do this is to "seed" the soil with some soil from a garden that has grown legumes before - perhaps pinched form someone's allotment . corn is a gross feeder so the potting soil would need mulch and plenty of feeding during the growing season!

Nev

[zulu]

Many thanks for a swift reply. Dearie me but you do make it sound awfully simple. Well, preparing to get my mits dirty. Thanks again.

[Wombat]

Onya Zulu! Good luck!

Nev

[alcina]

If the front garden is a cottage style garden rather than a formal garden, you could incorporate veggies into the planting there, peas growing up the delphiums, carrots dotted here and there, the odd lettuce in an empty few inches of soil...all very traditional in a cottage garden to grow veggies as well as flowers. Probably not the best thing to do though if you're on a busy road.

Good luck!

Alcina

[Millymollymandy]

French beans grow very well in pots and as the pods don't drag on the soil they don't get dirty! Also I don't know about the bacteria that Nev is talking about but they have grown perfectly well for me in ordinary potting compost.

[Wombat]

Years ago I tried growing some in a planter filled with potting compost and they were pretty ratty and stunted until I seeded the compost. Maybe your stuff had the bacteria in already MMM

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

Very probably Nev - here in France they tend to be peat based (they are only just cottoning onto the fact that using peat isn't a great idea.....) - do you think this is why?

[Wombat]

Maybe........being a natural product and all!

Nev

[Muddypause]

Have to say I've never had any trouble with beans, whether planted straight in the ground, or started in pots of compost.

Maybe the bacteria is more endemic in some parts of the world.