Top Tips

[SlugLobber]

Short of heated growing space?

If you're not worried about plants taking up room in the house, use your large pots indoors and place them inside clear (recycling) bags. This enables you to water them indoors and give them a head start.

When you put the pots outdoors, you can then peg the top of the bag, so that each pot has its own frost-free/sheltered environment in harsh weather. This worked soooooo well for my potatoes, I've started off my first round parsnips in the same way.

[coreopsis]

For dill lovers:
As the dill has shallow root system,don't waste the space into sowing the seeds separately.Take deeper meat tray(reusing),drill some holes at the bottom for drainage,fill with compost and water well.Make shallow holes in the compost about 2 inches apart and put small pinch of seeds into every hole covering with a bit of damp compost.Depending on the size of the trays,you'll get BUNCHES of dill ready to use.
The trays can be sown in succession,allowing you to enjoy your dill all summer and well into autumn.Don't let the tray to dry off completely and water regularly.

Try some new tatties(whole),served hot with dill,bit of butter and cucumber salad on the side

[janeyo]

I always use a sprinkle of compost on the rows and then water it in before sowing seeds there. And then sprinkle compost on the top along the row.

It a) helps to stop them blowing away as sticks to the damp compost, and b) as the compost is darker than the soil it helps to see where the rows are.

[Creemteez]

Run out of loo roll middles?

Supply and demand being unequal in my household, and desperate to get my early peas off to a flying start, I hit upon the fact that my mother only drinks mineral water (don't ask -she obviously has money to burn!), and that as a consequence her recycling bags were groaning with 500ml clear plastic water bottles. Cut both ends off, stand upright in supermarket mushroom trays, fill with compost and Bob's yer uncle, root trainers that are much more robust than loo roll innards.
When it comes to planting out, slit down two sides (my bottles are square - Highland Spring - if you're interested) and ease out root ball. The used bottles can then find their way into the recycling. Happy peas, happy mother, happy me!

[snakeshack]

run out of window cill?
hang a string across the top of your window,you can even use the two hooks for your net curtains.
get resealable ziplock food bags and place compost in the bottom corner.
sow seed or insert cutting into compost.
use washing peg to attach to string.
if you use this for cuttings you can see the roots through the bag and know they have taken.
no need to water as the bag is sealed,and double the length of your window cill,if you feel adventurous you could put up multiple strings

[windowsillqueen]

Save up 2ltr and 3ltr pop bottles. Cut them in have and put holes in the bottom of the bottom half. Pop them over the top of your lettuces at night - slug free lettuces!

[devon-surfer]

Earthing up !
Instead of earthing up with earth around the potato plants, use fresh compost, not only does it work well, you add more nutrients and bulk to your plot.

[minipop]

Use guttering as a seed tray... (ideal if you have surplus new or for recycling old). Can be cut to the length of your windowsill if keeping seelings indoors, or to fit your greenhouse bench. And when it comes to planting out, if you get the spacings right when sowing you can just slide the whole row out of the guttering and into position in the bed!

[Skotch]

Growbags

When using growbags for your toms, rather than plant into them laid flat, grab the bag in the middle so the growing medium is divided into 2 and cut across the bag, leaving you with 2 bags that are taller than the bag laid flat. This means you can plant your toms deeper to establish a better root system which will mean a better uptake of nutrients

[SueA]

My tip is to buy supermarket herbs, the kind growing in pots, & split them up into small clumps & repot in fresh compost. They'll grow on a lot longer than they do normally & it gives you a head start for any herbs you find difficult to germinate such as parsley.

[selfraising]

Creating space!

As I have a relatively small garden, space is at a premium. Last year I found a cheap metal arch in my shed that I had bought for my garden but ended up not using. I shortened the heght of the arch and pushed it into the soil so that it went over the top of my raised bed. By doing this, I could grow courgettes and my pumpkin over it leaving the space in the raised bed for other veg

[21again]

Use for old plastic milk cartons (ones with handles)

If you are short on space in your greenhouse then take a strip of wood, cut the bottom off some old milk cartons and thread the wood through the handles. Make sure you use a needle to make some holes in the lid.

Here are a few I made earlier as they say.





You can of course make them deeper by just cutting off a couple of cms of the bottom of the carton.

I think if you just put the compost over one side of the carton, ie not over the hole where the handle is, you can pour water down the inside of the handle and it will get to the roots quicker.

[Victoria26]

Planting garlic out a little late in the season

If you think its too late to plant out your garlic cloves store them in the fridge for a week - maybe giving them a blast in the freezer each day for an hour.

This may seem labour intensive but they need the cold to split into cloves so your fooling them into thinking they've been through a frost and cold snap.

Means you can plant them right up until april.

[elsie-scot]

Mini propagator

Some fruits are sold in a plastic tub with a lid, not so great for the environment excessive packaging view point, but they make fantastic mini propagators, with plenty ventilation/drainage holes.

[kitchengardner]

KG's Top Tip

If you have a small garden you can get so much more in it if you think vertically; grow your peas, climbing beans, courgettes, cucumbers etc up your fences and plant strawberries, tomatoes, salad leaves, herbs etc in wall troughs/hanging baskets. This dramatically increases the yield per square metre.

Regards

Kitchen Gardener