Heya.. New Person Alert!

[Claire DC]

Heya, I'm Claire.. I am 27 and from Manchester.

I'd like to add to my title, that when I say that I am a new person, I mean both to the forum and also to gardening.

Hope to speak to you all at some point. x

[Lesley Jay]

Hiya Claire! Welcome to our forum!

You've made a great start with your blog - give the strawberries a feed with tomato food when the fruit is forming and growing. When the strawberries have finished fruiting cut the foliage down to about 4 inches. Ready for next year!

[Claire DC]

Heya, thanks very much.. I shall give them a feed tomorrow if it isn't raining and cut them back as there's no more fruit on them now.

Are there many things i could plant now.. as a later started or that will survive the cooler weather later in the year? Would you recommend planting some potatoes.. ready for December time ish? I have a container that i could use for them so if it's worth doing, i can look into it.

Also, should i only use potato tubers or can i use potatoes i've bought that have started sprouting?

Sorry, i have so many questions lol.

[Lesley Jay]

You could try pak choi as this is fairly quick to grow, also try sowing some carrot seeds but use them as baby carrots, spinach, radish and spring onions (salad onions) can also be sown. Autumn is the time to plant garlic and I'm sure you can buy individual bulbs from the garden centres. Split the bulbs into cloves and plant the cloves below the surface of the soil pointed end up (the same way they were growing in the bulbs). They need to be 6 inches apart. Buy plants of spring cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli which will over winter and be ready next spring.

Christmas potatoes - plant them now and they will be ready in October but will keep undisturbed in the container until Christmas. You need a first early variety of potato and the ones sprouting in the supermarket might be the old main crop variety. It isn't recommended to grow from supermarket spuds as they might carry a disease and also they will have been sprayed to slow down the sprouting which makes them last longer in the shops. There is a Potato Day in Manchester in February (exact date isn't set yet) where you can buy very small quantities of seed poatoes, usually just one, which gives you the chance to grow some unusual varieties.