Advice for a beginner veg-grower?

Posts

• purplerallim Posts: 5,287

  January 2021

  Very much depends on what you plan to grow. For root crops they don't like rich soil, so maybe add compost,  for potatoes they are heavy feeders and would need something added like manure.

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• lyndseysw Posts: 11

  January 2021

  That’s really helpful - thank you so much for replying. It’s mostly going to be beans and radishes and smaller things like that - I’ll do potatoes separately in a grow bag. So just add a few inches of compost on top before I plant the next lot of veg each time? 

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• purplerallim Posts: 5,287

  January 2021 edited January 2021

  Thats what I do, but I must admit I'm  only into my third year of veg bed growing. I've done alot in bags/tubs but like you I now have a bed. It has allowed me to grow more like carrots, lettuce, spring onions and the like, as well as the potatoes and French beans.
  The tomato and cucumber are in the greenhouse. 

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• Blue Onion Posts: 2,995

  January 2021

  If you don't have the space for making your own compost, just top up your boxes with either bagged compost or bagged manure.. or maybe both if you have the space.  Depending on the crops, you can either dig it in or just leave it as a top dressing.  

  
  

  I grow in raised beds, and recommend small amounts of a lot of different things.  The square foot method is popular.  I grow in rows as I have everything run with soaker hose on an automatic timer to the taps.  This also allows you to experiment without wasting an entire season on a bad crop.  I also recommend buying some types of things as starts from the garden center, and others direct sow.  A quick search will let you know which things you are considering like a 'direct sow'.  You can often get a four or six pack of veg starts for the price of a pack of seeds, obviously not a bargain BUT you have six healthy plants that didn't take six weeks of tending on a windowsill and multiple weeks hardening off!  (You may need to harden them off a bit as well).  I sometimes only plant a few out of the pack, and then drop the spare off with a neighbor.. who offers me her spare in return. 

  
  

  Come back when you are ready and put your list of what you want to grow and your plan on a new post, and you'll get lots of advice.  😁

  Utah, USA.

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• lyndseysw Posts: 11

  January 2021

  Thank you both so much for the advice, it's hugely useful - I'll have a look at the square foot method, thank you! The automatic soaker hose is also brilliant idea. I'll come back to you with a plan - thank you...
  

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• nick615 Posts: 1,487

  January 2021

  For your beans, they are probably the thirstiest of your crops so, decide on the area you can afford to devote to them and remove all of the soil in it.  Place a length of plastic pipe in the centre and pack say three inches (80mm) of soggy newspaper all round it before replacing the soil.  Erect a tripod/wigwam of sticks or canes to cater for the number of plants you can accommodate @ two per stick/cane.  Start your seed in trays and plant out when 4-6 inches tall.

  This may seem a bit of a faff but, as you have spare water from preparing veg etc., it can be poured into the plastic pipe to refresh the newspaper reservoir below.  If it was me, I'd put a couple of handfuls of chicken manure pellets in the pipe so that each successive watering would take a bit more nutrition to where the beans could find it.  As an investment for food value per square foot of ground, runner beans are excellent, so worthy of the effort?
  

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• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  January 2021

  Last year about this time we dug a 1.5m diameter pit in the garden and lined it with layers of old paper sacks and newspapers. Then instead of putting our veg peelings etc on the compost heap we put them in ‘The Pit’ together with shredded paper, lawn mowings and other stuff we’d normally put on the compost. In mid May we filled the pit with water and a soupçon of ‘recycled beer and cider’ and replaced the topsoil and firmed it all down well. We built a teepee of canes over it and at the end of May we planted out our runner beans. We had the best and longest yielding crop ever in this garden which is free-draining loam and tends to need a lot of watering. We still watered but not as much as in other years.
  
  We’ll be doing the same again this year. 👍 

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• nick615 Posts: 1,487

  January 2021

  That's exactly what I do, Dove, except that I keep all the compostable material in an old water butt (200 litre) as soon as one 'pit' has been completed.  Then, each time I create a new one, I've got a year's worth of stuff for my beans.  My only 'improvement?' is that I have everlasting 'sticks' - 9 years and counting - to avoid buying canes.
  

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• Jolly Gary the Gardener Posts: 133

  January 2021

  Hi All
  I am considering using everlasting canes from now on.I have used canes for years as yjey are traditional but they can harbour fungus and pests from the prevoius year and you cant always eradicate this by cleaning.Using the plastic ones ive seen in garden centres mean they are easy to keep clean at the end of th season and will asts for years I believe they stand up to the suns ultra violet rays.
  Dovefromabove has been giving expert advice for years to the forum
  Try growing cucumbers this year they are so tasty out of the garden if you have to be careful on the acidity intake the "Burpless" variety have less acid so do not repeat on you. and I have prooved this to myself as I have afew relations that suffer but dont when I give them a cucumber
  Happy gardening 2021

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• lyndseysw Posts: 11

  March 2021

  I hadn’t seen these new comments, I’m so sorry - hugely helpful, thank you! 

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