Where do I site my vegetable patch?

I have moved to mid-Wales and we have a bit of land now. I would like to start a vegetable and soft fruit patch. One potential area already has some raspberries on it but is on quite a slope - which I could terrace if necessary.

Another potential site I think the owners had plans for rockery there so there are quite a few rocks (which wouldn't be difficult to shift) and the soil seems quite clayey (is that a word?)

There are quite a few trees around and everywhere I look seems to get shade at some time of the day.

Does anybody have any tips about what I should look out for when deciding where to site my veg patch.

I think anywhere i go will require some sort of remedial action but any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks
Susanna

 

Close to the house - to make harvesting a pleasure, rather than a chore (ditto with watering etc.)

In a part of the garden that isn't on permanent show - unless you plant to keep it spotless

The more sun it gets the better

IMHO Clay, Slope, etc. don't matter overly in the grander scheme of things

 

Hi there. Some very good advice given there by Kristen. All I can add is, if you should decide to site the veg patch close to the house and it's a sloping site, then it might be worth trying to level the site somewhat as otherwise any rain that falls will tend to run away. Also, I would recommend using raised beds, which I personally find VERY easy to manage and productive.

Cheers...freddy.

 

Yes, I second raised beds too (mine are only heaped up, not formalised with smart wooden boards etc )

 

Thankyou for your helpful suggestions which all fit into what I was sort of thinking - so it's good to have the words of the oracle - gives me more courage of my convictions. We are going to dig out the old roots (I think the previous owners had started it as a shrubbery but it got out of hand) and rotavate the whole area and then put carpet on it until we can make the raised beds.

thanks

Susanna

 

"then put carpet on it"

Trouble with carpet is that it rots and all the fibres get in the way of looking after the bed for ever afterwards. (I'm not organic, but I do try to aim for zero chemicals, and I do rather think that Carpet, and indeed plastic sheet that gets to the point of rotting, is adding chemicals into the soil that will be absorbed by the plants - and then there is rubber-backed-carpet :( )

If you want to cover the plot to keep the weeds down I would go with weed suppressing fabric, plant through it in the first year (second two if you like) but get shot of it before it starts to break down.

 

Carpet is a no no 4 sure. Had some on our plot what we took over from some1, and it was a nightmare to get rid of it!
Avoid it if you can!

 

Ah - lucky neither of us had the energy to get the carpet out after flogging away with the digger and rotavator for most of the day. We have been rewarded with the most lovely black, crumbly soil. I am beginning to suspect that the area might have been a veg garden before it became an overgrown shrubbery.

Now we just need a strategy for terracing it. It's quite a big area. I've yet to measure it out but it seems to slope in at least two different directions. My darling husband - having been so confident about "just a few railway sleepers will do the trick" started making mutterings about "the scale of the task" towards the end of the afternoon :-)

Any terracing experts out there?