What do you like to grow best?

[Weeterrier]

Since joining these boards, I've seen the enjoyment many of you get from growing your own veg. It makes me want to give it a go.
My love of gardening started when I worked in Kew Gardens. But the building I worked in had a long herbaceous border back then, and I was hooked by the idea of that. Once I had a garden of my own, and in every garden since then, it has been filled with herbaceous plants. I have a pond, and some fruit trees and soft fruit beds. There are shrubs, but not many. I suppose my work too has never led me to veg growing. I've worked in a plant nursery, mainly involved with propagation, I've worked in a Garden Centre until becoming a professional gardener some years ago. My first client was the regional authority who wanted me to plant up a large Victorian walled garden, with herbaceous borders. (Heaven) From that, I was asked to do a gardening column for a newspaper, about ornamentals. Still no veg.
So are any of you like me? Or are you a veggie! Or both? I'd love to know.

[Shrubrose]

Wow, wt I am impressed. I knew you'd had experience as a gardener but didn't realise it was on such a grand scale. Lucky you to have done something you thoroughly enjoyed, and that was so creative.

In answer to your question, I do both - herbaceous and veg. Bit of a novice with both really, which is obvious because it's usually me that asks the daft questions. But I figure, it's the only way to learn and hopefully people will only laugh at my numptiness! If it cheers someone up that's a good thing.

I've created two gardens from scratch. The first was a small one and I didn't get to see it mature but have been back to see it and it does look lovely. Doesn't seem much changed by the owners.

My second is where I am now. Much bigger garden and it was undeveloped so a great opportunity to shape things as I wanted. Have done the areas to the east, south and a bit of the one that's west facing but this is the big area and I need to do a proper plan. We want to stay here, so hopefully I can grow old with this one.

I started doing veg three years ago. First year, knowing nothing, was a huge success. Since then, produce-wise it's been less good with each successive year. Beginner's luck I guess. But I just love it. And if something's been disappointing I try to find out why and then look forward to doing it again the following year.

On balance I'd say I love doing both. Cant decide between the two!

[seapoppy]

Hi WeeT........ Ive been in my garden today, mowing and tidying up. This year I grew, broad beans, runners, tomatoes, raspberries, lots herbs, pots, sweetcorn, salad bits, and strawberries, i think thats it.
Gardening intersted me when I became ill, 6 yrs back, alTHouGH id ALWAYS LOVED OTHER PEOPLES Gardens, just to nosey, but gardening really has helped through a long illness. (whoops ......... caps on).
I ve never had any formal training though, how lucky you, to have worked at kew, what was it like weeT, did you enjoy it .

[Weeterrier]

I wondered if veg. could become addictive. Trouble is, I'd have to get rid of some of my flowers. I envy you having a bit of garden which is still virgin territory. Then, of course, you have your chickens

[seapoppy]

and ducks, g,pigs, a dog, 4 cats.......names trouble, blighter, skizabell, tigger, strange names.ducks are ...........quackers and meringue, even stranger.
i live in the middle of nowhere with fields out back and front, so when im in the garden it is so quiet. my tomatoes were dreadful this year, oh ive got chillies too and 1 cucumber, slugs ate my peas, pumpkin, goards and i still have my courgette plant growing.

[Deleted]

i love doing both.
i really wanted to have a beautiful garden that if you looked a it closer you could see veg growing in amongst flowers.
as my garden is small this has been quite sucessful except that now i have empty patches where things have finished and i have no idea what to replace them with.
i have only had a garden for four years but i am totally hooked.
i did veg last year for the fisrt time and of course we had a very hot summer so some things did well and others didnt.
this year thinking it would be hot i planned a lot more veg (about double last yrs amount) and of course it rained all summer .i have not had the two best years weather wise to start growing veg but i have really enjoyed the sucesses i have had.
i love to cut flowers to put indoors and have had great big bunches of cosmos and sweetpeas.
i love to sit in my garden with a cuppa and look at what i have helped to grow wether it is my dahlia's or yellow courgettes.
i am hoping to get an allotment and then my garden will be all plants again.
until then i will continue to love growing both.
it feels so satisfying when you eat a roast dinner and everything on the plate except the meat has been grown in your own patch of earth.
i love it.
i think you should find some small spaces WT and grow some things amongst the flowers.its great fun.
xxxx

[seapoppy]

i love sweet peas too rowen

[Deleted]

Flowers, flowers & more flowers! ;D

Sara

[Rosefriend]

Well like Shrub I am very impressed Wee - just shows what one can do. Any chance of some pics of your garden? Sorry just nosey!!

Hey seapoppy that sounds like a lovely assortment, - did you have problems with your tomatoes this year as well. Mine were fine but I know that a lot of people had blight. I love sweetpeas as well - I have just brought in the last lot for this year, - the smell when you walk into a room is gorgeous isn't it.

I have grown Tomatoes, Chillies and Peppers for years and then decided that I had had enough. Mmmmmh well then I got caught up in the trials and did Spuds for the first time in tubs and what a disaster that was. However my beans (French and Runners) have been fantastic and I am really chuffed.

Mind you the love of my life is Roses and always will be, although I have got rid of a lot in the last couple of years. I would love to have more room to grow veg but it just can't be - I am just too mean with the space that I have for flowers.

I am trying to grow things in tubs and will try spuds again next year and I have already got some bean seeds and I am going to do a couple of things on the Overwintering trials as well.

I am not very good at veg but then no-one was born knowing how to garden - we all have to learn from scratch, don't we!!

