Hello everyone, Tom here...

[Old Tom]

I'm fairly new to gardening (my wife has always 'done the gardening' and all I've done is cut the grass) but since we increased the size of the garden by buying a bit of land several years ago, I'm well into growing things that you can eat.

I hope to bring some 'How not too' advice to this very active forum...
Example:
DON'T ask all your allotment friends 'how tall do peas grow?' You'll get the answer 'Oooh, 3 to 4 ft tall' so I built my pea netting to that height. Only after they got to 6 ft that I asked why mine were so tall.
The answer I got?
'You didn't say that they were sugar snap!'

And DON'T mention my phantom cauliflowers, OK?

Anyway, if you want to see more details of me and my life and what I get up to the rest of the time, have a look at my website.

OO Gauge Railway - 'Ridley' - Home

I'm looking forward to learning a lot from you all!

Cheers

[SarzWix]

Welcome to the Vine Tom
"How Not To" can be far more important than "How To"

[selfraising]

Hi Tom and welcome to the vine. Look forward to your posts!

[Flummery]

Hi - nice to meet you. I grow both short and tall peas. I just like peas!

[ixi1456]

hello and welcome to the vine

[rainbox]

Hello Tom and welcome to the Vine! I didn't realize sugar snap peas grew that tall - oops. I think the 'How not too' sounds like a great idea!

[Glutton4...]

Welcome to the madhouse - love the Avatar pic

[shirlthegirl43]

hello and welcome to the vine.

[carlseawolf]

Welcome to the vine tom

[Penny-G]

Hi there and Welcome.

[HeyWayne]

We grow everything tall in our house!

Welcome aboard dude - and echoing what has been said - you learn more from mistakes than anything else in my experience.

[Alice]

Welcome to the Vine Tom. How not to can be very informative. Look forward to your posts.

[Irie Jan]

Hi Tom!

Welcome to the Vine always good to have another grape to chat with and read all about!

I can see from your link that you and my Dad would have got on well!
Dad would have though he was in an early heaven with your train set up! lol

Dad is gone now, passed away a few years ago but I have so many memories of the train set he built up for, erm erm, my sister and me when we were quite small lol It was a Hornby 00 gauge as well, not as grand as yours but all the same my dad loved miniature railways bless him! The little train at Hastings, the Romney Hythe to Dymchurch mini railway! Dad also used to build model airplanes and some boats as well!

Was always Mum that looked after the garden though!

[TonyO]

Hi tom,

Welcome to the vine - loved your words on the peas - I grew sugarsnaps last year & was also surprised by the height - it was my first time of growing them too!!

Your trains looked impressive, as did your model boats - are some of them radio controlled? I used to have an R/c model torpedo boat that i used to sail on the round pond in Hyde park - many years ago

sounds like your dog is getting interested in gardening too what breed is it?


TonyO.

[Old Tom]

Hi tom,

Welcome to the vine - loved your words on the peas - I grew sugarsnaps last year & was also surprised by the height - it was my first time of growing them too!!

Your trains looked impressive, as did your model boats - are some of them radio controlled? I used to have an R/c model torpedo boat that i used to sail on the round pond in Hyde park - many years ago

sounds like your dog is getting interested in gardening too what breed is it?


TonyO.

Hi Tony - nice to know I wasn't alone in growing a surprise crop last year!
Thanks for your kind comments, my boats are all static ones except for the steam launch which isn't r/c. Sadly there's nowhere local to sail boats.

The dog (Mishka) is Saluki/German shepherd cross. She's inherited the best of both types - very fast but also intelligent and a big softy who hasn't a nasty bone in her body. She's a rescue dog brought in to a local kennels who needed a home with a big garden (she runs round a LOT!). Her only contribution to gardening is to keep squirrels and cats away

Cheers