Planning a new garden

[GardenHaus]

Howdy all,

I just moved to London and a flat in N1 (Islington) and would like take up gardening. I've been doing a bit of research and would like some help with planning. Attached is a picture of my area, I am not quite sure if I should be doing traditional rows, raised beds or square foot gardening or if I'll end up doing a mix of them anyways? I guess the question is if I want to dig in organic compost or put it on top via raised beds, is that correct?

More details:

• the sun covered wall on the left side of the picture faces south
• the current beds go pretty deep, at least 12 inches when I was digging around a bit
• some areas in the west (bottom of picture area) may have drainage issues
• soil appears to be clay-like, it's thick and wet

I have Alan Titchmarsh's Vegetables and Herbs book, which gives a pretty good primer. I was looking at the RHC Vegetable and Fruit Gardening and was wondering if that goes into more detail about garden planning?

Glad to have found this forum.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Hello Gardenhaus and welcome to the Vine.

You've a great blank canvas ready to go there - brilliant! I'm not surprised about your London clay - it will be a bit hard going if you are digging, bit will have and hold loads of nutrients.

For planning your space, I guess the first thing is to think about the permanent features - if you want fruit bushes/rhubarb they need to be put in first (I'd think about against the wall on the sunny side and the far wall).

I'd go for beds for sure - so you don't have to walk on the soil (so no more than about 4' wide, unless you have the arms of a gibbon).

Compost is always good to add to the soil, but you can make your own as you go - line up at least three bins along the shady side of the wall and you can put all your kitchen waste/leaves/shredded paper in there.

And the most important thing? Make a list of what you would like to eat, and grow only that. I still make the mistake of growing at least some beetroot every year, and still have no idea why - I can't stand the stuff, and end up making into chutney to give away as Christmas presents.

You'll have loads of other advice (probably too much! ), but the main thing is to enjoy yourself.

[PyreneesPlot]

Hello and welcome.
A warm sunny wall in London screams peaches or apricots to me. :-) Have to second growing only what you like to eat; I have far too much space given over to peas which could be used for beetroot!

[Hazel at the Hill]

I have far too much space given over to peas which could be used for beetroot!

Do you a swap, PP - I never put in enough peas!

[GardenHaus]

So at this point I should be building beds and digging in organic compost? Once I have planned crops for this year (in about a week) I should start ordering seeds if I am sowing indoors or outdoors via a cold box or greenhouse?

[GardenHaus]

As i dive in and learn about sowing and planting of various vegetables, i am reading that a lot of vegetables seem to require a cold frame or greenhouse at the beginning, is this structure definitely necessary?

[veggiechicken]

Hello and welcome.
You can start most veggies indoors in a small electric propagor, in the airing cupboard or on a sunny windowsill. Once they're growing well and the weather has warmed up, you can start hardening them off by putting the seedlings outside during the day and bringing them in again for the evening.
Once you've decided what you would like to grow (and eat) ask us again and we'll give you more detailed advice

[Hazel at the Hill]

So at this point I should be building beds and digging in organic compost? Once I have planned crops for this year (in about a week) I should start ordering seeds if I am sowing indoors or outdoors via a cold box or greenhouse?

Although compost is always good, if the ground has not been used for growing, it should be ok for nutrients for the first year. Of course, if you have a ready supply of horse muck, you can bung it on. I wouldn't bother digging it in, let the worms do that, and by the time you come to plant out it will have rotted down enough - the ground will just need a tickle with a fork and you're good to go.

As i dive in and learn about sowing and planting of various vegetables, i am reading that a lot of vegetables seem to require a cold frame or greenhouse at the beginning, is this structure definitely necessary?

Well, I'd be inclined not to bother, personally, or at the very most get one of those £15 polythene covered mini greenhouses (but anchor it down well - it is not for nothing that they are nicknamed 'blowaways'!!). I'm more one for sowing quite a bit in pots (in a sunny sheltered corner of the garden) in nice seed or multi purpose compost then planting out when they are big enough to fight off weed competition/slugs.

You can start plants earlier in the season if you use a greenhouse, but faff of hardening them off, or fleecing if it looks like it will be a bit chilly one night is not worth the extra couple of weeks in cropping that you could gain. In my experience, sowing things more 'in their time' means they need less cossetting, and most things catch up with their earlier sown peers.

[Bill HH]

Welcome,
Oh that wall is gorgeous and south facing as PP pointed out it screams fruit, consider plums apples etc. If you read up about fan training fruit trees that wall would be ideal. Another point is the raised beds, the idea is not to dig them and not to walk on them, so your clay soil becomes irrelevant. A greenhouse is not essential, there are ways round it as VC said. also I agree you should be putting in some compost bins, why buy it when you can make it (better) for free. Although you may have to buy some initialy for the raised beds. In the bottom of your raised beds chuck loads of paper, carboard even straw and build up from that. Lets see some pics when your up to your ears in produce.
One further point is that you can have good results with these cheap plastic small green houses (so called blow aways) I started seeds off and grew tomatoes and cucumbers in one for a couple of years with wonderful results.

[GardenHaus]

Thanks for the tips. I've been reading that digging in before adding raised bed soil helps. Now, what exactly doe 'helps' mean? There are a fair amount of rocks and debris in the garden currently. I have no idea when/if it was ever used for growing. It appears to be loamy and slightly clay-like, I believe the irigation is poor, but I will do a test and confirm.

I also heard it was bad to dig up ground when wet?

[Bill HH]

Well you can build raised beds on concrete so i doubt you need to dig anything provided your raised beds are made deep enough. As for drainage, raised beds will drain because of their height. |The only thing is it can cost quite a bit to fill them initialy, you need to source some cheap compost but once you're up and running you will be making your own.