Vegetable patch - Help

First of all, let me introduce myself. I'm Stoney from Chesterfield in Derbyshire and totally new to gardening due to me only being 16. At the moment with the price of food rising I've decided to help my mum by creating a vegetable patch on a square of land on our garden where a shed used to be.

Needless to say the soil to me looks absolutely terrible and i'm not sure if i'll actually be able to grow anything on it so I needed a second opinion (Thats where you guys come into it :thumb.

I began today spending an hour in the back garden removing a lot of rubbish and stuff in this area and dug a little but up by using a fork and trying to make the soil finer with the fork again. Have I made the right start or is there something else I should've looked to do first?

I've got the compost ready but i'm not sure if I just put all of that on top or do I mix it in with the soil?


Thats how it is looking after an hours work, the soil looks screwed to me.

Where do I go from here guys?
Any help would be much appreciated as you can tell i'm totally new to this.

Stoney.


Looks much better after the second day, soil has had its first bit of rain on it for years.

 

Hi Stoney, welcome to the forum. Looks like whoever put the shed up used a load of quarry waste for the base, that's a mix of sand, stone and clay and anything else that was dug out at the time of quarrying. As it is I doubt you'll get much to grow in it. So you have the choice of growing in containers or a raised bed, or dig the stuff out completely and infill with compost and manure mix. If you could make some wooden frames at least 8" deep (deeper the better) you could try your hand at 'square foot' gardening (Google it, it's really a useful way of growing in a small area). Whichever way you choose, good luck with your project.

 

Dont lose heart, mix in loads and loads of cheap compost.

 

Hello Stoney
I'm more than twice your age and still pretty inexperienced!
So all I can do is tell you what I'd do - but I can't guarantee it's right!
I would continue to dig as you are doing. Loosen up all the soil and keep hitting the lumps of soil with a fork or spade, break it up as much as you can, and remove as many big stones as you can. If you can dig deeper than a fork's depth, so much the better. Then spread the compost all over, as much as you can get hold of, and mix it through the soil to about a fork's depth, by push the fork all the way in then lifting and turning the forkful of soil, a couple of times on each spot.
Then I would divide the patch into four, to do a crop rotation and to group together things that like the same conditions - and make narrow walkways between the patches. Do a web search on crop rotation for more details! But basically by rotating, you can group together things with the same needs, avoid building up soil pests, create the right soild conditions and avoid exhausting the soil.
Roots and beets and salads can go straight into your composted soil, as they don't like things too rich, but things like courgettes, tomatoes, peas and beans will do better if you dig in a good dose of manure where they're going. It's also helpful to "plant" an upended bottle with the bottom cut off, at the same time as you plant things like courgettes, so you can get water straight to the roots and not waste any.
Hope that doesn't sound over-patronising but I've tried to include all the things I had to ask people about when I started!
Best of luck

 

Stoney:thumb:Respect!
Your Mum must be very proud of you helping out in such a practical way.

All advice given is sound. Just get stuck in and think of the rewards you'll reap

Well done!!

 

Thanks for all your help guys as I said in the first post it is much appreciated

It rained a bit here last night so the ground at the moment is pretty ideal for digging it up and fining the big clumps of soil as much as I can so i'm going to get myself out there now. :thumb:

 

Well done Stoney, wish my lad would show some interest but he is the 5th generation son of Nurserymen and as I have found what they will do in the way of work on the nursery is one thing but they do not do their own or their mother's gardens, his father was the same alas.

 

Looking at the ground............I'd build a shed on it.

 

Prastio, might be an idea to keep quiet if you have'nt got anything positive to say. The guy needs encouragement not shooting down. Is'nt that what this forum is all about.

 

Hi Stoney. Stick with it mate and in no time you`ll be growing your own ! Cheers...freddy.

 

I can't offer you any practical help either but would like to offer plenty of encouragement :-) I now wish I had been more interested in gardening when my greenfingered grandparents had still been with us.

Keep up the good work :-)

 

Keep it up stoney,theres nothing better than eating your own produce:thumb:Mix in plenty of compost and hoss muck ,and good luck,enjoy.

 

Well said, O2.:thumb:

 

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. Don't worry Prastio, I might be 16 but i'm mature and sensible enough to not let posts like that get to me, when I want something then I will get it and I want this for my mum :thumb:

The patch is looking better already, I think the rain helped it a lot as you can see in my first post.

What are you guys growing atm? Can you grow absolutely anything at any time of the year or is there certain plants you should be growing at different times?

Just looking at growing some veg for a Roast and 'Salady' plants such as Lettuce etc. Would there be any problems in growing them?

 

Stoney, anything you grow this year is a bonus, because what you are doing really, is preparing the ground for next year when you will have the full benefit of the work you are doing now. Grow whatever your mam and you want. The plants have 2 chances. But, don`t get disheartened if something fails. There is always next year to get it right. You are doing well lad, stick with this site and you`ll do even better. :thumb::D