Growing more veg!

B&q are doing raised bed sets for £16. I am going to buy a couple for my allotment. I want to grow everything this year. Potatoes carrots spinach etc. The broad beans are already coming through.

It's very pretty but I've never actually used it for culinary purposes!

It's one of my favourite foliage plants and veg . It has quite deep roots, difficult to dig up in open ground.
Alie look into permaculture - another interesting approach. I've got links but they're in french again.

I grew Fennel in a pot but the self-set Fennel is doing much better

Good point about the type of soil, Fennel.

To be honest, AlieOxon, I don’t understand why you seem so unhappy with the answers you’ve had. I think there’s a lot of advice on here about what grows well, what might be most profitable and what you should be doing when. And you’ve told us late in the thread that you’re a gardener anyway. Can you just clarify what it is you were hoping for? I’m genuinely .

Did you go for the offer Cherrytree told us about? That would get you started at very little expense.

That sounds great, FountainPen.
I used to love gardening, especially veg., but can't manage physically now.
First thing - choice of what to grow depends on the type of soil you have. Best to ask the neighbouring gardeners, they will know.
We had almost pure clay, very fertile but difficult to work on.

I enjoy growing fruit, veg and salad items, but this year we are going to have a problem.Two new neighbours have cats which use my garden as a toilet and this i am afraid is going to put me off eating anything which may be contaminated by cat poo. I have strawberries, raspberry canes, rhubarb and gooseberries all in my fruit area so have put lots of twigs from the buddlia tree we cut down over the soil to try and stop them using that part of the garden. Also throw any citrus peel on garden as i heard they hate the smell. I will have to see how things go before i start sowing seeds and putting in plants.

I've never grown much food in my garden beyond a few tomatoes and beans. For some years, I've looked at the nearby large allotment site and wondered whether to apply for a plot. Few were in active use and I was deterred by the thought having to clear land that had become thick with brambles and deep rooted weeds. Now the local council have undergone a mass programme of clearing and rotovating the empty plots. It looks very inviting. Already, new tenants are installing sheds, raised beds, cages and frames. I'm tempted to apply for a half plot and try some easy to grow veg. My guess is that the new tenants are also likely to be first time allotment holders and a new enthusiastic community could grow out of it.

Clear the 'dropdown ' by clicking on I've cleared the publicity.

I suppose the first step is to prepare the soil. Here's some advice - in french but you can get the idea:
www.rustica.fr/articles-jardin/ameliorer-sol-jardin-structure-acidite-agir-sur-nature-sol,1291.html

I was hoping for a serious discussion here. I'm disappointed that people haven't really picked up on the point. Never mind.

Let the worms take the strain!

what to start and when is another matter!
Comments please.



No further comment,

Hey, I'm a gardener. I know we can't do much yet - but we can make plans, and that's what we're doing!

Thank you, Cherrytree59, for the link to the amazing Thompson & Morgan offer. Yet more soft fruit for me to guzzle this year!

Thank you Cherrytree

AliOxon - no dig gardening:
www.growveg.com/guides/no-dig-gardening-create-new-beds-the-easy-way/

You could lay some compost or manure on the top and let the worms do the work for you.

Alie, You can't really do anything in this weather other than work out what's going where and prepare the beds. Depending on your soil type you may need to dig in some compost.

You have until March to start planting so don't panic. It doesn't always pay to put stuff in before the soil warms up.

My herbs in pots don't seem to do much good, surprisingly.

Nearly every vegetable that I've tried to grow has died. Even runner beans wilted last year. Blackfly, greenfly, slugs, beetles, snails, all lie in wait ready to pounce. We haven't room for a veg plot so all these failures have been grown in pots. I feed and water religiously but it does no good.

Could we get back to the first post? This could be quite serious. Maggie, we could need the basics.

“Dig for Victory” was the hugely successful campaign that encouraged civilians to grow their own in order to reduce Britain’s reliance on imports. .. In the 1930s 75 per cent of pre-war Britain’s food was imported by ship and the German U-boat blockade threatened the home front with starvation. (The Telegraph)

As a small child I remember my dad digging up most of our back lawn into four vegetable beds. One was for potatoes – I don’t remember what was in the others.

If this Brexit is going to be affecting our imports of fresh foods, as the big supermarkets think, we should be doing the same this year!

DH does all the work in the allotment, but I like to play supervisor. I've persuaded him to concentrate on things that actually cost a bit more in the shops, rather than potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, though he does still grow some of them. He tells me leeks, courgettes and rhubarb are the easiest crops - we certainly get plenty of them! We save a fortune on the soft fruit, as we, and the AC and DGC, eat loads of it. We have strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, blackberries, blueberries, and something we've at last identified as jostaberries. Everything tastes so much better than shop bought, particularly tomatoes warm from the vine. The one thing he can't seem to grow is asparagus - has anyone any tips (no pun intended)?

MiniMoon, DS grew a Christmas tree from one of those packets of seeds you put in Christmas stockings. It moved from a pot to the garden and then to the bottom of the allotment, where it overshadows half the plot. We offered it to the village association for their Christmas tree last year, but it was too big!

Cherry tree, brilliant offer. Have ordered it for my allotment. Many thanks.

My Dad once grew a fir tree from a seed harvested from a pine cone. Not any old fir tree though, but a Turkish pine. He planted it in his back garden, and it lived there for many years. It had to go eventually though, as it grew too big.