The agonising wait for life? I defy any gardener to not be obsessive about checking, no matter how seasoned they are. We probably should have warned you about the wait. But then why spoil the delicious rapture? The discovery that the 'little green sprouty things' have made it, and you're on your way. Sara Cox: style icon, DJ and now veg grower, we welcome you!
But let's be honest, with the help you've had from Toby and the Gardeners' World team, your patch should be a world beater! Not everyone gets that kind of a start in their gardening lives. But it did look great and made me just a little bit jealous.Ìý Although I love my balcony, more space would go down a treat. As it is, I am severely worried for the safety of those living below me. I swear the thing started to creak under the weight of pots and window boxes full of compost the other day. Imagine the irony, passer by squashed by falling squash.
However, things are looking good so far. I have some early tomatoes planted out into grow bags now, carrots finally making an appearance (onlyÌýthree weeks waiting for them... get used to waiting) and my squash seedlings have taken off. I planted the two biggest out this morning and they look rather grand I have to say.
As for carrot fly, I am afraid that the pessimistic Brian is right. But fear ye not. An allotment is one thing, but virgin, newly broken soil gives you an automatic advantage. As your patch has never had so much as a whiff of carrot in the past, they won't be there waiting like the killers down on Brian's allotment.
That isn't to say they won't come of course. The best thing is to leave your carrots well alone. Hopefully you haven't planted them too close together; it's when you break the delicate roots and leaves of the plants that the scent is released, so thinning carrot seedlings is a dangerous business. There are other more extreme options, but I would suggest keeping your fingers crossed and resisting the temptation to touch your carrots until you think they are ready. But then again, how will you know if you don't have a look...?
I've now been a gardener for a whole week, though to be honest I've not done much actual gardening in that time. What I have done is trot back and forth to my veg patch looking for signs of, well, anything, but have been disappointed to discover the same bare-looking oblong of mud.
It's slowly dawning on me that a large part of being of the green-fingered persuasion is waiting, watching and wondering. I'm beginning to worry that the 'watched kettle never boils' theory may apply to my veg patch, and the little things won't sprout up 'cos that scary lady with the yellow hair is still crouched down glaring at the ground.
This morning, though, there was a miraculous development in my window pots. Currently on my kitchen windowsill reside two small plant pots containing tomato seeds and two more housing my butternut squash seeds, and before this morning there had been no sign of life so imagine my delight when brewing up at breakfast I saw some beautiful baby green sprouty things sprouting up in each pot. I let out a small scream and nearly dropped my tea. I'm genuinely surprised by how thrilled I was. Hopefully if you planted your tom and squash seeds last week, you are seeing some action too.
Last Monday was the day I officially morphed from Sara Cox, DJ/presenter/international style icon to all the above plus vegetable grower. It all began with the very brilliant Toby and his Gardeners' World crew rocking up in their Dig In van with Ann from the blog, and besieging my garden to help create my vegetable patch. 38 cups of tea and a packet of biscuits later we'd dug up a 4 x 6 foot area and planted 3 rows of carrots and a square each of lettuce and beetroot.
We left a chunk free for my windowsill toms when they're big enough (I have a large tub for my squash). To keep my basset hound Snoop out we put a small green picket fence round the edge so it looks completely quaint and a little bit camp... I love it.
Since then I've had warnings from Brian, the lovely man who mows and tidies the lawn every fortnight, that on his allotment he's had to battle "carrot flies". Brilliant. As well as slugs, snails, wood pigeons, cats, foxes, small children and basset hounds, I now face a new gardening adversary:Ìýa fly that can apparently SMELL the carrots as soon as they begin nudging through the soil then wolfs them down overnight. PLEASE tell me he's winding me up and this mythical carrot-sniffing monster doesn't exist.
Please keep adding your comments to the blog - I'mÌýloving reading about your potatoes chitting and kittens misbehaving. I'm insanely jealous of llanelligardener's corn on the cob and empathise with the glazing over that occurs in the eyes of pink-fingered people whenever veg patches and pots are mentioned. My boyfriend suffers terribly from vegpatch-boringitus. Hopefully I can cure him with some delicious homegrown carrots soon.
JustÌýa quick note to let you all know that you can admire Sara's garden and watch her sowing her Dig In seeds under Toby Buckland's helpful eye on Gardeners' World this eve (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TwoÌý20:00). Enjoy!
