[webby139]

Hi All,

I've just joined the site in order to gain some advise from you professionals out there.
OK, where do i start.
I have a piece of land around the 9m x 9m. It was full of nettles and thorn bushes. I have flattened all these, ripped them out and dug out all the roots.
I currently have it all turned over, there is still a few pieces of glass and stones etc there, but i'm sure as time goes on i'll continue to pick them out. I have covered the whole area with tarpaulins.
But i need to know where to go from here, what do i need to do to prepare for the growing season next year. Do i leave covered etc, do i add manure, raised bed's or troughs / trenches etc etc.
I would like to grow:- 1) Onions, 2) Butternut squash, 3) Turnips, 4) Potatoes, 5) Cabbage, 6) Aubergine, 7) Peppers & Chilli's - small plastic green house ??.

I look forward to any help you can give.
Thanks.

[Jamie Butterworth]

Hiya and welcome to the site,

Sounds like youve been realy busy down there, its up to you weather you want to leave your beds just dug over or have raised beds, although they look a lot neater theres not that many other advantages other than for root veg.

You can start adding manure niow for it to rot down other the winter and let the worms take it down for next year. However you can add some well rotted manure to one of the beds and plant some of your onions now as you can plant over wintering onions now

Hope this helped and good luck

[bigben]

Decide what you want to grow, divide up your plot. The areas for next year will grow weeds if you leave them uncovered but that might be worth doing - let the weeds germinate then cover to kill them. When the spring comes uncover before you want to plant and let the ground get some moisture -you should have less to deal with and will be able to plant with fewer weeds popping up.
In the meantime you can be planting winter onions and garlic soon to be growing over the winter.

If you have access to manure then get it onto the beds you plan to grow heavy feeders in like spuds and cabbage.

[Christine]

I'd be leaving the site uncovered so that the frosts can work on the clods where you have turned the soil over. You'll find the soil so much easier to get to a fine tilth after the frosts have worked.

Also as someone has said, you will give the weeds a chance to grow in the last few weeks of the season and be able to get rid of them rather than keep them till next year.

My other suspicion about covering the ground is that you give shelter to slugs and snails in particular as you are providing a slightly warmer and drier area. Leaving the ground open lets the wild life clear off a lot of pests.

That tarpaulin would be more use as a cover for anything that you can find to compost over the winter whilst you get a compost container built (you can probably pick up late mowings of grass, last hedge trimmings, plain cardboard and vegetable peelings to get you started). Getting a compost heap going is a useful winter occupation.

Just my thoughts.

[veggieman]

I would leave, say, half of the plot covered by the tarpaulin and work on the other half. Get that chose half weed-free by digging and/or using round-up, then, as suggested, add some manure and let the worms do the work for you in the winter. By all means, use a patch pf the uncovered ground for over-wintering onions and/or garlic.

I would tend to leave the tarpaulin-covered are covered for at least a year but, if you are short of growing space in the spring, roll it back gradually as you need it.

[evie2]

hello webby, welcome to the site

[kevinp]

Mine has all been dug over for next year and I have sown green manure on the beds not being used, it adds to the soil when you dig them in and covers the weeds