22 January 2007
Whoops, there goes another rubber tree plant!
Those of you who are regular readers will know that I’m really something of a horticultural novice. My fingers aren’t green so much as a murky brown. I’m much more likely to kill rather than cultivate the plants under my supervision and what success we have had has been largely down to a combination of luck and fervently following the gospels according to Monty, His Holiness the Flowerdew and St Larkcom.
Being so inexperienced, I have a lengthy list of vegetables that I have so far never succeeded in growing or ever even attempted. I am keen to learn and aim to tick at least a couple off the list this year.
Tried but failed miserably:
- sweetcorn (murdered by frost year 1, incompetently grown last year)
- a selection of veg from the brassica family (decimated by wood pigeons)
- butternut squash (my seedlings never seem to survive)
- peas (a lack of germination)
- any kind of lettuce or salad (munched to death by slugs, slugs and more slugs)
Yet to be attempted:
- carrots
- parsnips
- radishes
Last year I overcame my courgette-growing demons so I have high hopes for what I can achieve this time around. Today we braved the fearsomely icy winds and made a start by preparing a bed for the parsnips and carrots.
All together now, sing along with me - I’ve got high hopes, I’ve got high hopes, I’ve got high, apple pie, in the sky hopes…
Filed under: Review & plan — Clare @ 3:08 pm
Hello! Please let me know the secret of your corgettes - I am new to growing some this year and would like to know the ‘murky secrets’ of sucessful corgette growing! Peas - secret is to sow them indoors now in toilet roll inner tube things, put on a window cill, put a plastic closhe over and they germinate in about 5 days - I have 12 peas and 12 mangetout happily baskin’ in sunlight in my spare room. Will plant some more in about a week for ’succesion planting’ - think I’ve read too many books!! Great blog by the way! Cat x
(30.01.07 @ 1:04 pm)
Hi Cat - Welcome to P’Soup, I’m glad you like it.
Courgettes are supposed to be one of the very easiest crops to grow with most people ending up with an enormous glut with very little effort - I just had years of problems with slugs.
Basically I started off all the plants in modules andmade sure that there were lots and lots spare so that I could replace any that got munhced. Those that were planted out I put on top of large mounds of earth with lotsof compost underneath. I also put a rotting banana under a coupleof them as I heard that courgettes are supposed ot like that, but there didn;t seem to be any difference between those that had bananas and those that didn’t.
I was thinking of doing my peas in guttering this year, but might try the toilet roll tubes as you suggest.
(30.01.07 @ 7:17 pm)