RF

[Weeterrier]

I think I may have to, after all this! I'd like to keep bees.
Kew was great, an honour really to be given the opportunity to work there. It will have changed of course, some buildings have been demolished, some new ones built. But the romance of it will never change. Going through the gates in the morning, before the public came in was like stepping back in time, quite magical. Especially in winter, when the frost was on the ground, and there was a mist. I get quite misty-eyed too when I think about it.

[andy]

I'm hoping to fullfill my ambition at work this year when i get rid of a large, tired looking erica border and replant it with a foliage border.

Large and small phormiums, fuchsia 'genii', euonymous fortunei, spirea 'goldflame', berberis japonica nana, fatsia, golden fastigiate yew, golden and purple cotinus, purple and variatated Elders....and anything else i can find to get a really nice foliage border.

Any comments on this ?

Andy

[Plocket]

OMG I feel so inadequate now Weeterrier!!! ;D

I love growing clematis - it's probably safe to say that I'm fairly passionate about them, and I've crammed as many as possible into my tiny little garden.

I also like thalictrums, primulas, hardy geraniums and heucheras, but am starting to warm to daylilies/hemerocallis too - although I prefer the "spider" type. Oh and I like plants with purple leaves, and black or green flowers.

Andy how do you feel about euphorbias? There are a lot of people who don't like them but I class them as foliage plants. And you haven't mentioned heucheras either!

[Weeterrier]

That sounds lovely to me Andy. You'll have something I don't have, something to look at over the winter. I am particularly fond of the cotinus. There is another shrub I like, called Leucothoe 'Scarletta' it is evergreen, but it changes colour with the seasons.
By the sound of it your border will be so full of colour, you won't need flowers or sunshine! Those colours will shine out. So, I take it you are a shrub man?

[andy]

plocket said:

Andy how do you feel about euphorbias? There are a lot of people who don't like them but I class them as foliage plants. And you haven't mentioned heucheras either!

Love em Plocket..i have the low growing myrsenites as well as E. Griffithii 'fireglow', E. purpurea and a few other more invasive types.

I'd love one of those monster 7-8' feet Euphorbias...if i only knew what they were called !!!

[Shrubrose]

Oh Andy, I didn't know you cared. ;D

[Plocket]

Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one Andy I've not got Fireglow but I've got a similar one called Excalibur - it's a beauty! I've got five others two I think but I can't remember the names of all of them off-hand. One of them is quite pale and probably called Silver something or other. The tiny one I've got is the most invasive ;D

[Weeterrier]

Plocket, a garden can never have too many hardy Geraniums. And I'm coming round to the idea that Clematis comes into the same category. So many types, and one for every situation.

[Weeterrier]

I had Fireglow once, but it was like a maniac in the border. Very bonny though

[Plocket]

Oh a lady after my own heart ;D I think hardy geraniums are so USEFUL, although I can never remember the names of the ones I have. Except for my favorite - Midnight Reiter. As for my clems - I can remember every single name - funny huh?

[Weeterrier]

When I started out, I was so particular about the names, but now I don't really care. Unless I'm asked But then, I'm at that age, that I cannot remember my own name (Or perhaps that's the drink?) ;D

[Shrubrose]

I like to know the names of things but I guess that's because I'm a newbie. Makes me feel a bit more confident somehow. I suppose when I know more, and I know I know more, it wont be quite so important. If you see what I mean

[Plocket]

PML! I wouldn't like to comment - I think loosing ones memory is down to childbirth: you give half your braincells to your child when you're pregnant!!! I've not actually been able to prove it yet though

I'm fairly particular about my clematis, but they vary so much that remembering the names is easy. And some plants have such lovely names too

[Plocket]

I understand what you mean Shrubby, and I'd love to be able to remember latin names, but I just haven't got the brain-power. I know what I like and I like what I know ;D

[Weeterrier]

sara said:

Flowers, flowers & more flowers! ;D

Sara

Friend! ;D

[4pygmies]

Well, I come from a long line of vegetable growers and most of my early memories are of my grandparents and parents toiling away.. I would feel sooooo guilty if I didn't grow at least some of our food! I love herbaceous plants and herbs and wild flowers and as I get older, more and more, I see them as an essential part of growing and gardening. I don't think you can successfully grow vegetables without all the flowers.....I think I love it all actually WeeT!
And it is definitely addictive........

[seapoppy]

Hi Rosefriend.......

My tomatoes I tried growing outside, but with all the rain and theyre under a huge beech tree, not the best place, i know......... I havent had 1, but a least Id a cucumber ;D

[Weeterrier]

I tried tomatoes for the first time this year, in the greenhouse. I got a good crop, but they are ripening very slowly. Wish they'd hurry up, so I can get my greenhouse back.

[Rosefriend]

I had my toms outside as always but the hanging tomatoes have been under the garden table for most of the time - kept hanging them back up when the sun came out. It really has been a lousy year hasn't it.

RF

[seapoppy]

I just had a courgette and beans Wee with pasta and herbs from the garden. Bit of FRESH Pamijano.........

[Biggles]

Over the period of many, many years each time I have moved I have had to start from scratch--
I much prefer this to 'taking over' a garden that was already set-out. I could then put my own 'mark' on it.
Now with my last move which will be shortly I will have a Postage Stamp sized garden--and a real challenge because I will have to decide what to plant and still have a sucession of interesting plants for all seasons!
I will have to forgo my vegetable patch--which I will miss-