late starters

[Annie]

Our friend who lives on a smallholding suggested we did up 1/2 her back garden and turn it into a veggie patch , now that her children are grown up and no longer need masses of grass to play on. So turf cutter and rotovator were employed and we set to planting our veggies. Some we had grown in our greenhouse and others were either started from seed or bought if they had been reduced in price cos they looked a bit shabby ( that was our friend ) . We had high hopes but due to a late start and being taken over by really wet weather in July its all looking a bit sad! We will get tatties,peas ,broad beans and salad leaves,radish and leeks which dosent sound too bad but we did plant a big area and with lots of different veg to see what would and wouldnt grow. Think the soil is too poor to sustaina lot of stuff but that is easy to put right as our friend keeps horses and has rather a large muck heap that we can start digging in at autumn time . Our muscles are aching already. At home we just have tomatoes in the greenhouse ( greenhouse is a dumping ground alas) but loads of rhubarb and a heavily laden Victoria plum tree , a couple of apples and gooseberries that were got by sawfly damn. I come from Kenilworth and moved to Scotland 18 yrs ago and still struggle with the shorter growing season up here , still always manage to get a bit of home grown grub . Annie

[silky]

When you start to dig in the manure, only cover one third of the area and plant potatoes in that area next spring.

Root plants like carrots; turnips etc don’t like manure and will grow stumpy or twisted. Brassica, like cabbage etc, will tolerate manure manure if it’s not too strong.

The best methored is:

Year 1, manure the ground and plant potatoes. With veg in the other sections.
Year 2, manure patch number 2 and again plant potatoes. In patch 1 plant your Brassica.
Year 3, Manure patch 3, again plant potatoes. Plant Brassica in patch 2 and root veg in patch 1.
Year 4, back to patch 1 and start all over again.

[Annie]

Thanks Silky I think by year 3 we will be flat on our backs with the muck heap on top of us !