Container Veggies thread

[SueA]

There's a good offer on for 5 packs of container veg. seeds from the Telegraph if you haven't seen it for just £1.99 p&p. Here's a link.
Veg Seed for Container Growing - just pay £1.99 p&p | Telegraph Shop

[Alan Farmer]

My brother up in Stanley lives near a window replacement factory. When the double glazing units dont fit properly they leave them outside for anyone to pick up. he's built a whole greenhouse from such units!

[Rekky]

Hi there
I'm in my first year of container planting - didn't put much thought into it tho and have them everywhere!!! Must've given away at least a hundred tomato plants! Spuds are looking fab tho. I've tried everything, carrots, onions, garlic, corgettes, cucumber, chilli's, peppers, lettuces, french and runner beans. Have invested in a small four tier plastic covered greenhouse just for cover which has done me proud. Hoping for a decent crop come the summer. Have also put some tomatoes in hanging baskets so they're out of the way. Everythin doing well, except - and can anyone help me, my onions don't seem to be doing that well, haven't really grown that much altho some have shooted. The containers seem a bit wet - what conditions do onions like? Everything else doing so well I'm a bit gutted!!

[Rekky]

Wow, they look great!!! Salad looks ok to me! Must get some piccies of my "babies" up! I'm so proud of my spuds - first year in and they're doing great!!! Keep it up!!

[Lucylou0069]

Morning all! I'm a new person here and relatively new to gardening. This year is my 1st attempt at growing veggies and i'm just a little over excited as i walked out to the garden staraight from work to find teeny buds appearing on my container potatoes!!!! I had a little feel under the soil and felt my 1st baby spud!!! To say i'm chuffed is an understatement and i feel like a proud new mother Sorry, just wanted to share with you all

[funstuie]

My containers are not doing well at all.

Only one of my potatoes is poking out of the ground the other 4 buckets have nothing. The tomatoes are all not looking to well. I lost 2 cucumber plants in the past couple of days (to slugs I think). 5 of my strawberry plants are dead. My dwarf french beans are not liking the weather but I have nowhere else for them to go other than in the growbags on the patio. My carrots were starting to sprout but a fox dug up the bucket for some reason.

The only things looking healty is my spinach and the onions.

All my salads are not doing well at all although I think I should thin them out looking at the photos above.

[POTBOY]

I too am new to all this growing stuff, i started at the end of March this year and i have the following all grown successfully from seed (when i say successfully i mean they havent died yet!) i think i have sort of temporary OCD thing.

Tomatoes = 5 different types
Peppers = 3 different types
Chillis = 3 diff types
squash = 3 diff types
courgettes = 3 diff types
dwarf beans (1type)
radish
carrotts - 2 types
beetroot
sage
parsley
basil
lemon thyme
oregano
lavender
rosemary
CCA salad leaves
cress
mustard
onions
garlic
sunflowers
and a tray of mystery as my 2 year old son enjoys pinching the labels, they look like chilli or peppers but who knows.

the only things that havent worked out are Spring onions, they just grew to thin grass like blades and havent changed since, and Mint, seedlings started to appear then disappeared over night, pesky slugs!

[Iamhanuman]

funkymum

good god yes go and eat that beautiful looking salad
blimey i'm salivating at the thought of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well done you!

[Lucylou0069]

i think i have sort of temporary OCD thing.

It must be catching! I also seem to have it! How are your courgettes doing in containers? I haven't got any on the go yet but am looking at it, would i be too late??

[POTBOY]

It must be catching! I also seem to have it! How are your courgettes doing in containers? I haven't got any on the go yet but am looking at it, would i be too late??

they're doing great, all have really come on well, i have transplanted half of them into larger pots (flower buckets from morrisons, i had 15 for 99p) there are flowers starting to come through now so fingers crossed, i'll probably be sick of the sight of them in a few weeks but i have many friends and family to give gifts to.

not sure if you'd be too late, i'm sure you'd be ok if you started them now.

[Lucylou0069]

Thanks for the info, will get some seeds at the weekend and give it a go, i have nothing to lose!

[maytreefrannie]

Yesterday I potted up two Tumbling Tom plants into a pot, with some CCA lettuce in a matching one, they're to be a present for a friend who's got a new patio.

I looked at them this morning and they look great.

My own Tumbling Toms, four to a pot are looking Ok too, but the squash plants, each in a 3" pot, look a bit pale - has anyone else had this happening?

[taff]

My containers are not doing well at all.

Only one of my potatoes is poking out of the ground the other 4 buckets have nothing. The tomatoes are all not looking to well. I lost 2 cucumber plants in the past couple of days (to slugs I think). 5 of my strawberry plants are dead. My dwarf french beans are not liking the weather but I have nowhere else for them to go other than in the growbags on the patio. My carrots were starting to sprout but a fox dug up the bucket for some reason.

The only things looking healty is my spinach and the onions.

All my salads are not doing well at all although I think I should thin them out looking at the photos above.

DOn't worry about your potatoes. If you've only recently put them in, they'll still be pushing up..Mine are only just breaking the surface, because I only put them in about 10 days/2 weeks ago [ I was late , what can I say?]
If your french beans are still small, stick some bottle cloches over them to protect them a bit.And put some wire mesh or something over your carrots next time, they'll grow through it, and stop anything digging them up.

[Lizanne]

I grow courgettes in enormous pots - and when I run out of the decent ones find that the morrisons flower buckets ARE good but the plants run out of steam quicker because there's simply not enough room - that just means that you have to have successional sowing right into july!!! and since I was still getting courgettes outside in Scotland at the beginning of last November - it's definitely worth doing! (Buy a cheap fleece and spin the plants out as far as poss!). Plant up the seeds two weeks apart over the next 6 weeks and you'll get loads with little hassle - sit them all together and it's 1 watering and 1 feeding run for them all.

[solway cropper]

Being a bit of a traditionalist this is only my second year of container gardening but boy, is it fun. I scrounged containers from all over the place and being in a rural area near the sea that's not difficult as all sorts of things get washed up. My favourites are the cattle lick tubs which farmers just seem to chuck anywhere. What i've discovered over the last two years is some things do great in tubs and some don't. Next year all my spuds are going in the ground but salad crops, peas, beans and even cabbages will be containerized. I grow dwarf varieties which don't mind the restricted space and don't produce huge crops which don't get eaten. Perhaps we need a name for those who garden exclusively in containers....how about tubsters?