Very excited newbie with pressure on to make plot colourful.

[Kittypickle]

I was delighted to get an email offering me a half plot last Monday. Went to see it Saturday and digging started Sunday. It is a lovely little site and my next door but one neighbour introduced himself . I'd already heard from the site manager that he is the man to ask about everything and has won best plot holder in the town for the last 3 years

He asked if I would be entering the competition at which point I went pale and clutched onto my fork for support, told him I'd need a good year or so to get going . However when I got home I was thinking maybe I could make a bit of an effort with what I plant.

Looked through my seeds and have some salmon pink flowered runners. Pink flowered peas, purple podded beans, sungold toms. Thought I could do some of those red flowered broad beans and some bright lights chard, plus have some sweet pea seeds lurking.

Was wondering if that sounded OK and if anyone has any other ideas. Pictures very welcome as I find them all very inspiring on here.

[Torreya]

Great idea! If you want, I've got some spare Yellow Scallop squashes, blue radish and red Pak Choi, you could have a 'Rainbow garden'!!

[Bumbler]

Sounds fun. There's a pink shed and orange framed greenhouses on my site. I say go for it

Dawn

[Kittypickle]

Great idea! If you want, I've got some spare Yellow Scallop squashes, blue radish and red Pak Choi, you could have a 'Rainbow garden'!!

Torreya, that is very kind of you , I'd love some if you really don't mind. Can I PM you and get an envelope off to you plus a list of what I have to return the favour ?

I love the idea of a rainbow garden, it would I'll two birds with one stone as it would get the DC's interested, I'm gong to get them to make a scarecrow. I've got an old bench which needs another coat of paint, it's purple and the paint is lurking.

Bumbler, I did think if I got a shed I could paint it but haven't quite worked out how to get one there as access isn't easy. An orange green house sounds very bright!

Bilbo, I am quite convinced I don't look like competition in any shape or form, I reckon they were busy chuckling at my polka dot wellies when I'd gone. I told DH they wouldn't take me seriously in them! My neighbour's title is very safe but I think it will b good to get into the spirit of the thing.

[Torreya]

Hi Kitty, by all means send a pm, I'm without wheels at the moment, so you might have to wait until I can borrow OH's car to get to P.O.

[Jeanied]

The chard bright lights is my favourite colourful veg -let's see if I can link to the photo of my lottie last summer.

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[binley100]

There's nothing wrong with polka dot wellies . Good luck in making your rainbow plot

[Storming Norman]

You must go for this!

One of the girls on the site here grew a row of ruby chard - they just looked stunning.

Red Pak choi were great on my plot [and grew sensibly] but to my mind they are a late summer crop. http://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk..._PAK_CHOI.html

I can let you have one or two 'one ball' courgette seeds to fill the plot - bright yellow courgettes which can get up to football size - were really stunning in the garden last year. Courgette Seed 'One Ball' (Cucurbita pepo 'One Ball')

BUT I really recommend that you grow some sweet peas up your pea/bean sticks before you plant the beans. One pot from the garden centre breaks into at least three plantings and is highly ornamental for a couple of months. Certainly prettier that the purple podded peas [which were rather floury tasting anyway].

[ammi]

You must go for this!

One of the girls on the site here grew a row of ruby chard - they just looked stunning.

Red Pak choi were great on my plot [and grew sensibly] but to my mind they are a late summer crop. PAK CHOI

I can let you have one or two 'one ball' courgette seeds to fill the plot - bright yellow courgettes which can get up to football size - were really stunning in the garden last year. Courgette Seed 'One Ball' (Cucurbita pepo 'One Ball')

BUT I really recommend that you grow some sweet peas up your pea/bean sticks before you plant the beans. One pot from the garden centre breaks into at least three plantings and is highly ornamental for a couple of months. Certainly prettier that the purple podded peas [which were rather floury tasting anyway].

I grow the sweet peas at the same time as my beans and peas as they realy attract the pollinators

[Flummery]

Sow a few plants of nasturtium and/or calendula (English marigold) as they will add lots of bright colour and you can eat the petals with salad. Don't do what I did though. I edged a climbing bean bed with sturdy nasturtium seedling and they started to run up the canes - they were a climbing variety!
Oh yes, and read the packets!

[Kittypickle]

Torreya and Storming Norman, thank you both so much for your kind offer of seeds, I'm about to PM you both if that is OK. I might not bother planting my purple podded peas then and stick to something safe as DS is really into peas and I don't want to put him off.

Jeanied, love the picture, it is great to see it in real life so to speak rather than the seed supplier's pics. Binley, I don't feel like a serious gardener in my polka dot wellies but they do fit my er well toned calves !

There are two packs of Sweet pea seeds in my tin so will need to get on with sowing them by the look of the packets. I will do them at the same time as Ammi does as I'm not going to be very organised in advance due to the digging I need to do to get everything turned over.

I found a pack of yellow nasturtium in my seed box yesterday Flummery, will investigate whether they can climb, last thing I want is to control climbing ones on top of my beans etc !

Thank you all so much for your help, I'm really looking forward to getting the DC's back to school next week and cracking on. DH is going down at lunchtime to have a potter and I love the idea of making it a Rainbow plot, adds another element to it which should be a lot of fun - providing I sort out my rabbit fencing so something actually manages to grow ! I will await with interest to see what my plot neighbours make of it but I'm not going to tell them in advance that I'm planting a fair few colours so it can be a surprise for them.

[trish60]

Red kohlrabi is a very unusual and colourful plant.It grows on top of the soil and looks rather sputnik like. I gave one to my friend & when I asked if she`d enjoyed it she said that as she hadn`t known what to do with it she`d drawn it in her sketch book!

[Creemteez]

French Marigolds! Lots of them! All round the edge of your carrot bed. Look really vibrant and help repel carrot fly.

[smallfrog]

Rainbow chard is beautiful and is really easy to grow.

Nasturtium look and taste great in salad. Get your DC's growing sunflowers big, little and in different shades brought my good and very grown up friend a mixed packet year and she loved them.

My DS sunflower grew over 7ft was very impressed my alas was eaten at an early age by a slug.

[flowerofshona]

If your in the Bournemouth area give me a shout i have loads of seeds you can look through