Planting Plans For One Person

mardatha

:rotfl: I once saw a goat eat a banana in my sons pocket --through his coat I just hauled the OH out to lookat the prospective veg patch..its about 18ft from side to side and 8ft deep from front to back. Its a horrible overgrown mess with wrack, baby trees, nettles, a roll of chicken wire, and next doors compost heap which fell over into it :mad: Underneath is sand mixed with owl poo mixed with pea gravel then soil. Around it is a line of half buried bricks and rotten wood spars. Isnt this going to be FUN !
And just to prove how much fun... OH went inside in a huff because he "was getting his shoes dirty" ..:eek: My god, dirt in a garden ! How awful! :lipsrseal

Sylvan

mardatha wrote: »

next doors compost heap which fell over into it

Ooh - free compost

18'x8' of owl poo??? You keep owls?:cool:

What's your soil like? You may yet be grateful for that sand and pea gravel.

Poor OH. Mine doesn't notice the dirt on his shoes till after he's tracked it up the stairs, into the bedrooms and bathroom.:whistle:

Nettles are really good compost activators (but don't put in the seeds or roots).

mardatha

Used to keep owls, got last pair away a couple of months ago as we havent the health now to clean out aviaries. Pulled them down and this is the patch I want for veg.
Soil is rubbish, just got stuff to stay alive this summer using a sort of terrace type method of packing some compost/feed into a wee hollow round plants then hemming it in with stones. For the first time ever I had pansies live ! yaaay ! Some things grow well , lemon balm & lavender are doing ok but I feed them all summer. Feverfew drives me mad, it springs up everywhere and I hate it. Aquilegia self seeds all over the place, is lovely - and my pride & joy is a lilac bush I got off ebay that DIDNT DIE !
YET.
Re the veg patch, should I just get the son to fork it all well together every time he visits and it isnt frozen ? The husband is useless , not interested and thinks gardens are ok if well weedkilled and concreted ...

Sylvan

Ugh, feverfew. That awful smell!

Do you have anything you can cover the weeds with? Black plastic, old carpet, newspaper and cardboard weighted down with stones...
Might as well weaken them while you wait for your son to come and dig them out - and you'll be warming the soil.

How well has your neighbour's ex-compost heap rotted? If you bury it, about a spade deep, in the bed it will help.

Generally, in the rest of the garden, what's your soil like? If it's very sandy you'll probably need to add compost or muck. If it's clay dig in that sand and gravel (though muck and compost would be a bonus).

mardatha

Good idea re the black plastic, I will get onto that TY. The soil is light and pwdery and dries out fast, no clay here. I live on a hillside & the water runs away fast. I have used a lot of compost in the past, it seems to help a lot.:)

2cats1kid

OMG! Who mentioned drawers? Was going to put an old wicker chest of drawers into the car to take to the recycling centre tomorrow - that's three small raised beds and one larger one, and because they are wicker they will look nice to start with and then decompose naturally. Genius! Thank you!!!

suegoo

Yategirl wrote: »

not sure whether to put the info I have here or in weezl's 50pthread(!) maybe both??!

OK.... Mel B (author of sq ft gardening) reckons that 3 4x4 beds will provide food for one person for most of the year. Having done a bit of searching around and reading various websites/books etc.. I have found or estimated the following spacing for each veg type (based on 12" spacing = 1 plant; 6" = 4; 4" = 9 and 3"= 16):

broad beans 9/sqft
french dw beans 4
runner beans 4
beetroot 16
sprouting broccoli 1
brussel spr 1
cabbages 1 (but if you grow smaller varieties you can squeeze more in so may be 3-4)
calabrese 4
carrots 16
cauliflower 1
celery 1
chinese cabage 1
garlic 9
kale 1
leeks 4 for large 16 if you pick v.small
lettuce 4
onion 16 (pick smaller rather than huge)
parsnip 4
pea ?16
potato 1 (i think growing in pots would be better if you choose to grow)
radish 16
shallots 4
leafbeet/spinach/chard 4
swede 1
sweetcorn 1 (if you stagger and grow a smaller type you could squeeze 3 in)
tomato 1
turnip 4



Just wanted to say that you need at least 2 sweetcorn for pollination.

mardatha

will somebody stay in here beside us newbies and guide us month by month on when to plant what ? I WANT MY MUM !

harib0uk

suegoo wrote: »

Just wanted to say that you need at least 2 sweetcorn for pollination.

Thank you for mentioning this, is it ok for them to be the same variety? i assume so.

Also what kind of space does sweetcorn need and how many cobs would you get from two plants?

mardatha wrote: »

will somebody stay in here beside us newbies and guide us month by month on when to plant what ? I WANT MY MUM !

As mentioned in the first post there are planting plans (by mum of 4)... it is for an allotment though but you can still use it to see when things are being planted and work from that.


Oh and i'm a newbie too, looking to try some grow your own this year but will mostly be in pots and hanging baskets as we have little room, so i'm reading this thread all the time!

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

will somebody stay in here beside us newbies and guide us month by month on when to plant what ? I WANT MY MUM !

Ohmegawd Mardatha:rotfl: :rotfl: - well I'll manage without mine anyways....as I'm much more practical than she is (gawdluvher ).

But I'll echo your sentiments lass....:D

Well - that was my second laugh for the day...the first one being a seagull I spotted at lunchtime doing a War Dance:rotfl: :rotfl: I've never seen a seagull standing there stomping up and down on the spot before now - and I was killing myself laughing at this bird shooting sideways looks at me whilst stomping up and down on the spot....think it must be a technique they use to get food....stomp, stomp and then the beak goes down pecking around in the soil...stomp, stomp and then the beak goes down again pecking around....perhaps it was using its feet to "drum up" a bit of lunch for itself. Stomp...there's another worm or summat surfacing....stomp...there's another one...:D

Now come on Mardatha.....you beat the drums and I'll start the "stomping" and we might get a bit of food between us:D