2nd Year Growers (or more if you can remember!)

[Helgalush]

- Not to sow a whole packet of Tumbling Toms/Aubergines in one go
- In view of the above, to sow little and often
- To plan and grow according to the amount of space you have
- To be braver and try growing different varieties of vegetables, even if you have no idea what to do, give it a go anyway
- That I always buy more seeds than I can ever hope to sow
- To water seedlings and containers from the bottom, rather than the top
- To keep learning and asking, as I am still unsure on so much stuff!
- To sow radishes for when I am feeling impatient!
- That no matter how much I hope they wont, whitefly, greenfly and blackfly love my veggies as much as I do.

[Creemteez]

When picking peas, mange tout, beans and the like, when you think you've harvested every thing that's ready, go away and do another small job for ten minutes then come back. Ten to one you'll find at least another half dozen more pods that would have "gone over to the dark side" had they been missed.
Weeds are a fact of life - as are slugs and snails.

[FionaH]

Every darn thing in my garden wants to eat my brassicas
43 tomato plants is too many
Not everyone likes chutney
The rule "I grew it, now you eat it" is inviolate
Nothing deters cats
Just because Pink Fir Apples are described as a salad potato doesn't mean they are earlies!
You can fit a few more spring onions in just about anywhere
You can never really dig out raspberries
I would be even more insane if I didn't grow veg

[Rabidbun]

• Aubergines love not growing more than they do growing.
• Just when you think your strawberry plants are dormant for the winter they sneak in another 100 or so runners when you aren't looking.
• The birds actually have noticed the fruit you thought they'd missed so had left on for just one more day to ripen.
• Apparently, it's ok to throw out weaker plants and those you don't have room for.
• Just when you thought you'd gotten every last slug, a giant snail will turn up out of nowhere to give you variety.
• There's always one more disease to discover.
• There's always one more pest to discover.
• Often, it's not just one thing trying to kill your crops, it's many.

[Zenithtb]

(There are some really useful observations here!)

[snohare]

There are some really useful observations here!

<runs to find publisher for "A Wise Old Gardener's Sayings">

[reetnproper]

'Thinning' is the hardest gardening skill to learn and requires more will power than I pocess ;

Now that I've learnt that tomato side shoots, if popped into compost, can grow into more tomato plants, I can no longer throw out tomato side shoots (due to my shocking aforementioned lack of will power) and, as a result, now have WAY, WAY too many tomato plants ;

A small, fine paintbrush, is, IMO the most important gardening tool when it comes to growing pumpkins and squashes ; and

Whatever job I am doing in the garden at any given moment, it is NEVER as important as the job my OH needs my help with !

Reet
x

[Jo Sara]

Sparrows like garden twine as nesting material.

Sparrows also like eating (or using in their nest) pea (and only pea) foliage, for some reason.

Blackbirds are great for getting slugs out of your veg bed.

The plant spacing recommended on seed packets is open to tweaking in a small veg bed.

Mangetout is one of the easiest things to grow ever, and saves a fortune on shop bought.

Ditto the above with spring onions.

Potatoes in bags is not economical unless you can find a replacement to multi-purpose for earthing them up, but it is very satisfying to grow potatoes in a small garden this way.

Don't go mad with the number of tomato plants you grow unless you REALLY like tomatoes, or you have a REALLY big freezer.

Jo

[mothhawk]

Slugs will loiter by any newly sown row of seeds all night ready to scoff the emergent seedlings before you've even had a chance to see them.

Just because they can fit 60 different types of seed packet on a rack in the store doesn't mean you can fit 60 types of veg in a small garden.

Checking every kale leaf every day for butterfly eggs is more tedious and time-consuming than watching paint dry.

I'd dearly like to shake the hand of the person who invented micromesh.

A freshly dug potato crunches like an apple when cut in half.

Whatever your gardening problem is, post it - someone else has had it too, and found a solution they will share with you.

[FionaH]

<runs to find publisher for "A Wise Old Gardener's Sayings">

Watch it, who you calling old?

[reetnproper]

Ohhhh and one more thing I've learned is that the Vine can be very addictive

Reet
x

[Roseanna]

Really enjoyed reading this thread, laughed out loud several times although when i tried to explain what was so funny to my sixteen year old daughter the look of total bafflement was even funnier. There have been so many good tips I'm just going to add one.
Write in down....you will not remember accurately when you sowed or planted out or started hardening off or how long things took to grow last year etc. There's just too much going on to carry all the information in your head.