New House, First Garden, Where to Start?

We have just (2,5 weeks ago!) moved into a gorgeous house here in Scotland, which comes with a garden that makes all my dreams come through!

However, after having been on the internet for too many hours, I realise it's quite a struggle to find anything on 'how to continue/start in someone else's old garden' instead of a 'how to start from scratch'.

Therefore, I am hoping for some general instructions on where to start, or what you would do if you were us (a total beginner!). I am adding some photos to give you all a better idea:


^ We have two of these large vegetable patches. I know the previous owner used to plant lots and I remember seeing Brussels Sprouts here when we went to see the house late 2019.


^ Here is a close-up.


^ We also have an additional smaller patch which clearly needs some cleaning up, but I think the plant in the corner is rhubarb? (Probably the only one I could recognise cause of the pink ha ha).


^ Then there's a greenhouse in which they've left their pots and planters. Most used to have tomatoes in them. The dirt feels bone dry in these.

So, really, we just don't know where to start to prep properly to be able to start our own vegetables etc if that makes sense. We are not sure whether to wait and see what comes up, etc?

Personally, the dream is to have a variety of vegetables and fruits for cooking and baking and sharing in the neighbourhood. Additionally I would love to have a corner of the garden for cut flowers (there is lots of grass patches available that aren't in the pictures), or sprinkle an area with wildflower seeds. We are conscious that the patches are large and we don't want to overwhelm ourselves either, so we may leave one bare, if that is an option?

Very keen to hear your thoughts and support! I'd be happy to document the journey for you as well.

Thanks, and stay safe,
Nickee

 

Thanks for your response @Loofah - but how on earth do I find out what is where? Ha ha. I'm not even sure if I am right about spotting the rhubarb and that one is PINK.

Luckily the whole garden is south-facing, so that will be helpful to start. Will start scaling it out though, thank you!

 

Some passing thoughts:

Conventional advice in new gardens is to do as little as possible in first year, and document (olden days="Notebook", nowadays="Mobile Phone Photo" ) what comes up. For soil which doesn't have anything in it (veg patch), as distinct from "flower borders", it would be better to have a go I think

Veg should be rotated. Typically a 3 years system, minimum. So you have three beds, and what you grow in Bed A in Year one you then grow in Bed B in Year 2. More then 3 beds means more than 3 years rotation and is better.

Reason is: different vegetable families have different soil preparation requirements and feeding habits. So rotation allows recovery from feeders of one type, and replace them next-year with crops that are suitable for "follow on". Also disease occurring in Crop-A in Bed-A in Year 1 is not going to see that crop again for 3 years (more if the rotation is longer than 3 years) so good chance for it to die out / not infect that crop again next year.

And once you go down that route including your Cut Flowers in the rotation increase the rotation-years

I wouldn't. Much harder to do well than it seems. Most certainly "sprinkle some seed" ain't going to achieve what you would hope it would. My definition of a wild flower meadow would be more along the lines of "Fully fledged well prepared seed bed at the outset and judicious selection of varieties to maintain a good balance, and continuous careful management to reduce soil fertility ..."

An allotment size (originally defined, I think, as "the space required to feed a family of 4") is 250 sq.m. (approx same as a doubles tennis court).

I don't think it is unreasonable to take that on all-in-one-go, but my Year One advice to Newbies would be to avoid failure - its very disheartening for a newbie, and almost inevitable to have some mishaps, and "giving up after one year" would be tragic. So if reducing space means you have greater chance of success then that would be prudent. Folk here, me included , will have plenty of suggestions on WHAT to grow, as a Newbie, which will give you reasons to pat yourself on your back and reduce chance of failure

Yup, in olden days leaving a field "fallow" was common, to give it time to recover. I think you have three choices.:

Do nothing: in that instance I would cover it, so weeds don't grow. Plastic would do, or cardboard (but you'll have to cover that with something to stop it blowing away. If you can cover Cardboard with compost then you can plant straight through it - in Autumn or Next Year). That is the so called "No Dig" method.

A Big Crop. By big I mean very few plants, each of which is massive and covers a big area . Again I would cover the soil (to illiminate work weeding, and retain soil moisture / reduce evaporation), and then make planting holes (through the cover, and filled with rich compost) at the requisite planting distance, and plant into that. Squash, Pumpkins, that type of thing, Each plant will cover a huge area with leaf and you will get a "Fruit" Crop that you can store/eat overwinter, and apart from watering if ground is covered its a zero maintenance crop.

Sow a Green Manure. Sow the ground with suitable varieties of seed which will then be dug-in before it flowers. That will improve soil fertility. You don't need to do anything to it until you dig it in (but weeding it so that the stuff you sowed thrives, would help of course, and it will need watering during a drought)

 

P.S. For a newbie vegetable garden, this year, your biggest challenge may be getting any seeds at all. Everyone is thinking Armageddon and growing their own food. If you are set on doing that I would discuss here what you plan to grow and then buy seeds post haste.

 

Hi @Nickee, welcome to the forum As the others have said, hard as it is I would counsel patience this year, especially if you think the previous owners were big gardeners - it's likely there is a lot of established (and hopefully well thought out!) planting already. You're right, it's definitely rhubarb in that picture, and I would be suspicious that the woody plant behind it is likely a soft fruit bush of some sort - and there may well be other surprises that emerge over the next few months.

If you're interested in a combination of cut flowers and veg growing then I would highly recommend looking at Sarah Raven's website; her shop is on the pricey side but there are lots of good advice/how to articles, and at the moment she's doing a fair few videos too.

 

I buy seed from Sarah Raven, some rather more choice varieties that i can't find elsewhere. But, yeah, I haven't bought anything else more pricey from S.R. but I have definitely knicked some of her colour combination suggestions from her catalogue.

 

Yes 100% agree at full price, though I have found some good bargains in the end-of-season sales, and I've rarely had an issue with the plant quality even when they're theoretically past their best. And their customer service is exceptional; a couple of years ago on a whim I bought a clematis as a 9cm pot from them in the sale at 50% off. The following spring it was showing absolutely no sign of life, so I sent them an email asking for advice/how long I should give it; after a short back and forth during which it still failed to thrive they just sent me out a replacement plant, no questions asked - except the replacement came as a 3L mature plant