Hi,

I am new to gardening & my style has been complete pot luck up to now. I have decided to put more effort into my garden.

My Garden faces SW and is over shadowed by trees behind my house, so when they have there leaves it is very shaded. I rearranged the garden this year so the one sunny area was a raised platform for pots to be put on it. I am very keen in growing fruit and veg for my family. Plants have done well although I do have a few questions, I hope you will be able to help.

I have grown tomatoes this year in a small plastic green house and the yield of tomatoes is the best I have ever had but they have been green for about a month now and none have ripened. Is there any thing I can do to ripen these? Does it mean I should not try grown them next year?

I have to grow my potatoes in bags and was wondering if they grow in shaded areas or best in sun.

Do I have to change the soil from all the pots each year? I don’t have any where to put the old soil so I would have to take it to the dump. (I’m not a fan of this).

Do the small pot size apple trees need to be in a sunny place or can they cope with shade?

Last question, I have only grown this through the summer but would like to grow this during winter too or get started early for summer please could you suggest any things that would need harvesting before I use the pots for summer.

I am sorry I didn’t realise I had so many questions, I also was not sure if this is the right place for this topic.

Thanks in advance,

Hi Girly CM. In your shady area do you have a compost bin? I layer my kitchen peelings /waste with old compost from pots, it all rots down and revitalises the compost with lots of nutrients to be used again, makes better compost than most you buy, though it takes time to decay. Not too late to plant spring onions,spinach, chard, turnips, rocket, fennel, radishes, mooli, and winter radish, spring greens, and winter lettuce. If we get a warm spell your toms may still ripen, failing that wrap unblemished toms in newspaper and put in a drawer, they will gradually ripen, another way if nearly ripe is to cut the whole vine and hang in a warm window to ripen, fruits will take moisture from the stem. A ripe banana near almost ripe toms will accellerate ripening process. Consider making chutney with any blemished ones, just chop all the good bits and add to the other ingredients. Tomatoes ripening depends on the summer we have, not anything you did wrong, we need more sun and less cloudy days.

ps if you eventually want more garden space look here, they put people who have spare garden /land in touch with those near them who want garden land. Eg a nearby pensioner might be glad of someone to use their garden in return for a little produce shared

http://www.landshare.net/listings/16338/

HI Nature's babe,

I don't have a composter as the garden is quite small and trying to balance kids toys and growing pots. It's an idea as it would be good to use the soil, when you say it can take a while; am I right thinking it would be about a year?

Thanks

Yes 6 months to a year. the secret is to layer wet and dry, not too much wet or it can get smelly / gloopy, advantage is a good growing medium made from your kitchen waste / lawn clippings.

Thank you,

Do I need to use a big bin or is there a best size. Also do you know that if I planted the winter veg in my pots would it be free by spring when I need them?

If you check your seed packets they should have a guide to planting and harvesting times, radishes are quickest. If you have a lot of green/ kitchen waste get a large bin, if not a smaller one, end of season some places reduce their compost bins and some councils have them cheap, also I have seen some on the freecycle site and that would cost nothing. If replanting in the same pots top up compost and add an organic general fertiliser, you can leave old roots in they will decompose overwinter and add more nutrients and drainage channels

Hi Girly

Not being a container grower I won't try to answer all you questions, except to say that for many/most of your crops the shade will be the biggest problem.

You might be able to answer your questions - and think up some new ones - by doing a bit of reading on this site

http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diar ... ontainers/

Happy reading

Hi

Thank you for your help and web sites, I have been doing a lot of reading,

Thanks