Disappointed with our veggie patch - maybe containers instead?

[Ali P]

So...the growing season appears to be over in our garden, and I have to say I am hugely disappointed with our veggie patch considering all the effort we put in. It took me weeks to dig out the tiny plot we ended up planting as I'm not very big, and rather weedy, and the ground was so hard and compacted!

I know the weather has been atrocious this year so that probably hasn't helped, but this is the outcome from our first year of growing:

Peas - went ok and we did actually get quite a few (never made it anywhere near a saucepan as they were just so yummy to eat raw!) but something has been eating them in the last few weeks.

Potatoes - never got around to getting them into rubble sacks like I'd planned, so I ended up chucking them on the compost heap which now looks like a jungle as the darn things have grown in it. I haven't quite got up the nerve to have a root around and see if there's actually any spuds to be collected as the plants were absolutely covered in slugs last time looked at them.

Pumpkin - one miserable-looking little plant left out of all the ones that I sowed. The others have drowned and this one is hardly doing anything at all.

Tomatoes - eventually got some on the plants but they're not ripening at all.

Strawberries - planted 3 pots for the grand total of less than 10 strawberries between them.

Sweetcorn - not even slightly looking like they're going to be ready this side of the next millenium.

Carrots - hilarious. All curled around each other when you pull them out of the ground.

I think it is a combo of the bad weather, bad soil and (in the case of the carrots at least) probably planted them too close together I guess.

So, in an attempt to not be put off at the first hurdle my thoughts are turning to container gardening instead.

I very much like the look of this winter vegetable selection pack and was wondering if anybody could advise as to whether I could grow it in containers? And, if so, roughly how many (and what size) containers I would need?

Many thanks if you got this far and can help!

Ali

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Ali, the rain is a flippin' nuiscance! Prolonged rain can cause the ground to become waterlogged which means there are no air spaces and the roots are starved of oxygen. Last year both my veggie garden and all my containers were under water so it was a disaster!

With containers you can at least start with new multi-compost so you know it's good. I bought well rotted manure from B&Q which is ready bagged and doesn't stink and put a layer in the containers with the compost for courgettes, squashes and cucumbers. You could grow tomatoes in grow bags, 2 per bag, or try a tumbling tomato variety in hanging baskets. Containers need to be at least 10 inches in diameter and 12 inches deep. Plastic is better than terracotta as they don't dry out as fast but all containers need drainage holes so you might have to drill holes in the plastic ones.

Try digging spent mushroom compost into your veggie patch or make some leaf mould to dig in next year. I would have a veggie patch and use containers if you have the space.

Give the tomatoes a chance to ripen on the plant. You can always try the banana trick in a couple of weeks. Strawberries will not produce much in the first year. Carrots will grow like that if the ground is hard, stony or they are sown too thickly but they still taste nice! The sweetcorn I would put down to the weather as last year loads of people had very poor tiny corn.

[Ali P]

Thanks very much for the help Lesley.

We had an overhaul in the garden this afternoon so I got rid of the peas as they've definitely gone over.

I also dug up the rest of the carrots and spent ages washing, peeling and slicing them up to go in the freezer. (You're right - they do still taste yummy despite the crazy shapes!)

We were also brave enough to pull the sides off the compost bin to see what was lurking and were quite surprised to find about 5kg of useable spuds. (Wasn't particularly keen on a revolting, slimey pile that we discovered that smelt worse than a sewage farm! Something obviously didn't compost properly. Yuk!!) Remind me to ask the other half what he intends to do about the enormous pile of earth that is now occupying the space where the compost bin should be

So the only things left are the corn and the tomatoes. Unfortunately I forgot about the poor little pumpkin plant and managed to kill it off when I dug up the carrots. Oops.

I am definitely going to have a crack at winter veg in pots though. My lot are generally quite boring about veg (fine with traditional stuff...getting them to eat more "exotic" things is more of a chore) but I reckon they'd go for a bit of rainbow chard etc

[PlantingJoe]

I used to have a little veggie patch in my garden that would sometimes make those funny shaped carrots, though luckily we didn't have any other problems. I used to love digging up the potatoes! Sadly that's long gone now, but I'd like to replant it somewhere else