I want to start growing my own veg and, perhaps, some fruit for a
family of four. Help!

I've got a roughly 20ft wide and 75ft long back garden running East/
West with the house at the Eastern end and a low hedge separating us
from a field running into a hillside on the Western end. There is a
7ft high hedge running the full length the Northern boundary and a
similar hedge which only covers the Eastern half of the Southern
boundary. It is a West to East fairly gentle downward slope and
currently laid to (very bumpy and unpampered) lawn as it has been for
at least 25 years.

We are in Derbyshire. I don't know what the soil is like as we
haven't dug any of it at all. I'm a totally inexperienced gardener.
In the distant past (and in a different garden) I have grown tomatoes
and strawberries successfully but that is it.

I am looking at building up to having half of the garden productive -
about a 20ft by 40ft space at the Western end. Being realistic about
time and ability I'm planning on starting small and working up to that
over the next few years. I've drawn up a scale plan of the space and
have eight 10ft x 10ft squares. I am thinking of eventually using the
one in the North West corner for a fair sized greenhouse. I am
thinking of eventually using the South East corner (the most shaded
space) for a fair sized shed as we need more storage space.

I assume that I need to lift the turf, but I also guess that lifting
the whole area of turf at once would open me up to a lot of weeding in
subsequent years. I am thinking of stacking the turfs face to face
and leaving them to rot down to compost for a future years.

Eager to get started I have bought some grow bags and some plants
(Shirley and Gardeners' Delight tomatoes; Coquette Iceberg lettuces;
Dundoo courgettes; Paska cucumbers; Loriot petit pois peas; White
Emergo runner beans). (All bought as they were what was available at
the garden centre.) I also have the RHS Fruit and Vegetable Gardening
book and Carol Klein's Grow Your Own Veg.

I've run into a bit of a brick wall with getting beyond planting up
the grow bags with the low veg. I don't know where to start with the
grass; I don't know how big a space I need for the beans and peas; I
don't know what I can sow at this time of year that will give me some
more veg later in the year; I don't know where in the garden to start
with what thinking about rotating crops; I don't know what to plant
with the veg that may act as natural pest deterrent; etc etc etc.

I currently have a spade, fork, trowel and old watering can.

Any advice about any of this gratefully received!

Thanks in advance.

jay

Jay wrote
I want to start growing my own veg and, perhaps, some fruit for a
family of four. Help!

I've got a roughly 20ft wide and 75ft long back garden running East/
West with the house at the Eastern end and a low hedge separating us
from a field running into a hillside on the Western end. There is a
7ft high hedge running the full length the Northern boundary and a
similar hedge which only covers the Eastern half of the Southern
boundary. It is a West to East fairly gentle downward slope and
currently laid to (very bumpy and unpampered) lawn as it has been for
at least 25 years.

We are in Derbyshire. I don't know what the soil is like as we
haven't dug any of it at all. I'm a totally inexperienced gardener.
In the distant past (and in a different garden) I have grown tomatoes
and strawberries successfully but that is it.

I am looking at building up to having half of the garden productive -
about a 20ft by 40ft space at the Western end. Being realistic about
time and ability I'm planning on starting small and working up to that
over the next few years. I've drawn up a scale plan of the space and
have eight 10ft x 10ft squares. I am thinking of eventually using the
one in the North West corner for a fair sized greenhouse. I am
thinking of eventually using the South East corner (the most shaded
space) for a fair sized shed as we need more storage space.

I assume that I need to lift the turf, but I also guess that lifting
the whole area of turf at once would open me up to a lot of weeding in
subsequent years. I am thinking of stacking the turfs face to face
and leaving them to rot down to compost for a future years.

Eager to get started I have bought some grow bags and some plants
(Shirley and Gardeners' Delight tomatoes; Coquette Iceberg lettuces;
Dundoo courgettes; Paska cucumbers; Loriot petit pois peas; White
Emergo runner beans). (All bought as they were what was available at
the garden centre.) I also have the RHS Fruit and Vegetable Gardening
book and Carol Klein's Grow Your Own Veg.

I've run into a bit of a brick wall with getting beyond planting up
the grow bags with the low veg. I don't know where to start with the
grass; I don't know how big a space I need for the beans and peas; I
don't know what I can sow at this time of year that will give me some
more veg later in the year; I don't know where in the garden to start
with what thinking about rotating crops; I don't know what to plant
with the veg that may act as natural pest deterrent; etc etc etc.

I currently have a spade, fork, trowel and old watering can.

Any advice about any of this gratefully received!

Thanks in advance.

We use a 4 year rotation, there are others, so if you want to do that then
it's just marking out your land into 4 equal parts after you have planted
your permanent plants like fruit/herbs/asparagus and built your compost
bins/sheds/greenhouse etc. Your books will show what goes where and what
follows what.
A 40ft by 20ft area is not that big especially to provide food for four so I
wouldn't waste space on paths between small plots just dig it all with a
path down one side or the middle and use walking boards so as not to
compress the soil. Our latest allotment is almost 4 times that and we only
have one path down the centre.

Just start a bit at a time, don't do more than is easy, and don't try to
plant everything this year.

You could plant now...
Peas (provided it's not a hot summer, they like it cool and damp)
Runner Beans (we plant a1ft apart up 8ft canes)
French Beans (as above)
Carrots (plant in a "bin" with 18inch high sides to reduce carrot fly
damage)
Lettuce of all sorts (Romaine is our favourite)
Radish
Turnips
Winter cabbage
Winter Cauliflowers (Walcheren Winter ....)
and could probably find some sweetcorn plants and others still in your local
nursery.

But as you haven't started turning a sod yet don't try planting all of that
this year.

Natural pest deterrents eh.... don't believe all you read. :-)
That said those horrid smelling marigolds seem to put of some pests. You
will need Slug Pellets, Derris Dust etc unless you wish to go "Organic" in
which case you will need lots of Environmesh and be prepared to lose whole
crops.

Other tools you will need are a weeding hoe (the smaller Wolf Multitool **
push pull weeder is the business), and draw hoe (get one that has a head at
90° to the handle), a hand hoe (also called an onion hoe), a rake, a bucket
or two (for collecting weeds/stones etc), proper wellies (with steel insert
midsole for digging), Radox bath salts.
(** if you go down that route then I find their claw head is also very
useful)


Finally don't make the common mistake of new veg growers, trying to grow
everything in the seed catalogues, only grow what you know you and yours
will eat, especially at first. You can experiment with "new" veg later.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

Well, I just cut my first 10ft x 3ft bit of plot and planted out my
runner beans.

After some serious thinking and measuring and thinking and re-
measuring we've worked out where we want to end up. We've identified
where the first plot will be and I've just dug the first strip of it.
Now I need to get some 8ft canes to support them. The next 3ft along
needs to be dug next to plant the peas.

Thanks for the advice re the Wolf tools - what great, sturdy
connectors these have. I got the push/pull weeder and the three
pronged claw head which just made very light work of breaking up the
soil under the lifted turf.

The soil has a definate clay-ness to it but it also crumbles and looks
lovely and chocolatey. Looking at the indentations in the garden I
suspect I am not the first to grow here (it's a 1920s house) but I
know no one has grown anything for at least 20 years.