Sometimes I feel so stupid

[Claire72]

When I read your posts about what you are growing, everything seems to be going great guns for you all and you are all so knowledgeable. Some of the veg you plant I have never heard of! I wouldn't know how to cook them, let alone grow them!
I feel as though I ask so many questions, and answer so few.
I shall aspire to be as knowledgeable as you one day, probably in the distant future!

[citygirl]

You and me both hun...you are NOT on your own

[Nicos]

Google, google and google!!!!

You're certainly not on your own!!!
Year by year you will have grown more and more 'guest' veg and then tell us what works for you ...or not...and then we'll all be richer for your experiences!!

Bye the way Claire..I don't always discuss my failures.....

[scarey55]

Bye the way Claire..I don't always discuss my failures.....

Nor do I Nicos And goodness knows, I've had a few.

I have only been growing my own for 2 years and I am relying heavily on these clever peeps here on the Grapevine. I am always asking questions and the one time I did give an answer I was so excited that I got it all wrong

Just stick on here and you'll soon be giving advice to newbies

[Mrs Dobby]

Claire, we all start out not knowing much at all, and it can be quite daunting, but you'd be surprised at just how much and how quickly you learn stuff, especially reading on here! We had our first years growing last year, and are only in our second season, so know we still have masses to learn, but even so, we enjoy what we do and learn as much from our successes as our mistakes!

[deezyb]

Claire, don't feel so bad...as the other Grapes say..we all learn all the time! The Grapevine is fab for asking advice, and if you ask questions in the wrong place..it's fine, you'll get directed to the right place! I'm in 2nd year of growing a 3m x 3m patch, and would love an allotment but none going in the area! i love this forum!

[Claire72]

Claire, we all start out not knowing much at all, and it can be quite daunting, but you'd be surprised at just how much and how quickly you learn stuff, especially reading on here! We had our first years growing last year, and are only in our second season, so know we still have masses to learn, but even so, we enjoy what we do and learn as much from our successes as our mistakes!

I had no idea this was only your second year, you seem so knowledgeable! I did some planting and growing last year, but not much, it was a really wet summer and I just stayed away from the garden a lot of the time.
This year is my first 'proper' year.
Thanks for the kind words, I hadn't thought about the fact that people don't mention what goes wrong very often.

[zazen999]

Claire; just read your other post and know you aren't feeling yourself.

We started off 2 years ago growing onions carrots broccoli sprouts and lettuce in plastic storage containers; we got given toms, courgettes, cukes and were hooked - we learnt an awful lot and I spent alot of time googling one thing and another and planned the next year when we would expand our veg growing; luckily by then we actually had a garden of our own.

Nobody knows everything and each day I learn something new from this fabulous bunch of people on here; the main thing is not to be afraid to make those mistakes - they can be the best thing you ever did as you learn from them.

It doesn't take long to learn the basics, honestly. And remember - seed wants to grow - all we have to do is to give is some help!

P.S.; there is a thread on here that gets resurrected every now and then in which we detail all our mistakes - mine was tending to a strawberry for months only to discover it was a nettle. Ouch indeed!

[Alice]

Don't be disheartened Claire. We all start somewhere. And none of us are experts - we just talk more about our successes than failures. And really there are no failures - just a trial for next year. You'll get on fine

[TrulyGreen]

Oh absolutely agree with everything that has been said. This is my first year growing veg and I am just so grateful for all the advice I get from the experienced people on here

[Norm]

I've been growing veg for 30 years and had an allotment for 15. If I learn something new every day and keep the lottie for another 20 years, I'll know a fraction of what there is to know. The day you stop learning, someone has nailed your lid on!

[Mrs Dobby]

I had no idea this was only your second year, you seem so knowledgeable! I did some planting and growing last year, but not much, it was a really wet summer and I just stayed away from the garden a lot of the time.
This year is my first 'proper' year.
Thanks for the kind words, I hadn't thought about the fact that people don't mention what goes wrong very often.

Lol! I'm flattered, but really, I dont know all that much, I'm just chatty with what I do know! Lolol

Just to show we had our fair share of disasters, last years disasters for us were:-

Carrots - really bad carrot root fly and wabbits kept eating the foliage, so we didnt get much of a crop at all!

Spring sown garlic - failed utterly, both types we planted!

Potatoes - First Earlies were good, but all our maincrop spuds got blight very badly, so we ran out of spuds in December!

