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Mick's Veggie Patch 2011


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....which is one reason why I've not spent so much time on the layout recently.

I don't have a large garden, certainly not big enough for a proper vegetable plot, but after successfully growing a few potatoes in tubs last year I decided this year to go one step further and grow some other vegetables.

I've got my potatoes growing again, in fact I've increased production this year with the addition of two large dustbins so I'm hoping for a bigger total yield. Growing potatoes in barrels or tubs takes up far less room than conventional methods meaning they can be grown on the patio when space is limited. With careful tending they can produce excellent yields although results last year were variable with the last barrel to be harvested producing the best results in both weight and the number of individual tubers. There isn't any financial saving on potatoes purchased from the local supermarket but the difference in taste has to be experienced to be believed. We have certainly not had any potatoes as nice as those we grew at home last year. Ongoing costs for growing potatoes decreases once you have obtained sufficent barrels or tubs in which they can be grown - requiring just a good quality compost along with your seed potatoes. I placed the seeds potatoes on a windowsill to chit before planting in tubs at staggered intervals from early April onwards.

Because my garden soil is heavy clay it would be almost impossible to grow anything without a lot of hard work and so I have constructed a series of 3 small raised beds which have been dug to a depth of one and a half spades (not including the handle!) with the bottom soil broken up well and a dressing of sharp sand and compost/farmyard manure added. It's going to take a couple of years before it's ideal but at least it gives me a start. Already I have peas, beans, turnips, onions, carrots, sprouts and salad lettuce at various stages of development. They may or may not be successful but I feel it's important that something is growing.

The idea behind it isn't to save money but simply to be able to eat our own freshly harvested vegetables directly from the garden. It's been a lot of hard work and I'm not nearly so fit as I used to be. In fact I have been digging one row at a time and then going inside for a rest - but I've now got it all done.

I'll include some photos later showing how things stand at the present time.

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As mentioned earlier, the basis of my vegetable patch are 3 small raised beds measuring just 6ft in length and 3ft wide. Here's a photo of the final raised bed during initial digging of the plot:

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Yes, that mound of earth at the top of the bed, on the plastic sheeting over the lawn and in the wheelbarrow, is actually the good top soil! As an indication of the quality of the soil perhaps is the fact that there wasn't a single weed other than the layer of turf which I removed before starting the dig - neither were there any worms. It was backbreaking work, the clay being a solid mass but I did eventually manage to break it up before adding sharp sand and compost.

The first 2 beds I dug weren't quite such hard work and they are now home to some promising vegetables - even if it is mainly the common pea!

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The lawned area has always been of very poor quality and so using part of it to grow vegetables isn't a big deal. Might as well make better use of it if we can. There's still a bit of lawn remaining as can be seen in this photo taken from the top of the garden:

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Following on from the success of our potato barrels last year, this year we have set aside even more containers containing potato plants in the hope that we can have a good crop available for a longer period. Last year we used 2 purpose designed plastic terracotta effect potato barrels (which are somewhat expensive) as well as 3 smaller heavy duty plastic potato sacks. These can be seen below:

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The terracotta barrels have a sliding section at the base which can be raised in order to harvest potatos from the lower half of the barrel. A good indication as to when the potatoes are ready is that it gets very difficult to slide the plastic section upwards once the tubers have swelled inside! The sliding section also allows you to keep a check on the moisture content of the soil and during the warmer days last year I was watering on a daily basis. The smaller reinforced plastic containers seen alongside aren't quite as deep and dont have any sliding access panels.

In the larger barrels I have planted 5 seed potatoes, the smaller ones contain just 4.

In order to increase the crop this year I am using 2 additional plastic dustbins which have been drilled at the base to aid drainage. In these I have planted 6 seed potatoes and I'm hopeful that they'll give a good crop. The lower photo shows the newly emerged shoots near the base of the bin. As the shoots grow upwards more compost is added until finally the whole bin is filled and the shoots emerge clear of the top. In theory you should then be able to produce a decent crop of potatoes throughout the whole depth of the bin.

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Hi Mick,

The vegatable plots looking good. We planted a few potatoes in containers last year, and although they cropped quite well, they do require more effort to keep them watered. I hope your peas do well, as they are perhaps one of the hardest crops to grow well. Always plenty of greenery, but the yield can often be disapointing.

