Thinking of a veggie border

I think you have enough to keep you occupied this year FC. Time to get to know your GH. All those 1000's of seeds are gonna keep you short of sleep!! Hope you are chilling out with a nice cuppa or summat....

 

With the allotment idea you do as much as you can handle and cover the rest of the ground until it's needed so that things dont get out of control. I took a second plot on this year whilst one third of my first plot is still uncultivated...but it will be in years to come..probably next year.

With the raised bed idea I gave you it does not have to contain veg, you could build it and plant it with flowers initially then slowly start to plant a few veg as time goes by...besides...if you have a new greenhouse than those flowers you'll grow from seed next year will need somewhere to go to grow.

Cost of my raised bed a few posts up...£10 plus a few screws and some work for a bed 12ft x 3ft x 3ft.

Steve...

 

Hiya FC.

I think you're doing the right thing by not taking on more than you're comfortable with. Obviously, growing in bags/containers is a compromise, so although you will get some worthwhile crops, it restricts you to certain types of veg.
Regarding having spuds and toms separated, I wouldn't worry too much. Assuming you'll be growing 'earlies', then they will be long gone by the time blight comes along.

Cheers...Freddy

 

Have a look at your local council's website. Ours do free givaways of the compost they've made from the collected green waste a couple of times a year. With the added bonus of free cutlery, egg cups, plastic lids etc.

 

Sorry I just scanned quickly through this as I'm trying to catch up Might have missed bits, but here goes.

Mint was mentioned, I reckon that will be fine. It wont grow quite as quick without much sun but it will do ok.

Rosemary was also mentioned. To be honest I think it would struggle. Rosemary likes full sun. Its almost a prerequisite.

I've done a mixed border in my back garden this year, with limited success, but I've found that the runner beans are doing absolutely fine. The ones in the sunnier part are probably a couple of weeks ahead of the ones in the shady side, but they're all doing ok.

Here's a twist. I have several courgette plants out there too. All doing miserably except one. The one that is doing really well is actually in the shady end of the border.

However there's another twist. The soil at the shady end of the border is better quality than at the sunny end. You see I bought a load of mushroom compost last year and had some left at the beginning of this year when I dug the border. While puzzling over the distinct difference in 'health' between either end of the border, the penny dropped. I remembered I'd run out of mushroom compost after doing the shady end, so the sunny end was still the poor soil as it was when I bought the place. The moral I guess is that the condition of the soil is at least as important as the light level.

 

Yes, your at a disadvantage if you do not have access to a timber mill for the larch slabs I used to build the bed, but pallet wood would be in abundance in your area and would do the same job...probably around the back of your diy shed. And you should have a stables local to you with a free supply of manure so that should suffice there. The bed in my photo above is, in that picture filled with manure only. On top of that I just layered around 2 or 3 inches of topsoil from the garden and when I first planted it I made sure I filled holes for the plants with compost...so I barely used half a sack to plant it up. Now I keep filling the bed up with grass clippings, old grow bags or hanging basket compost to keep it topped up, as the level of soil in there will drop year on year as the manure rots down. It's kind of like lasagne planting.

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/lasagnagarden.htm

I'm big on recycling (like many on here) and to that end it generally means you have to work at it and think outside the box a little. I get compostible materials from my neighbours, the guy that cuts a few lawns down our road drops a few bags of grass clippings off every now and then, and I go out and collect leaves for leaf mould every autumn...it all goes on the beds along with shredded newspaper, used compost and kitchen waste. You'd be amazed at how quickly you can fill a big area with this free material. You can even try freecycle for a supply of manure and/or topsoil.

Just some ideas for you FC.

Steve...

 

Guy down the road from me was building a conservatory/extension. He gave me his topsoil as it saved him the cost of having it carted away - drove round in the dumper and tipped it just where I needed it! Might be worth knocking on some doors, or leafletting neighbours, in case anyone is about to do some building work. Make sure you don't get their sub-soil too though!