Hi there

Im living in Ireland in the South East midlands. I have quite a bit of land,
almost an acre and mostly in grass and shrubs, I have young children so most
of the grass is used for their play areas. I have 6 chickens also who roam
freely and reward me daily with half a dozen eggs. I have a plot nicely
isolated from the childrens area and surrounded on two sides by bramble
ditch, one side by a wall and one side by a variety of shrubs about 5ft
high...eg laurel etc. I would like to start a vegetable garden here. Im not
overly ambitious having learned through the years that this generally leads
to disappointment so I'd like to start off with some "easy" things. The plot
Im hoping to cultivate is about 30ft sq. It was dug over in October last
year and left to lie for the winter and the hens have (hopefully) done their
work of taking out grubs and parasites etc. I begun digging it again this
week, we've had a lot of rain and the soil is very heavy, not waterlogged
just heavy. Im not keen on the idea of pestisides as I have my own water
well in this part of the garden, plus chickens, cats,dogs and kids! Im not
sure what to plant or even what kind of soil I have, I do know that our
water is very hard lots of limescale if this is any help. Im nervous
starting this project yet dying to get stuck in....the one thing I don't
want to happen is that I end up with 60 cabbages and nothing else...Any help
from the group would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance
Shannie (Ireland)

"shannie" wrote in message
Im living in Ireland in the South East midlands. I have quite a bit of
land,
almost an acre and mostly in grass and shrubs, I have young children so
most
of the grass is used for their play areas. I have 6 chickens also who roam
freely and reward me daily with half a dozen eggs. I have a plot nicely
isolated from the childrens area and surrounded on two sides by bramble
ditch, one side by a wall and one side by a variety of shrubs about 5ft
high...eg laurel etc. I would like to start a vegetable garden here. Im
not
overly ambitious having learned through the years that this generally
leads
to disappointment so I'd like to start off with some "easy" things. The
plot
Im hoping to cultivate is about 30ft sq. It was dug over in October last
year and left to lie for the winter and the hens have (hopefully) done
their
work of taking out grubs and parasites etc. I begun digging it again this
week, we've had a lot of rain and the soil is very heavy, not waterlogged
just heavy. Im not keen on the idea of pestisides as I have my own water
well in this part of the garden, plus chickens, cats,dogs and kids! Im not
sure what to plant or even what kind of soil I have, I do know that our
water is very hard lots of limescale if this is any help. Im nervous
starting this project yet dying to get stuck in....the one thing I don't
want to happen is that I end up with 60 cabbages and nothing else...Any
help
from the group would be most welcome.


I understand your weather is also mild like ours so you best find out what
sort of pest and disease problems you might encounter if you intend to go
"organic" so you could avoid planting anything that will require chemicals
to survive. Are there local allotments? They would tell you what the local
problems are. i.e. we have a Leek Moth problem so without chemicals we
couldn't grow leeks. Flea Beetle can devastate young brassicas here too.

Decide what your family like to eat and then you will have a list of veg to
try growing.

Peas are great, they freeze well without blanching too.
Cabbages, so many varieties for all times of the year, also Cauliflowers but
best to try the winter ones first "Walcheren Winter Armado April" etc as
they grow when the pests don't.
French Beans also freeze well.
Runner Beans are best eaten when in season, not good frozen (our opinion).
Shallots, Onions and other members of that family are mostly trouble free.
Potatoes are usually recommended for new ground as they break up the soil,
or is that the gardener whilst growing them? :-)
Good luck

--
Bob

www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in
Runnymede fighting for it's existence.