You may know this already, and I certainly don't wish to teach you how to to suck eggs, but peas, cabbages and all that family will require regular liming of the soil. This helps to avoid common diseases such as club root etc., and also has the benefit of helping to break up your clay soil. :) Our old house in Walsall was built on the site of an old brick works clay quarry and the soil was a horrible claggy grey colour. If memory serves, we had to have 10 tons of top soil delivered to raise the whole garden up about six inches. Shifting that lot in a wheelbarrow was no laughing matter.

For obvious reasons, our vegetable growing this year is goinmg to be kept to a bare minimum of a few potatoes and onions. We just don't have the time to maintain the regular garden, grow vegetables, and try to fit in the construction of a garden railway... :roll:

Duncan

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Hi Duncan

You're not kidding. I remember last year I was pouring a 5 litre watering can of water on each potato barrel every day during the hot weather - no word of a lie - and because the bottom section slides upwards I was able to verify that they needed it, the lower section of the barrel was almost always dry. Still, it doesn't take long to do and at least I'm not having to transport the water across the road!

As for the peas, again you're not far wrong. They've reached almost 3 feet high now and still there's no sign of flowers or pods. I assume that they flower first? They are in fact a variety of sugar snap peas as we prefer them raw in salads or added to a stir fry rather than as peas for the dinner plate. I'm sure they'll pod soon......

I've no experience of vegetable gardening other than growing the potato's last year but have read that the brassica family require added lime to deter disease and so forth. I guess I should check the soil ph first but don't suppose that a bit of lime would do any harm with the brussel sprouts anyway. They tell me sprouts aren't easy but it's all part of the fun - if we get something from them so much the better.

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mick said:

I've no experience of vegetable gardening other than growing the potato's last year but have read that the brassica family require added lime to deter disease and so forth. I guess I should check the soil ph first but don't suppose that a bit of lime would do any harm with the brussel sprouts anyway. They tell me sprouts aren't easy but it's all part of the fun - if we get something from them so much the better.

Don't worry, experience will soon have you growing prize winning crops. :D Even though I don't grow much, I got most of my experience from my Father who was an avid vegetable grower. The whole of our back garden was given over to vegetables when I was a kid, and I used to love helping him every evening when he got home from work to both weed and water the garden.

Like you say, as long as you enjoy yourself, it's not the quantity, but the quality that counts - and they do taste better fresh from the garden... :!:

Duncan

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cleanerg6e said:

Although I have no veggies I was once told by a farmer that if you have clay soil to use gypsum to break it up.

Roy.

I too have been told that Gypsum is a good soil conditioner - especially for those soils which are composed of heavy clay. I think the secret with most gardens, whatever the composition of the soil, is regular cultivation and the incorporation of plenty of humus in the form of garden compost or well rotted farmyard manure.

I always remember my granddad who, when asked by someone "what's the best thing to put in the garden?", replied simply "a spade!"

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Here's a gardening update and a selection of photos taken this morning.

The first potato planting has now begun producing flowers so we're hoping it won't be too long before we can harvest our first crop. I didn't keep any records last year so I can't compare the date of flowering to a year ago but I do recall it was at least a couple of weeks after flowering before we decided to empty our first tub. Patience....patience....

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The following photo shows the height the plants have attained and how from previous experience I have found it necessary to stake the plants to prevent them toppling over. The potato's in the terracotta coloured tub are an early variety named 'Charlotte' and the ones in the two smaller bags are a maincrop 'Maris Piper'.

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None of the potato's have required any heavy watering just yet - I'm sure last year they were more demanding.... :?

The first raised bed I cultivated and planted now looks like this:

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Behind the onions is a short row of turnips which I was hoping to harvest before they began encroaching on the peas but they're not ready just yet. As can be seen, the peas are now almost 3 feet high but there's still no sign of any flowers or pods...hmmm

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The second bed has two additional plantings of peas in order to have an ongoing supply and also contains more turnips, which have just appeared, and two rows of swede which are just emerging.

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This bed also contains a few dwarf bean plants which appear to have come almost to a standstill since they were planted out, having been started from seed in pots. Not sure what's going on there....

