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Veg patch update and advice

Williamgiddings25Williamgiddings25 Posts: 50
in Fruit & veg
So far so good on my mini patch. 
I need to thin out my radishes soon! Fairly disappointed on the amount of carrots appearing so far 😪
when would you start filling up the potatoes with more soil?
Round about now or give it another week?
also when I need to give the peas something to climb up?

Thank you!
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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Yes top up the spuds ... just leave the tips of the leaves showing. 

    Thin out the radishes ... also thin out the lettuces. You can replant the thinned out lettuce seedlings  ... they’ll mature a bit later than the others. 

    Carrots look fine to me. You don’t want them too crowded ... too much wastage when you have to thin them. 

    I put my pea pea sticks in a week ago when they were about the same size as yours. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    edited April 2019
    Start filling the spud container now - cover the leaves so just a bit of green is poking through.  Keep repeating when they are poking out to a similar extent again (after a week or so) until the container is full.  Enough carrots have already germinated to get a good crop and a few more will likely pop-up, but weed out all of those non-carrots (weeds) as they grow much faster and will take over (if interested, most of the weeds look like 'fat hen'.)
    PS: You are doing great! :)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Williamgiddings25Williamgiddings25 Posts: 50
    Thanks guys!
    do I have to worry about the smaller potatoe leaves at the bottom of the potatoe container or just keep topping up. 
    Im presuming with thinning out it’s literally just pull the smallest ones out. 
    One more question sorry, what did you use
    for pea sticks? And do they climb up alone or need tying on. Thanks!
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    Twiggy branches work great for pea sticks.. there will be plenty of bits for them to self climb.  In the past I've used canes and yarn, when I didn't have access to twiggy branches, and just ran the yarn back and forth the way up the canes to give the peas something to climb.   
    Utah, USA.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Don't worry about burying the potato leaves, they will soon rise above the extra compost.  Do you know how tall the pea vriety you have are supposed to grow?  Some of them reach 6ft, so best bet with those is to use pea netting between a couple of posts, otherwise as Blue Onion says.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Williamgiddings25Williamgiddings25 Posts: 50

    Potatoes topped up. Does this look ok?
    Thank you!!
  • comp13comp13 Posts: 58
    Hi guys, how come commercial farmers don’t need to support peas and we do in our gardens. I’m asking because my OH really hates the job of building the pea supports and he says every year we are not planting peas next year. I have to do it and I wanna know if there is an easier cheaper way. Thanks 
    Amateur vegetable gardener with dreams of a bigger garden one day. 
  • Williamgiddings25Williamgiddings25 Posts: 50
    comp13 said:
    Hi guys, how come commercial farmers don’t need to support peas and we do in our gardens. I’m asking because my OH really hates the job of building the pea supports and he says every year we are not planting peas next year. I have to do it and I wanna know if there is an easier cheaper way. Thanks 
    Coat me £5 to support my peas
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2019
    comp13 said:
    Hi guys, how come commercial farmers don’t need to support peas and we do in our gardens. I’m asking because my OH really hates the job of building the pea supports and he says every year we are not planting peas next year. I have to do it and I wanna know if there is an easier cheaper way. Thanks 
    Mainly cos farmers grow varieties that produce all their crop at the same time and they harvest the whole field full on one night with damn gurt pea viners which cut and gather up the whole plant, shell the peas, spew them into a lorry and then deposit the haulms on the ground. 

    You and I want to walk along a row of plants, picking the ripest pods and leaving the rest for the next meal. We can’t do that if they’re flopping about all over the place and all tangled up. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    Also commercial peas are low growing varieties and planted very close together 80 plants per meter, so they grow up each other getting in to pick them would be impossible.
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