Hi all,

I'm a complete gardening newbie and would appreciate any advise that
you want to give me on the following:

I have just prepared a patch of land in my garden for use as a small,
organic vegetable /fruit garden.

The land is triangular in shape approx 4m by 3m. On the North side
(3m) of the triangle there is a high hedge, on the East side (4m) a
strong fence and the West side is open meaning the patch gets full
sunlight throughout the afternoon (when it's not raining in London as
it is now).

So far I have:

- Cleared away the old roots of a small/ medium tree that used to be
there.
- Removed *loads* of stones because the earth was very very stoney.
- Turned the soil over using a pitch fork (then left for a couple of
days).
- Evened the soil out using a rake.
- Cut the soil using a hoe (sp?).

It's still fairly stoney (only small ones tho) and there are
strangely, old, thin roots in places but I think it's ready for
planting.

I think that what I need to do next is get some decent
compost/fertiliser and mix it in with the soil but I think it's a good
idea to know what I'm planting before I buy compost etc.

So, my first question is what fruit/veg to plant now. I've taken a
look on http://www.hdra.org.uk at 'what to do now' and my favored veg
a carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, peas, spinache, radish, turnip and
parsley.

Which of these would you advise for my first planting attempt?

It seems that no fruit plants are suitable for planting right now - is
this true?

With my planting options in mind, what else should I do to prepare the
land? Should I leave the compost in for a while (when I buy it) before
planting?

My final question - what to do to stop our local cats using my newly
prepared land as a luxury toilet?

I appreciate you probably get lots of newbie posts like this - so I
apologise for that. I did have a quick surf around and couldn't find
any great sites for this kind of info, but if anyone has any links
then do send.

Kind regards,

Jack Guest

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