Intro Post

[eien_herrison]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this strange world of gardening and thought I'd better introduce myself. I live in South-East England, hardiness zone 8 bordering on 9, AHS heat zone 2, and about 600mm of rain annually; most of my issues with growing stuff is forgetting to water often/on a regular basis, but I'm going to be aiming to grow some fruit and veg

Comments

[eien_herrison]

The garden bed is right next to an approximately six-foot high wall, so there is quite a bit of wind protection, which should help. I'm certainly aware that peppers can be hit or miss outside of a greenhouse, so I shouldn't be too disappointed if nothing comes of it.

The tomatoes I'll be growing will be normal-sized and again out in the open (no real space for a greenhouse). One of the books I've read says that if frost is incoming you can pull the plants and hang them upside down in the house to let them ripen off, so that might be something I need to be aware of.

The salad leaves and such I'm hoping to be able to grow in pots inside the house, so I shouldn't have any issues with slugs and snails if that's the case. I'm certainly growing stuff I'd want to eat/can be preserved in some form, which is one reason I decided against cucunbers (don't eat often/can only really be pickled to preserve them). We do have a few neighbours that we can give stuff to, although I can see us potentially needing another freezer in the house if we get too much.

[dandelion]

Mm, depending on the variety you might well need to protect the tomatoes by taking them indoors. I moved my tomatoes from Bath to Hampshire in June and found that they'd really been suffering outdoors - brought them inside and their leaf discolouration, legginess, etc cleared up straight away. They hated the night temperatures we'd been getting, plus bouts of ridiculous overwatering from the rain. I have to move back to Bath in a month where they'll have to live outdoors again, and I think they won't be at all happy! Not sure why these tomatoes are so particular...ironically the cultivar name is "The Amateur".

[eien_herrison]

The ones I'm going to be growing are the moneymaker variety -- I'll keep an eye out for any problems when I grow them.