[Richardm]

Hi All..
I wonder if anyone can offer a complete novice to grow your own some advice?

I have a large garden with an L shaped plot that is 22ft at its longest & 14ft widest. The smallest point is probably about 10ft x 4ft. As you can see by the (hopefully it worked!) photo, I have a lovely selection of weeds, along with a few winter onions, a couple of cabbages, 3 rasberry plants & a rhubarb in the corner. You will also see that I have tried to supress the weeds by using carpet & underlay. This seems to have worked on the whole, theres a few weeds around the edges, but underneath looks ok. I wont deny, i'm trying to avoid digging due to a dodgy back. So my 1st question is, what do i do next!?



In trying to avoid the digging, I wonder whether a rotovator or tiller would do the job, or am I going to have to get on my hands & knees to get weeds out regardless?

I have access to plenty of manure as well as keeping a few chucks & ducks, so have access to that (their waste!) as well. Do I need to dig that in? Or again, will the rotovator do it? Do I need to avoid putting it down where I intend to seed (Peas carrots)

What I intend to grow is potatos (seed, 2nd earlies) peas & carrots from seed, as well as 3 sweetcorn plants which i have started in the conservatory. Toms & cucumbers will be in the greenhouse along with the chillis & courgettes will be in pots. Its the growing outside that I am clueless with, I had a fair bit of success in my greenhouse last year, my first attempt at growing anything, and want to crossover to outdoor growing, but I am so daunted I keep putting it off!

Any basic help would be much appreciated, feel free to fire off any questions that may help you to help me!  

PS. I know that I have left it a bit late in the year, but as you can see by this pic, the plot is at the very end of my very long garden, the rest of it isn't in such a state, honest! I'm lucky that it has cherry trees, a damson tree and a plum tree which is the Warwickshire drooper apparantly!

[Trillium]

If you can't dig, then rope in someone who can, perhaps someone who owes you a favour?  you really are better off digging out the weed bits that are still small and visible as they'll only spread quickly into the now 'virgin' patch under the carpet once you lift it. Rotovating will only chop up the roots finer and spread them around better for a bumper crop of weeds later. You could always add a glyphosphate killer like roundup and leave it for a few weeks, which would put your season back quite a bit.

Once you clear the weeds, then rotovating is a great idea for you. First add lots of the older manures and older bedding except in the carrot/parsnip areas (makes them very hairy like old mens ears). Once the soil is turned, let it rest for a few days to settle, then plant whatever you want. Wouldn't worry about crop rotation just yet.
3 corn is almost not worth the bother really, but if you must, give it lots of manure and position so it doesn't shade the rest of the plants.
Those trees are real gems, so be careful you don't rotovate too close to their extended root systems. I always add a bushel or 2 of old manure as a mulch every year for my fruit trees. Improves the tree health and fruit taste. For the cherries, you'll need a few friends to put up netting for you so you'll get some of the crop.

[woodburner]

Divide the area into 4ft wide strips and you will never have to dig again! Bob Flowerdew is a strong proponent of this method. I have his book no-work gardening and I love it! Depending on what you want to grow and what kind of soil you have, you might want to fork it over, or you could rotivate it. IMHO rotivating is more like forking than digging anyway as it doesn't turn the soil over. You obviously can't rotivate where stuff is growing though, I reckon you might have to "get down on hands and knees" for that, but the plants look well spaced so you might be able to get rid of most of the weeds with a dutch hoe. HTH

[Richardm]

Hi..Thanks for the response.

I kinda figured that I would need to get them out by hand somehow! :-(  Was just hoping that there was a cheats way round it!

I really had no idea how much produce I would get with corn, but they seeded within 3-4 days in a heated propogator, so adding more would be no problem. I just want to produce enough for the three of us really...what would you suggest..10-12?

So basically, manure all round, just avoiding carrots area?

There will be no rotovation near the fruit trees, as except for the three young rasberry plants,  as they are dotted around the garden, in lawns etc. The two  cherry (that are edible) trees are within the ducks pen, so has a ready made netting underneath already.

Thanks again!

[Trillium]

You might as well for for 12 corn plants, and they rarely all ripen at once.

As for the netting, I meant netting over the trees so the birds can't steal them on you