Hello

[northepaul]

Hi there,
I am new to the forum, as you may have guessed
I am a novice veg and fruit grower in Southampton, I have recently moved into a house, dug over a small veg patch (Its approx 1.5m wide and 8m long) and planted firstly garlic and shallots in September and then cabbages, onions and sprouts about a fortnight ago. I also made my own little raised bed from pallets and recycled compost bags. Everything (touch wood) seems ok.
I also have some strawberries which I have grown in pots for years and am just getting ready to plant some raspberries (converted part of flower bed) and blueberries, but most excitedly I am awaiting 3 small fruit trees - an apple, damson and greengage, two of which will have to go in a pot. I have bought them all on dwarfing rootstock as I dont have a huge garden.

I guess the reason I wanted to grow my own is because I try to buy everything organic, which as you probably know if expensive, so I thought why not grow it myself? Also I adore damsons/greengages and have not found them available locally for years.

Erm I think I have waffled on enough, just wanted to introduce myself

[Jeanied]

Hi there Northepaul - welcome to the vine and you've come to just the right place to waffle on as much as you want (about growing organic, your plot etc!).

[SMT]

Hi Northepaul,

As you'll see Im fairly new to the forum too, but everyone on here is very friendly and really go out of their way to help you out if you need questions answering.

Sounds like you've made a great start. Watch out though it gets very addictive!

[binley100]

Hello . The vine is a friendly place to be and everybody is really helpful and supportive in all things whether it be growing stuff or not!

[rustylady]

Welcome to the Vine. It's a friendly place to be. Please add your location to your profile, though. It helps ever so much when answering questions. Town or county will do nicely.

[northepaul]

Thanks for the messages and I have added my location...sorry to sound a bit dim, but how do I add a picture to my profile?

[ginger ninger]

Your not dim.....just new.
Right lets see if this works for you... at the top of this page in the green strip you'll see "User CP", click on to that, then you'll see "Edit Avatar", click onto that, you should have a screen come up that has a little dot that says "Custom Avatar, click it then move your arrow down onto "Browse", this should take you into your photo's, have a look which photo you want to down load as your Avatar, click onto your photo, when its been loaded click save... you should have your own photo in the top left hand side of your screen... fingers crossed.
O... By the way..welcome to the vine

[FionaH]

Welcome to the Vine

[binley100]

okay Gingerninger I thought this sounds easy peasy . I can do this avatar thing. How could I be so wrong my pics the wrong way round!!!!!

[ginger ninger]

PMSL, sorry for laughing.... your original photo must have been the wrong way round other than that, I really don't know what happened (I'm not still laughing, really I'm not)...but look on the bright side, you'll not get flooded in your front room

[Bigmallly]

Welcome Northepaul,
Don't forget to net those cabbages & sprouts.......
Binley - Do sommat with that pic, I've got a crick in my neck........

[ginger ninger]

Binley - Do sommat with that pic, I've got a crick in my neck........

I don't know about crick in your neck...I bet she has trouble keeping the water in the bath .

[runnerbean]

Welcome to the vine .

[northepaul]

Thanks everyone and appreciate the advice on the picture, Ginger...as you can see it worked. Although when I came to choose I was a little stuck!

[binley100]

I'm glad yours worked I've tried and tried to upload a right way round picture but it's just not having it. Now tried two different pictures and neither works.