Dont know where to start?

[amateurdave]

Hi, thanks for taking the time to read.

Looking for as much advice as youll freely give with my garden. I think i have a fair understanding of what im trying to achieve, just not sure on how to get there.

Garden info:

NW England
60ft x 25ft (width)
East facing
Fence panels left and rear, hedge on the right boundry.
6ft patio at rear of house leading to grass with concrete path disecting to the rear which ends with a 8ft x 6ft ish concrete patio area.
The right of the path gets little sunshine due to a large tree next door and has gotten extremely mossy over the winter (been pretty much waterlogged since last oct) and im slowly raking it out.

Last few years ive just been maintaining it and getting rid of a few worse for wear trees, hedges and what looked like giant daffodils (sorry dont know what theyre called).

So what do i want?

Want to grow as much as i can. Want to get some quail soon and will eventually want to keep a few chickens. Eventually plan on getting a 10ft x 15ft workshop built at some point but got a baby due this summer and it would be a bit of a luxury at the moment. Would like a greenhouse, small pond and a few fruit bushes, still need to use a bit of space as a non working area.

My vague plan.

Get a long bed along the left fence boundry (about 3-4ft x 40ft). Using the fence panels for vertical growing (attaching some guttering for salads etc) also use as support. Probably using sq ft gardening.

6 x 6 greenhouse towards rear of garden over to left. Saving the rear right for the workshop eventually. Along withchickens down that end. Keep the quail near the house. Smallpond to the middle right (low light and mossy area) with fruit bushes around this area. front 1/3 of garden will be the more formal bit.


Get the feeling im waffling a bit and like my garden dont truly know where im going.

Any tips, suggestions or just words of encouragement welcome!

[Lumpy]

Is there any chance of a stetch or a photo as my poor brain cell is struggling to imagine what you have and what you want.

The only thing that struck me - allowing for my lack of spacial awareness was planters might be OK in the shady bit as stuff like spinach, oriental, lettuce etc are sometimes better with shade as it can stop the little bluggers bolting.

The other thing I thought was greenhouse, workshop, chickens etc will all take up quite a bit of space and if you have a child due soon you will have to think ahead as to where all their summer play stuff is going to go - slide, swing, sandpit etc

Other than this waffle - you will get loads of encouragement on here - well done you so far.

[muddled]

I think your plan sounds pretty good and well thought out actually!

I agree with Lumpy that your impending sproglet will hijack a huge amount of your space though and I hope your greenhouse will be poly rather than glass.
Having said that, for the first few years at least, most of babies stuff will fit on the patio.

Square foot gardening is an excellent idea and there's lots of info about that round here somewhere, and as Lumpy pointed out, pots and containers will give you lots of flexible growing space...plus, you can get cracking with those now before the rest of your garden is ready!

Its going to be great!

[amateurdave]

Attached photo

[amateurdave]

Sorry cant seem to edit my last post?

The grass thing has gone and replaced with a 6 x 6 shed. The hedges down the left have gone, theres what id guess is a birch tree about halfway down on the left where you can see the giant daffodil things which are no longer there.

Fenced across the rear with two awesome tress to the right (theyve got furry bark and the leaves go all colours of fire in the autumn)

The trees to the rear left dont block the light as much as the photo would suggest, the one on the right covers basically the bottom r/h corner of the photo.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[SusieG]

amateurdave - as Lumpy and muddled said above, sounds like you pretty much know where you want to go with your lovely garden space!
Oh yes, a big welcome to this Vine too!
As you can already see, there'll be heaps of help/encouragement/advice along the way with your project.

I'm fairly new to all this growing malarkey - I know zero about flowers and am picking it up as I go along with my fave things, veggies..!!

Just keep dipping in here with your thoughts, questions, photos and general chit-chat. And don't forget that your new ankle biter will demand a lot of your time as well as your garden ..!!!

[Guest]

You sound like you have a good idea of what you want. I would put it down on paper and make sure it seems do-able. Then make bite size realistic tasks and do it It is easy to get carried away and demotivated trying to do lots at once with little time to do it

[PyreneesPlot]

It all sounds well thought out and doable.
You could spend time talking to enthusiastic local gardeners about what grows well in your neighbourhood - gardeners love to talk and you are more than likely to come away with pots of spare plants.
If you want a pond, you could make it part of a raised bed structure to reduce the risk to small children and make it a great learning feature.

[amateurdave]

Thanks for the replies.

The original plan was back half would be for me and the front for the missus and baby girl. But the good thing about doing very little over the last 3-4 years is that ive learnt that the sun doesnt shine on the rh side very much so bad area for me. There isnt really a time frame but ideally i want to get it producing asap. And the push to get growing now is so i can hopefully get enough practice to teach the little un, was hoping her toys would be a dibber and some pots?!

