Hello all, as I said in my introduction message in the new to the forum bit , I know nothing about gardening at all. I have recently moved to Linconshire and have aquired what I would call a large garden. At the moment it is all lawn, but I have been told that the bottom half ( there is a hedge growing half way up the garden ) used to be a very good allotment. The garden faces north east, gets sun( when its out!) from early morning till pretty much dusk. So I hope thats enough information about me and my new venture nowI have some questions which if anyone has the time I would be most gratful of help with
1. I have read books and watched the films on here, I really like the river cottage stuff ( just for information) as any little bit of help I can get I will take. On the videos on here Mr Harrison seems to plant everything in what I would call raised beds ( sleepers/ planks of wood ) . So do I need to start like this or can I simply mark out a small area, take off the turf and start to dig?
2. Should / can I start to dig now?
3. I was thinking of an area of say 3 metres by 6 metres is that a fair starting size?
4. I would like to start with some potatoes ( which would you good people recommend? ) some carrots ( which ? ) some onions ( which ) and some garlic , I took note that it needs to English garlic, where would you buy this from please. I have a conservatory so was thinking of planting the garlic and putting it on the window sill, is this the right time to be doing this?
My main thoughts were to start with just 4 different items and see how I got on, I didn't want to dig up the whole garden and try and turn into the "good-life" overnight! Sorry for all the questions, some of which I know will have been asked many times before, I just hoped for a small nudge in the right direction as a complete novice at all of this.
Kind regards
Dave