Although I'm not confident of success I am going to try a few brussel sprouts and despite me being a bit late with the initial sowings I'm hopeful that there'll be time for them to catch up and produce something come the end of the year. The seedlings are still rather small but are progressing well...

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And finally, I've now moved 3 of the potato tubs clear of the patio area to make a bit of room. All 3 of these tubs contain the early Charlotte variety and were planted successively in order to give a crop over a few weeks. I've not used the plastic dustbins before so it'll be interesting to see how they compare to the standard potato barrels.

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Looking good there Mick... :D

mick said:

Although I'm not confident of success I am going to try a few brussel sprouts and despite me being a bit late with the initial sowings I'm hopeful that there'll be time for them to catch up and produce something come the end of the year. The seedlings are still rather small but are progressing well...

Just make sure they're planted firmly (not too firmly though), and are as sheltered as they can be from the prevailing wind as they don't like to have their roots disturbed after you've transplanted them...

Duncan

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We had a spell of much welcomed rain this afternoon which prevented any work on the vegetable plot. However, I'd just like to show a couple of photos which I found interesting to compare.

Yesterday morning I took a photo of the potato barrels on the patio (reproduced again below) which clearly shows the topmost growth to be approx 4-5 inches below the top of the stakes.

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Later yesterday evening when I looked at them, the plants were a few inches above the top of the canes, meaning they had apparently grown about 6 inches during the day. I didn't take a photo at that time, intending to take one this morning to post here along with the story but when I got up this morning I was surprised to find that the plants had shrunk again to below the level of the wooden stakes and looked much the same as they had done the day before.

This evening the plants are once again several inches above the top of the canes (see photo below)

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How they look this evening is more or less how they appeared yesterday evening so it must be that they stretch out and upwards during the day and shrink back down during the night. Without the stakes it wouldn't have been noticeable but I wondered if anyone else has had any experience of this behaviour?

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I've been holding back with sowing any more vegetable seeds because I really don't have the room to accommodate the plants and so I decided that there was just enough room to squeeze another raised bed into the garden without having to resort to cutting down the silver birch tree.

3 decking boards from my local DIY and a few screws later we have the framework for another bed.

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I've had to keep the gap between the new bed and the first two beds less than I would have liked but it's still workable and might just allow the lawnmower through when required. I was mindful to leave as much room as possible alongside the railway.

The first three beds all took me two days to dig over but today I've managed to complete the job in double quick time as the soil was better quality. The bed has been located over the area where a large shrub used to be until it succumbed to the recent harsh winter. There was a mass of old roots to dig out but the soil around them was nice and fibrous and even held some moisture. As with all the other beds, it has been dug to a minimum of one and a half spades and had the subsoil well broken up before the topsoil was returned.

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There's still some compost to be added to raise the level of the soil to the top of the boards but for today I've had enough. I'm now looking forward to getting some more plants growing.

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drmalesis said:

Blimey Mick, you're certainly going to have some unique scenery in your next batch of video's.

Reminds me of the Woody Allen film "Sleeper" with the experimental giant fruit & veg... :lol:

I reckon I might lose the ability to film some of the distance views (the bins will likely get in the way) but I'm hopeful that the beds will provide a non too intrusive backdrop. I haven't seen the Woody Allen film, (at least not that I can recall), but at worst all that'll be on view is a few cabbages and as my partner would doubtless concur, there's been one of them messing around in the garden on a regular basis already :)

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I had some Brussels Sprouts last time I was in the UK. At least I think they were Brussels Sprouts as they were the size of marbles. Over here our Sprouts are the size of golf balls. They're also known as the "Devils Hell Ball" and watching the BBC's Grumpy old Men at Christmas time they said that enough sprouts were often consumed at British Christmas dinners to give the consumers enough flatulence to last well into Boxing Day. :lol:

Roy.

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cleanerg6e said:

...and watching the BBC's Grumpy old Men at Christmas time they said that enough sprouts were often consumed at British Christmas dinners to give the consumers enough flatulence to last well into Boxing Day. :lol:

Roy.

