The Gro-Bag Veg Garden Monthly

so with the seasons close i decided too start work on my back garden its overgrown from 10 yrs resting and overcome by bindweed.

now it is going too take a good 6-10 months too fix so i needed something quick and easy. a local browse and i found growing bags for £1 gbp each. now in the uk this is cheap and a bargain not too be missed so i purchased 6 bags. these will be ideal as after use i can mix them into my compost barrel, waste not want not my grandad used too say.

Seeds well i could not grow without some seeds. in the same shop i found the bargain selection at £1 a packet. i went too town and purchased things i liked, White lisbon spring onion, Little gem lettuce, Tendergreen Dwarf bean, good old MoneyMaker tomato's, and long green ribbed cucumber.

Month 1:

so the suns out nearly and the rains are here. two weeks ago i planted up a single cayenne pepper seed and 8 sweet pepper seeds 4 seeds never popped out. so i have 1 cayenne and 4 sweet bell.
Planting was easy and cheap. i used 12 empty toilet rolls/kitchen towel rolls and cut them in half. next i filled these with compost from my bin and planted up a selection of rocket mizu and giant red mustard. the tubes are great i placed them into a tray and covered with clingfilm a couple of pin holes helped.

the salad and pepper seeds flourished in the toilet tube pots i had created and worked wonders. so after 4 days on the window sill every salad seed has sprouted and i transplanted them with tube and all into a couple of largish pots and placed onto window sill again. two weeks on and i now have around 18 very healthy salad plants ready too transplant or harvest when young.
The peppers are growing bigger every day too it feels like. and every night they draw their leaves upright and every morning they looks bigger than the day before as they lay down the even bigger looking seedling leaves.

Easter weekend is a pain i needed some fertilizer for my plants and no shops open i had too pull out the BabyBio, but am unsure if i should use it, no warnings on the bottle but too be safe and sure will check internet.

for my carrots i had an idea of using some old guttering downpipes cutting them into 2ft sections and tied together with old garden twine too make a carrot tube circle. filled with compots and soil the could accomodate a few carrots and hopefuly allow them too grow fairly big in the tubes.

It is still too wet and cold too plant out my seedlings so they wil have too stay on the windowsill for a couple more weeks for me and untill next month for you guys an gals.

Next month i shall show you the seedlings and there new and old homes and my growbag veg garden pictures.

Thank you

Tamzi

After browsing the internet and looking at what veg i was too grow, i had found something missing the good old potato.
Now the standard tomato growbag was not going too realy hold a good crop of potatos, and i still have not cleared enough of the garden too plant a few furrows.

how could i spend the least amount of money and get a nice crop. hmmmm potato box thats it a potato box. a few searches later and i found what i wanted.

a potato box that says it could yield 100lb that is alot of chips/frenchfries.

idea is simple as you can see in the attatchment picture. 4x posts and a stack of boards. everytime potato plant reaches a foot-two foot in size you nail on a few more boards and backfill, forcing plant too throw roots from nodes on main stem.

i realy like this idea, it is a big spacesaver for small gardens/patio's and 100lb sounds alot but i realy wonder if it is possible, only way too find out is build and grow too see what my total yield is.

Tamzi

sorry forgot the attachment and cant edit into above post.

Tamzi

It's May and everything has come on in leaps and bounds.

2 of my three tomatos have grown well. my dwarf beans are huge with leaves around the size of my hand and still climbing skywards. cucumbers are doing well as with my shallots.

Garlic. i found a realy nice sprouted garlic bulb in the local shop and for 12p couldnt go wrong so purchased it and now have 8 cloves growing in a growbag.

Garden has now been cut down. what once was a 6ft high jungle is now a well trimmed mat of grass and everything else. bindweed has grown back this year with more vigor and im not wanting too chemicaly eradicate this pest. i however decided too simple dig the whole garden, then start single digging and double digging for a good year or maybe two. this way i try too bring as much root too surface where it can be thrown into the incinerator ( metal bin ) if you guys and girls have any other ideas too remove the bindweed pest i have would be amazingly helpful.

Greenhouses:

now i would love a real quality glasshouse but these are way out of my price league and the youngsters round here would have a fieldday smashing panes of glass.
I had been looking at these plastic cover greenhouses and found one that will fit 5 growbags inside and for only £30GBP. it was a big choice and money could have been spent else where but i purchased said wendyhouse conversion and am very happy with its quality. lets hope its a good growing house.

other real life stuff:

so the jobfront is bad im fighting maybe 30-100 other for a single job and its becoming a joke. i sat down and had a real hard think. damn i can grow ilegal stuff and legal stuff so why not look for a job in a growing enviroment. so i started hunting for work in local grow centres and the likes. you cant exactly say you can grow anything but the knowledge from weedgrowing is a handy dandy tool and can be shifted too house and ornimental gardening too. hopefuly its will be on my side.

