Manure mulch/winter veg

[Blue Radish]

I have used a square metre garden this year and had mixed results (which is actually pretty good by my standards!). The patch is pretty bare now and I wondered if this is a good time to add a mulch of compost/chopped bark that I bought earlier in the year. I have also been thinking of adding vermiculite to improve drainage.

Alternatively (or additionally), can anyone recommend winter veg that I could plant now. The only things I left in at the moment are a few Purple Sprouting Broccoli plants. Thanks. I should mention that I live near the Lancashire coast so winter is likely to be wet and windy but perhaps comparatively mild (though these days who can say!).

[Jamesy_uk]

I have used a square metre garden this year and had mixed results (which is actually pretty good by my standards!). The patch is pretty bare now and I wondered if this is a good time to add a mulch of compost/chopped bark that I bought earlier in the year. I have also been thinking of adding vermiculite to improve drainage.

Alternatively (or additionally), can anyone recommend winter veg that I could plant now. The only things I left in at the moment are a few Purple Sprouting Broccoli plants. Thanks. I should mention that I live near the Lancashire coast so winter is likely to be wet and windy but perhaps comparatively mild (though these days who can say!).

I know from previous threads wood chip/bark etc isn't recommended for veg beds as it locks up nitrogen if memory serves me, but I have put down a manure layer on the top half of one of my allotment beds for the winter and will rotovate it in in the spring.

[Blue Radish]

Thanks. I will apply with caution.

[Tripmeup]

You could put in some garlic or over winter onion sets or some broad beans now

[Newton]

You'd be better covering it with just the manure if you can......vermiculite will help drainage........

Welcome to the vine from a fellow Lancastrian.

[Two_Sheds]

I have used a square metre garden

Just the one? It's not much is it, so don't tie it up with veg that's cheap in the shops. Have you looked at the http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...2-a_62558.html thread for ideas to maximise your yields?

The patch is pretty bare now

Ideally, you should always have something ready & waiting to go in when something else comes out ... do you sow seed, or buy plants in?
The winter veggies need sowing April/May, so you'd need somewhere to keep them all until they get planted out in late summer

I have also been thinking of adding vermiculite to improve drainage.

Expensive though, and not environmentally friendly (air miles, pollution etc). Leafmould is free, and you'll be doing your neighbourhood a favour by picking them up.

Factsheet about making leafmould