The Poultry Keeper

robl · Joined: 21 Jan 2008 Posts: 20 Location: north shropshie

I have dug out a cottage garden border,it is around 3foot wide and 20foot long,also managed to squeeze a 6x6 greenhouse in at the end of it.
Come on then what should I grow,most I've done before is a few potato buckets.
Rob

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6622 Location: isle of lewis

have a search for square foot gardening you'd be surprised what you can grow Wink

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french beans are good and so are runners Wink

vanessa · Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 860 Location: Correze

Sugar-snap peas, good "value for space" as you eat the whole thing. A small block of super-sweet sweetcorn - maybe 3 plants one way by 4 the other (fresh sweetcorn from the garden is to die for!!)

Cut and come again salads, especially if you can plant a mix of leaves in there - will keep producing for several weeks.

Dusty · Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 249 Location: St. Asaph

Broad Beans, fresh from the garden are fantastic and really easy to grow.

Very Happy

I tried sweetcorn last year and it was rubbish, any tips Vanessa will be appreciated, mine were suppose to be baby corn, but I missed that stage somewhere and the resulting cobs did not ripen enough to eat!!!!!!!!! Rolling Eyes

vanessa · Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 860 Location: Correze

I've not tried baby corn, only the full-size stuff. Even with the dreadful summer we had last year (yes, even here in France!), the corn survived and we had some lovely fat cobs from it.

Tips. Always plant in a block rather than in 1 straight row, as it's wind-pollinated. So minimum I'd say is 9 plants in 3 x 3 rows. Sow in root-trainers or anything that'll allow deep root-growth in a pot, in mid-April (I use loo-roll middles for mine, then plant the whole lot - the roots go through the tube and that eventually rots down). Plant-out deep and firm after ALL risks of frost have passed. Test the cobs when the tassles have gone brown ... peel back a bit of the green casing and press one kernel with your thumb-nail - the juices should be milky.

For the VERY best sweetcorn, get the pan of water boiling before you go and pick the corn!!

Woodburner · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject:

Carrots are top of my list. I'm fed up of tasteless shop bought ones that turn to mush after two or three days. Cut and come again lettuce and spring onions are next, and maybe the rest of the salad too. Very Happy

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6622 Location: isle of lewis

you could also do the 3 sisters
you plant sweetcorn under planted with climbing french beans so they climb the sweetcorn and then ground cover is planted with corgette i've done it that way in portsmouth and it worked Wink

vanessa · Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 860 Location: Correze

Milkmaid, didn't you find it impossible to harvest the beans? I believe it was originally maize (picked "ripe" rather than like sweetcorn), dried beans and pumpkins - so all 3 were harvested at the end of the season, in one go.

Of course, for anyone tempted to try the 3 sisters, it's very important to have high fertility to start with, or all 3 will fail.

Woodburner · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:29 pm Post subject:

You can leave french beans til they are ripe and dry them as haricots. There is a variety called Borlotto Firetongue that I want to try. Wink

(Dobies have it.)

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6622 Location: isle of lewis

in rows 4 by 4 it was ok when you start getting bigger it is a problem across my allotment it was divided into little blocks ,manure was free from the stables well rotted ,just slave labour ,of children to move it in a wheel barrow Wink

robgodfrey · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject:

Dusty · Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 249 Location: St. Asaph

Thanks for the tips with sweetcorn.

I use the loo roll inners for sweetcorn (and broad beans too). Guess it must have been the bad weather we had then. The wild birds however enjoyed them and stripped what I left bare!! Surprised

I planted sooooo many broad beans I thought i'd have enough to freeze, - no chance we ate them by the bucket load, and they were also 'robbed' by friends visiting who ate them from the pod. Evil or Very Mad

Little chartenay carrots are lovely fresh also aswell as salad leaves.

My girls have assissted in clearing the polytunnel so i'm going out there tomorrow to clear it ready for this seasons planting, i'm late doing it i know but the weather has not encouraged me. Confused

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6622 Location: isle of lewis

i've got a week off work so my girls are being moved out of mine today Wink

robl · Joined: 21 Jan 2008 Posts: 20 Location: north shropshie

Ooh so many ideas! many thanks. I have looked at square foot gardening milkmaid,seems like the way forward I can fit 2 of the 4x4 frames easily.
Have just orderd the book on Ebay Very Happy

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Ahh well I guess its off to try and find a supplier of scaffold planks - will post piccys when done.
Rob

layla · Joined: 26 Oct 2007 Posts: 517 Location: West Midlands

cougette hen they are in season easy peasy