A word of warning on growbags. money = quality this is so true. yesterday i took a Named brand growbag and my £1 bargain bag. i split both bags and was stunned.
the best named bag was lush earth smelling soil mix held together nice when damp and broke up well. on the other hand my el cheapo bag was a mess, soil was a sweet smelling clay bound mess. when damp it would form cannon balls and would break down in large clumps no fine earth look at all at the very most 85% had been broken down the rest of soil had lumps of bark twigs and lumps of grey'ish red clay. so word of warning what you pay for is what you get myself am going to use this cheap stuff too bulk up the veg patch for water retention in soil.

product used:

durstons gardeners choice growbag ( £1gbp)
Gardman walk in greenhouse ( plastic £30gbp was £50)
off shelf bone meal/bloodmeal
homebrew rocket fuel tea ( nitrogen high green leaf brew)

Tamzi

so its now may 29th 2009, lovely day outside temps in the el cheapo plastic greenhouse hit the 80's.

the tomatos (moneymaker) are gettinh huge leaves now the boost from the ferts worked and the nipping out shoots have started the MM skywards im going too top them at around 5 foot high.

peppers are loking ok'ish its my first time growing peppers, my best plant now has what looks like little green balls coming from the top. the top of the plant has split into two parts. so i will just water/feed and let them go about there own stuff.

the little gem lettuce are growing realy well in the growbag, i put three in only and maybe could have squeezed in more.

my dwarf french beans are so cool, i already have beans forming and most around 3-5 inch long, soon i can start too harvest them. i had three bean plants and also planted another two. i love my french beans in shepards pie and cottage pie.

shallots i have a little trouble with, some have died off and i am left with 3-4 good plants. so i planted up my seedling tray and a good 8 seeds i will grow them in the seedling tray and see if there is a noted difference.

i topped my cucumbers at around 1ft high i have around 8 flowers forming on the largest of the three plants. these sit under the potting shelves with the shallots and lettuce.

so i have a nice little gift for you all, i have taken some pictures from my phone and uploaded so you can see my elcheapo greenhouse and my mini veg plot. so what do you all think of my mini eden project. my garden is a north east facing. the pictures of just the greenhouse was taken at 16:30pm. the pictures of the veg were taken at 13:00pm. the sun hits the greenhouse from around 11am too 1900-20:00pm.

Tamzi

wow those plants are looking nice. keep the pics coming, im envious of folks with outdoor gardening space.

bleubeard said:

wow those plants are looking nice. keep the pics coming, im envious of folks with outdoor gardening space.

Click to expand...

you should not be. you dont need a big space for a garden or too even grow a couple of tom plants or even peppers. my fave way too save on space is a growbag.

two for 1 growbag:

1 growbag 1 reel duct tape

ducttape around the centre of your growbag, not too tight now just wrap around a couple three times. now puff up the growbag too break apart the soil mix. carefuly take a sharpe blade and cut the growbag in half, using the ducttape as a guide. the duct tap will also keep your bag top from becoming fray loose and splitting.

stand growbag's up and give them a couple taps onto the floor this will help the level off and sit nicely. now plant your tom's or peppers in. i tend too go 1 plant per half bag. you could if brazen enough poke a few small side holes and inplant some strawberrys, these would help keep bags looking good and go nice with icecream.

growbags tend too be around 2.5 feet long and 1 foot wide enough for a good crop of tomato's peppers and strawberrys/herbs

Tamzi

well something is very wrong. i leave the greenhouse door open too allow bees and bugs in too feed on my veg's flowers.

over three days i have noticed dead honey bees, stone dead normaly in the mornings and early evenings. i have two main veg in flower( cucumber/dwarfbeans). in all 11 dead bee's in 3 days and also around 6-6 head hover flys ( mini wasp looks like).

im kinda worried on what is the problem, why do these bee's die in my greenhouse, what could be the problem, could my plants be the problem.

i dont use any weedkiller/pest control products i try and use nature own beasts and my hands for snail and larger beast removal. so i know it cant be chemicals i dont use them.

do we have any budding/pro/expert bee keepers about please ? and could sorta help me work out why the bee's visiting are being killed.

