Newbie questions can you help please

**JimmerG** · 23-03-2009, 02:17 PM

No stupid questions at all!

You're on the right track with your waterlogged area, sand/grit/manure/compost will all help - especially if raises the level of the soil up a bit.

As to what you can plant - you might be a bit limited if its very shady, but getting the soil condition sorted out will help enormously. I think a lot of salad crops are OK in shady areas, as for other plants - Hostas do well in damp shady conditions.

Composters - stick in whatever you like so long as its compostable - manure would help to get everything going, and it would help draw worms up from the soil. Kitchen waste, grass cuttings, leaves, shredded paper just stick it all in!

Watering - I'll always water in the evening, it saves water loss through evaporation - and you don't want water sitting on leaves in the sun - they get scorched.

Hope some of this helps.....

J

**Capsid** · 23-03-2009, 02:18 PM

Just add lots of compost to improve the soil condition which will help drainage. As soon as you start planting veg in it they will start to draw the water out of the soil. If weeds can grow, so can veg! As long as the soil is not waterlogged then it will be OK.

There is no hard and fast rule to composting. My advice is to be patient and turn it every so often to aerate it.

With your wet soil you may not need to be watering that often. The best advice is when not to water which is during the hottest part of the day, although you may not need to worry so much with your shady area.

**catbud** · 23-03-2009, 02:22 PM

Ferns do nicely in shady areas if it's plants you're after?

**bebee** · 23-03-2009, 02:33 PM

Thank you so much for the Help i would prefer veg so may go on the line of salad crops as i didn't think of them. it would be a shame not to as the soil appears to be good at least i think it is because it is quite dark with lots of worms an crawley's.
Regarding the watering i had a elderly neighbour ( passed away now) who always swore that you should only ever water between a certain time of the day hence my question.
And the Composter delivery i can't wait for as with our council we reycle most things now ie paper/plastics/tins/bottles so this should make the household bin rubbish reduce more.

Originally posted by JimmerG View Post

No stupid questions at all!

You're on the right track with your waterlogged area, sand/grit/manure/compost will all help - especially if raises the level of the soil up a bit.

As to what you can plant - you might be a bit limited if its very shady, but getting the soil condition sorted out will help enormously. I think a lot of salad crops are OK in shady areas, as for other plants - Hostas do well in damp shady conditions.

Composters - stick in whatever you like so long as its compostable - manure would help to get everything going, and it would help draw worms up from the soil. Kitchen waste, grass cuttings, leaves, shredded paper just stick it all in!

Watering - I'll always water in the evening, it saves water loss through evaporation - and you don't want water sitting on leaves in the sun - they get scorched.

Hope some of this helps.....

J

Originally posted by Capsid View Post

Just add lots of compost to improve the soil condition which will help drainage. As soon as you start planting veg in it they will start to draw the water out of the soil. If weeds can grow, so can veg! As long as the soil is not waterlogged then it will be OK.

There is no hard and fast rule to composting. My advice is to be patient and turn it every so often to aerate it.

With your wet soil you may not need to be watering that often. The best advice is when not to water which is during the hottest part of the day, although you may not need to worry so much with your shady area.

**Eyren** · 23-03-2009, 03:24 PM

Leafy veg (lettuce, spinach, etc) seem to do best in shade - if you think about it, other crops need to get enough energy from the sun to grow leaves plus fruits/roots for harvesting, whereas leafy veg just need to grow leaves, so it takes less sunlight to produce a crop. And they usually prefer damp conditions because all those leaves mean a lot of evaporation.

Good luck with the composting - our green wheelie bin gets a bit full this time of year from all the pruning (in addition to the cardboard boxes and kitchen waste), but at least the black bin is not too bad

**bebee** · 27-03-2009, 01:16 AM

1. I wondered if anyone can give me some advice as i'm not to sure what to do I have a area of garden that was dug and throughly weeded ( as one can tell anyway) yesterday it is in a shady area of the garden nothing has ever been grow in it apart from weeds. but we have realised that this area is prone to moss and the soil is quite wet. is there anything i can put into the soil to dry it out a bit ?
i wondered about shredded paper or sand or am i totally on the wrong track with that idea.

Originally Posted by JimmerG
No stupid questions at all!

You're on the right track with your waterlogged area, sand/grit/manure/compost will all help - especially if raises the level of the soil up a bit.
I think i have decided With all the rain we have had the area of Garden as above may also need sand but realised i forgot to ask what type of sand should i use ?? as i now there are different sorts

**zazen999** · 27-03-2009, 08:16 AM

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...oil_29799.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...oil_29621.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...oil_27032.html

There's a few answers in the threads above.

**bebee** · 27-03-2009, 10:49 AM

Many Thanks Zazen999 for the links very informative

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