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Hi, I just found this site while searching for a gardeners forum. I'm keen to start growing my own, and have begun so this year with 2 greenhouses stuffed with 38 tomato plants, some chillies, aubergines and corgettes.
I'd like to introduce myself and ask a couple of questions while I'm at it.
I bought my first house a couple of years ago, a run-down derelict terraced house with a huge garden (55m x 9m) with open rear aspect to heathland. Unfortunately, the garden was even more run down than the house!
After renovating the house, I've turned my attention to the garden, which has been neglected/left to the mercy of brambles/used as a rubish tip for about 30 years (judging by the use by dates on the discarded litter!). I have cleared about 40 metres, (revealing 2 nice cooking apple trees), dug it all over and turfed it, and built a patio.
I'm now left with a 15x9metre plot at the end of the garden that I wish to use for growing veg. I have cleared the brambles, bindweed and nettles and begun clearing the debris (carpet, glass, bits of house, bits of motorbike) into a skip. The ground is littered with bricks which I'll re-use as pathways between beds. I'm gonna dig all the weed roots out this autumn and double dig the ground/form raised beds ready to begin gardening proper in the new year. My questions are:
- The soil appears to be very rich on the whole, but the last 5 yards or so has a very sandy soil. Is this ok to grow on? Or will it require filling out with compost?
- The fence marking out the boundary is long gone, and i want to plant out a boundary of hazel/elder as a food bearing hedge. So, are these 2 compatible in a hedge row? will they be happy in the sandy soil at the very end of the garden? How long would they take to establish and form something resembling a hedge?
- I have ordered a dozen fruit trees (apple, pear, mirabelle, greengage) which will be either planted outside my boundary in sandy soil, or in the turfed area. Will these be happier in the sandy soil, or nearer the house in rich soil?
Thanks in advance, really pleased to have found this place!
I'd like to introduce myself and ask a couple of questions while I'm at it.
I bought my first house a couple of years ago, a run-down derelict terraced house with a huge garden (55m x 9m) with open rear aspect to heathland. Unfortunately, the garden was even more run down than the house!
After renovating the house, I've turned my attention to the garden, which has been neglected/left to the mercy of brambles/used as a rubish tip for about 30 years (judging by the use by dates on the discarded litter!). I have cleared about 40 metres, (revealing 2 nice cooking apple trees), dug it all over and turfed it, and built a patio.
I'm now left with a 15x9metre plot at the end of the garden that I wish to use for growing veg. I have cleared the brambles, bindweed and nettles and begun clearing the debris (carpet, glass, bits of house, bits of motorbike) into a skip. The ground is littered with bricks which I'll re-use as pathways between beds. I'm gonna dig all the weed roots out this autumn and double dig the ground/form raised beds ready to begin gardening proper in the new year. My questions are:
- The soil appears to be very rich on the whole, but the last 5 yards or so has a very sandy soil. Is this ok to grow on? Or will it require filling out with compost?
- The fence marking out the boundary is long gone, and i want to plant out a boundary of hazel/elder as a food bearing hedge. So, are these 2 compatible in a hedge row? will they be happy in the sandy soil at the very end of the garden? How long would they take to establish and form something resembling a hedge?
- I have ordered a dozen fruit trees (apple, pear, mirabelle, greengage) which will be either planted outside my boundary in sandy soil, or in the turfed area. Will these be happier in the sandy soil, or nearer the house in rich soil?
Thanks in advance, really pleased to have found this place!
I'm only a spit and a throw from you, so when you've got too many seedlings or I've got too many, perhaps we could arrange to do some swaps? 
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