Tamzi

So this weekend i had my first crop of dwarfbeans: tendergreen.

the flavour was very nice and they went well in my cottage pie. i would have taken some pictures but that thought entered my head after i ha eaten them lol.

tomato plants had another feed today i already have one flower trellis on the plant and the top is growing even faster.

peppers these are ok'ish. reading up on the interweb i found these plants are a waiting game. but one plant is very poorly.
this plant was placed in with the tomatos, so we have a tom plant the pepper and then another tom plant sharing the growbag, it was yesterday i notice the plant had inverted its leaves most have flipped over and the new leaf growth are looking like crunched up paper. i am in two minds too cull the plant or leave it too nature. dont need anything happening too the tom plants.

cucumbers are growing wild. i topped them at around 1 foot high and now they are like trifids crawling over the floor i have started running out of planting sticks too keep the in check and stop them taking over the lettuce patch.

newcomers are, basil-chives-spearmint-roma plum tomato and leading up the rear parsley.these all take up the space on the greenhouse's shelf

Greenhouse:

the 6x4 walk in greenhouse i purchased is from Kingfisher gardening, there are also gardman and other makes, all are the same layout nearly. the one i purchased cost £29.99 GBP comes with very basic pictorial instructions. a single cover in clear plastic. its width is 4ft2" and its length is 6ft2" its hight is roughly 6foot too the pitch, down one side of the greenhouse is a 6ft long shelf around 3-4ft high. it has a wire mesh type grill that acts as the shelf itself ( not very sturdy and could do with being replaced).

a single entry door with dual zipper allows it too roll up and be tied inplace with provided material ties on the covering. the covering itself is somewhat cheaply made and sewn. in a light wind you will find some holes where the tie cords tear the plastic. the covering is a clear type you may be able too find a replacement that will fit with bonded plastic mesh and a green finnish. this could be the better choice as covering is more re-enforced.

inside the GH. is very nice the shelving works a treat for smaller herbs, shallots,chives and the like maybe even a couple of oriental lettuce. under the shelving i placed my cucumbers and a few planting sticks hopefuly the cucumbers climbing abbilty will creep along the underside of the shelving.

the back wall would have been nice with a cross bracing pole fitted too allow climbers and give the GH more stability. with the door closed on a very hot day you will be getting temps near the 100's. with the door rolled up fully and tied back your temps will still be around the low too high 80's.

inside the greenhouse floor you can fit two 2.5x1.0foot growbags along each side and the back wal can take a single growbag with a 1.5 foot space left. shelving is a sorry affair what i recieved and is more like something you would find in a BBQ as a cheap metal grill.

in all the GH is a very nice item and needs a little more pennys spent. maybe a vent placed into the covering would help with the high temps inside. ideal for small gardens and with the same footprint as a 6x4 garden shed can squeeze into small gardens with ease.

i found this small greenhouse a nice little bargain for myself and has proven itself with my first harvest and many more in the future. but i will be doing some of my own changes too the shelving and finding a new cover.

its now two weeks into june in nearly sunny britain. and everything is going well so i thought i would share the every growing veg.

first in the attachments are tomatos, moneymaker.
next are the dwarf bean called tender green, you can see a couple babys growing.
after the beans come the peppers standard sweet bell and some tokyo cayenne.
we then move onto the two new bean sprouts some spring onions and a single lettuce.
after this small bag comes my lettuce as you can see a lovely tight heart this should be a good eater in a month or so.
last but not least the triffid family of cucumbers green ridge these are called. more like crawl over my greenhouse floor cucumber lol. these will be pruned down a little i think they are taking over. under them are some spring onions.

shelves sporting three roma plum tomato, two moneymaker tomato. in the pots i have basil,parsley, spearmint etc etc

this morning nice and early i cropped up my two best little gem lettuce and a small handfull of beans. i must say it is so true when gardeners say " what you grow tastes better than what you buy", oh darn this is so true. my salad bap's are a winner in the house and two baby lettuce disapeared in under an hour.
i have two lettuce left, and promissed my godson he could have one for himself and his mum.

new addition too the veg family are two sunflowers. the godson had problems so we shoved them into my yard and boosted them with some ferts.

PEPPER !! omg pepper has flowers. i started these peppers indoors in mid march and think they are stunted. my biggest plant is around 1.5ft high max but has a very nice clutch of around 6 flowers. a lovely crisp white with mottled black centers. just a slight knock of the branch and they sprinkle pollen everywhere. Next year i will grow peppers indoors so i can keep the soil at a constant temp that what there is in greenhouse.

moneymaker heirlom tomatos now have two flower trusses and are now around 4ft high im going too top them at 4-6trusses and around 5ft these should then fit just nice inside the GH. One big problem is my roma plum tomatos, these at only 7inch high have started too dump sugar and produce flower trusses. i have removed them and will top plants around 3ft high these will take place over the lettuce once harvested fully.

