Single hen

[The_smeeeths]

Hi everyone. I need some advise and thought you guys may be able to help me. We have decided to make a veg garden in our not very big garden. The area I need to plant is 1.2 m by 8m I have never done veg before and want to grow something thats not too easy to kill!! I would like to plant pots, carrots, onions, and things like this do you have any advise on how to and what to do? I am a total novice so any advise will be greatly appreciated.

 

Ever hopeful

[Guest]

Gosh where do I start.

 

Potatoes - in a limited space it is best to grow the early potatoe varieties as they are the most expensive in the shops.

 

Grow what you like the most.

 

Cut and come again salads. - easy peasy. And there is nothing better than to go out into your garden and pick salad leaves, a few herbs, spring onions, things like that. A couple of tomato plants as you mentioned - but maybe in pots if you are short of space, Carrots are good too, you will have to get onion sets now for onions, but seeds for spring onions. Do you like radishes - they grow quickly. How about french beans, runner beans, - I don't know what you eat, but you get the idea

[kannie]

Lovely idea, smeeeths. Is it a sunny patch? And do you know what sort of soil it is, or what condition it's in (what was there before?)

[The_smeeeths]

Apparently it is a good soil!! It has had a pear tree and a small rockery planted on there for about 40 years. The pear tree has had it so its coming out. I will be donning my wellies this weekend and fancy a trip to a garden centre to see what delights I can plant. I am getting quite excited. My hubbie is shocked and so are my family as I am usually the kinda girl who nevers has a hair out of place and dirt is not an option. Oh well felicity kendal eat your heart out.....the good life here I come!!

[Linda]

Good for you! It's so rewarding eating produce from your own garden. You won't look back once you have started.

 

The dirt and the messy hair are a small price to pay for such a feeling of satisfaction.

[twoladies]

I have a small plot that I'm going to grow veggies on this year and my friend has recommended courgettes (and given me a fantastic recipe for courgette and brie soup), peas, early spuds/Yukon Gold which are fantastic and you can't seem tp get them in the shops, strawberries, leeks, onions and garlic. I have grown spuds in large containers on the patio and if you use growbag compost they come up really clean and scrummy. I even grew some which I dug up for Xmas dinner that very morning! I alos grow rocket in trays and a very good tomato for pots is tumbler. Hope this helps. A good book to buy is The Daily Telegraph Gardening Week by Week.

Emily Florence

[The_smeeeths]

Is it difficult to grow rocket as I spend a fortune on the bags from sainsburys? I am going to definatley plant some spuds in a barrel I have never heard of this before and it sounds brilliant. Getting excited now just need it to stop raining and then I am off to the garden centre to buy my goodies!

[Louise]

Two Ladies can you put the recipe for courgette and Brie soup in the recipes sticky

 

It sounds lovely I adore Brie but don't like cougettes much so it could be a way of 'hiding' them that I would eat

[Cookie]

A good book to buy is The Daily Telegraph Gardening Week by Week.

Emily Florence

 

I totally agree with this book recommendation. Our garden has pretty much looked after itself since we bought our house nearly 7 years ago (lawn down the middle, borders with shrubs, mature trees adn bulbs down each side) but since I've had the I've got such an urge to go outside and get stuck in to the gardening!

 

I was feeling quite overwhelmed at the idea though, and didn't know where to start. Most of the Gardening Year type books I looked at were huge, expensive, and had far too much info for a novice like me.

 

But then I found this book, which was JUST what I wanted. Its small, but packed with info and goes through the year week by week with suggestions of what to do. Fab.

 

HTH,

love,

Cookie. xx

 

Oh, and another good thing to get hold of is the BBC's Easy Gardening magazine (different to the BBC Gardener's World magazine).

[Cookie]

PS - will be planting rocket and other salad seeds next week in pots - apparently its easy-peasy....Give it a go and then we can compare notes on how we are getting on

[ali-s]

I buy Grow Your Own magazine.

Easy veg to grow in pots or in the garden. Free packet of veg seeds as well

Poultry section too

And there is a Veg forum

I get my copy from Asda.

