Pots in the North

 Greetings all!!!!

And what a nice bunch of people seem to be on this forum. Paradise regained!

I was wondering if anyone could advise me. I'm planning on growing some veg
for the first time next year, but it's going to have to be in pots in my
back yard. I live in Bury in the Frozen Northern Wastes (Lancashire), and
I'm not really sure which veg would be best a) in pots and b) in the North.
I was thinking of growing some peas up a trellis, but I'd like to do some
root veg too. It's probably a bit cold for tomatoes etc unless I get a
lean-to greenhouse. Another thing is, I have a lot of slugs and
(particularly) snails. I'm a vegetarian so I can't eat the snails!!! ;-)

Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

Take care all,

Andrew

 Andy Hunt11/12/03 12:43
pmmailbox@megalomania.co.ukpJZBb.12$0I3.58510@newsfep2-gui.server.ntli.net


With regard to tomatoes, you could probably try growing the variety
'Tumbler' in a pot or hanging basket.  They are quite early here (Devon) and
might be later with you but they're very prolific and deliciously sweet and
juicy.
To counter the slugs, it's up to your whether you use a chemical remedy but
on food crops, you might prefer not to.  You can try several other things,
stand the pots in rings of small, sharp gravel, sprinkle the slugs with salt
or chuck them in a bucket for heavily salted water. Sink e.g. yoghurt pots
into the ground, leaving them just a millimetre or so above the surface, so
that other good bugs don't fall in.  Slugs love beer!
Encourage birds and frogs into your garden. (Start feeding birds now with a
good mixed bird seed offering plenty of variety)  Smear a liberally coated,
wide ring of Vaseline round the pots - slugs can't get past it.  (Remember
to renew the beer and the Vaseline after heavy rain!)

--

Sacha
(remove the 'x' to email me)

 Thank Sacha, I think I might give the Tumbler tomatoes a go - I'm lucky, my
back yard is a real sun-trap, and it has a high wall so it's very sheltered
from the wind. It's an end-terrace not far out of the centre of Bury though,
so I don't get that many birds round my way (mostly sparrows and pigeons,
although there are a few seagulls which hang about the scrap yards not far
from my house!). I get a few bats coming round though! There's a park not
far away.

I do actually have a garden as well, but it's full up with herbs, trees,
bulbs and bushes and the like. I've got bags of space for veg though, as
long as I get enough pots.

I'm tempted to use slug pellets on the pathways around the pots, so that the
slugs don't get through the first line of defences. It's either that or
machine-gun emplacements manned by an army of mercenary mice. It's a shame
they can't just kind of "get the message" . . . death seems a rather unjust
price to have to pay for the crime of trying to get a good meal, even for a
slug!

Thanks for the tips - food for thought!

Andrew

 slugs and snails

turtles/tortoises eat them
laying ducks eat scads of them.

copper is an expensive barrier.

the edge of a vertical (window)screening "wall" apparently deters the
slimers.

I've never sufficiently  tried any of these methods except the ducks. also
in central calif, restricting water to edible zones is very effective snail
control. our climate resembles Greece's. dry summers.



sheltered

though,

 

  That's irrelevant to UK gardening in general and the OP in particular.

  Please read the weekly post called abc for newcomers to this newsgroup.

  Janet.