Cucumbers, i now have three smallish plants at 4ft high and producing handfuls of flowers. 8 male flowers have now become cucumbers and are growing bigger every day.

Feeding. each growbag recieves 1 gallon of water every three days and 1 feed every two weeks.

was in the garden yesterday and took a couple of pictures.

pepper flowers look so nice. i brushed past them and found huge amounts of pollen left on the leaves and my jeans. this is a picture of my best plant. my other three have been savaged by slugs and snails. im loosing the battle against these slimey critters.


look at my prize cucumbers here in the attachments. i planted three cucumber seeds back in april/may. after advice from my father i topped these cucumbers and found that it was the wrong idea. these things love too climb and as of my own fault my cucumbers are now ground dwellers lol. the larges cumber is on the oldest plant and the group of cumbers is on the youngest plant.
Next year i plan on two cucumber plants and allowthem too grow too the high of the greenhouse i may even plant them outside. slugs and snails have somewhat not taken too my cucumbers. and haveleft my tomato's alone too. another good note i now have tomato's forming from pollenated flowers hopefuly i will have a good bumper crop.

Roma tomato's: i dont like these determinate plants to be honnest. at 8 inches high they are already forming flowers. i am very unsure if i should let them flower now or pinch out and if i do will they reach maturity in time before winter


on a sad note i have lost my friend the robin. it has been nearly 4 weeks now i havent seen him. he would visit everyday for freebies i would lay out for him. maybe he will be back in the fall, fingers crossed.

Over the past few days the heat in my location has soared into the the low/high 80's. but all good things come too an end. in my case a big wet end.

the first rain fall hit us hard a good 2 inch easy fell in under an hour, not bad hey, thats what i thought but sadly i dont have a water but and a rainwater downpipe too connect too. as the green house is plastic it has no guttering. i realy must find some way too harness this gift from above it will save me a small fortune in water bills.

my peppers are doing realy well now. the mini Jihad against the slugs and snails have worked and my bait is slaying these beasts left right and centre. i lost outta 4 plants only one too slugs and snails. but fruit flowers and leave on the other three have taken a hammering, out of 6 fruit on my best bell pepper i lost all but one. my cayenne pepper has lost around 1/3 of its leaves too these beasts and my last bell pepper has been decimated. bit it refuses too die and has produced a huge amount of new growing tips.

beer and the usual old housewifes tales did not work so i had too go with chemical warfare too eradicate these beasts.

i need too charge up the mobile before i take take a few update pictures. so keep tuned in for the next update pictures im realy happy with the results from these cheap gro-bags and a cheap plastic greenhouse. but the north east facing garden is a hard one too work with the greenhouse gets sunlight from 8am-10am then again from 12-8pm its full sun again my garden is surounded by other dwellings too so they shade my garden sometimes.

the garden itself was a rubbish tip for all the building rubbish . when we moved in we found a jcb backhoe, cement bags, sandbags,scafolding,scafolding knuckle fitments. plaster backwash all buried under the topsoil. the list went on and every rainfal the garden would flood. in the end we had too hand dig an 8 foot deep sump hole and filled it with all the brick rubble from the garden. the yard was left too go wild for 10 years apart from the cutting down every few months. this year is the tester i planted two bean plants into the soil with no added feed and will leave them too natures own, if they grow well next year i am bringing in a mini digger and will remove the top layer ready too transform the once wild garden into my own garden allotment.

hello everyone.

it is ok i have not forgoten you all, this month has been somewhat hectic with online mmorpg'ing and searching for work. the green house has come on in leaps and bounds the grass is beating me back and my garden burner has been puffing away like a smokers pipe.

Dwarf beans have now finnished, these poor things had been ravished by slugs and snails they also blocked alot of the much needed sunlight too the tomatos, they have gone and now getting recycled in the makeshift composter bin.

cucumbers wont stop flowering and producing fruit. i have had from count 12 lovely fresh 6-8 inch cucumbers. i have around another 8 in various stages of growth, hopefuly they will finnish before the first english frosts.

tomatos an peppers speak for themselves with the attached pictures.

and would you believe it, i was cutting down some of the long grass ( 2-4ft high) ready too dry and use as a covering too keep my growbag soil good and frost free next years early planting. popped in too get a cool drink and there he was waiting on the fence. my friend the robin had come back. luckly i had hug a apple from a cord onto the washing line. was not long before most ofthe smaller birds inc robin had visited the swinging cafe.

it has been a hectic month or so. but i shall leave you with these few pics and a whole new update tomorrow or monday evening (uk) with new and improved tomato training cane fence and a few shots of the roma's / money makers / peppers /cucumbers.

here's good eating and healthy growing too you all

Tamzi

Tomatos, those red ripe fruits we tend too purchase from the store without any thought. well thats what i used too do untill Now.

as you have read this is my first year growing a small greenhouse budget grow. most of what i had learnt was as a kid growing the cannabis seeds we found in our smoke. fast forward 20 years its today.


