advice please on house build and garden / growing

mickman

Hi everyone

I am nearly finished building a new house and have a .25 acre site so not much room . We are going to pave most of the back etc but want to leave space for a greenhouse / tunnel

Now i know nothing about growing but i want to grow some veg and maybe strawberries. Can someone give me general advice on what i need to leave for this ?

Am i better off leaving some earth for the greenhouse / tunnel to sit on?

What can i feasibly grow in a greenhouse, is it just fruit or some veg as well ?

sorry for the real ignorent questions but i dont want to mess up the back of the house while its easy to do it right

looksee

.25 of an acre, even with a house on, is enough room to have a patio and do some gardening. I would be a bit concerned about paving 'most of the back'. Are you just talking a large paved area or will there be raised beds etc? I suspect you are thinking of a maintenance free area apart from just the bits you want to grow things in, and i think you will be disappointed a couple of years down the line. Can you give us a bit of a drawing or a photo to get an idea of what you want to do?

mickman

yes maintenance free for most of it is really what we were looking at becuase we just see the point in a small little lawn. Would prefer a nice paving area with a fountain or something in the centre and then my greenhouse at the end

Didnt plan on raised beds, just a large paved area

looksee

If you pave a large area you would be messing with the drainage of the area, so you need to keep that in mind, and whether there is any slope at all. What do you want to grow in the greenhouse? Most fruits including strawberries grow outside - raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, rhubarb, fruit trees. Tomatoes and peppers and some salads in a greenhouse. I have been an enthusiastic gardener all my life and used grow most things from seed, but never had a greenhouse, you can do a lot of gardening without one!

mickman

looksee wrote: »

If you pave a large area you would be messing with the drainage of the area, so you need to keep that in mind, and whether there is any slope at all. What do you want to grow in the greenhouse? Most fruits including strawberries grow outside - raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, rhubarb, fruit trees. Tomatoes and peppers and some salads in a greenhouse. I have been an enthusiastic gardener all my life and used grow most things from seed, but never had a greenhouse, you can do a lot of gardening without one!

strawberries grow outside ? thought all that was indoors in ireland

chippyliam

In this country a greenhouse is a must for growing tomatoes, if you leave soil in you will have to change it every couple of years as it will hold fungus and other diseases , i dug out mine and put in concrete and I use growbags which can be used in the flower beds when their spent the only downfall is you will have to check them regular so as they don't dry out .Hope this is some help.

looksee

Maybe some commercial growers use shelter, as much for the sake of the workers and protecting the fruit from birds etc, but it is perfectly possible to grow strawberries outside and I imagine most gardeners do that. We have stopped growing them but we used get pounds of strawberries with very minimal care (birds, slugs and woodlice are the biggest pests, but even with them getting a share there were good crops)

mickman

chippyliam wrote: »

In this country a greenhouse is a must for growing tomatoes, if you leave soil in you will have to change it every couple of years as it will hold fungus and other diseases , i dug out mine and put in concrete and I use growbags which can be used in the flower beds when their spent the only downfall is you will have to check them regular so as they don't dry out .Hope this is some help.

So what is a growbag ? To be honest i would prefer the thought of a concrete base with just maybe tyres full of soil and other creative methods growing stuff inside the greenhouse

mickman

so guys im going to put gravel / paving under the house - i reckon that will be tidier and easier to manage. I can also move the house if i need to

What can be grown in a greehouse from a veg / fruit point of view ? What are the easiest and most plentiful , i mean not much point in trying to grow potatoes and being able to 20 per season :-)

macraignil

mickman wrote: »

so guys im going to put gravel / paving under the house - i reckon that will be tidier and easier to manage. I can also move the house if i need to

What can be grown in a greehouse from a veg / fruit point of view ? What are the easiest and most plentiful , i mean not much point in trying to grow potatoes and being able to 20 per season :-)

A greenhouse that you can move if you need to sounds like a nice idea but make sure it is well anchored and sheltered from strong winds that we get frequently in Ireland.

Growing in a greenhouse or outside usually makes use of soil as the best medium to give water and nutrients to your crops so paving too much will give less space for growing.

I saw a nice method of growing strawberry plants raised off the ground on small PVC pipes holding up the growbags(flat bags of compost) with a drip feed watering system. The fruit was able to hang over the edge of the bags out of reach of slugs that go for the ripe fruit on the ground.

