Am I doing this right?

[Lesley Jay]

Andrewo is that true about nicotiania? We grow them in the garden and I thought there was a moth that loved them.

[andrewo]

Tried and tested

I had an influx of black fly one year and they all went for the nicotiana, killed them stone dead - don't know about other insects - I think it only kills those that drink the sap - nicotine poisoning?

And then I had greenfly on them and they died.

Andrewo

[andrewo]

Just a thought

Don't know if there is a scientific reason or I was just lucky that year. Planted the nicotiana by mistake - seed packet labelled wrong - so by mistakes come some great discoveries. Haven't tried them since but will be interested to see if they do the same thing again.

Andrewo

[Nicos]

Wizer - your plan looks great. Glad I'm not the only one who draws plans! Even more impressed as mine are on bits of graph paper, scellotaped together.
We tend to plant out in a staggered pattern within each type of plant eg with the celariac I would put 4 on one row, 3 in the next , and then 4 in the next so it forms a zigzag pattern. In this way you can get a few more crops from each block and they don't compete shoulder to shoulder for light and nutrients. This works well if you find you have a few too many seedlings to plant out in the space allocated.
If you're not sure what to put next to the carrots then I would suggest onions would help keep carrot fly away. I must look up companion plants again this year as I keep forgetting which goes where!
Once we've got the new gates up we can start building our raised beds (bought the wood today) 8x4 and 12x4. just need more of this dry weather we are having.

[nick the grief]

Wizer,

Have a look at the squar foot gardening website, this may give you soem help or failing that HDRA do a book called
"Growing fruit & vegetables on a bed system" by Pauline Pears, that shoud help you as well as it tells you distances & paterns of planting

ntg

[Jaxom]

A number of us on the vine seem to be using the square foot garden method. the book by Mel Bartholomew is a wonderful book. here is the link for his web pages http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
and the book is here http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...951932-7027063
hope this helps?
Jax

[WiZeR]

thanks guys, I have the Square Foot book. I am using this in conjunction with Joy Larkcom and Dr Hessayon's books.

Lesley, the Courgette and Sqaush varieties are:

# Winter Squash Orange Dawn
# Butternut Squash
# Courgette Tricolour F1 Hybrid
# Courgette Golden Zucchini
# Courgette White Volunteer
# Courgette Black Beauty

Seeing as these grow tall, is it best to have them, along with the tomatoes and peas/beans, in their own bed together?

[Lesley Jay]

Wizer I grow different varieties of squash each year and chop and change to try different ones. But I haven't grown Orange Down. Some grow into large bushy plants and others take off and grow half way across the plot!! The butternut squash that I have grown for the last three years is Avalon and that grows like mad. I normally plant all the squash and courgettes about 3 foot apart and they do need the room. The golden courgette that I grew was Gold Rush and I always grow Defender. These grow into good, large bushy plants. If you are planting four courgettes you will have loads to eat!! I normally plant them in one area of the plot but you are working with raised beds. You should get two courgette plants at the end of each bed. Just don't over crowd them because they will not like it and will not carry on producing fruit.

[WiZeR]

Still working on this. This is what I now have.



I am going to build another smaller raised bed for herbs and another for things like rhubarb, comfrey and artichokes. Then the potatos will go straight into the ground, finishing with a row of beans, tomatoes and peas.

Sound about right?

[Lesley Jay]

That looks good. I like the way you have split the parsnips and carrots up with leeks. The broccoli looks too close together it needs to be 12 - 18 inches apart. Are you going to stagger the sowing of the cabbages so that they are not all ready at the same time?

[WiZeR]

Thanks Lesley, its a relief to finaly start to make sense of it all. The brocolli is 15cms apart, I may have to double that to 30cms. Yes, thats the next bit... trying to work out my sowing schedules. Something else I am new at. Now I have the positions of each plant I will work down a list of sowing times for each one. Thank goodness for Joy Larkcom, Dr Hessayon and this fine forum.

[Lesley Jay]

Wizer it was the broccoli that I thought was too close together. Broccoli needs 12 - 18 inches apart, leeks 6 inches apart and onions 4 inches apart. I grow two different varieties of summer cabbage which are ready at slightly different times and one variety stands well in the ground without bolting. Then a red cabbage and a winter cabbage which is ready in Ocotober and stands in the ground all winter.