I have loved gardening for years but was unable to do it as my husband used to just lawn mower over everything! We ended up with a sterile lawn with no borders.
I moved house in November ,after my husband died, to a 20 foot square garden mostly paved over. The thin borders have some lovely plants but quite diseased so I’m trying to rectify them. I’m lifting slabs and replanting. I’ve also gone mad with tomatoes, broccoli, carrots and green beans oh and red peppers.
Now to the point of my post, what have I learnt:
1) when you sew seeds label them, you won’t remember them despite what you might think.
2) germination is random and erratic.
3) if you sew seeds direct into the garden something will either eat them or move them so you get bare areas and then 20 plants all in the same square inch.
4) buy twice as much twine as you think you will need.
5) never leave tying up tomatoes and other plants otherwise you will come back to a triffid.
6) never mind what you look like, you do need to sit in the rain to water your tubs, because rain will never be enough.
Thanks if you read through all of that. Do you have any tips you would like to pass on?
Beauregard
One garden centre tried to claim that customers changed the labels on plants and shrubs!
Phoebes I agree about not killing slugs etc. We have a small pond with a waterfall and have bird feeders everywhere. This means we have lots of slug/snail/insect eating feathered friends - although I did go off our flock of sparrows when I caught them demolishing my lettuces. And frogs hiding in the undergrowth. We also have a visiting hedgehog now, although I think we're on the limit of his range. They all help to keep our plot free of slimy visitors.
Callistemon So true - especially colours.
I've also learned not to sow seeds too early. I ended up with leggy plants in the house and greenhouse desperately in need of planting out but I couldn't do this because there was still a chance of overnight frosts.
Also, the best tomatoes I've grown this year were taken from the side shoots of the original plants, which I pinched out and potted up before planting out in my raised beds.
I've also learnt never to trust plants from garden centres (various) to turn out to be what it says on the label.
I've learned (yet again; I really should know better) that it's futile to try to establish a nepeta mussinii (catmint) if you have a cat. It's a wonderful plant that flowers all summer and I'd love to have it in the garden, but the cat loves it so much that it rubs out all the new shoots in the spring and it eventually dies...
Now I'm just wondering if I could grow it in a big hanging basket 
I keep all my pots of 'not-really-hardy' geraniums/pelargoniums, fuchsia, lilies in our polytunnel & greenhouse (both unheated) over winter. Fleece goes on in really cold weather. Have been doing this for several years now.
Check the details on the seed packet including the picture! When the climbing french beans I put in outside mostly failed to germinate I got a packet of french beans from my local nursery(lockdown meant I didn't do the selection) and sowed them. Fantastic germination but a strange lack of upward growth. Ooops, the picture clearly shows them to be DWARF beans. SO, 24x6 foot poles with a most attractive, frilly set of 'socks' and 3 tall climbers from the original sowing so I can't rmove the unnecessary poles.
Moral, read the packet first.
I have found everything that has grown seems to be a week or more early this year.
Nannytopsy ?? I remember that after a holiday we had.
Never turn your back on the courgettes!!
This year I've focused on keeping things watered - and alive. I've learnt, years ago, to grow new plants and seedlings in pots until they're a decent size, then plant out in Spring or Autumn.
That way, at least they have a fighting chance against slugs, snails and trampling from pets. I 'plant' many sticks around them, too, so the cat won't lie on them or dig them up!
I have loved gardening all my life. I had to give up a large garden due to a bad back, and now have a new small garden.
Let a garden evolve, plants find when they want to grow.
Walk around the neighbourhood and see what other people have in their gardens, it might give you some ideas.
Plants generally like company, don't space them out in rigid rows!
This year being unable to get any bedding I’ve grown comfrey. The bees loved it and soon my garden was buzzing. Then at Montys suggestion I chopped up comfrey leaves in a bucket and added water. Two weeks later I strained off the leaves (added to the compost heap) and I was left with a fantastic plant food. I do this regularly now and my pot plants have never looked better.
I don't believe in killing anything in the garden - after all, they are all God's creatures and deserve a chance at life. I try to buy plants that slugs and snails don't like, however, I did make a mistake this year, when I planted some sunflower seeds that a friend had given me and grew some magnificent sunflowers in small pots in the dining-room and then planted them out in the garden in troughs and bigger pots. That was when I discovered that slugs and snails adore sunflowers! They still had nice flowers, but the leaves all got eaten, which made them look rather pathetic. I won't be growing those again.
I go round the garden and, wearing gardening gloves, gather up any slugs or snails I come across and put them on the patio outside the back door, where there are only geraniums, fuchsias and box balls growing, which snails don't like. I buy iceberg lettuces, which they do like and tear up a couple of leaves from those every evening and throw them outside the back door for the molluscs. They love iceberg and soon know when to come out for their evening meal. (Molluscs sleep in the day-time.)
If I leave it a bit late, they are all queuing up outside. they have good little brains in their slimy little heads and I have got quite fond of them!
When they have finished the bits of iceberg (probably any lettuce would do) they crawl back underneath the plant troughs or attach themselves to the plant pots to sleep it off until the next evening, when they come out for their next meal!
I never have any problems with them eating my plants, what with keeping the molluscs well-fed and not buying plants they like and it's much kinder than killing them and perhaps killing the other creatures that eat them if you have used slug pellets. Why not try it!
I might add that I told Monty Don about this at a flower show and I now notice that he is recommending that we shouldn't kill slugs and snails, as they have their part to play in the great scheme of things. We had a hedgehog outside our back door last week, presumably having a feast on some nice well-fed slugs. - all part of the food chain. What would hedgehogs and frogs eat if we kill off all their food? Hedgehogs are endangered and I put this down to them eating slugs which have eaten poisonous slug pellets.