Moneymaker a very popular hierloom tomato grown in the uk a very heavy yielding plant. sounds awesome dont it ?, yeah i thought the same nice small tomatos, oh oh how i was so wrong.


my green garden STICKS have done the job and it is time for me too build a bigger and better climbing frame for my plants. three 8FT garden canes sunk into soil about a good two foot deep and around 1 - 2 feet apart. another 4 canes 4 foot in length are used as horizontal braces.

1hour later in 91F temps, im shattered a job that would take ten mins took an hour. working inside the greenhouse had cooked me alive but my master piece was finnished. Another hour and i had tied all the tomato's up too the horizontal canes and stood back.

the break was short as i started too prune up the plants on thier new climbing frame and turned my mind too the Roma tomato's. These too had been overcome by gravity a few leaders had bent and some had split. the same had happened on the moneymakers and i was worrying. could i loose the fruit too a stupid beginers mistake, leaving the fruit too get too heavy for the plant too cope. Only time will tell now.

one old plastic carrier bag was used too tie canes too each other. my canes came held together with these plastic bag type ties, so i made myself some and they worked a treat. any growers that have a wife or girlfriend will know they wear nylon/cotton tights. the also work wonders for holding up those nice heavy tomato vines as you may notice. being soft then can be used too make a sling too hold the stems of the vines and too thold the main stalk too the canes. when fixing stalk too cane i ALWAYS use a figure 8 tie, this allows the tights too stretch as the stalk swells and grows.

So you have read the wall of text and still can make no head nore tale from it. well picture speak a thousand words my grandad always said. so take a butchers at these.

feel free too ask any questions.

Tamzi

so here she comes rolling down the hill september on east coast of england.

the poor greenhouse has taken a good deal of damage now from wind and the uk weather. it is still tied down well but these plastic covers are lets say useless. the cloth ties used too hold covering too frame have been torn out leaving good 3 inch tears on sewn seems.

so a dilema i contacted the company that made them in MAY this year it is now september and no reply what so ever not even a email reply or a reply too my telephone enquiry. so now i am going BIG well in my eyes it will be big. a few have complained about my nice CLEAR 6x4 greenhouse and next year they will be slightly more upset.

Tamzi is building a 10ft x 6ft or maybe even a 12x 6 poly tunnel.
im going too use PVE tubing and some poles sunk into ground my tubing will be placed over sunk poles and screwed into place.
next i fit a sideboard around the frame and crossmembers from 2x2 battons, my covering will be recesed into battoning on side rails and pulled taught over the frames that will be covered in pipe lagging ( saving tears an wear), then i build a small 2.4ft doorway and screw onto base frame and tube hoops.

i spent a good 3 days trawling the net on something more better than a cheap throw away GH.
hopeful i can use this years greenhouse frame inside next years new polytunnel if council allow me too have this structure. so fingers crossed for me and a bigger better growhouse next year

well ladys gents, boys and girls.

the time has come too close my first grow journal. it certainly has been a journey into the past for me. bringing back child memorys., the green house is no bare devoid of life and the smell of summer, the plants have been cut and harvested. my nieghbours and friends have enjoyed fresh tomatos and the likes, most have already shown interest in there own plots. my temperatures are showing a marked drop and the green house is more a cold frame. maybe just maybe we will get some white stuff this year and you can see the garden covered in snow.

the cheap £1 GBP growbags have been recycled with my plants from greenhouse. i added some extra grass clippings and the likes. hopefuly this will form a good compost over the next 5+ months. ready for next year. but i will still purchase some more cheap growbags to bulk up my soil.

Be on the look out for my new grow journal in december/january. this will be showing you how and when too start next years plants i have already started with small garden mint cuttings on the window sills, and boxing day is tomato seed day.

The elcheapo green house will return for its second year in growing. but this time Wind proof ( he says lol) !!

next year we will be growing:

tomato's
peppers
lettuce
onion
cucumber
mellons

I would like to Thank everyone who has viewed this grow journal / budget garden /GH, over 1000 views i am so thankful and happy. thank you again and see you in the fall. please feel free too ask questions about this years growing on the east coast UK.


Tamzi