There are many crops that do well in a greenhouse when they would not grow well outside. I currently have lettuce, thyme and parsley growing well in a polytunnel while they would not be doing as well outdoors. When the weather warms up basil is another nice plant for the greenhouse. I have also started growing a grape vine in the polytunnel but could be a couple of years yet before I get any grapes. Fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse have a great flovour and smaller cherry tomatoes seem to give better results when I have grown them. You can also start plants in the greenhouse to be transplanted outside later giving them a head start compared to just planting seed outside.

mickman

so guys i have another silly question here. If you plant potates for example in a tyre and i do this in a greenhouse - does a greenshouse provide the light needed or is it just heat ? I mean, can the sun get through the glass and give the seeds what they need ?

I will have zero space to move stuff to outside of hte greenhouse so it will all have to be done in the greenhouse

magicbastarder

mickman wrote: »

I am nearly finished building a new house and have a .25 acre site so not much room

that's loads of room. i'm on a 0.15 acre site (in the suburbs of dublin) and would be considered to have a large garden.

zagmund

I think you are artificially constraining yourself. You have plenty of room on the site from the size you gave earlier, but want to only use the greenhouse.

I don't think a single tyre would give you enough room for the potatos to grow, so you may want to consider stacking them. And . . . potatos are quite happy to grow outdoors - that's how they grow in Ireland so you could just as easily stack them outside.

Our strawberries have only ever grown outside.

You could easily leave 1/2 meter soil out from the boundary wall and plant rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and a whole host of things which require no real work.

Putting things in a greenhouse is actually creating maintenance work for you - you have to water things. Left outside the raid takes care of that 80-90% of the time.

z

mickman

zagmund wrote: »

I think you are artificially constraining yourself. You have plenty of room on the site from the size you gave earlier, but want to only use the greenhouse.

I don't think a single tyre would give you enough room for the potatos to grow, so you may want to consider stacking them. And . . . potatos are quite happy to grow outdoors - that's how they grow in Ireland so you could just as easily stack them outside.

Our strawberries have only ever grown outside.

You could easily leave 1/2 meter soil out from the boundary wall and plant rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and a whole host of things which require no real work.

Putting things in a greenhouse is actually creating maintenance work for you - you have to water things. Left outside the raid takes care of that 80-90% of the time.

z

what i am trying to avoid is cutting a lawn etc. Thats why i was getting the whole site gravelled.

I know about stacking the tyres etc and will do this in order to get enough. I just think the greenhouse is tidier and more contained.

Does the greenhouse have to be in direct sunshine ?

macraignil

mickman wrote: »

so guys i have another silly question here. If you plant potates for example in a tyre and i do this in a greenhouse - does a greenshouse provide the light needed or is it just heat ? I mean, can the sun get through the glass and give the seeds what they need ?

I will have zero space to move stuff to outside of hte greenhouse so it will all have to be done in the greenhouse

Light should get through the glass or plastic of a greenhouse and allow you grow what you like. Good to consider what you like eating most if you have limited space. I find herbs in the polytunnel make a great improvement to flavors in the kitchen.

mickman

zagmund wrote: »

I think you are artificially constraining yourself. You have plenty of room on the site from the size you gave earlier, but want to only use the greenhouse.

I don't think a single tyre would give you enough room for the potatos to grow, so you may want to consider stacking them. And . . . potatos are quite happy to grow outdoors - that's how they grow in Ireland so you could just as easily stack them outside.

Our strawberries have only ever grown outside.

You could easily leave 1/2 meter soil out from the boundary wall and plant rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and a whole host of things which require no real work.

Putting things in a greenhouse is actually creating maintenance work for you - you have to water things. Left outside the raid takes care of that 80-90% of the time.

z

Hi guys

Back to this again. BUilder is starting next week and was rethinking this. As you say above , would it be better to leave a metre soil out from the boundary to have hte option of planting in it ? WOuld this work ??

Or would it be better to gravel over all and then create some kind of raised bed situation with rocks undernearth soil and grow on top of that?

If i were to leave a metre wide of soil then how long should i have it ? Would i just have soil or would i put a polytunnel over it ?

My aim is to grow kale year round if possible , potatoes and a few other tough outside vegetables like beets and onions. Im the only person in my house that eats it so what kind of space would i need ?