Vegetable Patches

[Pyrrhic]

Seeing as spring will be here in a couple of months, is anyone planning on starting a vegetable patch?

If you have one already, what do you grow?

I've never tried before, but will be this year

 

[kirsten1985]

I have always had a small one, and usually grow potatoes, carrots, cabbage, rocket, spinach, beetroot, onions and courgettes.

I grow lettuce in hanging baskets, herbs in a wheelbarrow (lol) and tomatos in a grow bag.

I am on the list for an allotment and would like to grow more things like swede, butternut squash, leek, garlic, more potatoes etc.

 

[anothersquish]

I grow everything in tubs Carrots, spring onions, tatties, lettuce and peppers as staples. Have tomatos in hanging containers as they grow best this way (highly reccomend that way instead of grow bags or anything) I have invested in a little greenhouse thing so I can grow some cucumbers (my son LOVES cucumbers) hoping to also do peas, leeks and rubarb this year onto of the fruit which is now established, we have apple, pear, blackcurrent, blueberry, strawberries (LOTS...more than we eat!!) and raspberries.
I dont actually think once Ive got all that going properly this year that we will have room for growing anything else and sadly I dont have time to travel to the nearest allotments to do anymore but I think there is a lot of value in having it in the back garden anyway. My son LOVES helping out. I grow everything from seed (harder work but I get organic seed and grow it organically) and he loves to come down every day (literally!) to see if its growing yet and for him to help care for them from seed to plate is great. Plus I LOVE that I can go and pull out the veg and it gets from soil to plate in less than an hour....!
Problem is with the fruit in summer....I try and grow enough to make a crumble or something and the "boys" have eaten all the friggin fruit straight off the trees/bushes the second its ripe! Shouldnt complain though as they get plenty of very fresh fruit and veg in them.
I grow some vegetables inside through the winter too. I havent yet grown proper winter veg outside but we are sorting out the back garden a bit better so from now on I hope to have crops going 365 days a year!

Sorry for rambling....I really do enjoy growing though!

 

[Pyrrhic]

Wow, thanks girls! Fantastic info

So where should a person start off? I have a large garden, so plenty of space. We get sunlight through the day, but not all day as our garden faces South. I don't want it to be too big though, as I'll have to fence it all off to stop the dog getting involved

 

[anothersquish]

The easiest stuff to start with are Potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and strawberries. They are super easy to grow and TEND not to suffer too much from pests.
Id say start small, with just a few things and build up over a few years once you get the hang of things. The first year I just did carrots, strawberries and tomatoes and built it up from there.
My old garden was south facing and I grew EVERYTHING out there, everything grew brilliantly too. Garden I have now gets all the benefit of south sun and I honestly cant think of any problems Ive had with anything.
You will want to think about whether you want to go organic or not, I make my own compost from scratch and as mentioned I grow from seed. If organic isnt very important too you then you may wish to buy seedlings that have been started by someone else and get bags of cheaper top soil for when you start out as you will need to have either raised beds or use tubs (to be perfectly honest I much prefer tubs).
Im trying to remember the name of a decent little gardening magazine thats aimed at people who just have "some" space they want to use for veg and fruit etc....I will ask my mother, she will know!

 

[saraendepity]

oooh thanks for this...Great thread i'm looking into growing some stuff in tubs this year (our garden is small and we have 4 dogs so dont wanna limit their space too much) i grew some strawberries in a hanging basket last year but they all came into fruit as i was in hosptal and they didnt get eaten this year i have visions of Daisy running round pulling carrots out of tubs and eating them and getting daddy to lift her up to pick strawberries

sara

xxxxxx

 

[anothersquish]

haha and dont think she wont be literally pulling them out the ground and eating them....my son did when he was smaller, hes just pull one out and sit eating it soil and all!
He has since learnt to rinse stuff under the tap first. When he was about 20 months he went through a stage of pulling one of everything out and trying to eat it....which was funny when it came to the spring onions and such like as the faces he pulled when he took a big bite was hilarious.

 

[saraendepity]

awww

 

[bky]

Summer here (though the weather doesn't seem to know it!) so my garden is in full swing.
I have tomatoes, courgettes/zucchini (2 types) and several types of squash-delicata, buttercup and spaghetti. I also have eggplants, parsley and spring onions in tubs.
Things like squash and courgettes will get huuuuge. They can really grow like weeds.
One thing I did was plant spinach (before the days got too long, when the days are longer the spinach goes to seed faster), herbs and spring onions in something like this:Vertical vegetables which worked really well actually. I originally had coriander, parsley, spring onions and spinach in mine. Then the spinach bolted and the coriander died so I put the parsley and spring onions in tubs with the eggplant.
The rest of the plants are in a raised bed, but I wish now I had put them into tubs.
You can do quite a lot of potatoes in a small space by continuing to pile dirt on them. Have a look at tyre potato gardens.

 

[ryder]

I want to start a patch of something... lol... It will depend on where we live though, my yard where we are now isnt really big enough for what I want.

But if we move and I have the space I want to get a strawberry patch, raspberries etc for making jams.... Tomatoes for doing up spaghetti sauce to freeze etc. And then im not sure, probably potatoes, cucumbers, zuchinni, pumpkins etc...

I would like to have an herb patch too, I like the wheelbarrow idea for them.

 

[sun]

Last year I was living in downtown Toronto so not alot of room - but I still managed to grow tomatoes, chili peppers (loooove my hot peppers), lettuces, beans, kale and herbs (all in pots). This year we moved cities and into a house so have a little backyard!!
I am planning on growing all of the above plus some additional lettuces, garlic, cucumber, and swiss chard. (swiss chard and kale grow really well here and I love them) I will grow fewer chili peppers though since they really grow well and you don't really eat tons - had to give quite a few away LOL. Also zucchini and squash tend to take over the garden, so I am not growing them. I will probably get leftovers from everyone else that is growing them!! Right now I am starting an indoor herb garden
xx