The Poultry Keeper

tinkerbell · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 2

HI

I am looking for some advice on both Vegetables and chickens!!!! SO I will start out with the vegetable questions Laughing

We have a decent size lawned area at the front of the house, gets sun 70% of the day. has a gentle slope, the bottom sections obviously gets wetter than the top. The main road is at least another 20 feet away via our drive and the road is what I call intermintantly busy, and as we are rural we have very few "passers by"I would say the total area must be about 15 x 20 ft

My cunning plan ! is to turn this into a vegetable patch, moving the border plants to the rear garden and then dividing the area in to 4 sort of raised beds. To enable me to maintain a better crop rotation. Is this the way to go or would one large veg patch be better. Also for just the two of us, I am presuming that this size would be sufficient.

Although a Keen gardener growing most of my plants from seed, I am now wanting to put my greenhouse to better use and grow on my own veg, the garden at the back is lovely and full of plants, every year I end up growing hundreds of annuals and then they just go on the compost heap!.

Sorry that was all a bit rambley...off to post chicken thread now!!!!!!

Tink
x

Bradders · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:54 pm Post subject:

It's been about 2 weeks since i planted my veg and i've already got a bit of each growing. Very Happy

My lettuce is doing the best though but my carrots are not doing to good but there doing OK Very Happy

robgodfrey · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 10:56 am Post subject:

Tinkerbell - 4 raised beds would not be enough to grow all your own veg all year round. But, with a bit of planning you could have a variety available most of the time. I would go for the ones you like the best and are the most expensive/least available.
With a greenhouse you could have fresh greens throughout the winter too - like Mizuma, Pak Choi, Rocket. If you sow these in a big seed tray as late as October you will have greens to pic in the winter months (if you can heat the greenhouse a bit you could sow later).
There are still loads you can sow now too.

Good luck!

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7157 Location: isle of lewis

there are some really interesting pieces some where on square foot gardening ,one veg mag i read compared prices to the supermarket prices one plot had 26 pounds of veg from it and another about 33 which is impressive ,without considering the taste

jessjess · Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 218 Location: Derbyshire

Your best bet is to experiment with veg for the first year, find out what does well in your garden and what is not so happy. You will be able to get a feel for what is worth growing then. We do potatoes in pots on our yard and use the beds for onions, cabbage and broad beans. Our veg patch is a little smaller than yours but we get enough to add to our veg shopping, we put in what we really want fresh! so salad stuff and pots. Oh and you have to make space for lots of fresh herbs as many and as varied as you can.

Hope that helps. jess

vanessa · Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 1235 Location: Correze

I'd say to divide it into 4 beds anyway; it WILL help with rotation, and if the beds are narrow enough, you'll need to dig far less in future years - which is better for the soil and better for your back!!

It's amazing how large a crop you can get from even a fairly small area, especially if you plan carefully for succession sowings.

Good luck (oh, and welcome to the forum!)