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New Garden!
Simon Canter
Posts: 6
in Fruit & veg
My family and I will be moving into a beautiful new house on April 11th. A lot of my favourite plants will transplanted in pots but I would like to make use of the huge greenhouse and vegetable plot in the first year (I'm only accustomed to a 6x2m allotment for my veg). I realise I will be starting relatively late 8th the year so are there any particular things I should avoid trying to grow? I will be starting some things from seed here before moving.
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Will the veg plot be ready to use when you take it over or does it need a bit of work?
I think your moving date is fine - as long as you can get into that greenhouse straight away.
In that situation I'd start tomatoes and courgettes/squashes off just before you move, so they can go into the greenhouse when you get there, and get your potatoes chitted so they're ready to plant when you arrive.
Most other things can be sown directly into the soil - they'll not suffer any setback from planting out and will soon catch up with things that are started off early - I'm a great believer in direct sowing if you have the space in the veg plot.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Simon being an old gardener with old fashioned ways I would plant the good old spud they will more or less grow in any soil with a bit of help. Good luck wi yer new garden.
It would be grat to see some photos of your new garden when you get there!
I haven't got much in the way of tomato seeds but we do have a very good garden centre in Oxfordshire so I'll have my pick of young plants.
We really fell on our feet with the garden of our first family home. Most new builds come with a postage stamp sized patch of grass but this garden hearkens back to the war. It has a patio leading to a giant flower bed, two play lawns for when our 1 year old learns to walk, workshop, greenhouse, veg plot and even a little suntrap hidden in the back where I can hide all the out of season terracotta pots until the bulbs inside are ready to be wheeled into the main garden for their debut. There's a lot of work to be done (two buddliea that need battling back for a start) but I'm going to love every bit of it. I will happily post pictures on here in April and maybe you can all help me identify some of the plants in the borders.
Sounds wonderful Simon! It is always a good idea to wait for a full year before making any major changes to the borders so you can see what appears - you may have some great and/or expensive plants in there. Folk on this forum will love identifying anything that comes up and you're not sure of.
Do you have to replace the buddleias? Do you know what colour they are yet? I think I'd be inclined to prune hard the moment you move in (it's better to prune end Feb/March), let the bees enjoy the flowers this summer, and then make a decision about removal. It sounds as though you have plenty of space to plant another one elsewhere, if you want to. Anyway, you'll have enough to do with all the other gardening jobs on top of settling in to your new home, without digging up two budleias as well! Pruning is easier.
Your excitement about your new garden is almost tangible! Looking forward to reading more in April.
Exciting project Simon and I wish you all the best
I inherited a very large white buddleia when I moved in here last year and it's getting moved to another area as part of my garden plan (and also because it's in the way of the forthcoming extension!) so perhaps we could compare notes
I've also taken cuttings of mine so perhaps you could also do that later in case they don't survive the move.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...