Anyone done this, have any tips etc? I have a large supply of 18 inch deep pots and id like to try my hand at growing something edible.
Not sure what to grow or rather what would grow! It doesnt matter if I dont eat it as I will be able to barter with people I know for things I do.
|
I tried it this year Stu, for the first time and it was a complete waste of time.
The slugs had my carrots, the spring onions were like pipe cleaners and never got any bigger, lettuce went the same way as the carrots and 5 seed potatoes produced just enough for one meal with three spuds left over!
It may well have had something to do with the fact that I resented them being in my flower garden, even in tubs, and swore at them every time I passed them.
Pat
|
|
We have done incredibly well this year, with French beans in pots. The pot grown spuds were sparse, the ground grown, main crop, are not yet ready.
|
I grow chillis, thyme, chives, rosemary, mint etc in pots.
Veggie gardening is a lot of hard work for little reward, i've found.
the only advantage, when the kids were younger, was they'd be happy to eat 'their' vegetables, that they'd grown themselves.
|
>> I grow chillis, thyme, chives, rosemary, mint etc in pots.
Herbs in pots are fine, all my herbs grow in pots grouped round the kitchen door for ease of use.
Toms grow well in big pots. Root vegetables in pots? no chance.
|
Pat
How big were the pots you used? The slugs are pretty busy eating my primroses right now!
|
The carrots and onions were in tubs 2'x2' and about 18'' deep but the potatoes were in a decicated potato sack with a wicker surround.
3' deep by about2' x2' if you can picure it, and it's going begging if you want it!
Pat
|
I did read somewhere that certain varieties do better in pots than others, perhaps the smaller ones.
Im not into french beans but I could swap them for other things. Id really like to try onions as I do eat them and use them alot in cooking, so I might just give them a whirl and see what happens.
When I saw on one gardening website it said ' you can grow anything in pots' and I thought yes, but what actually grows well in pots, which it didnt specify.
|
|
Its been a record slug year, both quantity and size.
|
|
Havent seen many slugs about to be honest. Lots of butterflies and a fair few honey bees, only a handful of wasps too.
|
We have loads of butterflies, dragonflies and bees this year now but Mr Mole has been absent thank goodness!
Frogs galore and froglets as well, the fish are still spawning but the grass snake didn't return this year.
Pat
|
You can grow a lot of vegetables in pots. Obviously too late for this year though!
1 They need to be kept in a sunny position
2 They need good compost
3 They will need feeding once they start growing
They will need frequent watering
Good things to grow are
Potatoes - early varieties. Surprising how many you will get - plant only one potato in each pot
Tomatoes - Make sure you have outdoor variety of the bush type that does not need support. Very bad year for tomatoes this year as they mostly got blight due to wet conditions. Next year might be better!
French beans
Lettuces - Don't need a deep pot - I use a box about 6 inches deep. Buy the mixed leaves and sow regularly for a succession throughout the season
Herbs - most like to be kept on the dry side and need a lot of sun as they mainly come from the Mediterranean. Mint likes to be kept wet at all times.
|
No point at all in growing onions. They're as cheap as chips to buy, they take a long time to grow, buying sets is quite expensive, and there's no benefit to having *fresh* onions rather than stored. You should grow things that benefit from being fresh-from-the-garden like:
Salad vegetables grow well in pots. You'll be surprised how well they keep going through the winter - particularly some of the oriental ones like mizuna, chard. Not too late to plant now - or buy a box of growing salads from the supermarket and plant them out.
And climbing beans (those of us in London grow climbing French beans, not climbing runner beans as runners require the temperature to drop during the night in order to fertilise).
Agreed, tomatoes do surprisingly well in pots, but they aren't that productive IMO. My own tomatoes never reach the kitchen, but are grazed on in the garden.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Wed 5 Sep 12 at 18:49
|
|
Sativa is an annual herbaceous plant that does well in pot/s.
|
|
175 'factories' is going some CG, I wonder how many plants constitute a farm/factory.
|
Slug tip that really works: they don't like crossing copper metal. I thing it gives them an electrolytic tingle - ask L'es?
You can hammer flat old bits of copper pipe and bend into a circle to put round individual plants, or there is self-adhesive copper foil tape to stick round pots. For some reason it works better if you cut a jimpy edge.
|
>> Slug tip that really works: they don't like crossing copper metal. I thing it gives
>> them an electrolytic tingle - ask L'es?
It certainly does.
:-D
|
I didn't know the word "jimpy", Cliff. So I googled for it.
I kind of wish I hadn't. I don't think it means what you intended to convey, it would seem.
|
|
We used to call Pinking Shears Jimping scissors cos they cut with a "jimpy" edge! Must be a Northern Dialect term!
|
>> We used to call Pinking Shears Jimping scissors cos they cut with a "jimpy" edge!
>> Must be a Northern Dialect term!
>>
Could be. I don't know where I got it from, it just seems to have wormed its way into family vocabulary from time immemorial. I'm relieved that at least one other person associates the word with the pattern cut by pinking shears.
On looking it up I see perhaps it might properly be spelled gimpy, from gimp, a decorative tape trimming.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Fri 7 Sep 12 at 12:05
|
|
Er, in the Urban Dictionary, Gimp is as bad as Jimp! - ask Bruce Willis! ;-)
|
Growing veg in pots - Pat