4). Buy twice as much wine as you think you will need..
grannie7. In my Lock Down enthusiasm to grow veggies this spring I planted some new potatoes which had started shooting in the bottom of the pantry. Put them in egg cases with the shoots on the upside (cut off the ones underneath) on the window sill until the shoots started to really develop which only took about a week. I then planted them out in a couple of large Flexitubs about 9 inches apart with the tub half full of soil and compost mixed (this was co-incidence as I didn't have enough of either, but it seemed to work).
When the green shoots started to appear - which took longer than I thought it should - I topped the soil up little by little until the tubs were full. And made sure they didn't dry out. I was probably lucky that there was a drought as I hadn't put drainage holes in the tubs, and probably would next time.
When the green tops started to die back I dug up a few and gained a lovely crop of new potatoes. I shall do it again next year as they tasted wonderful!
I live in a block of flats and we employ a gardener to tend our communal garden so, unfortunately, can't offer any tips
but just wanted to say... how lovely that you can now enjoy your garden, it sounds as though you are having the best time.
If you have a problem with a garden overgrown with brambles cut them down and then stick a copper nail into the stalk. Also works with seedlings of trees that are too big to pull out. It takes a bit of time but we've had some success with nails.
Must add this: growing fruit for the first time. James Grieves coming to harvest September/October. Looking good and looking forward to the first taste of my own apples. Also planted a Cox Orange Pippin and a Victoria Plum. Heady with success, have ordered a Charles Ross Apple and Opal Plum to arrive in November. Intending to try growing as step-overs, at my age much easier to tend and harvest.
Agree this is a lovely thread. I got a greenhouse for Christmas so bought some organic seeds which I started on a bedroom windowsill and was looking forward to semi retirement and lots of happy hours. Shutdown happened, our small family business went through the roof (I know we are very lucky) and we had to lay off a member of our small team (on full pay not furloughed) and I was back even more than full time. DH couldn't get materials to sort out the greenhouse , said windowsill was starting to look like a jungle and I thought I was going to lose everything.
Some how with a few roof tiles and paving slabs left lying around he managed to make a base and the greenhouse went up, bought several large pots from a supermarket and things have gone from strength to strength. I've given lots of tomato plants away and still have about 12 myself, love strolling down the garden to pick a few tomatoes and cucumber for lunch. Also had a go at potatoes early on, sugar snap peas, radish, beans - all in pots outside.
I'm definitely going to use the greenhouse to start off flower seeds next year and save some money and be more self sufficient. Has anyone got any tips on what can be over wintered in an unheated greenhouse please.
My daughter grows olives and almonds and loads of veg on 8 acres in Spain, I haven't seen her or the boys at all this year and doubt our early September trip will go ahead now. We're already coming to terms with the fact that they're unlikely to be able to come for Christmas this year as well, so it helps that I feel close to her when I'm gardening.
I manage a 3rd of an acre from a wheelchair. The garden is my exercise and salvation. I grow everything from my own seeds or others cuttings. Adore seeing seeds germinate to produce a wonderful display of crops and flowers.
Things I have learnt are:
Draw a plan of the garden & add names of plants & variety for further reference. Memory not as sharp as it was.
Check the PH level of soil. £3 test can save a fortune on buying plants that may not survive in your soil type.
Never remove plants in a new property as they may produce a plant the following year if biannual.
Water barrels/ buckets dot them around the garden even if not attached to a downspout they fill with water sufficient to water an area of the garden. Cut base off a plastic bottle reverse and bury next to each plant or in hanging basket. Fills with water keeps roots moist. If no rain fill bottle when watering not soil.
I always label seeds as I plant directly into the garden.
A metal coat hanger made into a circle or oblong ideal to plant seeds so I remember not to weed them out.
Collect seeds after they are dry and produce pods. keep them in a paper bag and plant next year. Plants for free.
Ask friends for cuttings of favorite plants. Mark in your diary so you remember best time to collect cuttings.
Time now to sprinkle poppy, Canterbury bells, perennials, winter carrots etc. straight into the soil.
Companion planting, alliums keep off slugs, basil-whitefly, leeks/garlic next to carrots, Nasturtium under beans, marigolds & tomatoes etc. never need for sprays.
Never use plant feed until a flower is produced otherwise you end up with loads of greenery and no flowers. Veg 'bolt' or root veg eg. carrots, parsnips, mouli, radish, beets if fed before 4 pair leaves produce lots of greenery no root.
Wash & dry tools after use, wipe with WD-40 to keep sharp.
Most of all visit a different point of the garden each day take a bag and scissors to dead head.
Leave seed heads of sunflowers for the birds.
Sit looking at the garden in a different direction and enjoy the treasures of the flora and fauna.
Feel the peace and relax. I thank my lucky stars that I have a garden so many people don't.
bluebellwould: 3 - caught a wagtail on my raised bed moving soil to find radish seeds. How did he know where to look, following the shallow ridge left after planting - clever blighter! Bought lavender plants, to form a hedge in new build garden, from a "reputable" Yorkshire Chelsea Flower Show Supplier - cost £140. Twice has had be replaced and finally half survive but still not brilliant. At same time, my next-door neighbour bought hers from Lidl offering 3 for £2.49 and has a beautiful hedge. Lidl here I come!
9. If you like courgettes, pick them as soon as you see them because, after a downpour, the next day they will be marrow sized.
Lisagran, your plants so lovely
Does having a garden pond mean more mosquitos? I seem to be their meal of choice, wherever I am.
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