Taking over the neighbours garden

[amandaandherveg]

I have a lovely elderly neighbour who at 79 finds her garden too much. I had a chat with her the other day (over the wall) and we have agreed that my friend and I will tame her dandelion jungle (the roots are over a foot long and look like parsnips) and grow veg at the bottom of her garden. She's delighted but now we have to think what we can grow in it.

I have loads of spare seeds and bits and pieces in the greenhouse to get us started but are we still ok for things like caulis, sprouts, cabbage, etc? I'm guessing it's too late for onions. Any other crops you could suggest?

[jackie j]

Letuce and salad crops dont take long . You could buy a few plants I bought 2 butternut squash today for £1.40p each. I expect someone with more knowledge than me will be more helpful.

[Flummery]

It depends on how long it takes you to clear a patch! It's not too late to sow beans and sweetcorn. I don't sow my Spring Cabbage till July so that's another possibility - plant in final position early Spetember. You could also think about some of the 'oriental' vegetables, most of which seem to do better after midsummer. There are so many types of Pak Choi and mustard greens etc - you'll be spoilt for choice. Good luck with it!

[Two_Sheds]

I just looked in my seed file and all these can be sown in June: kohl rabi, french bean, cucumber, romanesco, squash, parsnip, swede, coriander, lettuce, radish, beetroot, pea and carrots.

This sounds like a good deal for you and the lady, well done.

[amandaandherveg]

I popped a message on Freecycle. I've been offered sprouts, broccoli, kale, red cabbage, white cabbage and hispi cabbage, all young plants that were excess to requirements and were about to be thrown in the compost heap. Yippee!!

I've got some squash in the greenhouse and various beans and peas and quite a few packets of the seeds suggested by Two Sheds, result!

[Snadger]

I used to use my MIL's neghbours garden as pseudo allotment. It was quite a while ago and at that time council houses used to have huge gardens (especially in mining villages) and people were only too happy to have their garden cultivated if they couldn't manage it.
Like yours the one i took over was a mass of dandelions and I remember having about a dozen sacks full of dandelion roots! Wasn't so bad though as I dried some and made dandelion coffee with them!

It appears that the council around here have taken the huge gardens from the houses, turfed them and turned them into huge green deserts, supposedly open plan community space!

Good luck with the cultivation of your neighbours garden amandaandherveg!

[amandaandherveg]

Thanks Snadger, our cottages are over 200 years old and as a result the gardens are quite large, however, going by the size of the dandelions, they're about 200 years old too. We filled 10 black bags with them yesterday, still plenty more left though

Will be tackling the evil that is pampas grass tomorrow. I need to find a blowtorch or Napalm.

[Flummery]

Took me a week of hacking till my back twinged to get rid of my pampas grass. Not really mine - it was here when we moved! What a glorious feeling of achievement though, when I'd cleared that patch!

[brooklynodog]

I got rid of a 20 odd year old pampass grass this Feb. Took all week! Planted by me in a moment of madness back in the late 80`s cos I thought they looked nice! Last year I think the tallest grass mustnt have been far short of 15 foot.