The last year or so seems to have seen a massive interest in growing your own. Gazing out of the window at my snow covered mess of a back garden I wonder when my proposed vegetable garden is going to become a reality. Over the last few years I have gathered many books on the subject and just need to take the first step towards growing my own food.Our garden has been overgrown for a long time. When we moved in it had been lying farrell for many years, since then we have cleared and trimmed the evergreen trees which were robbing our land of natural light which has seemed to encourage weeds at an alarming rate.
This year, I have decided is going to be the year. I've earmarked a corner of the garden that is to become my first bed and intend to build a raised bed there. I won some gardening tools in a raffle recently and I must have some offcuts of wood that can help me create my bed. I also received a gift of some seeds pre-planted in propagating trays so I'm ready to go if only this snow would lift.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to record the progress of the garden here and blog guilt will add to my gardening guilt and the vegetable bed will finally become a reality.
What I really need is encouragement and help so if any of you have suggestions of blogs or websites that can help me along my way. Or even if you have your own tips on how to grow best organically I would be delighted to follow them and publish them here.
Here's to happy gardening!
Good for you and raised beds are definitely the way to go. We've had 6 raised beds for the last 4 or 5 years and although we've still to get it all 'right', we're having fun along the way and getting some lovely produce.
ReplyDeleteIn no particular order, here are some words of questionable wisdom from my own experience:
- don't make the beds more than 4' wide, that's as far as you can easily reach
- we used larch to build them because it is rot resistant
- run beds N-S to avoid shadows
- morning sun is more beneficial than evening sun
- many seeds do better sowed straight into the ground than in seedtrays. broad beans for example, we've sowed in trays then transplanted, and then sowed some later straight into the ground and they grew stronger
- slugs love decaying material so clear around your beds well
- beer traps work well for slugs but are a pain to empty and stink if you forget. My 2 best solutions are Ferramol (organic pellets) and a good scissors! Best of all, they are carnivores so they will helpfully eat the snipped bodies!!
Thanks Lesly some great advice there and practical too, I'd never have thought about how wide the raised bed should have been. That makes perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy clearing your garden/field. But I suppose if you get a digger in they clear it in a couple of hours.
ReplyDeleteI want to grow vegetables this year as well and as I don't have green fingers or a lot of disposable money I'm looking for easy and cheap solutions. So far I know the following but bear in mind that I didn't test anything yet:
Make a list of your favorite fruit and vegetables and the ones you buy the most like tomatoes,peppers/leek/garlic/onion and start with those.
Plant seeds now in seed trays or as I did in egg cartons, toilet rolls, empty meat containers with holes in them.
Start small because you don't know how much time it will consume in your lifestyle (and I know you're pretty busy)
Raised beds can be made from scaffolding planks.
You can plant everything in heavy plastic bags. Garden centres call them grow bags but it looks like tonn bags. Cut of the top, leave a feet from the bottom and you have a raised bed.
Get a water butt 40,- Dublin City Council.
Some links;
gardenplansireland/forum
www.seedaholic.com
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/
last one is my favourate as they have mushroom thingies that grow on a fresh log and you have mushrooms for 3-5 years!
Good luck Amanda, talk to you again on IBW sometime!
Nathalie
Thanks Nathalie,
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to get going now if only it would stop being so cold! Will have to plant some seeds indoors and put them on the window sill to get them going me thinks.
Good for you Amanda growing your own and I think more people will be doing it in these times.
ReplyDeleteWe started in 2007 and what I learned from that experience was to start small and not try and grow everything as you will probably end up with very little - if you are like me! We got a few heads of lettuce, one carrot, two peppers, one cabbage and a few onions and that was it!
In 2008 we only planted a few items:
- sowed carrots, peas, lettuce, onions and scallion seed straight into the ground and they did all did wonderfully apart from the carrots so we are going to try and sow them in a seed tray and transplant them this year
- bought the raspberry and gooseberry trees from Lidl (watch out in March / April they will be on special offer) and planted them into a very sunny area of the garden and while the raspberry did spectacularly well (we even got a second crop off them) we got the disappointingly 4 gooseberries in total from three trees!!
In 2008 as said we just planted seeds into the ground and apart from an odd hit with the water hose and a once a month weed did nothing with the veg patch and it did really well whereas in 2007 having all these ideas of home cooking, being self sufficient etc we probably overdid it on planting, taking care of etc the plants and killed them with kindness and overcare and they didn't do well - reminds you of what you do with kids sometimes. Give them space, a little care and attention but don't smother them and a bit of freedom and they will seed, sprout and flower!!
Good luck
Thanks Siobhan,
ReplyDeleteRaspberries yummy I'll have a go at them for sure!!
I think I'll take all your advice and think small. I'm going to try some potatoes and carrots and maybe some lettuce and squash and see how it goes.
I have naturally growing elderflower and nettles and really should use them this year for wine and or soup.
Carrots need VERY sandy soil to grow well. they dont like the cold but when grow are really delicious
ReplyDeleteGooseberries may take a few years to give a good crop, or maybe they are not enjoying the soil, unlike the raspberries - great to get a second crop.
dont plant too much squash - they need a huge amount of space to grow, like Jack and the Beanstalk!!!
Well done everyone and Amanda, best of luck - see my post on IBW about digging
Good luck with it Amanda and looking forward to seeing your progress. Rebecca's blog Sallygardens (link is on my blogroll) is brilliant for tips - you can skip over the ones on how to kill your own free range chickens!!
ReplyDelete