Hi Sara, hi everyone. Nature Chris here with my first post!
So, Sara, by now Gardener's World should have had their little visit, and I am really looking forward to seeing the results. I sneakily started my seeds off a week or so ago to get a bit of a head start, and am happy with how they are going so far... But I'll wait until next week to talk about them, because first I have a confession to make.
I haven't done any gardening for a while.ÌýAnÌýeight or nineÌýyear-long while. So when I was asked to do this blog as a 'gardening expert' I was a little worried. Do I still know anything? Will I look like a fool? (Something I should be used to perhaps - see the Dig-In song on CBeebiesÌýfor evidence!) Did I ever know anything?
ÌýSo it was time to call in the cavalry.ÌýÌýI went andÌýtalked toÌýmy own personal expert -Ìýmy mum. The last time I did any gardening of note was with my mum, in her allotment, thoseÌýeight or nineÌýyears ago. Now they'veÌýgot a patch in theÌýgarden, an allotment and more fruit bushes than you can shake a stick at. I've been back a couple of times recently, helping out where I can and desperately trying to remember what this gardening lark is all about!
But that for me is a lot of what this is about - notÌýjust growing your own veg, but doing it with your family, friends, neighbours, whoever. It's great that Sara is already talking about getting her kids involved as that's how I started, and hope that a lot of the next generation of Gardeners will be inspired by this Dig In campaign.
And yes, your friends may laugh, the dog might run over the patch, the foxes might drive you mad but the satisfaction of growing your own veg is well worth it - as is time spent in the outdoors with people close to you.
So get out there, grab some other folk, and Dig In!
ÌýHello then, welcome to my first Dig In blog. It's Friday night and I'm writing this sipping champagne in a hot-tub with the Sugababes at a wild showbiz party. Ok, not really. It IS Friday night, but I'm actually sitting in my lounge looking out over my drizzly back garden. It's at this point I'd ideally tell you all the names of the various plants, trees and bushesÌýI can see butÌýI can't, asÌýI don't know.
WhatÌýI know about horticulture you could write on the bottom of a slug. There's definitely a long lawn, a weeping willow, a massive children's climbing frame and a kind of no-man's land at the end that's shaded and dank, perfect for my basset hound Snoop to snuffle round.
It's amongst all this that Toby from Gardeners' World will hopefully help me to create my own vegetable patch. He arrives on Monday and I'll let you know how we get on.
I'm not even sure what we'll be planting, if the soil is any good for growing and how big the patch will be. I'm massively excited about nurturing my very own food from seed to plate and getting the kids involved, but I'm worried too; we get loads of foxes round here, do they dig up veg?! How will we keep the dog off the patch? WillÌýI prove my sniggering doubting friends and family right by failing to grow a single carrot?
Best of luck if you're about to dig in for the first time too. Keep in touch through the blog, would love to hear your stories, especially if you're as clueless asÌýI am.
Any tips would obviously be gratefully received,ÌýI certainly need all the helpÌýI can get!
Hallo, and welcome to the Dig In blog - hope you like it.Ìý I'm Ann,Ìýand I look after the whole of the Dig In website, blog and all.Ìý
Along with our very special bloggers, Sara Cox and Nature Chris, I'll be posting every week to tell you what's going on with my Dig In veg.Ìý At the moment they're all sitting on my windowsill in their seed trays, doing... well, not very much at all so far.Ìý But as soon as they do, you'll be the first to know.
These days, I fancy meself as a little bit of a gardener, but only a few years ago my only dealing with plants was killing the odd potted one.Ìý So I'm looking forward to learning more, andÌýhearing about everyone else'sÌýexperiencesÌýgrowing the Dig InÌýveg.Ìý
That's what this blog's all about, I think.Ìý It's not just about my tomatoes, or Sara's squash, or Chris's carrots, but how everyone's growing is going.Ìý We want to hear from everyone raising their own little Dig In veg plot, whether it's on the windowsill or in the ground.ÌýÌý So, leave a comment to tell us how you're getting on, askÌýfor advice, or if you're a bit of an old hand, tell us what we're doing wrong!
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| 17:01 UK time, Wednesday, 29 April 2009
