Hello from Gardening newbie

Cyril

Hello all,
I am inspired to begin my first attempt at growing some veggie / salad bits that I know I will eat,

Potatoes
Toms
Peas
Spring Onions
carrots
Lettuce

I would like to create one bed if possible but was wondering what the best soil would be for growing. I am hoping I don't need loads of different soils for this bunch to grow ?

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Farway

No need for different soils, for thousands of years plants have grown in what God provided, and all of the above will be just fine in any soil, but avoid adding any manure to the bit where carrots go, as they do not like manured soil, makes them "fork"

stevie_boy

the secret is to rotate crops where possibly every couple of years as the soil will attract for example cabbage root fly if you were to sow cabbages each year in same spot.

The best bit is TRY

I plant a variety of stuff that takes up space such as broad & french green beans, then plant carrot, bolthardy beetroot, radish etc in the gaps left, I also stagger sowings so they do not all mature at once.

If you like cauli be careful of the white butterfly as it will lay eggs on the underside of the leaves which quickly become baby caterpillers and decimate your plants so daily inspection is required.

I am still eating sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli sown last year as those mature xmas onwards.

Just go for it and ask as many questions as you wish, we are all learning, all of the time no matter how long we have been "at it" and as mentioned, very very satisfying to get into onto a plate to eat, somehow tastes much better.

stevie_boy

Forking can be caused by hard clay soil (it struggles so sends off another shoot to overcome), excessive nitrogen, or crowding in the row. Sandy loam is the ideal soil for carrots, but a heavier clay soil will also yield nearly perfect roots if it has been well-enough worked so that all hard clods in the top foot (30 cm) are broken up. The addition of compost or well-rotted manure is also very helpful. Manure should only be incorporated the autumn BEFORE planting, however, because the elevated nitrogen levels of newly-applied manure will also lead to root forking.

Farway wrote: »

No need for different soils, for thousands of years plants have grown in what God provided, and all of the above will be just fine in any soil, but avoid adding any manure to the bit where carrots go, as they do not like manured soil, makes them "fork"

Cyril

Thankyou very much, food for thought. Literally

Megansmum

Welcome cyril,

you are definitely in the right place, the guys and gals on here have been an INVALUABLE source of information for me since i started gmo last year!

Potatoes and carrots need depth so you will need a deep bed or just use a rubble sack to grow them in.

Toms, peas and lettuce don't need much under them so you could grow in grow bags or a bed just a few inches deep.

Onions are a mid-depth grower so anywhere in between the above i think!!

I hope i'm right on these - as i said, i only started last year - it is SO addictive!!

Have fun and remember no question is ever a daft one if you don't know the answer!

Good luck!

Furny

I'm a gardening neewbie too HELLO!, thanks for your thread answered some of my questions also,the people are so nice & helpful on here.

foreign_correspondent

Also, it is worth buying decent varieties - for tomatoes I would recommend Gardeners Delight - a small tomato with good flavour that crops well. A lot of people like Ferline too, it is tomato blight resistant. I have found little gem the best lettuce I have grown.

boultdj

Hello cyril,welcome to the world of growing your own.personaly i grow bush tomatoes,because i'm lazy and they don't need support.but all tomatoes need feeding well when they start to fruit.

stevie_boy

Where you see F1 nowadays it means hybrid and obviously it's a cross breed improving strain, an example would be an F1 cucumber not needing the gardener to cross pollinate to ensure fruiting.

Some example of Tomato types to get you going.

---

Growth Type B or C

B = Bush
C = Cordon

Fruit Type O, B, C, N or F1 (hybrid as above)

O = Ordinary
B = Beefsteak
C = Cherry
N = Novelty
F1 = Hybrid

So for example "Golden Sunshine" would be listed as CN (Cordon, Novelty)

Some of the popular ones are:
Ailsa Craig CO
Big Boy CB
Gardeners Delight CC
Moneymaker CO
Tumbler BC

Farway

boultdj wrote: »

Hello cyril,welcome to the world of growing your own.personaly i grow bush tomatoes,because i'm lazy and they don't need support.but all tomatoes need feeding well when they start to fruit.

If you like bush toms, try Tornado, F1 variety so not cheap, but it is certainly plant, ignore, pick