I have a lovely Alan Titchmarsh book about growing veggies but I'm oretty sure it's written in germany as I just don't understand it.

[navyeyelasH]

I kill every bunch of flowers I've ever been given with 5 days. A house plant has a fulfilling life span of 2 weeks max at my house.

In sort I don't know anything about plants/flowers, I just don't get them and there seem to be son many rules and do's and don't and I'm scared of my new garden.

It's very very big this is it at the beginning of October.

At the back of the garden there are 2 raised beds, in one of them I want to have a veg garden and in the other I was to have lots of the same flower (those ones that look like dasies).

I'm quite an intelligent person but I just don't know what to do, to get what I want . Do I just have to dig up any weeds/other rubbish that are currently in the beds and add some manure (where will I find that!?).

Then at some point start planting stuff (when?!). And what sort of stuff? It's mainly for the children so things that are east to grow but useful in the kitchen would be great, I guess?

I have looked on google at some websites including RHS and like I say I have a few books. I just need someone to say do x,y and z. on this date plant x,y & z.

Thanks.

So flustered can't even spell or type - sorry!!

Try www.gardenersworld.com/ - they have a calender type things on there telling you what to do and when.

You will def need to clear the rubble and weeds (rope the kids in). As for manure, ask local farms or stables if they have any you coudl take off their hands. It must be well rotted (a year or more old) or it will burn the roots. And not all plants want manure.

I love your garden btw. The wall at the back is a nice feature.

Thanks mousey for the link I will have a look hopefully it wont be too terminologyish and I will understand.

The garden really is lovely it was so nice in the summer and I want to keep it nice as the man who lived her before us worshipped his garden. I don't know what most of the flowers and bushes are tho!

The ferns are all brown now I'm having a gardening day tomorrow so just trying to find out if I can chop them back - I'm so worried about killing things! The wall at the back separates us from a massive outdoor swimming lake which is lovely in the summer too.

I was thin king of putting manure on the veggie bed - this is what Titchmarsh seems to suggest, is that right do you think?

Oh also the garden goes around to the right, can you see where we removed some fence panels? We're having a trampoline and sensory garden in there which is another thing for me to figure out!

First of all you need to clear the area and dig it over. Then add some manure (you can buy bags at the garden centre for a few £). The dig that in soon and leave it until you are ready to plant.

Depending on what you want to grow you might want to cover it to stop weeds growing. I dig mine in Jan then cover in cardboard (weighed down) until end of March.

I then uncover the bit I need leaving the rest covered until I need that bit IYSWIM?

Not pretty but it stops the need for weeding between little seedlings.

On what to plant - make a wish list then look each thing up - how much is the spacing (e.g Sweetcorn need at least 1.5 foot in a block but 6 plants is more than enough for us 3) Lettuce and carrots need very little space for the returns and if you have nice fine soil are easy to grow.

If you can get hol of a copy of this months Gardeners World mag there was a free planner/calander in it. Or it might be on the website.

I am quite jelous of you starting out

I think you can chop the Ferns now - Just be careful there are not little green curls at the base, these are the new shoots so don't cut them too

Your Garden is lovely

Thanks callmeovercautious I will be careful with the Ferns - don't be jealous of me starting out I would happily hand it over to someone else if I could! Maybe I will start to love it. I grew Petunias in the summer which was quite funny (because most of them died and then I was so PFB about the ones that lived!) but the slugs drove me crazy!

I really don't know what to plant, I want things that are child friendly really; things that are fast, low mainitainence and ok with some abuse quite sturdy I suppose? What would you plant? I look after children for work and have 6 under 5 here most days so it's more for them really. I have a herb garden for my stuff which is nearer the house.

I think my soil is very clay like? It's basically all quite lumpy and sticks together - I think this is quite bad. As well as covering the beds should I also be trying to warm them as I have read clay soil takes longer to warm up? If I cover them in black polythene sheets will that stop weeds and warm it up?

