Help required for a new gardener

[Ballydoolagh]

Hello all, just joined the forum.

Over the next little while I will no doubt annoy everyone with stupid and regular questions but c'est la vie!
I have recently moved house and have a small field to the side. I am currently trying to turn part of it into a vegetable garden, roughly 50 x 25 feet.
My plan is to have 10 or 12 beds at 10ft x5ft size. The field was just that; a field. I think a Shetland pony used to live there. I have had the field sprayed and it should be rotavated any day now. My beds will face (almost) north to south.
I have a greenhouse with plants ready to go out, lots of seeds and plugs of brassicas ordered.
My first and main question is this: as the ground has not been manured the previous year (as all the books tell me to do), how can I compensate for this? I can get lots of fresh manure, all the well rotted stuff is gone, and lots of grass clippings. Should I just put some growmore in and rake it before I plant?
I plan to grow most things eventually and may not use all the beds this year. Brassicas, leeks and onions, roots (carrots beets ect) and peas and beans are what I'm planning on planting.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

PS I tried to load a picture of the grass field as an avatar and change it as I progress but it wouldn't load. Damn technology!!!

[alan refail]

Hi Ballydoolagh

Welcome to the forum. None of us will find your questions stupid, you can be sure.
Before others start answering, can I ask one question? What have you had the field sprayed with? That may make all the difference to how, what and when you plant.

[Nature's Babe]

Hello Ballydoolagh, welcome, and don't be frightened to ask questions, its how we learn about gardening even after a lifetime we can still learn new things, so keep an open mind. If a shetland pony used to live there the field most likely has been manured. Sounds like you have made a good start in the greenhouse, how lucky you are to have a whole field to develop. As you are learning I would start on a small scale so you don't get overwhelmed, and gradually add more as you gain confidence. Consider bio diversity too in nature everything is eaten by something else, so you need predators to keep pests under control, A log pile, nest boxes a pond etc will encourage predatoors. Also there are some exciting new methods of gardening which are less labour intensive than traditional methods.

forest garden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f8NCh3s8c

Sustainability
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOaPFt_a ... re=related

mulching to preserve moisture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugFd1JdFaE0

trust your own experience, build soil fertility
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw7mQZHfFVE

weeds can be friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pAVVcUx ... playnext=4

[Ballydoolagh]

I had the field sprayed 3 weeks ago with a product called Slingshot, I think. Similar to Roundup, the garden centre said it dies when it hits the soil so I could plant away once the weeds are dead.
I also bought a little pH test kit which I will use when the field is rotavated.

[Geoff]

Welcome!
As we often say to new members, please edit your profile to show us roughly where you are as it helps keep the advice relevant.
I think the spec for avatars is max 120x120 pixels and 12K - you need to use some sort of graphics program to change the file size.
I made my veg garden from grassland and made 25'x10' beds. Unless it is particularly wet or heavy don't be tempted by the new fad for small raised beds - gardening on the level where you can easily use a wheel barrow is far simpler. With no organic matter to add this year all you can really do is dig in the thatch of rotavated dead weeds and as you say use Growmore. Growing anything on it, even if not as successful as you would hope, is better than nothing as getting some root action does wonders for improving things.
Make a plan and note what you grow where to start using rotations.
I am not a great believer in green manures but if you are getting it all cultivated but not planning to plant it all you could use some of the nitrogen fixing ones. The fresh manure could also be spread on areas you don't intend to use then dug in in the Autumn for next year.
I hope that gives you a start, good luck!

[Ballydoolagh]

The field is getting rotavated tomorrow.
My plug plant brassicas arrived today!!
I'll try to get some flat beds made by Monday and plant them in. I have planted them in trays for now.
So can I just rake a little growmore into the top and plant them? I know I'll have to tramp the ground down as best I can. I've got broccoli, cauliflower, brussle sprouts and cabbage.
Hopefully the pony did its thing and the ground is well manured!! If not there are plenty of rabbits about. Will have to try to fence the field next week too!!

[Geoff]

I've never bought veg plug plants but I have bought flowers and they are usually pretty small. I sow in modules and when they have two proper leaves put them in 3½" pots until they are sturdy plants and the roots fill the pots. If you can't do this and you have enough plants try planting some and potting some as an insurance. I would suggest quite a lot of Growmore for Brassicas, up to 10ozs per sq yard. Fence first, plant second or fat rabbits!
Should have realised Ballydoolagh is a place.

[Ballydoolagh]

Thanx Geoff! I thought of that too. My shotgun is at the ready, rabbit will go nicely with greenhouse cabbage!!
I'll either get the fencing up or put temporary fencing around the plants until I get the field done. There a lot of pigeons around here so will put some netting too.
I have managed to grow some broccoli from seed I had so will add that to the mix.
I know rabbits and pigeons each brassicas and will pull out onions but will I have any problems if I sow seeds (beets, turnips, carrots and legumes)? I am hoping not at least until they start to appear. Same growmore raked in for these (for everything??)?
I sowed 5 butternut squash seeds in the hope I might get 1 or 2 to grow. I have 5! How long do you harden off plants grown in the greenhouse and will my furry and feathery friens annoy these and courgettes?

[Tony Hague]

Our allotments are frequented by pidgeons, rabbit, pheasant and muntjac deer, all of which eat almost everything but potatoes and onions given the chance. I have often felt that I would eat better if I went equipped with a gun rather than a spade !

[Nature's Babe]

Wondering if they might burrow under the fencing, rabbits do, you could use chicken wire and trench it in.

[retropants]

sounds like you are off to a smashing start! We have one rabbit on our plot, I think he lives under the shed. There are undoubtably more around (you know rabbits ;p) We have to protect everything, even onions, they eat those too the little blighters. Best of luck to you, you will become addicted before you know it!

[Mike Vogel]

Lucky you, Ballydoolagh having such a wonderful expanse on your own doorstep. Just be careful not to make too much work for yourself all at once. If the whole thing does become too much work, you can leave some of the beds alone and just cover the area with lots of cardboard or newspaper. Weeds won't grow without light. Then in the autumn you could sow the area with green manures, or manure it and cover it all with the cardboard to stop the nutrients leeching when it rains [the green manure does this too]. dig it all in in Sp[ring and you'll ahve a well-tilled area ready for the next year's crops.

Good luck
mike

[the custodian]

hi Ballydoolagh, im on the opposite end of the scale to you with only an 8ft sq patch and some grow sacks. my garden is walled on all four sides and my only real problem are the kids playing football to close to the patch but i have found hanging them from the nearest lamp post helps until its time for dinner then i feel i really should let them down and give them a chance to make it up to me by watering the plants, keeping a close eye to make sure they dont drown them or themselves for that matter.

i have my composter working over time at the moment with all the grass clippings and carbon paper that i shread at work.

good luck with it all
steve

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Custodian. With only 8 sq ft, I'm guessing you have to think vertical as well as horizontal, do you make good use of the walls?

[the custodian]

so far i have three vertical grow sacks containing lettuce, strawberries and various herbs and will be soon building a ladder planter when i get a few minutes to go down to jewsons and reclaim some pallets.
at the moment i am only growing what i know we like to eat but next year i plan to try a few different things