@pyreneese plot. We have a community garden on the estate but so far attempts to get in contact have failed, might just try popping down one weekend.

My first port of call will be the long raised bed i think, probably using deck boards and the existing concrete base boards at the back. Its grassed at the moment with plenty of holes left from the hedges. Still have numerous of the giant daffodil bulbs that keep wanting to get up. Guessing for the most part i would be ok just turning this over and filling with topsoil? The other issue (i think) is the tree thats down that side. The tree will be sat in the middle of the bed so it would involve laying 6 inch or so on top of where it starts growing out of the ground if you get what i mean, got it in my head that this can cause disease/infection?

Will get a drawing done tonight but trying to sort out the nursery this weekend so doubt much will happen in the garden.

[amateurdave]

MIght as well have list of what we'd likely be growing.

Potatoes - lots
Carrots - lots
tomatoes - lots
Peppers
Chillis
Courgette
French beans - lots
Peas
Turnip
Parsnips
Brussel sprouts
Brocolli
Lettuce
Spinach
Rhubarb
Various herbs

Ive got a (n aldi) blackcurrant which did nothing last year but is growing really well this year. So would like a few more berry bushes.

Maybe a potted tree or two.

Need to try and not get carried away, ive got a man shed i must save space for!

[vixylix]

Welcome Dave! Sounds like you have lots of brilliant plans! As everyone else has said - get some sketches down on paper so you can start to budget. One step at a time!

[amateurdave]

Welcome Dave! Sounds like you have lots of brilliant plans! As everyone else has said - get some sketches down on paper so you can start to budget. One step at a time!

O thats one thing i definitely know! The budget is £0. Will be relying on some womble skills. Im not quite a thief but i really dont like paying for things.

The shed and greenhouse will need money but their not in the immediate plans.

Got lots of tools, equipment, materials and seeds that should keep me going for a while (i hoard). Will also be needing a good amount of soil to start the bed which im sure will end up costing me but ill keep an eye out. And we've got a good few pots knocking around.

Seems a lot more doable than it did at 9 o clock this morning.

[ESBkevin]

As a parent and gardener I'd want sprog(s) near the house in voew of the kitchen window.

I'd want the beds growing ASAP. You can place cardboard or dark plastic down on the turf to exclude light and kill the grass/weeds. Cardboard has the advantage of being bio-degradable and good worm food because of the glue in the corrugations. If you mulch heavilly over cardboard and leave a few weeks/months the worms will turn it all into a plantable matter with no digging, or you can just turn it over anyway. Not sure of your soil type, but there is hardly ever too much organic material in the soil ;-) so get whatever is available locally and compost it or bury it when you first dig, it's all good.
If time is tight then dig a small bed and get something planted then cardboard/mulch the next bed and leave it until you have time.
Small children and a pond? Little ponds for frogs and a bird bath is one thing, deep ponds that allow fish to survive ice is another altogether.

Sorry if that sound a bit preachy and I appologise if so, but you asked for input.

A lovely project you have lined up there, I am almost envious.

[amateurdave]

No need to apologise, your sharing your experience which is greatly appreciated.

The pond is a while off, will be looking at a natural pond and not so much fish (unless i get pulled towards aquaponics and that would be a whole something else.) Always fancied turning a bath in to a pond with a pump through the taps would be easier to have raised as well.

Used to have koi and whilst it was an impressive pond, it was no fun maintaining it nor was the expenses involved.

Perfect timing, ive just finished fitting 8 new doors which where all supplied in cardboard boxes.

[Jungle Jane]

Your plan sounds great it's good to get some fruit trees in early,I planted a dwarf apple tree in the ground,it's about 6 years old & tiny still. Victoria plum is quite a small tree & can be fan trained against a fence if you want,the fruits are amazing all fruit from the garden is so much better than from the shops,some trees need a pollinating partner like my pear tree-William Bon chretien so this year I had to buy another pear tree,but it's quite nice having two trees. Have you started digging the border beds,if you start it at 3ft you can easily extend it to 4ft later on if you need to. If you start some seeds off now indoors in pots & then in a couple of weeks you can plant them out to your new bed? If you sow beans,spinach,carrots,parsnip,brocolli etc once a month it gives you a longer harvest than just sowing once. Guttering might dry out too quickly for lettuce in direct sun,they like a bit of shade in the day or they can wilt. My dad built a raised pond years ago on their patio of their old house,you could sit on the edge,safe for toddlers not being able to climb in,it was about 3ft tall & had a raised section in the waterfall for birds to bathe,it was lovely. Have fun with your garden!