growing own veggies in bags and pots (Merged)

A question about : growing own veggies in bags and pots (Merged)

I am going to try to grow my own potatoes, tomatoes, salad leaves and runner beans in pots and bags. I would welcome any advice or tips on the following.

I read in a sunday paper a few weeks ago that you can grow potatoes in a tomatoe compost bag. You snip the top off the bag roll the side down and remove most of the compost then plant the potaoes in the botton. When the potatoes start to grow you roll the bag up a bit and add the compost that has been taken out. I thought this sounded like a brilliant idea but have no experience in growing potatoes so wondered if anybody out there with green fingers could advise if this will work or not. Also I need advice on where to get the potatoes from to plant, do I just use a few that have gone to seed or am I best going to a garden centre to buy some. I dont want to do loads but I thought 5 bags would produce a good crop and I thought about staggering the initial planting so we would have the potatoes for longer - again some advice would be great on this too.

I was going to plant some tomatoes in a tomatoes compost bag too - again where is best to get the seeds from. Can I just plant a few from a tomatoe that I have at home or am I best getting some seeds from a garden centre. I am assuming that to start off with I will need to plant the tomatoes indoors and move them outdoors after the frosts have gone ?.

With the salad leaves I was just going to do a large planter with compost in and get a pack of mixed salad leaves. I was going to wait to do these untill the end of the month and plant them directly outside.

I have just bought a packet of runnerbeans to plant at the supermarket, bought a kids pack because it was cheaper than a big pack and I am thinking we wont need many. I was going to start them off indoors and plant them out in a 2 large pots ( 3 plants per pot ) I also was not sure if I should stagger this too so that we will have a crop for longer.

I actually have space at the side of my house that would make a brilliant veggie patch ( only gets sun in the morning though ) but the ground is solid clay and I think the only way that I could turn it into a veggie patch would be to get a digger in and remove the clay/soil and replace it with good soil !. Any ideas on a cheap way of turning the ground into something workable ?

sorry for the essay and thankyou for reading

Best answers:

• I have just got rid of green house and decided to use ground it was stood on as a veggie patch got peas, beetroot, spring onions, and red onion to plant straight into ground
  I did grow potatoes for a couple of years but used to put them in buckets at the end of summer to harvest for christmas dinner
  just kept some potatoes from shop in drawer till they sprouted and then planted them in buckets of compost
  always got a good supply of "NEW POTATOES" for xmas and new year, think this was more down to good luck than managment
• through last 4 to 5 years i have found it cheaper to go to local allotments to buy plants the folks there sell there surplus plants for pence i was buying tomato plants , but they also had veggie plants for sale as well,
• do you dry the tomatoe seeds first Hilary ?
• Make sure you punch some holes in the bottom of the grow bags for drainage and the best kind would be the ones with black inners to keep out the light. I bought my seed potatoes from a garden centre - got 10 for about Ј2 I think.
  Using supermarket potatoes is not recommended because of the risk of it carrying diseases to spread to your own garden, or that it may have been sprayed with who-knows-what chemicals which could contaminate the soil, so it's not the environmentally friendly option. But I guess growing them in grow bags you avoid those problems - as long as you don't tip the soil onto your garden afterwards which would be the ideal option as you could do with it to help condition the clay soil. The other problem with using tomato seed out of a tomato is that you may not get very nice tasting tomatoes, and as they need quite a bit of care and effort, would it really be worth all that to get tasteless tomatoes when you can buy a pack from Lidl for 29p? If you want to experiment I would do a couple of each, then you can compare and as is mentioned, the seed will be fine for next year and probably the year after too.
  Tomatoes do need to be started off inside, they are very susceptible to frost.
• Hello, great thread, if you want more advice on growing then this thread might help - it has links and tips going back to January by Oldstylers who are keeping track of what they are growing in 2006.
  All the best!
  Annie
• What a great idea to grow potatoes like this, saves the hard work of digging them up too! Will be off to get some grow bags tomorrow! Thanks!
• I grew some vine tomatoes in grow bags in the conservatory a few years ago, the problem was the watering was tricky as the floor is a decent real wood laminate that cost a fortune and I didn't want to damage it. I also had to support the stems using strings down from the rail for the vertical blinds. The tomatoes were fab but the risk to the decor outweighs the saving so I can't do it again.
• Ive got some plants going that were saved tomato seeds from shop tomatoes last year.I just soaked up the seeds/juice when I cut up the tomatoes,using kitchen towel and then left it to dry. You can then break up the towel with the seeds or pull them off it and plant them.
  You could make a raised bed over your clay.Dig down into the clay and add compost,then add more compost on top.I think sand is meant to help too ,where it is clay.People sometimes have a thick layer of gravel and then plant into bottomless pots with compost in if there is a drainage problem.
  The problem with shop potatoes for seed,is you dont know if they have been subject to disease but as far as I can work out,so long as you always plant in different soil and never use the product of last years crop to start next years crop,you would probably be okay using them.I used grocery potatoes last year when I was just starting my veg plot and they were fine.
• I have planted 3 buckets and 2 compost bags with seed potatoes. My first time so we shall see what happens.
• This raised bed thing may work actually. I have some rolls of unused wooden edging so If I could talk my poor Dad into trying to remove some of the clay we could then make a raised bed or beds with the edging. I could then put gravel down inbetween the beds to be able to get around them and stop the snails 'n' slugs. Brilliant. Just have to talk my Dad into it now
  Well Im going to have a trip to Lidl to get some seeds for tomatoes and salad leaves. I have decided to buy some seed potatoes from a garden centre or I may go down to the allotments and see if I can get some there. I also need some pots so I will see if I can get any down the allotments too. If the raised bed thing works I will be able to grow more LOL
• Oops, in case you missed my earlier post, I received hundreds of pots of various sizes by posting a 'wanted' ad on freecycle - they will last me for ages!!!
• I have just noticed that on the other thread Annie. There were some pots advertised on our freecycle last week but I was away for a few days and by the time I replied they had put them in a skip so I think I will put an ad on for them - hey I may ask for some seedlings too you never know your luck
  I have just told my daughter about this idea and she thinks it is great - i cant wait to get started now. Can anybody recommend where to get the best/cheapest compost from ? I am going to get my own composter but will need quite a bit to get started with the raised beds. Thanks everybody for you help and replies so far - this site is brilliant
• well I have put an advert on freecycle for some pots and any unwanted seedlings - will let you know how I get on
• If you go on the square foot gardening website (here) it advocates putting your "raised bed" - the bits of timber you're going to make your bed out of - right on top of your existing soil without getting your poor old dad to remove the clay (he could knock the frame together for you though). You then fill this frame up with one-third garden compost, one-third vermiculite and one-third (they say) moss peat, but I'd use a peat substitute as there's little enough of it in the world any more. Have a read, it's quite inspiring!