Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

Posted in wrong section! Help me turn my *whole* backgarden into a veg patch/herb garden....

38 replies

fastasleep · 09/02/2006 16:24

I'm totally new to gardening, but I learn quickly... I posted this in the wrong section earlier becuse I hadn't even noticed the gardening club

Our back yard is turfed at the moment, but the second you walk on it it turns to mud...with a nice huge park being just down the road we never use it to play (DS uses the patio more)... so I thought 'what a waste, I know - veg patch!'

But I need to know everything from the basics up... when do I start? What do I do to the soil? What is easy to grow? And I'll need help every five minutes as pests eat them all up and cats come and crap on the garden etc etc is anyone an expert?

Sorry for sort of posting twice!

OP posts:
Original poster
fastasleep · 09/02/2006 16:26

If you need to know the soil type or whether it's sunny (questions I know how to answer!!) it's very very clayey and quite sunny in the mornings, there is a shady patch at the back though and the patio gets most of the sun... there that's it, all the info I know!

OP posts:
Filyjonk · 09/02/2006 17:32

Hope this helps:

  1. Clayey soil will need lots of manure / compost and lime.

  2. Re the turf. You need to dig it up, removing + composting the grass bits. Shake the clumps to get the soil off. Dig it all over. Any weeds, put in a bin liner in the shed for 8 weeks til decomposed.

3.If you're feeling masochistic or energetic dig to 2 spades deep (double digging) but thing will actually come up if you don't. You need to do this now, and again a few weeks before planting..

  1. You need a compost heap. google soil association for more. Wormeries also good.

  2. Easy to grow: potatoes (just "chit" any leftovers spuds), garlic, onions, lettuce/salad veg, beetroot, tomotos, tomatillos, pumpkin, some herbs, courgettes. theres a good company called vida verde, their seeds always come up!

  3. consider fruit bushes for the shady bits, they give a lot of yield for not much work. My Woolworths has tayberries and loganberries, plus blackberries etc, on 2 for £10 atm. Sadly I am very deeply skint. Depending where you are you might consider grapes etc.

  4. Hugh Ferneally Whittingstall's River Cottage Cookbook/Year s are great. Aimed at wannabe Goodlifers, they have really basic advice but also are quite inspirational. Google his website.

Good luck! I wish we could have a backyard veg patch! Right now, its justs the allotments!

Original poster
fastasleep · 09/02/2006 20:43

Ok, I'll get to digging it over asap (gulp!!) then I guess as soon as DH gets paid it's off to search out fruit bushes and seeds... I'm excited yet nervous!

OP posts:
Miaou · 09/02/2006 20:55

You could do worse than getting Vegetable Expert and Fruit Expert books - I'll see if I can link to Amazon in a mo for the ones I mean.

Make sure you leave pathways between the rows that are sufficiently close - I was overambitious in how far I could reach

Potatoes are a good starting crop because they break up the soil nicely. You need to rotate crops as well but a good book will tell you how.

I wouldn't bother with carrots to start with as they are a bugger to grow (carrot fly)

If you are going to grow beans/peas etc you need canes and string to support them, make sure they are not in an exposed position where they might get blown over (mind you, this is me in the West coast of Scotland, you might not have wind problems where you are )

You can get hold of good seed from the Organic Catalogue which were very good and efficient and a huge choice of stuff too.

If you might have problems with frost, you can use fleece (not the sort you wear) to counteract it. There are lots of lovely things to buy in said catalogue above.

I was crap at growing stuff but it seemed to grow despite my efforts - it is a fantastic way to get kids involved in their food and excited about eating! Fresh peas eaten from the pod are unequalled in terms of pure pleasure

Miaou · 09/02/2006 20:59

Vegetable Expert and Fruit Expert

Happy reading

Original poster
fastasleep · 09/02/2006 21:50

Thanks Miaou! I must say I've never sat in the bath and wondered about crop rotation before!

Ooh used and new veg expert from £3.94, just the job

OP posts:
Original poster
fastasleep · 09/02/2006 21:53

DH laughed when I said I'd be getting rid of our lawn this weekend...........

he'll be laughing on the other side of his face come Sunday!

(Then again I bet there's a lot of rubble lurking beneath our lawn..)

pity about the carrots, they're DS's favourite, and I don't suppose you can grow sweet potatoes in this climate either lol

OP posts:
Miaou · 09/02/2006 21:57

How old is your house, fastasleep? If it is newer than 1970s then you will undoubtedly have just enough soil to grow lawn and builders rubble underneath

Original poster
fastasleep · 09/02/2006 22:05

1930/40's although in a sh*t poor area so I might find that out anyway I spose...is there any way to remedy that, I guess it'll be expensive!!

We needed a new lawn anyway as it wasn't draining properly, it needed the underneath bit levelling so DH won't kill me or anything!

OP posts:
Miaou · 09/02/2006 22:13

You could always dig a "test patch" first before you take the turf off. As long as it's about 3 feet of soil deep you'll be fine - you may get away with less for some crops but potatoes need a fair bit of depth IIRC.

