How does your garden grow? (Fruit & Veg)

Welcome! carrots have a germination time of about 15-20 days and need reasonable temperatures, around a consistent 8 degrees- how long are they down?

When I say overwinter I mean plants can be left and used from the garden straight thro the winter into next spring.

You could try Homebase for broccoli or caulies seedlings. I saw some there last week going cheap. I would risk a packet of seeds and grow indoors if you can't get the seedlings. Likely you'll get away with it as seedlings are usually only a week or so old. Alternatively if your in Dublin check out Midleton's on Mary Street.
 
Small wood chips are ideal mulch. They retain both heat and water. If you are going to plant potatoes regularly then you should crop rotate. Potatoes patches need a 5 yr cycle to clear pests and diseases. Tho I have to say I've never left it that long. An alternative would be to use potato bags. usually strong plastic bags filled with soil. A bit unsightly but very good for cropping. You can buy them in gardening centres or homebase where I picked up some very cheaply.


BTW a good general site for Irish gardening information & tips is available
 
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Thanks again...

Carrots are sown about 2 and half weeks now and covered with the fleece for about 1 and half weeks...
If I buy seeds and sow them myself indoors, would they need light staraightaway..reason I ask is that I have a room which has all my plumbing fitting etc in there and it can be quite warm which would help speed germination I presume..problem is there are no windows in there, so no light...would a week or 2 in there and then a move to a room with light work better?

thanks again
 
I think your carrots are probably not going to come up, but leave em for another week or so. Carrot seed that doesn't germinate rots I'm afraid. And no, seeds don't generally need light immediately to germinate, heat and moisture will usually do the trick. If you're thinking of carrots for this, I would suggest a window box covered with an opaque plastic bag. Now is a bit late for carrots in the ground, and you run the risk of carrot fly too. Use a large long planter, pack well with a mixture of 80/90% soil/compost & 10%/20% horticultural sand, wet thoroughly with hot( not boiling) water and sow seeds . You can thin out as required. It's very important to keep this off the ground to avoid the fly.

The hot water trick sparks germination. It can be used on various seeds that need heat, such as parsely and spring onions. Alternatively you can place seeds in a cup and add hot water (hot to touch) and then sow them. This is a bit awkward as seeds stick together, but I've done it for parsely etc and it works fine. BTW carrots cannot be transplanted into the ground, but parsely can.
 
My peas are now showing nicely. Not too many yet but enough for a family meal. Do others eat the pod as well as the peas in the pod?
 
can anyone advise how soon after spraying for blight one can dig and eat potatoes safely. sprayed mine today. no information on product container. thanks
 

Carrots have appeared...!!
Rocket is flying along...
Spinach seed sowed 1 month ago not looking good though..
 
We noticed that our carrots look as if they have grown sideways in our ground rather than straight down in to our ground. We dug up about a dozen of these yesterday and most of them were growing in a spiral shape! When I prepared the ground before planting it was a mixture of existing clay, a bag of John Innes topsoil, some Chicken Poo pellets with a dash of well rotted manure. The ground was not too firm. Any ideas why this happened?
 
The soil wasn't loose enough! When planting deep rooted plants like carrots, you need to double-dig deep (shovel depth) and make the soil very loose and friable. A wee bit of sand with carrots is great to make it easy for them to grow straight.

If your soil is clayish, it might also compact easily with rain & watering. Again, horticultural sand is your answer. Don't over-do it tho, too sandy and the soil wont retain water & nutrients.
 
Thanks Horusd. Over the winter I will mix in some sand and loosen the soil up a bit more. Incidentally I grew some spinach. Suddenly it took off and it has already gone to seed. I have never seen anything move so quickly.
 
Grizzly said:
Thanks Horusd. Over the winter I will mix in some sand and loosen the soil up a bit more. Incidentally I grew some spinach. Suddenly it took off and it has already gone to seed. I have never seen anything move so quickly.
Click to expand...

Spinach bolts at the drop of a hat. But the plant is still edible.I just pick off leaves and resow regularly.
 
My rocket plants have tiny little holes in some of them..looks like something is having a snack..any ideas? (dont think it is slugs..)
 
It's probably baby snails/slugs. Check carefully around the area/under leaves/nearby plants, as they won't travel far. These are pesky because they seldom eat slug pellets. I pick em off and stand on them- mercy killing! If your rocket are in the ground, you can place sand/gravel around the plants. The slimey's don't like it.
 
Grizzly said:
Thanks Horusd. Over the winter I will mix in some sand and loosen the soil up a bit more. ...
Click to expand...

As a guide, squeeze some damp soil in your palm. If you poke it with your finger and it remains a solid mass or is gloopy like potter's clay, it's too heavy. The ideal soil for most plants should break apart with a poke. About 10-20% sand should be enough. But as I said, don't overdo this.
 
My potatoes have flowered. I put these down in May. When are they ready for picking?
 
Strawberry bounty for us this year - some are as big as vine tomatoes! Has anyone any good suggestions to make use of our overflow? So far I've done enough jam to see out the year, frozen as many as we can fit into our freezer and have lined some more up for strawberry ice cream. So apart from eating the rest fresh (which of course we're quite enjoying!) has anyone any suggestions for how to preserve strawberries?
 

Smoothies? Frozen yoghurt?
 
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