Soil

[SLH]

Hi All,

Hope you can all give me some advice. It's my first year growing veg in my garden. I have cleared the area where I'm wanting to grow everything. What do I need to do with my soil for best results?

[digger]

hello SLH and welcome to the message board, can I enquire what vegetables you are hoping to grow? and what type of soil do you have? and just for curiosity what part of the world are you in my friend?

[SLH]

Hiya,

I'm from Leeds in the UK. I'm not too sure what my soil is like (Brown and Mucky:)), it's seems ok as far as soil goes I think... it's not got clay in and not too sandy - does that help? Can you tell I'm new to this lol. I'm wanting to grow loads ie Tomatoes (growing in bags so they wil be fine), carrotts, peppers, chillies, Really all salad stuff

[digger]

Leeds isn't too far from me so you will be at a similar altitude, the root crops you want to grow like a nice deep soft well drained not too fertile soil bed, your peppers chillies tomatoes will need to be grown indoors or have you got a greenhouse?

[Paul Narramore]

"your peppers chillies tomatoes will need to be grown indoors or have you got a greenhouse?" My thought too Digger. If I was new to gardening and kean on veg, neither of which I am, I would get three or four rhubarb plants in the ground after deep digging with lots of compost and horse muck. Once they are getting started, think about runner beans as they are easy for a newcomer as are potatoes. That's just about exhausted my knowledge of successful veg growing. I won't talk about onion sets which bolted or tomatoes which had blight.

[Miranda]

I'm also in the north, SLH, though further east. I agree that you will need a greenhouse for the chillies, tomatoes and peppers. In a hot summer you can just get away with growing some tomatoes and chillies outside, as long as the plants are very sheltered and south facing, but you don't get as much from them as when they're in a greenhouse.

As Paul says, runner beans are easy to grow, as are broad beans. All the roots are pretty straightforward too. One of the most satisfying vegetables to grow is shallots - you buy them as sets (little bulbs), plant them out in spring and by the end of summer each bulb has become ten.

Digger is the resident vegetable expert and he will be able to answer any of your questions.

[digger]

[If I was new to gardening and kean on veg, neither of which I am, :D I like it Paul, as for the rhubarb i like mine with custard rather than manure. It's nice of you to say I am a veg expert Miranda, I shall endeavor to live up to it.

[SLH]

Thanks for all your posts - they are great! I dont have a greenhouse and only renting at the moment so dont fancy buying one as it maybe a pain when I choose to move. Is there anything I could use instead?... Maybe some DIY type thing I could use to bring the cost down?

[digger]

You can sometimes get a small greenhouse quite cheap second hand or even free, check out the classified ads in local papers. You could grow the plants indoors on a sunny window sill, if you haven't got the room indoors you will struggle growing outside without a greenhouse. Sometimes cloches or cold frames can be used whilst the plants are small but they will be inadequate to obtain the correct environment for the crops you have in mind.