Okay, so I am scared, erm, Witless!

[MrsD'ville]

Witless, yes, that's the word I'm looking for...

We've just moved into a new (rented) place with three firking quarters of a firking acre, hayyy-ulp! The owners were at one time rampant gardeners but in the last couple of years have spent a lot of time aborad, so the whole place has got a bit straggly. We're keen gardeners and growers in theory and quite green in practice but this place scares the pants off us! It's the house we really went for but know we have to keep the garden in trim, and we want to use it, esp as we have a polytunnel :) Trouble is atm we can't actually get to the polytunnel as everywhere is so overgrow, ahem. I'm not fessing up to how long we've been in!

We know we need to strim or chop back the undergrowth (picked up a slightly unwell petrol strimmer on Freecycle last night, DH has yet to tinker wivvit), keep the established fruit trees an bushes looked after and get our pond sorted (any ideas where's the cheapest for pond liner? No joy on Freecycle yet), as we have an epic slug problem.

Really I guess my big q is can we plant anything this year? I want to grow fairly ornery veg such as potatoes, brassicas, tomatoes (I know we're too late for those), swede, carrots, sweet peppers (ditto), some flowers, lots of herbs, lavender etc. I don't know where to start, and I know the obvious answer is 'get out there with yer spade, woman', but a) I'm scared and b) I don't want to spend ages making it beautiful (we have a proper veg patch but they manured it then left it for a month before we moved in and the weeds, well, man!) then not be able to plant anything and let the weeds move back in. DH want to petrol the veg patch, set the whole thing alight, but I'm worried our veg patch will end up burning from Builth Wells to Hereford if we do that.

Hey ho. Where do I start?

[Thomzo]

I'd say find a small patch near the house and start with that. Don't try to do the whole thing in one go you'll only wear yourself out.

Gradually work your way out as you have time and energy. It's not your fault the garden is in the state it's in and it will attract wildlife.

Get some chooks to clear the weeds for you.

Zoe

[contadino]

1. Decide where you want your veggie patch.
2. Clean a patch in the middle of it, just about big enough to get the most urgent stuff in.
3. Rotavate it.
4. Plant with plenty of space between rows, as weeds will be back as soon as it rains.
5. Expand the patch a little at a time, planting as you go.

I read somewhere 'One year of weeds is seven years of weeding' although I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. You just need to be aware that once weeds have gone to seed, they'll be back every time it rains until there are no more seeds in the soil.

And above all....

Never let a garden know you're scared of it.

[Jandra]

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/summersowing2.html

Has a summer sowing guide. I thought it was quite interesting and will show you what to sow at this time of year.

For fun and getting in the spirit of things you could buy one or two tomato plants in pots in a garden center. They'll have green fruit and you'll be able to harvest some. You may find other potted plants that still might give you some crop this year.

For the rest I agree with the others: start clearing a space well enough for getting the first things in and work from there. Personally I work best in a team: if I'm alone at the allotment I tend to get distracted and potter around an inordinate amount of time. I'm busy all the time, but somehow it doesn't show when I leave. When DH is there he does his own thing, but I tend to work in a more focused way.

Good luck, Jandra

[Cheezy]

You can just still get a sowing of Maris Peer potato's.

They should be ready for Christmas dinner. Just make sure you fleece the tops if you get any frost in the autumn.

It's the famous late sowing spud. Also you could get your winter onion sets in for an early start next season. Also you can get garlic in from October. And there are winter salad crops you could put into the tunnel.
Lambs lettice,corn lettice,mirzuma etc)

You might as long as you get them in this weekend get a way with some varieties of peas, and french beans. GQT were doing a trial last week to see if due to the longer mild spell we now get, if the late plantings could go on to the end of July. You might be able to buy plug plants of savoy cabbage etc from a garden centre, these will be OK through July for planting, same with leeks if you can find them.

P.S I'm very jealous of 3/4 acre plus poly tunnel!


Oh forgot. You can buy packets of green manure. If you start to clear the beds ready for next year you can sow this up to September. It will grow. Then you turn over the ground next spring (or if it shows signs of flowering before), and you'll have manured soil, and it will stop weeds from taking over!

