My Home-grown Journey

SuzieMum

Good plan. Would it help, if there was a frost, to put some fleece on the ground over them? Or am I going a bit mad here, just an idea...(and if it might work I will put my onions in too!!)

Patchwork_Quilt

Hi HaribOuk - as to sawfly, I've found that our bushes have always produced fruit even though the leaves were eaten completely by the little blighters. The only thing I have been able to do with them is keep vigilant and pick them off as soon as I spot them.

Rasps need to be in a fairly sunny spot against a wall. You have lots of lovely walls. I've put them at the back of roses before now.

skysky69

I see on the Aldi website that this Thursday is the day they are having a green fingers day - seeds, compost, bulbs and fruit trees. It is the fruit trees that I am particularly interested as I have wanted for ages a peach tree but they are about £20 plus in the garden centres around here and in Aldis this week for a fiver :j . Last year I bought some of the windowsill propagators and they were great.

JayneC

Hi everyone,

Hope you don't mind if I join in.

I've been inspired to create a veg plot from my previous flower border!!!

i only have a tiny yard and decided I prefer veg! I'm hopimg to get some chickens too(hope they don't eat all my veg, tho)
I've separated it into 3 little plots so I can rotate them an planted some carrots, onions and garlic at the weekend.
I've also moved my raspberry canes out of pots into the ground and planted some earliy potatoes in pots. I'm hoping to get a couple of fruit trees for pots too so I see a trip to Aldi coming on;) . I have an apple tree in a pot but don't get much fruit form it (grand total of 2 last year:rotfl: )

I've sowed some tomatoes, cucumber, basil, parsley and spring onions indoors to plant out later and have a trough on my kitchen window sill for lettuce and radish.

Just hope i keep enthusiasm through the summer! And I can find room for everything!!

betterlife

well, with this lovely weather ive been really busy in the garden the last couple of days. i already have a fenced off veg patch which is probably 8ft x 8ft last year i grew rhubarb, blueberry, gooseberry, runnerbeans and sweetcorn in there but this year it will just be for fruit, so we have 5 rhubarb, 16 raspberry canes, blueberry, gooseberry, and i will be attaching rows of guttering to the 6ft fence and planting all my strawberries in them. my veg this year which was going to be grown all over the place has now been given an area. at the top of my garden which is surrounded by 6ft fences was an area of tree`s, some half dead, some tatty, bushes but awkwardly positioned as the garden originally had a hedge all around but when the fence was put up in its place it ment the tree`s where about 2ft away from fence, anyway have spent last 2 days chopping it all down, am borrowing one of those tree shredders at wkend so at the end i will have and area of about 370square foot to grow all my veg!!!. i am so pleased as originally i had to much veg i wanted to grow and not enough space, now im thinking what else can i grow. my plan by the way is to be self seficient in fruit and veg for me , hub and 4 kids. ive also planted 15 tomato seeds, 18 pea`s, and 16 leek so far, they are covered with clingfilm then newspaper and are on top of my kitchen cupboards hopefully germinating. have loads to do, hopefully my veg patch will be all ready by mid/end of march so i can start planting. so exciting. x

harib0uk

betterlife wrote: »

sweetcorn
......snip.....

oh how did you get on with the sweet corn and how did you grow it? how many plants and what sort of crop did you get?


Sounds like a really nice garden with lots of space to work with... can you post some pictures?

betterlife

harib0uk wrote: »

oh how did you get on with the sweet corn and how did you grow it? how many plants and what sort of crop did you get?


Sounds like a really nice garden with lots of space to work with... can you post some pictures?

ok sounded better than it actually was, we only had 3 sweetcorn plants, but had 2 or 3 corn off each plant which grew suprisingly well. we only moved to this house last april and by the time we did the veg patch it was getting to late to grow most , i was also due to have 4th baby in july so as you can imagine was very big. i only grew the sweetcorn as when at a garden centre i found the plants already 2ft high and thought at least it would be something for this year. i helped someone with an allotment previously and we grew sweetcorn there i they always did well. im thinking i might grow more this year as although you dont get massives of crop they taste great and as i will have more space what the hec!. ive been reading about the square foot gardening, i found a guide through one of the stickys on greenfinger and it tells you how to make the most of your space and how much of a veg you can grow to a sq ft, which is great as im quite new to this. i will take some pics tomorrow and post. x

skysky69

Sorry to hijack the thread but does anyone know how I can improve the soil quality of clay and anything that could help a garden that is really really wet. I was thinking of trying to perhaps plant a couple of trees that might draw quite a bit of water out of the ground around the flower beds, they are still completely waterlogged at the moment. I think i is a high water table anyway and really thick clay soil We actually have a lovely sized garden that we could grow a lot in, but due to crap soil quality and poor drainage, I did most of last year in pots or the greenhouse.

harib0uk

Granny gave the little one some sweetcorn seeds a couple of years ago, so i'm thinking of giving them a go, but as we don't really have any ground to put them in, I'm looking at doing them in a 3x3 bucket grid... from what I've read this is the best way for them to pollinate in grid form. 18 cobs, if I get two off each plant, would keep us going . I don't think we ate that many last year - though I do prefer them cooked on the bbq and last year was terrible for that!

harib0uk

skysky69 wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread but does anyone know how I can improve the soil quality of clay and anything that could help a garden that is really really wet. I was thinking of trying to perhaps plant a couple of trees that might draw quite a bit of water out of the ground around the flower beds, they are still completely waterlogged at the moment. I think i is a high water table anyway and really thick clay soil We actually have a lovely sized garden that we could grow a lot in, but due to crap soil quality and poor drainage, I did most of last year in pots or the greenhouse.

I'm just a beginner my self but I would suggest digging up your veg patch and mixing half the clay with some sand/shingle to aid drainage then fill the patch back in. The other half of clay I'd mix with a compost sand mix and then also dig in some manure.

I'm sure someone with more experience will come along and point you in the right direction