2009 Omlet cube and run for sale

[tooties]

Hoping to move house in a few mths and once we are in would like to be a little bit more self sufficient and 'green'.

 

Already have 4 chickens (3 layers) for eggs and planning on getting 2x compost bins and a water butt. However, would really like some advice about veggie patch, need suggestions of things that are easy to grow and hardy as the house is in such a state I can't see us spending much time or money gardening

 

What would you suggest for beginners?

 

thanks!

[katehicken]

Hi

 

My OH was very wary of a veg patch when we got our house as our garden is very small and he had never grown veg. We had one small patch the first year and just grew tomatos in grow bags and potatoes and he was hooked! They took almost no looking after ( apart from pulling slugs off and watering) and we had loads!

Good luck

[Redwing]

potatoes are quite easy but need earthing up (maybe a few mins work every now and again)

 

The thing we have had huge sucess with this year is carrots, literally sprinkle the seed down and leave them! they are forgiving about when they are harvested which is good if you have little time, we have lots in the freezer - enough to keep us going all winter

 

Lettuce is easy too as are runner beans

 

What I would say is grow stuff you like to eat - obvious I know but those seed packets are very enticing

 

Also think about using space for items that are more expensive in the shops, onions are easy but take up a fair bit of room for the amount you would need to keep you going, they are cheap in the shops too so things like that need to be weighed up!

 

I would thoroughly recommend the Allotments4all forum for some help (as well as here obviously!)

 

The company Moreveg supply small amounts of seeds cheaply so you can see how you get on on a small scale first of all, they also do packs of different seeds at different times of the year which helps with planning, their website is very imformative too

 

Some veg dont mind being in a bit of shade so think vertically as well, if you had a raised bed against a wall with a hanging trough above you will create more growing space

 

Strawberries can be grown in hanging baskets to save space too

 

Good luck, its all great fun!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I started a veg patch for the first time last year .

 

I grew courgettes, carrots, beans, sugarsnap peas, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbages, beetroot, butternut squash, leeks and various chillis and peppers in a plastic greenhouse thingy. The broccoli won't be ready till later this spring (didn't know it took so long ).

 

I had problems of one sort or another - either caterpillars (cabbage/broccoli ), planted too late (squash), overshadowed by courgettes (leeks) but I'll know what to do next time as a result .

 

I grew some things in pots too which worked well (lettuce and a few carrots).

 

I agree with the "just grow what you like to eat" advice. I had packets of seeds for all kinds of things but will just stick to the basics next year, I think.

[chickencam]

Quick growing things like lettuce, radish, herbs etc are great and can be grown in various containers. If you like french beans, they are easy to grown and the dwarf one scan easily be grown in containers or small beds. Hanging basket tomatoes are easy to grow and very rewarding, you get loads per plant. 1 courgette plant will keep you in courgettes for the summer. You can buy small packets of fast growing carrot and beetroot varieties too.

 

Once you try you won't want to stop, the pride you feel when you harvest something and eat it within minutes is fantastic

[docsquid]

One thing we've been trying is the permaculture approach of growing vegetables in an among other things, so we don't have a veg patch as such, apart from one bed where the runner beans are, but even they are under a teree, we just grow veg in the flower beds. We grow rhubarb, currants and gooseberries in the front garden, and rotate various crops - this year there is some garlic and some broad beans in the front garden. In the back garden we have potatoes in tubs, tomatoes in gro-bags, and various things like blueberries, rhubarb, loganberries, and tubs of favourite veg.

 

In our greenhouse (about a mile away) we will have greenhouse tomatoes, squash, peppers courgettes, salads and a grapevine. We are also starting up a permaculture forest garden in our little orchard, with native edible wild plants to complement the fruit that we already pick from this site.

 

It is a good idea to try and mix veg with flowers if you can, and also plant edible shrubs, then you don't get such a concentration of pests. Also look at the soil in your garden - remember to plant things that will grow in your soil.

[tooties]

theres some really good ideas here! I just hope I can find this thread again when the time comes - I'm so excited I can hardly wait!

 

Thanks everyone

x

[craftyhunnypie]

Spring onions, tomatoes, carrots in tub trugs - with drainage holes made, little gem lettuces, spuds grown in a old dustbin / potato sack thing from a garden centre.

Tomatoes & carrots were brill last year - I'm going to grow tons of tubtrugs of carrots this year.

 

 

Emma.x

[emchook]

My garden is south facing and the sun just blasts eveything in its path come summer so I have failed dismally with lettuce and potatoes.

 

I also fail dismally with tomatoes as I forget to water them regularly so they split.

 

Veggies that have grown well are :

 

Sweet peppers

Jalepeno Peppers

Sweetcorn [ the supersweet variety ]

Carrots

Broccoli

courgettes [ ridiculously easy ] . yellow ones are fun for the wow factor

 

But the best by far and one of the easiest is sugar snap peas ! The kids go nuts for them raw !