Swedes - Cabbage root fly got em all!

Cabbages - lost a lot to wabbits until we protected them with netting etc.

Soya Beans - didnt even get one!

Peas - Rondo - about a quarter of the expected harvest, too many weeds around them!

Gherkins - only 7 in total from 3 plants

Outdoor cucumbers - only 8 from 4 plants in total!

Outdoor toms - none at all from 20 plants, they got hit by blight and we lost them all, if it wasnt for a bumper greenhouse crop of cherry toms we'd have had a complete tomato disaster!

Pickling onions - lost most of them to wabbits - had to use the smaller of the spring sown sets for pickling instead!

Butternut Squash - none from 5 plants (slugs)

Pumpkins - Only about 30 from 45 plants in total!

Sweetcorn - only about 40 good cobs and a few half cobs from 70+ plants!

Strawberries - lost loads to slugs and had a reduced harvest form our plot as the wet weather caused the weeds to grow too fast fopr us to stay on top of them! If it wasnt for the oil drum planters we had at home (thanks PW!) then we wouldnt have had much at all!

Goosegogs, none at all - we lost the lot to downy mildew, hence the fact they've been moved to a more open and lighter bed!

Lots of problems with bindweed and with mares tail, which we will continue dealing with as it grows!

This year - we've lost about 50 of our onions from seed to wabbits, lost about 10 of our 35 squashes (put them out too early methinks) and lost about 8 of our cabbages after having to move them to oput in new paths on that bed. We've also got areas of the plot that we are struggling to keep on top of the weeds again, so although we are doing ok, I wouldnt say we were totally on top of it!

As has been said, the day you think you know it all and stop learning, is the day you may as well be in your coffin!

The key is always to stay positive, concentrste on what good things you've acchieved and dont dwell on the failures, just try and figure out a way to overcome them for the following year!

[squashysu]

claire

please dont be hard on yourself love, you have had a dodgy foot to contend with and two jobs as well, you are an inspiration and i guess you are a mum as well, no easy task.....

this is my first year ever and i need to learn so much as well, but nothing ventured nothing gained and if i so much as see the slug that attacked my sweetcorn it will be a dead one!!!!! ha ha !

take care and happy gardening, it wont belong before that strawberry patch is completely weeded and you are eating them watching wimbledon on your day off xx

SS

[Winged one]

I'm another to echo the "we all make mistakes" vein. And I am another who asks loads of silly questions, and when I do give advice, I tend to woffle on like I really know something but most of the time wouldn't be nearly as confident as it sounds written down (I have fingers that love to type loads!!).

I am someone who was lucky enough to have a dad who grew lots when we were small, although he hasn't done for a while. So I grew up learning a certain amount. But having only had a tiny garden up until last year, I only grew peas in a large pot and tomatoes in a hanging basket (and those only for about 4 years). Last year we got our plot, and mistakes have definitely included growing far more cabbage than we normally eat (as I can't tolerate too much of it) and not enough of anything else.

Read what the various peeps here say, google, get a few books from the library, and eventually get a couple of decent reference books for your own bookshelf (such as Hessayan - he's good, cheap, and illustrated).

And don't worry if lots of people are growing very exotic sounding stuff, there are also lots who are just growing a few things which they like to eat themselves. And it really is about growing what YOU would like to eat - so if you grow nothing but carrots, potatoes, onions and lettuce but you love all those, then that is success for you.

You could do one trial every year for variety - either different varieties of the types of veg you like, or trying a different veg that you don't normally eat just to see what it's like (we are trying broad beans this year having never eaten them before - but all 3 of us have loved them so will plant more. But we tried both purple and white sprouting brocolli over the winter and, while the purple was great when it came, the white was boring and very stringy so we won't bother with that again). But mainly grow what you know and what you will eat is the key.

[gojiberry]

Whole idea of the forum is to meet people, have a friendly chat and hopefully each time you log in you will learn a little. I started gardening forty odd years ago and am still learning, one thing I have learnt is that there is not always a definitive answer and it is often a case of finding out what works for you. The only way to do that is to get out there and get stuck in. I only wish I had the luxury of a forum like this when I started out. I suppose in some respects it was easier back then as we all grew pretty much what we would now call basic vegetables with none of what you called fancy veg.
Good luck and don't give up.

Ian