The Poultry Keeper

Clucky · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 2182 Location: Shropshire

Does anyone have a link on the www for a complete newbie to growing her own veg. It was easy in my dad's garden. He had perfect soil in the perfect spot for sun and shelter and he had green fingers. Unlike my brother who was told by the neighbours that carrot seeds have to be put in the right way up or they grow upside down Laughing

I know somethings a little more than he did

I have a long, clay type garden and the area only gets full sun from 1.30 onwards of summer afternoon. In winter no sun at all and in spring in parts Sad

Does anyone fancy a busmans holiday to Shrewsbury by any chance...great shopping, quaint shops in some areas, great home made curry by my OH's fair hands etc etc Wink

fairislefaerie · Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 542

clay soil...

Best idea no 1.... Get a compost heap going, regular additions of composted stuff will help to break up the soil, as will growing tatters on it.

Angela

Lisa · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:43 pm Post subject:

LOL @ upside down carrot seeds! Laughing

My favourite gardening forums are here:

www.allotments4all.co.uk

and here:

www.growfruitandveg.co.uk

Both very friendly forums.

And the bbc has a "grow your own" section:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/grow_your_own/

Do you need some veggie seeds? As several people here already know I do find seed shopping rather addictive Embarassed

so might have some spares. I could see what I've got in my seed box if you like... Very Happy

mcleod-girls · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:46 pm Post subject:

Highly recommend any of geoff hamiltons gardening books, and I like the Expert series

clay soil is rich but needs a bit of work, digging and the like as Fairislefairie says, plus it will hold the moisture which is good in these modern dry summers.
Maybe put potatoes in first to break up the soil?

Good luck

Anna Very Happy

mcleod-girls · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:48 pm Post subject:

ps suttons seeds are on line and the website is good, www.suttons.co.uk

Old Man of the 80's · Joined: 22 Apr 2006 Posts: 305 Location: Wittering, UK

I was about to suggest www.growfruitandveg.co.uk, but Lisa beat me to it. They have a great magazine (Grow Your Own) with great step by step guides for the coming month.

Thompson and Morgan sell all sorts online. They aren't the cheapest around, but have a great selection of weird and wonderful plants/veg.

If all else fails, head down to your local garden centre and ask what's best for your area.

nigel · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 5:31 am Post subject:

Lisa · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:24 am Post subject:

I've grown potatoes on top of soil (weeds cut down to soil level, small hole dug for potato, handful of compost in and potato on top) and mulched heavily as they grew (mainly with straw and grass cuttings). They grew well, and into the soil a bit, but I think the worms coming up to get the mulch did most of the work improving the soil rather than the potatoes as such.

A couple of my favourite seed companies are:

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/ where they put LOADS of seeds in the packets, and

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ small UK company where they only sell the kind of seed which you can save yourself ie no hybrids, only seeds that breed true...

magic cochin · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:11 am Post subject:

Hi

This site is pretty good for advice etc

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/index.php

I love growing anything unusual that you would never see for sale - purple podded peas, crimson flowered broad beans, weird looking squash varieties, cardoons, all sorts of salad leaves and herbs. I get some of my seed from the heritage seed library and seed swaps that you'll see mentioned on the link above.

Fresh veg is so much nicer than bought stuff Laughing

C

Clucky · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 2182 Location: Shropshire

Thank you so much for all those...off I go surfing Very Happy

....today as we surveyed our domain from our garden recliners Cool

we spotted a 6ft by 4 ft bit that gets the sun most of the day, although on a bit of a slope....so OH has agreed to dig it over next weekend. As my brother (not the carrot seed one - but boy did he get his own back...big time, let me know if you want to know how Wink

)is calling in too, he has majorly green fingers so will get him to survey it too

Clucky · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 2182 Location: Shropshire

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1356 Location: Leicestershire

You can get seed potatoes now, they need to be chitted before you plant them, look carefully at each potato, there is a top and a bottom, the bottom has a tiny bit of withered root, the top will have the beginings of chits, stand them with the chits uppermost in a tray and then put the tray in a window somewhere, the chits will start to grow and will take a couple of weeks, so they should be ready to go in the soil the weekend after next. Don't buy seed potatos that have started to grow chits that are all long like they get when you've left them in the cupboard to long Laughing

and do buy seed potatoes don't use the ones in the cupboard. You can get first earlies (new) second earlies (mid) and maincrop. Go for first earlies if you can, they are nicest, (and the most expensive to buy to eat) and you haven't a great deal of room to bother with maincrop.

Itsybitsy

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1356 Location: Leicestershire

ps - you don't want root vegetables on freshly manured soil, you can do onion sets now - along with your seed potatoes.

Clucky · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 2182 Location: Shropshire

Lisa · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:52 pm Post subject:

I'd recommend early potatoes too, especially if you have limited space. Not only can you plant them earlier, but they take a few weeks less to grow than the later ones, so you can get them out of the ground much earlier in the year. I think the latest I've planted potatoes was end April. Obviously they mature later than if you planted them in March, but you still get a good crop...

Downside is the early ones tend not to store like main crop ones but hey, they'll taste so good you won't have any to store anyway!

Upsides are with a bit of juggling you can reuse the land for another crop for the second half of the year. And earlier potatoes are more likely to avoid a potato disease called blight. This tends to hit later in the year and so hit main crop potatoes still in the ground...

PS And oh yes, we want to know how you got your revenge for the "upside down carrot seeds"!! Twisted Evil