Greatings from the urban desert

[Muddypause]

Hello.

I've been a-lurking here for a few months now, ever since one of the presenters on The Album Zone internet radio station gave you a plug. Time to come out from behind the undergrowth, I guess.

I'm currently in urban mayhem with a garden that measures about 4' x 10' with rubbish soil. So last year I got a compost bin from the council for about a fiver (part of their effort to reduce landfill), and made a raised bed about 2' x 8'. It's still all a bit experimental, but this year in that small space I am trying to cram in leaks, toms, runners, parsnips, beetroots, brussels, radish & lettuce.

Meantime I dream of an acre or two in rural wilderness. That will be upshifting for me.

[Andy Hamilton]

I am dreaming of getting a real house with a garden and that will upshifting for me, looks like the dream could come true after the summer.

Welcome to the forum. Glad to here that we were mentioned on another radio station, did not know about that one. It still amazes me that the media are interested. It is stuff like that that makes it all worth while.

[Wombat]

G'Day Stew,

Welcome to the site, yeah I can understand the urban mayhem, sounds like around here!

Nev

[wulf]

I'm currently in urban mayhem with a garden that measures about 4' x 10' with rubbish soil. So last year I got a compost bin from the council for about a fiver (part of their effort to reduce landfill), and made a raised bed about 2' x 8'. It's still all a bit experimental, but this year in that small space I am trying to cram in leaks, toms, runners, parsnips, beetroots, brussels, radish & lettuce.

That's a lot to cram into a small space! Unless you've already got all the seeds going, I wonder if you might have better results by focusing on a slightly smaller range of crops. Otherwise, you'll either be tempted to bunch them very close together (resulting in disappointingly small crops) or only grow a few of each type (reducing resilience in the face of pest damage).

Maybe very careful planning of what's planted when could get you through but, bearing in mind the space requirements of some of those plants (eg. runner beans grow quite big and you need enough to get a meal's worth of beans at one picking) it's going to be tight!

Wulf

[Andy Hamilton]

Just had a thought you might want to try a technique called sqare foot gardening heres the book, http://www.eco-logicbooks.com/index.cfm ... iate_id=18" TARGET="_blank"

I got it out from the library the other day and it seem spretty easy enough to follow and there does not seem to much that you can't grow within a square foot.

[wulf]

A quick Google turns up the relevant website for doing a bit more reading without buying the book first:

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Wulf

[Muddypause]

It is a bit crammed in there, and I'm not expecting to get large quantities out of it. Some of the crops will be over and done with before the rest gets going, and some of it is being started in trays and pots. But it is, as I say, a bit experimental at this stage.

Had a look at the Square-Foot site; maybe I'll try those water melons next year!