"shannie" wrote in message ...
Hi all,

Im very chuffed with how our veggie plot has gone over the past couple of
months, a lot of thanks due here to everyone who answered and is still
answering my daft questions. If you'd like to see what it's like I've put
some pics here, even put a pic of our first lettuce..lol

http://community.webshots.com/user/shannie150



Shan

Well done Shannie, I've been following your progress with interest
since you first posted, as I was embarking on a very similar project
to you -- though without all the kids and animals, which probably
simplified my task. It is also my first year as a veg gardener, so
it's all new to me.

At the moment we have 4 varieties of potatoes doing well, onions,
shallots, leeks, garlic, mixed leaves lettuce, beetroot, cauliflower,
broccoli, carrots, runner beans, tomatoes, asparagus and peppers. On
the fruit side we have strawberries and gooseberries, and we've
planted two pear trees and a cherry. It's great to watch them all
grow. The only failures are spring onions and the rhubarb, which just
didn't appear, for some reason. I think I might have planted the
rhubarb too deep.

Apart from that, nearly everything is doing well, though I still can't
decide if what might be carrots are just weeds!

And that sums it up really. This year is really a learning process.
Next year things will be done a bit differently. Which sounds like the
start of a new thread. It's a bit early in the year perhaps, but what
would people do differently next year after their experiences this
year?

Me?

1) Plant far fewer potatoes. I wanted some earlies, second earlies and
maincrops but could only find them in large bags, so have ended up
with about 150 potato plants. Next year I must find smaller bags, or
find someone to share them with.

2) Have a better plan, and do more successional planting. Probably the
most elementary error after quantity. I have made a second sowing of
lettuce and spinach, but apart from that, I've planted too much of
everything at the same time, so they are all maturing at the same
time. Next year I have to plan it better so that I'm sowing/planting
much smaller quantities but over a longer period of time.

3) Prepare the ground better before I start. This year we created the
beds in March - it was a neglected lawn before that - and started
planting pretty much straight away. The veg has done well, but next
year it would be good to have more time to improve the soil
beforehand.

4) Try some different techniques, in particular the no-dig method for
potatoes, and some more containers.

5) Have some kind of pond in place for next year. We've not had a slug
problem so far. I can only imagine that this is because there is no
history of veg or other plants in that area, and so they don't yet
know they are there! Next year I imagine they'll be wiser, so we want
to encourage frogs and other slug-lovers to the area.

Like you, I'm very grateful for the advice and encouragement I've had
from the older and wiser hands on this list. I've not posted a lot
because I've found a lot of the answers I need from searching back
through the archives.

Thanks everyone!

Will