Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

With spring around the corner and much talk and anticipation of getting into the garden..... I thought it might be good to start a Spring gardening thread.
So - what and and when will you sow and have you done your pruning yet?

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

From the snow thread, in reply to Judy.

Just be careful they don't go leggy. I did this the first couple of years and because of the lack of natural light, they went leggy and had to be turned every day. I soon discovered that sowing later gave me stronger and more healthy plants. Due to a lack of time, I also realised that I would never transplant the hundreds of tomato, squash, onion etc seedlings that I raised and so now I use little plug pots, sow two seeds to each pot then later discard the weakest seedling. Saves me loads of time when transplanting into the beds and the plants suffer less during the transplant period.

Any rose experts out there? I need some pruning advice!

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

I only have a small area of bare earth on two sides of the house, and I am no gardener, and being lazy I will be quite happy to eventually make a lawn to relax on, that is if this snow will ever go away!

Local shop advised that I use Szarazsagturo, which I am told is a drought resistant type of grass seed, very necessary for the hot summers here.

Much as I admire all those here who are going along the self sufficiency route, I do not envy you and the work involved at all! Despite the obvious rewards.
I can only wish you the best of good growing weather in the coming months.

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

One of my favourite subjects, we moved out here with the expressed aim of growing food and brewing wine, we have no idea what we are doing but we seem to be relatively successful :)

Our polytunnel plastic died last year in a large storm so we will be planting out later in the year this year.

Our asparagus is our first harvest and we are expecting our first real crop this year after planting from seed but it should then crop for the next 10-15 years.

Our list of annual stuff generally reads, Onions, potato, Carrot, tomato, garlic, swede, kohlrabi, sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, Beans, sweetcorn, salad leaves, radish, beetroot and I am sure other bits and pieces I have forgotten :)

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

You can't really hurt roses even if you only leave a 2" stump poking out of the ground. Generally the harder you cut them back the healthier they will grow. You can often break off the dead branches which can look neater than having a lot of cut ends. Obviously removing suckers at ground level is an ongoing job through the season.

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

OK I now I am a pain some Times but if any wont's seeds from UK I over hear in UK and If you need any let me know I willing Bring over, I still space for these Wizzair allows 34 kg baggage If you want bulk seed say Broad, Runner Dwarf French Beans

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

OK Try getting hold of The Rose Expert available through Amazon Books cost a bought £10.00 there is a sears of them with Titles= Fruit, Vegetables, Greenhouse Expert and many more. Pruning Roses it is best in my opinion to follow something given in a book this way easy to follow!

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

Hi Rural
use good secateurs to get a clean cut, chop back about 2 thirds of stems, just above buds, cut out over crossing stems, and try and leave outward facing buds, and cut out old woody stems in the centre to allow air circulation.
on climbing roses the more you train the branches horizontally the more side shooting flowering stems you'll create. and keep cutting and pruning throughout the growing season and the plant will keep flowering throughout the seasons. You can't really harm roses they are very tough and resilient.:eek:
A good feed of general purpose fertilizer or if you can get it the creme de la creme - horses dung, they love it.:D

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

Seeds are much cheaper here in Hungary, all the supermarkets, Obi etc are selling them at cut prices.
at the moment Tesco's minus 39% on packets of flower and veg seeds, very good selection, onion sets, seed potatoes, peas beans etc are available , seen the locals buying them now as well.
In another 4 weeks time (Easter) markets will have plug plants for sale, very good value eg 100fts for tomato, pepper plants, if you don't want the bother of starting from seed. The spring pansies are another good buy.:)

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

I did this last year, apart from certain chilli and tomato varieties that I especially wanted to grow. Excellent value for money and so I bought tons of them. Planted them up and then we had the late frosts in May which killed of nearly everything in the ground. Fortunately, my self sown plugs were then ready to plant up!

Fancy helping me out on my roses problem?

When we moved here, there were already many climbing roses, some of them flower well though there are three which have never flowered. I have pruned them at different times each year to ensure that wasn't the problem and I have left them unpruned and still there are no flowers on them. Occasionally, we get some galls on them but not at levels where they would affect the growth of the plant. Any ideas why they aren't flowering?

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

I Know this is wrong Place to put this But while st we are on Gardening.
I Have a Problem Rotervter 3 hp only run for 4 hrs. Kneads someone who can fix this engine it will no start again 30, 000fh collect as I have no Transport

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

We didn't move here until may last year so bought mostly plants from the market. Tomatoes,peppers,courgettes and cucumbers were really good.

I grew French Beans and Runner Beans from bean and after a dodgy start where all the flowers died, I had a bumper crop from the second flowering.:thumbup:

Potatoes were a lot of bother and rubbish, so not growing this year.:thumbdown:

Under the very large windows in my hall I have seeds on the go for: peppers,tomatoes (3 varieties), melon (3), cucumbers (2), courgettes, chilli peppers, parsnip, cauliflower, cape gooseberry, various strawberries (for next year fruit), spring onions, sweet corn and french beans.:blink:

The corn and beans are an experiment as I'm also going to plant straight in to the ground later and see which do best.:confused:

I have various flower seeds on the go as an experiment too.:fingerscrossed:

We have built new raised herb beds around the patio attached to the house during the winter and all the herbs that we planted in the ground last year and were fabulous all summer and autumn, have overwintered in a makeshift cold frame type thing and they will be transferred.:thumbsup:

It'll be a challenge to see what I can keep going and what the quality turns out like. I shall watch our neighbour to see when he plants out and copy him.

Wish me luck, I've never done this before!:eek::fingerscrossed:

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

What is it doing... We have had lots of problems with Rotovators one we gave up as a bad purchase but the one we have now is properly beaten up but goes like a dream!

I can't collect it but if it is one of the common problems that we have I may be able to suggest stuff to do :)

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

I could kick myself that I didn't plant asparagus years ago - every year I keep thinking "if only". Might get a few crowns for this year though.

I've given up on kohlrabi, most squash and Jerusalem artichokes as nobody ever eats them.

Re: Spring in the garden - what & when will you sow?
 

Good luck, I have no tips as we have no idea what we are doing either ;)

We suffer terribly from the Colorado Potato Beetle which we resolve by going out side every morning in a pair of marigolds and squashing the critters and removing their eggs. Not the nicest of jobs but it sees us harvest around 150KG of spuds every autumn.