Gyo needs your top tips!

[nemo]

my success was using seaweed as a mulch around my rhubarb and fruit bushes not only did it feed the plants it also acted as a mulch to prevend weeds growing.my rhubarb were huge,and i never picked as much blueberry's and black currants.i planted oral potatoes in the poly tunnel under fleeces on the 15th of January and i harvested the firsts of them on may the 2nd. failure were shallots i had to buy new shallots to plant this year .its my first time buying shallot sets in ten years.all along i saved some shallot sets from the present year to plant the following spring. but last year we accidentally eat all the shallots .this year the bought in shallots were very poor about 20& of them rotted some in storage and some in the soil.i hope i didn't bring in disease into my plot when i planted shallot sets bought in.they were supposed to be organic disease free shallots.this year i am going to plant shallot seeds instead of sets.my pumpkin were also poor i only got 1 medium pumpkin from 2 pumpkin plants

[weekendwellies]

The best way to garden is to put on a wide-brimmed straw hat and some old clothes. And with a hoe in one hand and a cold drink in the other, tell somebody else where to dig.

[solway cropper]

For 2010 I'll be making far more successional sowings....of just about everything. There's a temptation to get as much in as quick as possible but then you end up with far more than you can eat. I've put stuff in the freezer but that's not the point of growing your own. It's fresh that we really want so short rows every few weeks and lots of containers. That's been my biggest success in 2009. I've had really good results from tubs with everything from parsnips to cabbages, broad beans to courgettes. And the bonus is very little trouble from pests.

[fireblade]

last year was the first with a proper garden. result = massive learning curve!

- can't underestimate proper planning!!!

- get a proper marker pen this year!!! i ate a lot of carrots and lettuce with no idea of which ones i was eating!

- melons are a waste of time. all the flowers fell off every time i even so much as opened the greenhouse door

- i started my chillies at the end of january. had a very steady supply over the summer. moved them into the dining room to sit by the french window in mid october - they are still producing flowers and still producing fruit. can't be bad!!!

- tomatoes are a pain in the beehive. the beefsteak tomato i moved outside got blight within 2 weeks and died. the 'ailsa craig' didn't fare much better. the 'gardeners delight' turned into a gardeners nightmare. if i wanted something so demanding, i'd have had kids... and the 'gartenperle' recommended by mum in law produced a very impressive display of flowers and... one tomato. so... am just going to try 'ferline' this year in the hope that it behaves a bit better

- my brown onions, garlic and potatoes did really well with hardly any attention required apart from the odd spot of weeding. i found some seed potatoes that i'd forgotten about and they produced a good crop within 8 weeks over the summer.

- 'red baron' onions from seed. what a pallaver. will try from sets this year as they didn't keep very well, and didn't get to a reasonable size in enough time... but i love greek salad too much to give up on them...

- planting a row of onions between every row of carrots must have worked well as i didn't suffer carrot fly... but then again, maybe they just didn't find me

- most importantly... only plant what you'll actually eat!!!! i grew courgettes but never took into account that i don't like them!!!

[zazen999]

The best way to garden is to put on a wide-brimmed straw hat and some old clothes. And with a hoe in one hand and a cold drink in the other, tell somebody else where to dig.

I didn't see this at the time; but THIS is why we love you. xxx

[oliveoyl]

Pre-chit parsnip seeds by putting them on damp kitchen paper in a clear lidded container, after 2/3 weeks you should see tiny tails on the ones that have germinated, sow directly.

[organic vic]

I need to net carrots/parsnips from carrot root fly! I thought I would be alright as I am growing in my garden and no-one around grows fruit or veg. But I had cherry blackfly,carrot root fly,blackfly on broadies till I nipped off the tops & scale insect. Not all bad though I never got blight!! I got an allotment in November so am collecting things that people are throwing out so far I have a sliding shower door to use as a top for coldframe,lots of wood to make compost bin and coldframe, wire fridge drawers to dry onions and shallots & a greenhouse. So my biggest tip this year is recycling other peoples junk and net net net!

[stupot]

Squash!

I love growing squash, I love the weird shapes, I love eating them in soups, roasted, in rissotto, mashed. I don't have a big freezer or much storage space for jars, but my OH likes making displays of my squashes in the living room that we're still eating now (they even looked good nestled amongst presents under the Xmas treee).

But they can take up a lot of space - my favourites this year where the compact varities that don't spread and produce lovely meal-sized sweet fruit, table king, table queen, harlequin and the acorn squashes.

[Llamas]

After utter pea failure last year, I'm digging in masses of lovely poo NOW! I've also put up a home-woven hurdle round the back to support this years nasturtiums.