What I learned this year

[Christine]

and will try to remember next year!

1 - mange tout need 8 foot canes or similar
2 - start tomatoes off in February indoors if I want to eat them with salads - same with other greenhouse vege
3 - don't ever, ever plant tomatoes outdoors ever again! Blighted yet again!


How about you?

[Annpan]

4. garden peas are not mange tout - made this mistake and ruined a lovely stir fry
5. slugs like long grass, next year I will try to cut around the veg beds more often.
6. carefully earth-up potatoes, don't throw clods of dirt across the garden in a random fashion

[Plotter]

7. Start earlier! It's September and I've had exactly 4 small tomatoes.
8. Peas and beans love a bit of good home compost to get their feet into.
9. Bag grown spuds take a hell of a lot of watering, even in this soggy summer.

[StripyPixieSocks]

10. Herbs grow alot better if you remember to water them and not think because they're on the window ledge outside they will get rained on
11. Herbs grow in hanging baskets
12. Turning tyres into planter is much more hard work than any of the tutorials let on

[Millymollymandy]

13. Don't take the advice of certain people on this site (MKG! ) as to how many runner beans to plant. 12 plants for two people is downright silly.

14. Do plant way more borlotti bean plants (the non climbing kind) than you think you will need because they don't keep on producing beans the way that french and runners do.

15. Never take the weather for granted (well we all knew this didn't we? )

[MKG]

Libel!!!!!! I never said that at all! I said you could easily get a dozen plants in that space - which you obviously could. Anyway, now you'll have loads of beans in the freezer, which is a good thing

[LBR]

16. Either plant the veggies in the ground or don't plant them.
17. Use the herbs I go to all the trouble to care for. It's silly just to grow them not to use them.
18. Roses are high maintenance. Give another one away.
19. Plant cactus on the west side. All else takes too much watering.

[Ellendra]

20. My buttinski neighbor is easier to deal with if I go out to the land while he's off at work.

21. Pawpaws don't transplant, no matter what the catalog says. Get seeds instead.

22. Mulch the trees BEFORE they need it.

[ashamomodablam]

i have learnt less is more with a veg patch after cramming every given space with plants!!!

[Masco&Bongo]

23. Net the brassicas
24. Net the soft fruit
25. Plant early - not last minute
26. Learn how to store gluts of things (e.g. onions)
27. Realise that it will rain too much and there won't be enough sun and don't get upset about it

[Millymollymandy]

28. I learnt that ducks will get in under the bird netting and love strawberries whether green or red so they need to be fenced off big time!

[shell]

forget the veg patch and plant a paddy field instead

[Thomzo]

30. Cabbages are caterpillar food when young and grow into lace.
31. Chicks love caterpillar infested cabbages.
32. Put a coat on and garden in the rain or don't garden.
33. Water butts are a waste of space. Turn them into composters instead.

p.s. I am hoping that nature will prove me wrong on some of these points next year.
Cheers
Zoe

[Peggy Sue]

34. Put more time asside to pick all the beans- it's not a 5 minute job
35. Bind weed is out to get me
36. Jeruselum Artichokes grow very VERY tall
37. You can't have a vine and expect mother nature to look after it
38. Do SOMETHING to stop the mice running off with your peas
39. Check your husband really has started the seed he said he would before it's too late

[snapdragon]

40. slugs and snails are quicker and greedier than I imagined
41. a greenhouse is not a luxury - I must have one before next season
42. fine galvanised mesh protects pea and bean seeds, but when grown nothing seems to keep the pigeons off
43. I should have built the raised beds already