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First veg plot ideas - asparagus?
in Fruit & veg
Hi there,
Building a circular raised bed, its about 2.5 square meter / 26 square foot.
How do I get the maximum out of my plot...shall I try to get special varieties or not bother?
I am thinking of potatoes, french beans, spinach and beets. would love to grow some asparagus as well but not sure if it makes sense in such a small space?
I want to give up on carrots as i have never managed to grow anything more then stumps in growing bags.
There is a lot of info online and difficult to make sense of it all so looking for some great advice
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Thx Verdun and pansyface. Will keep in mind
Hi Lie
where is your new bed located, sun,shade, mixed?
Is this your only area for growing in or can you adapt some planters also?
Prior to planting this area up think about what you can grow and successional grow afterwards as you need to use this space for as long in the year as you can and get the best return.
There are also many ideas about square feet growing which could also assist you and as you mention in your post beets, lettuce, beans all sound good
I did experiment last year what i got from a square yard and it was surprising which included lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, spinach, onion and leek and your post has got me going to try and better this year
happy gardening
Some good ideas for you already - though I think it depends a bit on how many people you will feed. I find that runner beans produce more than I need, so have to freeze the surplus, but salad crops, ground cress and sugar-snap or mange-tout peas are really worthwhile.
I had great success last year with square foot gardening, you cram unusually high amounts of veg into each square foot. Goes against traditional garden spacing ideas as for example you put 16 onions into 1 sq ft but it really works. Here's a link: http://www.squarefootgardening.com
Im in Surrey, UK and my best cropping crops in this method included tomatoes, cucs, French beans, onions and courgettes. I also added a tall 3-stick pyramid for sweet peas to grow up in the middle to attract pollinators, and some nasturtiums in the bottom to distract aphids.
I've never grown asparagus but I hear it's tricky. Monty Don himself struggled last year.
Ps-potatoes, perpetual spinach and beets worked for me too (1 potato / sq ft, or 3 spinach, 9 beets)