Sprouts can have that effect on some people..... :oops:

Nothing really to add regarding progress reports other than things are growing well - in the case of the peas, perhaps too well. Duncan remarked in a previous post that peas can be difficult to grow well and I might just be experiencing some of that myself. I visited my mum's yesterday and her neighbour who lives opposite had a lovely crop of peas on some short bushy plants. I've got 3 feet tall plants but nothing else at the moment. I know all varieties are different in their habits but I'm wondering whether I'll ever get to see any pods. I've got 3 batches of these peas planted so I was kind of hoping we'd be okay for some sugar snap's with our stir fry or salad - bit more patience needed perhaps...

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mick said:

I know all varieties are different in their habits but I'm wondering whether I'll ever get to see any pods. I've got 3 batches of these peas planted so I was kind of hoping we'd be okay for some sugar snap's with our stir fry or salad - bit more patience needed perhaps...

The pods, like apples etc., will grow where the flowers have been. If you haven't seen any flowers yet perhaps yours will flower later in the year, otherwise it's just a case of being patient.

A high nitrogen content in the soil can sometimes be the cause of a lot of greenery and few flowers, a good well balance feed might do the trick.

We grew a few sugar snaps in a half barrel last year, and although the crop wasn't overwhelming, it was okay. My dad never did well with his peas, just got lots of greenery - and after all the years he spent growing fruit & veg, I think he new what he was doing... :(

Duncan

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Some confusing and contradictory information available online regarding the Sugar Snap peas. According to the type of pea I have 'Sugar Bon' they should attain approx 18-24ins high and mature in approx 56 days. According to Wikipedia sugar snap peas are like climbing vines that can attain up to 2m in height but generally 1-1.3 metres.

I think next year I'll be a little more selective in the type of seeds I purchase. It seemed like good economics to purchase the cheaper store branded seeds as opposed to the more well-known but expensive brands but I've not been happy with either the peas or the dwarf beans although I realise it might be something I am doing wrong and nothing at all to do with the seeds themselves. According to the seed packet, my Sugar Bon (Snap) peas can be sown from Mar-Jun for harvesting Jun-Sep so going off those sparse details there's still plenty of time. The packet does also state however, "Popular sweet tasting pods on compact plants......" :shock: I wonder if compact can include those that are 3 feet or more in height?

Perhaps it's the time of year, the additional warmth, but recently the vegetables we have purchased from the local supermarket haven't lasted too long. It seems no matter where they are stored the majority have been feeding the compost heap before we've had chance to use them. It makes growing some of your own vegetables at home all the more tempting and useful. Even if I have some failures or poor shows this year it will certainly not deter me from having another go next year and I've already ordered more potato sets for a Xmas harvest. Now will I have some vegetables to go with them?

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Again, nothing of great significance to write about. 3 of my potato plantings are now at the flowering stage but I'm leaving it another week or so before trying to harvest any. The final 8 seed potatos I had remaining have been planted in large plant pots to give them a start and hopefully by the time they are ready for moving on I should have one or two empty barrels available in which to put them.

The first batch of dwarf beans I planted are still growing but only very slowly. These were started indoors in small pots before being planted outdoors and after a couple of weeks of minimal activity they do seem to be wakening up a bit now. To try ensure a crop I have planted additional seeds both directly in the ground and also another batch in small pots.

I'd planted 4 rows of carrot seeds directly in the ground but the number of emerged seedlings is a bit disappointing. Another batch planted directly into compost in a plastic tub have done much better.

My sugar snap peas still look very healthy but haven't chosen to show their flowers yet.

I've been reading up on the art of composting today. I became interested as I was about to put out some corrugated cardboard for recycling. I'd read that shredded paper can be added to the compost heap and is said to be useful to mix with fine greenery such as lawn clippings in order to aerate the mixture. I decided that the cardboard would be okay in the compost heap too as there's been a lot of lawn clippings in there recently and so I tore it up into small pieces and added it, along with some water, before giving the whole heap a good mix.

I think I need another compost heap so that I have one in a state of decomposition while any fresh material can be added to the other. I quite like the theory behind the rotating composters or 'tumblers'. Most I have seen are very expensive but there are a few available for around £80-£90. It's claimed that you can produce compost much quicker with a rotating compost bin as the tumbling action adds the necessary aeration required for the bacteria to get to work more efficiently. Growing potato's in barrels on the patio is a handy resource but they consume a large amount of garden centre compost which can become quite expensive. I could do with something to add to the compost so that I didn't have to buy so much and help keep the running costs down.

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