Spring fever

[annie8]

Clearly I have hit that time of year when you imagine your garden full of amazing fruit and veg and get completely over optimistic about how much you can fit in. It’s that bit before reality hits and things either don’t grow well or get eaten by pests. Was so happy to have the garden centres open again that I couldn’t resist buying leek and spring onion plants although I wasn’t planning to grow them this year and have nowhere to put them and I had to really fight the desire to buy an aubergine plant although where I live there is probably no chance to getting any fruit ffrom it.

[Mr Bones]

Ever the optimist Annie, it's not a bad thing Maybe you could fit a few leeks into a compost bag or container. Aubs though do need a fair bit of warmth and sunshine

[annie8]

Yes will enjoy it while I can. Just thinking I could dot the leeks in spaces between plants and maybe plant the spring onions in clumps, sure I read somewhere you can do that. I’ll resist the aubergine

[Mr Bones]

Charles Dowding plants spring onions in clumps, we tried and it works well. Good idea about dotting the leeks about too (polyculture )

[Nicos]

A neighbouring lottie guy back in the uk always planted 3 leeks together in a hole.
They got to a very decent size too.

I love the idea of planting them dotted around - have you got room in a flower bed?

I seem to recall though that alliums stunt the growth of beans, legumes, peas etc.

[Babru]

I would resist the aubergine too - but I have seen aubergines fruiting in a polytunnel at West Mains allotment (south Edinburgh) open day two years ago. I was surprised, and maybe it's a particular variety. It was 2019, not a particularly hot summer here.

[mothhawk]

Clearly I have hit that time of year when you imagine your garden full of amazing fruit and veg and get completely over optimistic about how much you can fit in...

The garden that I can see in my mind's eye is so much bigger than the garden I have in reality,and it's always a shock that I can't fit in what I can imagine growing.

I seem to recall though that alliums stunt the growth of beans, legumes, peas etc.

It's because alliums are good at killing bacteria, and legumes rely on their nitrogen fixing bacteria to grow well.

[Nicos]

^^^ thanks for explaining that MH...I had no idea why!

[peanut]

The garden that I can see in my mind's eye is so much bigger than the garden I have in reality,and it's always a shock that I can't fit in what I can imagine growing.

This is my problem too! Even though I have quite a large garden, it is not the half acre I imagine it to be and sow enough seeds to fill, twice over!