[Peggy Sue]

Ooh despite the weeds I'm also jealous of 3/4 acre plus polytunnel!

I ahve only just got an allotment this month and have been dying to plant something! Luckily it was beautifully looked after and as the previous tennent raised his potatoes this month we took over, really really lucky I know I was expecting something horrific!

Because we could only take it row by row as he lifted the spuds it slowed us down a bit, made us think and plan which was good. We have put in 3 different lots of brassicas (2 quick maturing types and a spring cabbage), loads of beetroot and spinach, radish, peas (two types- kelvedon wonder which will crop autumn and some from the real seed catalogue which will crop january!), some broad beans, carrots and lots of salady stuff.

I got loads of seeds from that summer sowing guide from Real Seeds, they tell you how to seed save which is brilliant!

As for stripping all the weeds- I can lend you my horse, he can effectively eat down 3/4 acre in 4 days and leave behind approriate manure. The down side is he will eat any nice plants too and leave massive hoofprints everywhere

Goodluck

[possum]

I would say mentall work out which areas are worth saving - any currant bushes, small fruit trees, rasperies etc, the buy or hire a what they call here a weed wacker or a brush cutter, which is an electric or petrol powered spining blade on a stick.
Be brutal (sparing the areas you want to keep) and cut the whole lot down, after that it won't seem such a huge task

3/4 acre?? pah! we were hand mowing 10 acres for 6 months. If we can do that, you can tackle 3/4 acre, don't let it defeat you.

[Sassinak]

Have you got neighbours who would object to pigs?

They can clear a patch in no time at all including a rough digging over

[MrsD'ville]

Thank you everyone, that's just the sort of good advice I was hoping for. I tend to take the 'must get it all sorted out perfectly' approach, so it hadn't occurred to me to just start with a wee bit, duh. I'd LOVE to get going this weekend but we're off to my parents Friday-Monday, grumble grumble so it will have to wait.

I'll definitely clear a small patch and follow that planting advice. My five year old daughter and I planted her patch up today but I'm not hugely optimistic many of the things will come up, we were rather stretching the planting windows! With this mad weather though who knows?

Anyway thanks a mill, I'm looking forward to Christmas dinner already!

[cat]

Good Luck ! (to go with the excellent management advice from the SSish experts!!)

[Willow]

Hello Mrs D.
Congrats on the new place. It should not really be such a daunting task to get it sorted. Here in the big sunburnt country 3/4 of an acre is about the size of a budgie cage!
One of the best investments I ever made (and I've made some bad ones) was for six panels of swimming pool fence. These panels I cable tie together around an area that needs clearing and throw in the chooks, goats or whatever. At the moment I'm using pigs. This method should have your place shmicko in a couple of months .. no worries.
Best of luck with it.

[contadino]

One of the best investments I ever made (and I've made some bad ones) was for six panels of swimming pool fence. These panels I cable tie together around an area that needs clearing and throw in the chooks, goats or whatever. At the moment I'm using pigs. This method should have your place shmicko in a couple of months .. no worries.
Best of luck with it.

Oh yes, that's definitely the best option if you have animals at your disposal. They'll feed the soil and clear it at the same time. And swimming pool fence panels sound like a great way of enclosing them.

[Wombat]

I use chooks!

[mybarnconversion]

3/4 acre?? pah! we were hand mowing 10 acres for 6 months. If we can do that, you can tackle 3/4 acre, don't let it defeat you.

What did you use for hand mowing 10 acres? I have 3 acres that I should be mowing ...

[possum]

3/4 acre?? pah! we were hand mowing 10 acres for 6 months. If we can do that, you can tackle 3/4 acre, don't let it defeat you.

What did you use for hand mowing 10 acres? I have 3 acres that I should be mowing ...

We were forutnate enough to be given a self propelling petrol mower, but you still had to walk behind it an although wider than your ordinary garden mower, still not that wide, so it would take us a night or two per acre. We now have a tractor with slasher which makes the job a lot easier.