Another tip - when you are weeding just use a hoe and take the tops of the weeds off - don't go round pulling them up by hand otherwise you will not have enough time to have a life

And on that subject - make sure your rows are sufficiently spaced that you can run a hoe up between each row - once I made mine just a little too narrow and condemned myself to a season of hand-weeding - never again

Either label your rows or/and keep a plan of what you have planted where - you think you will remember but honestly, you won't!

Buy a couple of different varieties of each thing you plant if you can - that way you can experiment with growing conditions/taste/season etc. We used to buy diff. varieties of potato that were ready at different times so that we had them coming up over several months.

Original poster
fastasleep · 09/02/2006 22:18

definately excited now... I'm going to do a Time Team Test Pit!! Brill!

OP posts:
Miaou · 09/02/2006 22:18

you'll have to post pictures fastasleep - a diary of your progress!

Original poster
fastasleep · 10/02/2006 19:35

A two day diary of my progress - Fastasleep's garden, Fastasleep's test pit, Fastasleep's big pile of rubble!

DH says I have to do the million and one other things I need to do before I dig our garden up he's right really, he's my voice of reason in a brain awash with chaotic ideas!

OP posts:
charliecat · 10/02/2006 19:44

...what do you do with the spud before you put it in and why did I nearly buy a bag of seeding potaotoes from B and Q for £3 today when you can bung a spud in the ground and it grows. Thanks!!!!

emmalou78 · 11/02/2006 19:42

charliecat... you 'chit' potatoes.

Though I'm sure you can just bung em in and they grow well enough...

chitting involves laying the potatoes out in trays till they start to sprout... then you whack em in

bongaling · 11/02/2006 20:20

Charliecat
Seed potatos are recommended because they are guarenteed free from disease. Such as potato blight which might be present in ones you get from the supermarket and will destroy your crop unless treated. That is not to say the seed potatos you plant will not get blight from spores in the air once growing anyway ! If you are growing spuds and outdoor tomatos don't grow them near each other as tomatos are very suseptical to blight and can transfer to your spuds

charliecat · 11/02/2006 20:27

Thank You I have put 3 spuds on a not sunny window sill after googling chitting lol....I wait till the things are an inch long and then bung them in yeah? Also started my tomatoes today

Original poster
fastasleep · 11/02/2006 21:53

DH has gently persuaded me that along with exclusively expressing, decided to get a a tailors dummy and make clothes and curtains, making jewellery, soap and a gazillion other things that maybe this year I should stick to potted veg I'm going to try tomatoes at the very least, and anything else I can find that will grow well in a pot!

I'm a hyperactive hobbyist! Sometimes I just have to stop it getting the better of me.. I shall be posting about growing my veggies though whole garden or no

(And if it's not rubble the garden will become a veg patch, just wait and see!)

OP posts:
Original poster
fastasleep · 11/02/2006 21:54

deciding*

and getting rid of the telly which involves entertaining a very active 2 year old for 12 hours a day - knackering! I'm mad sometimes and try to do too much fun stuff!

OP posts:
NormanPrice · 11/02/2006 22:52

Try Growing dwarf french beans in pots Your 2yr old can help plant them, watch them grow and pick them They will love it. Peas are also a good one for children they are easy to grow and yummy eaten straight out of pod whilst picking. Ridge (outdoor) cucumbers will also grow well but will need a bamboo wigwam for support. You could also grow lettuce and basil to go with your tomatoes. You can grow most veg in pots but be prepared for alot of watering in the summer

Candide · 12/02/2006 03:30

I was thinking of doing same thing but may just end up following your progress instead fastasleep!

I too have clay soil and duff lawn.

My main concern is how to grow all these veg without them being eaten by slugs but without using slug pellets dangerous to birds and wildlife - any advice? Are any veg more slug resistant than others?

bettys · 12/02/2006 08:29

Here's a good article by Monty Don about growing carrots . On Gardeners' World last year he grew Chantenay carrots in containers - easy to do as they are such a small variety.

Slugs are easier to contol in containers. Otherwise use nematodes, egg shells or have midnight raids and collect them. I haven't had much bother with them on potatoes, carrots, sweetcorn, garlic, onions or leeks.

Filyjonk · 12/02/2006 08:37

Re carrots-easy in a container, eg a window box. Get a short or ball variety though. Fab for kids.

Just thought-some flowers are edible too. Eg nasturtian, rose (petals) marigold. Would def go for fruit bushes. Woolworths now have strawberries!

Um...its probably much too early for tomatoes, depending on where you are. More like April plantings, I'd say-else they'll die when you plant them out.

Filyjonk · 12/02/2006 08:37

Oh and beer traps for slugs!

KateF · 12/02/2006 08:47

I grow tomatoes in growbags or containers. If you have a sunny patio you should get a good crop. dd2 munches them off the vines all summer