GillT57
I have to be clear; I am no great gardener, but a keen amateur. I have a small greenhouse and usually grown cucumbers, tomatoes, sometimes lettuce, sometimes courgettes. I have stopped growing courgettes because the plants take up so much room and I never seem to grow many, besides which, in the summer they are really cheap in the shops. But, I love UK grown tomatoes and generally have a few plants. Last year, like many, mine suffered from last minute blight so not only did I have a very small crop, no seeds, and had to bin the compost. This year, with gro bags at around a fiver each, I am wondering whether it is worth it, maybe just grow flowers for the house instead. Anyone else still planning on salad stuff or changed their mind this year?
I've just remembered your comment about tomatoes, and whether bit is worth growing them now.
I was thinking along similar lines, but have decided to put most of mine in the border this year instead of in pots, or rather to take the bottoms out of some medium sized plastic pots, sink the pots a few inches into the soil, and just put a few inches of compost in the upper part.
That way, the plants will still have some decent compost to start off in, but will then put their roots down into the soil. Watering them via the pot should be easy, and they will be slightly further from the ground than they would be if planted directly into the soil, so just a little less likely to get blight through splashback from the soil. That's my theory, anyway!
As I always say, whatever I am growing, they have two chances - either they'll do well or they won't. And I've been growing long enough to know that every single year has its successes and its failures, amd they are always different from one year to the next. It keeps us on our toes.