Turning part of garden into veg patch, when , how to start?

[misdee]

i have a strip of garden down the side which is unused. would love to turn it into something useful. was going to be weed controlled fabric, chippings and flowers, but would prefer it to be something useful and doa bit of grow your own veg really.

how do i start? what do i need to do?

that part of the garden gets a lot of sun until midday, but then shaded most of the afternoon. it slopes downwards in one corner, and i have no idea on soil quality.

Get some compost or manure from a garedening centre. Dig it over and dig in the compost/manure. You could also get some pelleted chicken manure to add in.

Most garden centres are selling seedling tomatoes right now, also courgettes, cucumbers. You can pick up lettuce seeds very cheaply. Its not too late to start these.

Alternatively you could grow herbs and buy seed or 99p pots from a garden centre. Some herbs like full sun, but others prefer a partly shady site.

Goodluck!

What is there already? Is it grass or weed-filled border?

You will need to clear it, which will involve a bit of digging & lifting the turf off the top if its grass. Potatoes are the recommended first crop as they break the soil up well, but you are too late this year & if you dig it over well it shouldn't matter. If you have any compost dig that in too. You can either just have the bed like any other flower bed but grow veg in it, or make araised bed by putting some edging all the way around and adding more soil/compost to fill it up. I'd probably suggest doing that this winter, if you are going to, in the interests of getting going quickly this season.

Start with something easy: Lettuce & radish grow fast and are OK to plant at the moment. Carrots and swedes about OK to start now if you are quick (but maybe not the best beginner crops), some herbs and chard probably OK too and quite easy. You might want to start a courgette off in a 3" pot indoors now& plant it out when the bed is ready - again these are quite straighfoward to grow.

Just be warned, it's quite addictive!

How big is the area? I would very much recommend building raised beds. This is a little bit of extra work at the beginning but saves a while lot more later on. MY DH put in 6 big raised beds in a weekend but it was well worth it.

You can have paths running between the beds which allow you to easily access the crops without compacting the soil = less digging. The raised beds can be filled with a mix of compost / manure and topsoil and you'll be away in no time without having to do lots of weeding. Just put a weedproof membrane and chippings between the beds to stop any weeds outside the beds encroaching the beds themselves. The raised beds will also help you accomodate the sloping area. If you have space to make 4 beds that will make it easy to practice crop rotation (putting one type of crop in one area only once in every 4 years to ensure the best growth).

In short, what I would do is decide what beds you want and how many, build them, plonk a good mix of compost / manure and topsoil in them, lay membrane down between beds, buy young veg plants online or at garden centre, plonk in soil, look like a pro in a matter of a week or two .

Many veg crops will cope with the amount of sunlight your plot gets - raspberries would be good for sure too but these are best bought as bare-root plants in autumn / spring

lol was just coming on to post vvv's blog too...

You could try freecycle to see if anone has any small plants spare ready to plant out (eg toms, beans or courgettes) I tend to think if you buy these from a shop you often don't end up saving much money at all.

whats there atm is a mixture of grass weeds and brambles.

i know i am late for planting out this year.

how do i do raised beds?

green fingered i am not.

will check out the blog as well.

Misdee - we constructed 2 raised beds about 10 years ago. One was filled with soil and planted that year - and then left until this year (about 2 weeks ago!) when dh decided he wanted a veg garden. It took us a weekend to weed it and we have put in some chicken manure and planted a wide variety of veg - which are actually strating to grow. Of course, dh's interest has now waned and it's me that has to remember to water it - and they need a LOT of watering. I'll let you know if we actually manage to harvest anything!

Get digging Misdee! You need to clear the roots of the brambles and the weeds and grass.

If you want raised beds you need something to form the edges: you could make a square from planks of wood nailed each other and to spikes to drive into the ground (but use untreated wood or nasties can leach into your veg). Or use paving slabs with square edges on their sides half dug into the ground next to each other in a rectangle of the right shape (I reused some from greecycle for mine). Don't have more than 4 foot wide (and you will need access from both sides). You must be able to comfortably reach any part of the bed without treading on it. Golden rule is: never tread on your beds & this helps keep the soil uncompacted.

If you want to start right away without the raised beds yet then imagine they are there and put newspaper/polythene or boards down where the 'paths' will be (between the 'virtual beds' so tht you know where to walk and still never tread on the bits you will be growing stuff on.

I started with an area just 3 foot x 6 foot to start with and divided that mentally or with pea sticks into 1 foot squares. On each square you can grow one tomato or bean or 4 lettuce or swedes or 16 carrots or radish. A single courgette plant would need 4 squares.

thank you for the links ladies

Misdee - for this year - cover the lot in weed suppressing membrane and and plant in pots on top of it for this year. It'll save you a lot of work if you can wait until next spring for your veg plot.

You can plant things in any containers you have to hand really - as long as they are waterproof but have drainage holes in the bottom. I've grown spuds in those pop-up garden waste bags from B & Q. You can grow all manner of veg in deep pots. You can buy veg plants in most garden centres now too. In fact, get some pumpkin plants, cut a small slit in the membrane, plant them through the membrane and let them ramble over the rest of the weed suppressant. Then you have pumpkins for halloween and the weeds will die under the weed suppressant all the while.