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today i am mostly wondering about carrots and strawbs

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  • today i am mostly wondering about carrots and strawbs

    I'm a complete gardening virgin. however we've just moved and instead of a sandblown back yard in wet wales I now have a fab garden in sweltering surrey. well it feels sweltering to us anyway!!

    The garden has been well looked after and well used by a complete pro. I've got sheds, 2 greenhouses, a fenced and gated off work area complete with three huge composting bins, pond, fruit trees, veg plots. More cold frame things than I know what to do with. Water butts everywhere.

    And everything has been left. Sheds are full of tools and pots and paraphernalia. How lucky is that? We're doing our best to uphold the good karma by keeping everything going as well as adding our own stamp.

    I'm going to have lots of mad questions. Today I've been wandering round and its carrots and strawberries on my mind.

    Strawbs first. I have a bed about 8' x 8'. Plants running riot over it. Mad Q No 1 is what do I do? Will they fruit if I look after them or do I need to dig up and start again??? If I should be looking after them, what do I do? There are some bare patches in the middle. Should I just buy some more plants for there or should the residents be trained to go 'along' rather than 'up'????

    Carrots next. The veg plot had been left empty except for rhubarb in the corner. Oh, and I found a leek type thing! I'm assuming there is nothing going on under the surface and that just needs attending to as the coming weekends job. However I have found a couple of deep troughs full of carrots. No idea how old they area. I pulled a couple and they looked like the carrots of satan - large and as knobbly as hell. However I've just pulled another and I've bought worse from tescos.

    Mad Q No 2 is: bit worried about harvesting stuff i've not planted. Stupid I know - after all i dont wander round the supermarket asking q's!!! but d'you think the guys are safe and ok to use? how do you age a carrot - not by looking at their teeth I guess? and if i take them all out, will the soil in the trough be ok to plant again or will it be 'worn out'??

    Told you they'd be mad questions. And it'll get worse. On my best behaviour at the moment!!!

  • #2
    Strawbs. They reckon you should replant every 3 or 4 years anyway. If they are running riot with runners everywhere (runners are titchy little plants attached to the parent by a long strand of stalk) I'd have them up and sever the connection. You can plant the runners in a pot each and grow them on, or put them in a small patch of their own to grow up. If you plant newly bought plants or your own runners in the bare bits, don't let them fruit this year - pinch out the flowers. It will strengthen the plant no end.

    Carrots. Cook one and see! They should be fine. You never know where Tesco have got theirs from - or what they sprayed on it. If they taste fine they will be. The age shouldn't matter. If they were ancient they'd have gone to seed.

    Hope that's helped. You sound like a really lucky but appreciative novice gardener. You'll do great. Giving up is the worst sin!

    Flum
    Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

    www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated March 9th - Spring

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    • #3
      Hi LauraG,

      Welcome to the madhouse.

      Not sure about the strawberries, but the carrots will be fine. You can leave them in the ground over winter to store.

      You are so lucky having such a fab garden/plot with everything you need in place.

      Post some pics for us please, some of the other grapes I am sure will see things growing that you have not noticed yet....

      Good luck and enjoy those carrots, Mandy

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      • #4
        Leave the strawberries alone for now - they will be producing flowers soon, and then fruit. Make the most of them. If you want more plants to fill in the gaps then peg down the runners they will produce after the fruit. If not, then dig out unwanted plants after the harvest (you may as well get all the fruit you can this year - unless you really hate strawberries). As for the carrots, dig and use as you want. They should be OK. I wouldn't re-use the compost for growing new crops though, tip it out of the trough and use to top-dress any beds or borders.

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        • #5
          Thanks guys! First dozen carrots pulled up and duly steamed and eaten! Kids said they tasted different but I pointed out they actually weren't supermarket s**t!!!!

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          • #6
            They do taste different - they taste of carrot!
            Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

            www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated March 9th - Spring

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            • #7
              My mouth is watering just thinking about home grown veg.....

              Comment

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