New to planting Any advice

iLikeWaffles

I am looking for advice anyone can share for a veg patch about 8x6 feet. Going to plant some seed potatoes carrots leek onion and watermelon.

I'd be fairly new to gardening. Made a few raised beds last year and put some Shrubs and Perennials in them and my in-law gave me some herbs and tomatoes. The shrubs did well (still there) and have planted some more already. Tomatoes not so well there making there way to the compost heap.

I've gotten some ferns, bedded plants, and a lot of seeds and plan to make another raised bed for Sunflowers Giant/Dwarf, herbs, Pea and eventually 2 apple and 2 pear tree's. I have a small 4 tier greenhouse for lettuce tomatoes (plum/cherry/medium size) chili and spring onion.

Would like to find out how to go about laying the ground for the veg bed have 2x30L farmyard manure that goes down first I understand. Should it be mixed with the soil watered well and left for a couple of weeks before planting the spuds/carrots/leek/onion. If so am I looking at late Earlie's?

Would I need a bigger space for what I want to plant?
Would I need a bigger (seperate) space for the melon?

looksee

I'll let someone else answer on the maure questions, I don't know much about it, except that you should not plant carrots into freshly manured ground, they will split into lots of little roots instead of just one useable one.

Its a bit early for bedding plants and sunflowers, give it another month till there is no danger of frost and the ground is a bit warmer - though it has been a warm winter so you might get lucky.

Spring onions don't need to be in a greenhouse. If its one of those small plastic greenhouses it will not be big enough for full grown tomatoes.

Ferns will not be happy in a bed that is suitable for bedding plants, melon and sunflowers. Ferns prefer a damp, cool place with not too much sun.

Melon will be very weather dependent and will need a lot of feeding and watering. Probably more trouble than it is worth - courgettes or marrows would be a better bet here.

sirpsycho

Have a look at http://www.allotment-diary.co.uk/ for ideas. You dont have a huge amount of space so I would only plant a couple of seed spuds. You could do a scaled down version of allotment-diary's main plot.

busymum1

I found this website planner brilliant, put in the size of your bed and it lets you plan exactly what you can grow and how many plant you can fit in each section.
Just make sure to pick hardy plants suitable for our climate.And some of the names are a bit funny arugula is rocket.. You won't be able to grow outdoor watermelons here unless we get a fantastic summer! Might be ok in the greenhouse but will take up a huge amount of space.
Carrots don't like very manured soil, it needs to be really sandy and well drained or they'll fork ( learned that one the hard way)

http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS

hth.

iLikeWaffles

looksee wrote: »

Its a bit early for bedding plants and sunflowers, give it another month till there is no danger of frost and the ground is a bit warmer - though it has been a warm winter so you might get lucky.

Spring onions don't need to be in a greenhouse. If its one of those small plastic greenhouses it will not be big enough for full grown tomatoes.

Ferns will not be happy in a bed that is suitable for bedding plants, melon and sunflowers. Ferns prefer a damp, cool place with not too much sun.

Melon will be very weather dependent and will need a lot of feeding and watering. Probably more trouble than it is worth - courgettes or marrows would be a better bet here.

Have the sunflowers/tomatoes/some celery/mint/sage/melon/chilli seeding indoors at the moment. I'll probably make a greenhouse for the tom what would be a good size for 3 plants? will be growing medium sized, cherry and Italian plum. Thanks would've gone and lashed the manure in!

The ferns are in a shady spot next to the hosta's :cool:

sirpsycho wrote: »

Have a look at http://www.allotment-diary.co.uk/ for ideas. You dont have a huge amount of space so I would only plant a couple of seed spuds. You could do a scaled down version of allotment-diary's main plot.

Well I have a big garden so can expand the bed no worries there. will take a look at the link thanks.

Edit: had a look through most of the vids on that link were would you get a 30l bucket from seems to be the best thing to do for spuds.

busymum1 wrote: »

I found this website planner brilliant, put in the size of your bed and it lets you plan exactly what you can grow and how many plant you can fit in each section.
Just make sure to pick hardy plants suitable for our climate.And some of the names are a bit funny arugula is rocket.. You won't be able to grow outdoor watermelons here unless we get a fantastic summer! Might be ok in the greenhouse but will take up a huge amount of space.
Carrots don't like very manured soil, it needs to be really sandy and well drained or they'll fork ( learned that one the hard way)

http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS

hth.

Thanks for the link might plant a couple of the melon and see what happens were dew a hot summer!:pac:
would the carrots be better off raised in a bed if that's the case?

Plan on doing a bed around 16ft long 3-4 wide for sunflowers/pea herbs



Might be trying a lot for a first time gardener but you only learn from your failed attempts! Will keep you updated