When you say I need to dig the area over what do you mean? I did a bit of digging this afternoon and I'm not sure I'm using the right tools etc? Am I trying to make the soil all loose? Can I dig too far down? I'm going to have a nosey on youtube and see if that has anything. I did fine a million bulbs - are daffodils bulbs as I remember there were a lot of those when we viewed the house, should I be saving bulbs??

This Alan T book says to dig 2 spades down for the first year? What do you reckon?

Sorry for the 10 million question I think I am over cautious myself!

Hi,
If the soil lumps together then you quite possibly have clay soil in which case you need to improve the drainage as clay holds on to a lot of water and most plants/veg aren't happy sitting in wet soil. You can buy horticultural sand or grit that from garden centres that you dig into the soil to improve drainage.

You have a lovely big garden and I think you should tackle just a bit at a time so you don't get overwhelmed and disheartened. Believe me, try not to do too much at once
and don't get too stressed or impatient with it you could really start to enjoy it and you will learn loads more as you go along. Gardeners learn so much from their mistakes.

I think you should have a good look at the garden tomorrow and think of two or three projects you would like to tackle this year. You can then focus on the information you need for those projects. I know AT advises to dig 2 spades down but that's quite heavy work - the soil does need to be broken up and drainage added but I don't know if I could be bothered with double digging. Potatoes are a good crop to grow on a new bed of soil as their deep roots break up the soil.

You could also have a look around garden centres and diy stores for shrubs that you like - there are so many which are low maintenance and you don't need to buy great big plants. Small plants grow into bigger plants fairly quickly and are much cheaper to buy as you can end up spending so much on a garden.

Sorry, I don't know if the above is very helpful but the most important thing is not to be overwhelmed by it. Gardens take time even years to get where you want them to.

thanks springlover that is a very helpful post indeed - planting potatoes sounds like a good idea as they seem fairly robust and easy to grow and if they help with the drainage that's even better!

The main thing I want to get sorted is the 2 beds at the back this year I think I will concentrate on that.

It just seems tricky becasue if you don't do something by x date then everything goes wrong ebcause you can't then go on to do the other things.

I think I do need to make a few mistakes and wing it a bit myself - I'm just such a pathetic perfectionist I try to micromanage everything to my detriment.

I will let you all know how it goes after tomorrow - maybe I will dig one spade down and just make the soil less lumpy.

Is there some way of knowing for sure what sort of soil you have? There is a small garening shop near my house on the high street, do you think they would know as the soil is probably similarish in the area?

Also, about your bulbs - bulbs should soon be coming into life again. Do they have any green shoots coming out of them? If the bulbs are in an area you want to dig over for veg then you could put them in pots for the spring. Bulbs need drainage in the bottom of pots - old pots or ceramic plates, polystyrene - plant them quite deeply with multi-purpose compost.

Also, about clay - although the soil needs to be opened up and drainage can be a problem clay soil is supposed to have loads of nutrients and food that plants love.

I think you are supposed to dig about a spade's depth down and then roll a ball of soil in your hand - if it falls apart easily it's sandy, poor soild and needs lots of stuff added to it but if it stays in a sausage (or donought!) shape it is clay - I think I'm winging it a bit there too but that's the basic idea. Also, if you pour water into the hole, depending on how quckly it disappears can tell you whether it's light and sandy, good medium sort of soil or heavy, clay soil. Asking neighbours or at the local garden shop is an excellent idea.
It would also help you to get a small kit to test the ph of the soil which they should have at your local shop so you can find out whether your soil is acidic or alkaline which dictates to a certain extent what will grow well.

Winging it for your first year isn't too bad an idea. I grow veg last year for the first time on a friend's allotment and it was a lot of hard work for not much return. I'm planning to do it in my garden this year but I learnt some hard lessons last year. It was great fun though.

I've only just joined mumsnet so I'm not too sure of all the rules - are you allowed to post links to other sites? There was a series of four articles in the Daily Telegraph recently about starting a small veg plot in your garden and after my experiences last year I thought the advice was really, really good. I've been sending it to friends and colleagues who are getting into veg growing. I would be happy to post a link but not sure if it's allowed.

Thanks about the bulbs springlover, some have shoots some don't. Some of them are really really big! I also noitced that next to the flower bed there is a really big hole, maybe an animal digging. Should I just leave that alone for now?

