Newbie veg gardener! MERGED

stilernin

"and nothing grows there, barely even any weeds."

Sounds good to me! There are many things that you can plant in a space scraped out in the chipping. Tomatoes, courgettes, sweetcorn, broccoli ......... in fact almost anything.

Move the chippings and dig the hole for the plant, fill hole with water, and when drained put in the plant and back fill with the soil. This will give your plant a good start. For routine watering, just water close to the plant. The chippings will also prevent the moisture from the surrounding soil evaporating.

Year by year, the chippings will eventually compost down into the soil. Think of a forest floor.

Work with what you have rather than making work for yourself

Doom_and_Gloom

Just a note. If you do grow courgette in the square garden format you need to buy the right kind to grow upwards. Courgette black forest F1 is a courgette variety that you can grow upwards. The bush variety can cost you up to 3ft by 3ft each!

Stilernin I think I'll have to buy wood chippings so I don't have to worry about weeding as much then. Thank you for the good idea.

Blakey1982

Hi All

I am total newbie to gardening and growing things but am eager to get started, I am after some ideas of a good book or literature of some kind to get me started.

Kind of like an idiots guide if you see what I mean. I've always been very much into gardens and planting but never growing things.

Hope to here from you soon and i'm sure i'll be posting many silly questions in the future

libbyc3

hi,
fellow newbie gardener here!
alan titchmarsh - how to garden parts 1 and 2 - they are currently my bible!

Purse_String

If you are growing fruit & veg there are some videos on the RHS website if that helps. Later on, you could look up recipes to use up surpluses and think about storage. (collect jars, tubs, enough freezer space). Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Lotus-eater

Just read through this board and it will give you a barrel load of information.

Andi Clevely does a good book, Allotment gardening or something.

Hatster

I'm a bit concerned by how much light your plants are going to get - it does sound rather dark for some vegetables. I'd pick vegetables and fruit that are happy in semi-shade - this can be some great and otherwise expensive fruit like raspberries, rhubarb and blackberries. Spinach, rocket, chard, lambs lettuce, mizuma and chicory might also do well - in my experience, they're happy with some shade, and again can be expensive in the shops. You might also be ok with ordinary lettuce, perhaps if you get it off to a start in pots in the sun (not allowing it to dry out at all), and then planting it out in the shade. Best of luck!

hex2

JillD wrote: »

I looked in Tesco today and they had no seeds at all, so will have to try and get to Garden Centre at some point.

Hi Jill - good to see you posting.

I only started growing veg two years ago so mostly ignore me!

I assume cost is an issue so don't buy seeds in the garden centres - try wilkos, aldi, lidl or www.alanromans.com. Alan Romans are great, 50p a packet for most things and under a £ for P&P. The only issue is no instructions on the packets.

Too early to start outdoor toms off, they would be massive when you need to put them out. Wait another month and they wont need the heating on.

I would also go for courgettes, peas and runner beans - easy enough to grow as long as you water them every now and then. They all like soil with extra stuff in though - Dusty just posted about some tubs of chicken manure in Morrisons, and they also have seeds, and under the fresh flowers they soemtimes sell the old black tubs for 10 for £1 - drill a few holes and they are perfect pots for your tomatoes when they are bigger.


Hope this helps.

JillD_2

daska wrote: »

It's still worth investigating, especially if your husband already has a bad back and can't help, there are instructions on the site and most DIY stores are happy to give advice on how to do things - and you might not have to spend out too much on the makings of the bed if you can get stuff off freecycle.

wouldnt I have to do lke hammering and stuff with nails and things ooer I'm not too sure! We do have a hammer and we do have nails, that much I do know.
25cm thats what about 10 inches ? When I had my allotment I got some old pallets to use to build some edgings for beds, I couldnt even break the flipping things apart LOL
But yeah freecycle is a great idea.

So I would just build the frames, set it on the (undug hurrah) flatish plot and fill with something. Hmm that sounds a lot easier
Fill with what ? Compost ? Topsoil going begging from freecycle ? How would I tranposrt that OMG the questions are endless!!!!

But the thought of all that digging isnt appealing at all so maybe hubby;s back would stand up to a bit of hammering,
Mind you he resealed the bath yesterday and kicked the ball about with DS a bit but then he did say it was bothering him a lot last night

JillD_2

nodwah wrote: »

Don't know why they didn't do too well but give them a chance again for this year. Take off the old scabby looking and dead leaves if you haven't already and feed with something later in spring eg tomato food ( i feed virtually everything with this) Asda's own brand or similar is fine.

We've had such rubbish summer for the last 2 years I feel really sorry for people who've started growing and been put off!

And like was said everyone has disaters!

I am so impatient as well, I need to stick at it a bit more!
I will take off the dead bits as you suggest then (havent touched them since the vile strawberry, I was in the huff with them!) and feed later and mayeb just maybe ....