Hi all I am ready to start growing again!!

[northepaul]

Welcome back from me too - hoping everything works out for you now

[bramble]

Welcome back. Its great to start over with everything under control.
Hope you have a great growing season.
Keep us up to date on the raised beds.

[ginger ninger]

A really BIG welcome home Miffy. Sorry to hear the **** fairy visited you, now she's gone it's time to get cracking on that clean slate. If you need help with seeds please don't hesitate to pm me, I'd be more than happy to help out. xx

[HeyWayne]

Good to see you back.

Don't stay away so long next time.

[Mikey]

Hi Miffy,

I don't think it will be a clean slate though, as your garden will have some variation due to light and water logging wind direction etc. There's always minor considerations on growing in the garden.

I'm in the process of building some more planters in the garden to house my new chicken coop, I have this idea that if I make there home mobile over the various beds then I can benefit from their natural goodness and prolific ground clearing tendancies.

Good fortune for 2011 miffy.

[miffy]

[QUOTE=Mikeywills;808213]Hi Miffy,

I don't think it will be a clean slate though, as your garden will have some variation due to light and water logging wind direction etc. There's always minor considerations on growing in the garden.

I started growing veg in my garden on a small scale when I moved into our house nearly fifteen years ago but didn't really get into it until three years ago but because my garden was so well established by then I hadn't either the courage or the heart to clear it all out and really plan for veg to be a very important part of how I used my garden.
I have very particular areas in my garden the bottom of the garden gets all the sun all day, I have a very shady part which has a large tree over it and this is my wild life part with native woodland plants and ferns. The rest of the garden has good light and drainage and is sheltered so not too much wind. The good part about learning to grow over the past fifteen years re plants is I know my gardens quirks and although I know veg is different I am hoping raised beds will help me to over come some of the issues I had before.
I plan to have companion planting and to create a mixture of flowers and veg to make it really pretty as well as edible!
Thank you for the advice much appreciated.

[Mikey]

Hi miffy, I've had great success with nasturtiums and marigolds in amongst my runner beans, they keep the slugs at bay while the beans get going. I also tend to underplant with lettuces then winter kale to take over when the beans have gone over.

I love companion planting and wish I new a lot more about it, all plants are interrelated in raised beds as they are in much closer proximity. Bob flowerdew has a good book on companion planting.

[miffy]

Will check out bob's book, thanks again. Miffy :-)

[ginger ninger]

Miffy...I've pm'd you