So clay soil may not be so bad afterall, I'm going to give it a good squeeeze together after I have dug it over and see how lumpy it is. Is it bad is it's really clay like keep deep down do you think?

Thanks again for all the advice everyone. I feel prepared to attack the beds tomorrow.

Springlover - post away we love links

Just copy and paste the url and surround it with
Hope that makes sense - MN have good directions to the right of the text box.

navyeyelasH - I have clay too - hence digging stuff in! I would recommend you also look at building a compost heap as that has helped our little plot so much!

I never did manage double digging but I was PG so consoled myself with that

Don't cover with plastic as it will suffocate the soil - you can buy weed membrane from garden centres which you can reuse each year or if you can get a few big boxes just break the cardboard down into flat pieces and jigsaw puzzle it over the ground. It will go to mush eventually but just throw it in pieces on the compost heap.

Try digging when not too wet, if it is wet tomorrow then just weed, scatter the manure and cover with cardboard. If you tread clay when wet it goes solid when it dries and is murder!

On clay dig with a Fork, turn it over and bash it off the fork and give the lump a bash, it should break up. Don't worry about big lumps now - the frosts over the next few weeks will break it down nicely then when it dries out a bit come March you can lightly fork over and it will be more crumbly.

Forget Carrots on Clay but I agree Potatoes would be good, they break up the soil and the big leaves suppress the other weeds.

Warming the soil depends where you are tbh - if you are far enough south with a normal Spring then the cardboard would do, if you are in Yorkshire then yes perhaps you will need to get some plastic sheeting and peg it over the area of planting for a few weeks first.

I think you need to decide what you want to grow then come back and ask specific questions as there are so many variables there!

On bulbs - I am bad at them, but if you have some, stick a few in a tub or re-plant elsewhere straight away and see what happens - I never seem to have the time for them tbh - Onion sets (bulbs) are another thing though ...

sorry I couldn't make out how long you've lived there. It's an idea to wait a year to see what comes up and start a compost heap that way you won't have to buy too much in the way of compost.
if you wait till the spring to get the children started with you clearing the weeds etc in just the sections you want to use for them (they could choose what they want to grow with you).
All that "do by a certain date" stuff is actually not written in stone like most things in life it depends on so many different things; there's really not much that can go radically wrong. Try not to obsess about it and enjoy it and get the kids to enjoy it once the weather improves!!

This is the link to the first of four articles by Sarah Raven, 'veg patch from scratch'. Having started off with big ideas for my allotment last year and getting about a tenner's worth of veg from it despite many hours of labour and quite a bit of money I think the advice in these articles is really good.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/5089920/Veg-patch-from-scratch-Part-One.html

Thanks for all the brilliant advice, springlover that telegraph link was very helpful!

I have cleared the beds and did a bit of cleaning up of the garden. I'm going to start a new thread with pictures.

Thanks again!

i dont have any advice navy, but I am inspired by your enthusiasm and clearing of the garden.

We have an area at the bottom of our garden (currently covered in junk!) which I would love to have as a little allotment area this year. However I know nothing about growing anything! Luckily my dad is really good and local so I'm going to pick his brain but would love to figure out a little myself!

the telegraph link is very helpful thank you springlover. Does anyone know of any good books?

My alan tichmarsh one is good - the kitchen garner I think it is. I like the way he presents options rather than dictates but he is quite into organic gardening so if that isn't you it might not suit.

Also the RHS website is brilliant I think. Oh and also I got some good tips from the garden for schools site !

Start looking MArch/April/MAy for plant sales at church/school fundraisers.

You can stock up on plants (some might be quite little)very cheaply.But do it purposefully - do not waste your time with annuals like petunias, they are too much like hard work.

Buy perennials, lots of differnt types, stick them in a bit of ground that has light (ie not next to the shed, looks like only the ferns are happy there) and water - possibly fence side? Leave them to grow this year, then in 2011, when you are looking for the next project after you have sussed veggies, you will have some nice big plants that you can move to where they will fit in properly. And you can price them up at the garden centre and feel smug!