New Vegetable Garden - advice needed

[jessie15]

Hi, I am in a lucky position that my family own some farm land and I have decided to take over a little piece of it to become my vegetable garden, its perfect for me as its only a 10mins walk from where I live.

I have in the past couple of years had a go at growing lettuce, beetroot, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers spring onions, peas, runner beans and onions, but I am very much a learner.

My question is, how big a piece of land should I take on? I want to take it slowly and see how I take to it, I can always extend at a later date. What would be manageable do you think?

Also, what do I need to do to begin with? its just part of a field, do I just take off the grass and dig it? if so how deep do I need to dig? do I need to edge the borders?

Sorry for all of the silly questions and any advice would be very much appreciated!

[Kristen]

My veg patch is is 675 sq.M – which includes the greenhouses (about 40 sq.m) and the areas used for Nursery beds and Cut flowers (about 30%), and also includes Raspberry, Blackberry Currants, Strawberries and Asparagus (about 30% - so I suppose about 30% is actual Veg Patch). We feed a house of 4 for about 9 - 10 months of the year form the veg patch

Average allotment is about 300 sq.m. - and there are plenty of half-sized allotments about too, so 150 sq.m might be regarded as the smallest area to start with which will actually earn its keep .

Either way, I suggest you organise it so you could expand up to about 500 - 600 sq.m. if you decide that suits you, in future years.

You may want to fence around it with Rabbit wire?

Personally I would recommend having the "farmer" plough it before you start, and then PTO-Rotavate (or Power Harrow if no Rotavator available) to give you a flying start.

if you can wait long enough then consider an initial spraying with Roundup / Glyphosate to kill the grass etc a good two weeks before ploughing - but don't apply the weedkiller until the weeds are actively growing, or you won't get a good "kill"

[Aberdeenplotter]

Jessie,

depends how much time you have available is the obvious question. A 300 squ yard/250 squ mtr plot was reckoned to be big enough to allow a family of four to be self sufficient in vegetables. There is a lot of work in keeping that size of plot going though.

[chris]

flipping heck kirsten, how much land do you have?! :O jsut looked at your site.

In answer to your querstion, Jessie, I'd probably ear mark a traditional plot size (I just took one on after a years growing experience from seed (cheated the year before with 3 plants - tom, cuc and pepper! )... I think it's manageable if you're serious about growing. You cold always expand sideways if they allow too - to have two plots side by side - a plan to bear in mind?

[Kristen]

flipping heck kirsten, how much land do you have?!

Probably fair to say that I am a keen, and ambitious, gardener. The ornamental garden looks like a building site though, and we've been here 5 years already. Probably going to continue to look like that for another two years whilst the structural stuff is completed - and then we'll start concentrating on making it "presentable".

[Jono]

Hey Jessie.

Maybe you could start by writing a list of what you want to grow, and guestimate how much land you need from there?

That way you wouldn't be overstretching yourself, and would be growing stuff you know you're going to enjoy. If you want to cultivate more land in the future you can.

I wouldn't get too worried about the size. In my first year I just concentrated on planting and seeing what happened.

Good luck!

[zazen999]

I'd start with a few 2x1 m spaces, chuck some spuds in. Read up on veg and prepping the soil, then prep a few more beds and just keep going until I thought that was enough for yr 1.

[Potstubsdustbins]

May I suggest you don't take on to much at first it would be a shame to become disillusioned, a little success is often a great encouragement.

Colin

[Chef_uk]

May I suggest you don't take on to much at first it would be a shame to become disillusioned, a little success is often a great encouragement.

Colin

My exact train of thought for my first year of growing. Our veg patch is a comparatively tiny 75sq.m yet i'm only starting off with 43sq.m.

Full time job and 3 young kids meant that whilst i'm cramming the growth in, managing a smaller plot than that is available gives me room to grow into over the next few years if I manage to cope. Start small and work my way up as i gain experience has to be the right way as i want to keep doing this for many years to come.

[Florence Fennel]

I'm another advocate of starting small, with two or three raised beds. You are lucky enough then to be able to expand, because I'm sure as you gain the experience, you will want more and more ground! Good Luck with it.

[elsie-scot]

Yep another start small. Our first year we had three 2mx1m beds and was amazed how much we got out of that. Also grew some tomotoes/chillies.

You'll know your area, but rabbit and/or deer fencing. We've no rabbits here, but we did have a deer in our garden on christmas morning (nope not one of Santa's reindeer). Both can undo a lot of hard work.