Hi,

Andy here , joined here to see if I can gain any hints, tips, guidance on developing my vegetable patch.

Patch started life in 2009 after a few changes in my Garden (got to say I'm proud of me new fence) :

Garden Project 2009 - Taylor-Lloyd Inc.

The veg results weren't that great but I put it down to being damp & cold up North, and it was the 1st time.

So and have read the books over winter, and bought what I'd say is a Polytunnel starter to see if I can get a little better.

Am currently just putting the thing up and aggressively securing (thanks for the advice) & though I know I'm a little late in the sowing/planting season. Just want to see what I can plant & Grow with my bare hands.

Garden Project 2010 - Taylor-Lloyd Inc.

Thoughts are along the lines of:

Sweetcorn, Peas, Spuds, Carrots, Cucumber, Onions, Salad Leaves & Sweet & Hot Peppers.

Also going to look at Succession this time out, as what can you do with so many Cucumbers....

So will keep trawling through the Forum & post a few submissions, to see if I can 'put food on table' as they say....

Andy

Hello, welcome to the Vine and very, very well done with your garden. Happy growing.

Hi there Andy- and welcome to the Vine!
Looks like you had a busy year in the garden in 2009, fingers crossed for an even more productive 2010- the polytunnel should certainly help!

Great to see your daughter is getting stuck in too!

Hi and welcome. I just had a look at your blog (which is lovely) and a few things occur to me:

1) your patch looks shady in a lot of the pics?

2) "Have planted the first seedlings of Sunflowers and Tomato's and unfortunately I don;t think they were strong enough as the birds soon had them" Birds don't eat toms and sunflowers, it was prolly slugs. They would have had your carrots too

3) Go easy with the chicken pellets. It's high in nitrogen, which is great for leaf growth (and brassicas) but you want a high-potash feed for fruiting plants. If a plant like pumpkin gets too much nitrogen, it will produce loads of leaves at the expense of fruit

4) what happened to your strawbs? Were they too wet and cold? Did the slugs get them?

5) cukes do sprawl a bit, unless you train them up some canes

Mrs Shed,

Thanks for that:

1) It does get some sun probably when I took the pics, but I am limited with the space I have.
2) It was the slugs, I found a few plump one through the year.
3) Off the store for Pot-Ash, it's things like this that I need to learn, I've started to add stuff into a little book to help me remember, cheers.
4) Think it was the Slugs & the bird, going to make a frame this year to hang them from, they are in the Conservatory just getting ready.
5) Another of the things I learned, I've more bamboo than you can shake a stick at this year.

Thanks for this.
There are trees at the back pof the houseis a wood to the back of the houseare tree

Ideally, fruit and veg should be in full sun, south facing. If that's not possible, you may find you are limited in what you can grow.

You don't need to buy potash (aka tomato food), you can make your own if you wish, with comfrey leaves (there are lots of older threads on here about that)

Also, remember that you don't feed the soil, you feed the plants (when they are beginning to fruit). What I mean is, don't go sloshing loads of fertiliser onto your soil all the time.

The same with watering: you won't need to water all the time, esp. if your plot is a little on the shady side

Welcome ATL11

Make sure you secure the polly, the thread below shows what happened to mine last year.

Guess It Was A Bit Windy Last Night

That said no harm done and it's back up ready for another season!

Hi Andy - like the blog, well done you on the bed you made, it looks very well constructed. Good luck with the coming season!

Hi and welcome to the vine. Hope this years growing is brilliant!

Hello Andy and welcome to the vine, Loved looking at your blog, your garden looks great, I keep saying I'm going to set one off (Blog) but I never get round to it.

Hi Andy - wow, you've set a high standard there - looking forward to seeing your blog as the growing season progresses! And welcome to the vine!

welcome
well done on keeping your blog up to date

Helloo and welcome from me too.