Help MBE grow his dinner 2013.

Kantankrus_Mare

so you will be the perfect person to give me step by step tutorial on how to post a pic
have looked everywhere on site with no success

annie123

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

so you will be the perfect person to give me step by step tutorial on how to post a pic
have looked everywhere on site with no success

Took me ages to work out how to and I still struggle when I've not done it for a while.

Join photobucket and follow their instructions. Took a few posts till I worked out which code to post, but you'll get it and probably quicker than I did!

mrbadexample

It's the [IMG]code that you need. The old Photobucket used to automatically make my pictures the right size on upload, but the new "improved" version kindly makes them all massive so I have to edit each one before posting. Thanks Photobucket. :wall:[/img]

annie123

Parsnip question for John

East or west facing bed? both get midday sun but east has the big sycamore tree (still there even though they promised to get rid of it:mad:) blocking sun from 10.30 to 11.30am or more this year as it grows, west has dappled shade from 1.30-3.30 from alder and silver birch mini forest.

annie123

mrbadexample wrote: »

the new "improved" version kindly makes them all massive so I have to edit each one before posting. Thanks Photobucket. :wall:

Good, not just me then

Kantankrus_Mare

dont hold much hope of me getting the hang of it.

Will take some pics of plot next week and have a go with photobucket.

no doubt i will be back with more questions.

seeking_happines

hi to everyone ...am new here, just a quick question ?
im just clearing the greenhouse today and i also have a very small bit of garden to use , i have not started to plant anything yet so was woundering what do i start with first? as i need to grow all the veg for my family (there are 5 of us) money is raly tight as i have been very unwell for the last year or two, and am now getting back on my feet!!!!,i do have a 15 yr old who will do some of the hard work! but not all.....please any advice would be great

jkelly90

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

annie123 wrote: »

Welcome to the thread. Pictures do help a lot but as you're new you won't be post any yet so you need to waffle a bit more.
Worrying that you killed a Jade plant, almost indestructible. Leave the new one near a window and ignore it for a few months then soak in water and ignore for more moths, repeat through the year.

Where in the UK are you?

I live in the middle of Bristol.

I know, my friend was pretty surprised that I managed to kill it! I think I have my mum's inate ability to kill every plant that passes through the front door!

Which way does your garden face? Do you get plenty of sun?

My back garden faces North East and my front garden faces South West. The area I live in is made up of a lot of old four storey Edwardian properties (my building included) and there are a lot of trees and bushes around my property, to the point that I couldn't get a Sky dish installed as the line of sight to the satellite was too obstructed! Having said that, I do get a fair amount of sunlight...although I guess I won't really know just how much until the weather gets better.

I also have an area with slate chips next to my front door that has a lot of old plant pots, I'm assuming that the people who lived there before grew things there as some have labels like "tomatoes" on them, although they look pretty dead now! But I would say it probably gets more sunlight so I thought it might be a good idea to plant some stuff there too.

Hi

Find out where your sunny areas are, shady areas, wet areas.
Dig a hole and look at your soil - is it claggy (clay-ey), sandy, rocky...?
Try and identify what's already there - be it weeds, old flowerbeds, etc. Remember there might be things that haven't regrown yet.

Then report back

I do think that there is a border of roses that don't look completely dead, so I'm hoping they might flower again...what time of year are they likely to do so?

There's definitely some weeds, but also a big fruit tree, I think it's an apple tree judging by the half rotten fruit on the ground around it, and my mum's boyfriend seems to think the bush next to it is something like bay (it's leaves are very fragrant, not sure if they are edible though!).

I shall have a dig over the weekend (providing the rain keeps off long enough!) and report back my findings.

djohn2002uk

annie123 wrote: »

Parsnip question for John

East or west facing bed? both get midday sun but east has the big sycamore tree (still there even though they promised to get rid of it:mad:) blocking sun from 10.30 to 11.30am or more this year as it grows, west has dappled shade from 1.30-3.30 from alder and silver birch mini forest.

I've never bothered about that. The only things I plant in a particular direction is Runner Beans and my 6ft peas, always north to south, and my rows of Parsnips will be in the same direction with my peas and beans on the east side of them so they don't shade them most of the day.

mrbadexample

seeking_happines wrote: »

hi to everyone ...am new here, just a quick question ?
im just clearing the greenhouse today and i also have a very small bit of garden to use , i have not started to plant anything yet so was woundering what do i start with first? as i need to grow all the veg for my family (there are 5 of us) money is raly tight as i have been very unwell for the last year or two, and am now getting back on my feet!!!!,i do have a 15 yr old who will do some of the hard work! but not all.....please any advice would be great

Welcome.

Start by deciding:

1. What you like to eat.
2. What is expensive to buy.

You have limited space for 5 people, so you need to maximise what you can get from it. So, for example, there's not much point in growing onions in your "small bit of garden" when you can buy 5kg from Morrisons for £2.

Similarly, if you grow cauliflower, it's quite difficult to grow (in my experience) & takes up a lot of room for the amount of food you get.

How big is your greenhouse? Tomatoes would seem to be a must, and perhaps peppers and cucumbers. Salad leaves are relatively easy to grow, you can cut what you need and let them regrow, plus it's ludicrously expensive to buy.

Have a think about what you fancy and let us know.