[kannie]

We used to have an allotment which was very open & sunny, with dry & sandy but well fed soil. It was great & we were nearly self sufficient in veggies & fruit at some times of the year, + flowers. Because of its size I liked a lot of things that looked after themselves - like fruit bushes - also soft fruit is so expensive to buy. Everything grew well except brassicas & carrots.

 

We gave the allotment up when we got a bigger garden, but it's just too shaded (& crowded, and now too chickened) to grow fruit or veggies. We tried beans & salads but not enough sun. The apple trees are great though.

 

I think quick returns are important, when you're starting, so I'd recommend cut-and-come again salad crops, like rocket. If they're on display, then runner beans & lettuces are great as they're so pretty. Chicories have wonderful blue flowers & then self-seed, and globe artichokes are great to look at too.

[Guest]

Will post recipe for soup tomorrow but how do I make it a sticky? Rocket v eay to grow, just trays of compost sown over succesive weeks so that you always have a crop. Spuds in a barrel so easy and much less effort than planting out, of course you have less space so less spuds but still scrummy.

[Louise]

Two ladies if you go into the nesting box area at the top of the page there are sticky topics and one of them is called recipes they are made stiky to stop them disappearing off the first page.

 

If you can't find it post it here and we can ask one of the nice moderators to wave a wand and move it

[Carolinep]

We're in the process of turning the end of our garden into a veggie plot, the greenhouse was delivered today, seeds etc have been bought. Just got to find the time & if/when it stops raining... snowing .... raining...snowing wish it would make its mind up

Seems to be quite a few of us that are going to be growing our own this year, will be interesting to read how everyone gets on.

I buy Kitchen garden mag & grow your own.

[Cate in NZ]

I'm seconding the request for that recipe TwoLadies please.

I try to grow a fair amount of veg each year, and I'm getting more and more ambitious each year. Consequently I've had some disasters, but also a few failsafes that never let me down. Courgettes are one of those, and by mid-summer I'm desperate for new things to do with courgettes

Others that I swear by are Tomatoes (I plant a variety of types, often swap a few seeds with friends so that I don't end up with a complete glut), Rocket, so simple, I even grew some in hanging baskets last year, Broad Beans and Potatoes. But it's worth trying to grow the things that you are most likely to want to eat, although everything tates better picked fresh from the garden.

Good luck with it

[The Dogmother]

Even I'm going to have a go this year, I will start with potatoes as they are easy, but it's getting the time to look after them that's the problem I fancy putting up some runner beans, might just ponce some seedlings from Phil's dad

[Cate in NZ]

Further evidence (as if any were actually needed) that keeping chickens and eglus is really good for you

Just look at the number of us who have increased, or started on growing their own produce since introducing hens to the garden

[twoladies]

Have posted recipe for courgette and brie soup, enjoy!!

[Cate in NZ]

Thanks Twoladies, I'll look forward to trying that one out when I get my annual courgette glut this summer

[Hellcat]

We are growing runner and french beans this year, leeks, courgettes, beetroot, red onions (from set, not seed - they were HUGE last year.

Carrots and Parsnips in barrels or old tyre stacks, they get really long and not misshapen so easier to prepare etc.

Cut and come again salad - piece of cake, as is rocket.

Grew pink fir apple potatoes last year. They were amazing and still have some in storage!

Growing International Kidney (jersey Royals) this year.

 

grew baby sweetcorn two years ago. That was great, and the kids loved it.

[Hellcat]

Oh, and tomatoes, of course. South-facing garden? Be mad not to.

[ali-s]

I grew cherry tomatoes last year outside. Got to the size of a marble but never ripened Too far north not enough sun not enough warmth

 

They went into the compost bin. I was checking the bin at the weekend to see if it has started to compost and there were the tomatoes near the bottom, still the size of marbles but red

 

This year I am going to grow them in a plastic tomato house

[Hellcat]

If that happens again try taking the vine off and hanging them upside down in the airing cupboard for a week. Thats how we ripen that ast of our tom (the ones not going for chuptney anyway).

Putting them in a drawer with an apple helps too - no idea why!

[ali-s]

Thanks for that Helen

 

I don't have an airing cupboard, but will remember the drawer with an apple.