Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Casey76 on March 14, 2014, 09:20
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I don't have a huge amount of space (which is good, really - too much and I would be overwhelmed!) so I need to start making a plan what I want to put and where.
I definitely want raspberries, so I guss I should plan around them, since they will be permanent.
However as for the rest I have no idea where to put them.
If I give you a list of what I would like to grow, can you throw some ideas at me?
I'd like to try:
Potatoes
Onions
Tomatoes
A courgette (or two)
French dwarf and/or climbing beans
Raspberries (obviously!)
This is my space:
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/oconnka4/Garden/Veggiegarden.jpg)
Other possibles are:
Cucumber
Shallots
Sweet peppers
Celery
Melon
Thanks for any help!
At the moment I'm digging and removing nettle roots >:( ::)
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Don't talk about nettle roots! :mad: :mad: :mad: Anyway, as you rightly say, raspsberries are permanent and don't mind a bit of shade. As for the rest, you have root crops (onions and shallots), legumes (beans) and potatoes, so that suggests three separate areas. Maybe use a fourth for the rest as a trial?
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On the plus side Casey, nettles usually indicate a good fertile soil :D
I think the suggestion that GG made is a good one, and would allow you to organise your crops year on year as well. Just remember that potatoes and tomatoes are in the same family, and so it is probably best to not follow one with the other, but separate them by a couple of years if you can.
TBH I usually dot tomato plants about where ever a gap appears, such as when you have harvested some onions already or the salad area has spaces.
Last year I planted them between the bean wigwams a with some French marigolds in front of them, which looked lovely.
Do try to fit in some flowers here and there -- the ends of beds are usually good to sow some annual seeds -except where the potatoes areas they get disturbed when you earth up.
How exciting to start from scratch :D :D
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I would keep some of the nettles if you can. They attract beneficial wildlife and you can use them as a nitrogen rich feed or to active the compost (minus the roots!).
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I have a nettle bed in the middle of my fruit cage, for the good bugs
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The soil is very fertile... it had chickens free ranging on it for about 3 years.
I'f afraid the nettles have to go... every last root. They are very vicious and I seem to be particularly susceptible to the sting. I do have some of the prettier flowering type of nettle else where in the garden, which the bumblebees love ;)
I'll have a better idea once the beams are out of the ground. At th emoment I have some pre-conceptions of what the area looks like.
Hopefully it will be soon, and I can start to map out some beds :)