Veg plans for 2020

Well,
I thought It might be helpful if people posted their plating plans for 2020.
I'd consider myself a newby so been trying to figure out what and when to plant.
I have winter set onions up now and 2 rows of garlic.
We did plant 2 rows of radish + some leafs just to have something in the (new) beds over winter.Couldn't look at them empty after building them.
On the cards

-Sweet pea
-Corn
-tomatoes
-courgettes
-Pumpkins (never had much joy with them in the previous small garden)

Chiili's already planted indoors.

On the cards:

-potatoes
-onions

If I get my hydroponics set up going - lettuce.

Harry Palmr

Been thinking about this. probably going to put in a new raised bed and deploy a bag or two for potatoes
I'll go for carrots, usual mixed salad greens, a few tomato plants, onions, chard.

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Been thinking about this. probably going to put in a new raised bed and deploy a bag or two for potatoes
I'll go for carrots, usual mixed salad greens, a few tomato plants, onions, chard.

I've a big raised bed planned myself but I'll be filling it from the pond I'm planning so It won't be ready till the end of the season I'd say.

Our chillies/bell peppers have survived in the greenhouse until this week,they are looking a bit sad now

cuculainn

BrownFinger wrote: »

Well,
I thought It might be helpful if people posted their plating plans for 2020.
I'd consider myself a newby so been trying to figure out what and when to plant.
I have winter set onions up now and 2 rows of garlic.
We did plant 2 rows of radish + some leafs just to have something in the (new) beds over winter.Couldn't look at them empty after building them.
On the cards

-Sweet pea
-Corn
-tomatoes
-courgettes
-Pumpkins (never had much joy with them in the previous small garden)

Quick question for you on the Garlic, when did you sow and how much is it up?
I planted garlic bulbs in November and only one or two are starting to appear now. They were up much more this time last year.......they grew so well last year i would be p'ssed off if they didnt grow this year. i used bulbs from what i grew last year

cuculainn

I am in the process of building three raised beds from stone from an old shed.......harder work than i thought it would be!!

I have winter peas and beans up in one bed and filled the other bed i had last year with strawberry plants.


In the new beds i plan on
Carrots
parsnips
courgette
Peas
lettuce
beetroot
spinach
kale

Not sure i will get to all this but at least ill enjoy trying!!!

cuculainn

cuculainn wrote: »

Quick question for you on the Garlic, when did you sow and how much is it up?

Good question,I dont remember when but they are all up about 200mm (20 or so shoots).
Its my first time trying them,just planted cloves from aldi.

I've read with regards to garlic,
Plant before the shortest day and harvest before the longest day .

cuculainn

BrownFinger wrote: »

Good question,I dont remember when but they are all up about 200mm (20 or so shoots).
Its my first time trying them,just planted cloves from aldi.

I've read with regards to garlic,
Plant before the shortest day and harvest before the longest day .

Are they outside or in a tunnel? 200mm is great growth......

cuculainn

cuculainn wrote: »

Are they outside or in a tunnel? 200mm is great growth......

No,exposed to the elements.
I'll take a few snaps at the weekend.The only time I see the garden under daylight at the moment.

uck51js9zml2yt

Got my seeds today

Harry Palmr

Deleted User wrote: »

Chiili's already planted indoors.

On the cards:

-potatoes
-onions

If I get my hydroponics set up going - lettuce.

I'm vaguely interested in this as a method, I've seen vids where growers working on a small plot have a smallish tunnel which produced enough for commercial purposes at very little expense in terms of time once it's been set up.

BrownFinger

BrownFinger wrote: »

I've a big raised bed planned myself but I'll be filling it from the pond I'm planning so It won't be ready till the end of the season I'd say.

Our chillies/bell peppers have survived in the greenhouse until this week,they are looking a bit sad now

Have you a light in there?

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I'm vaguely interested in this as a method, I've seen vids where growers working on a small plot have a smallish tunnel which produced enough for commercial purposes at very little expense in terms of time once it's been set up.

My dad bought me a kit for Christmas. Its a plastic box about 40cm cubed. You add stone pellets in the top, add nutrients and plant what you intend to grow among the pellets, then theres a pump which sprays the water + nutrient combo over the plants. Lettuce apparently works really well. I love the idea of free, fresh organic lettuce all year round.

My vague plan is to get one of these, put it in the corner of the living room, and install some lights on a timer.

Edit: The thought of being raided by the drugs squad because they think Im running a grow house, and revealing my lettuce to them, really amuses me.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Have you a light in there?

Light as in grow light ?
No,
Do have a small heater that keeps it slightly above 5 degrees.

pconn062

I have big plans this year if all goes to plan. I'm expanding the garden as we speak and getting a delivery of about 2 tonnes of 2 year old cow manure to build new beds in the next few weeks.

At the minute I have overwintering onions and garlic in the ground split between outside and the polytunnel. Also have an overwintering bed of spinach and 5 good sized purple sprouting broccoli plants. Just planted my first early potatoes in the polytunnel at the weekend which I can fleece up if needed. Will soon be sowing early carrots, leeks, lettuce, broad beans, peas, chillis and peppers. The plan is to fill the polytunnel with French beans, borlotti beans, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, courgettes and peppers.

Will also have a brassica bed and a good sized area for main crop spuds (Sarpo Mira, Setanta, Kestrel as well as early Charlottes and Queens) which I am going to grow in 30l containers. And then main crop carrots and parsnips for storage. My goal is have enough in store to do us until next spring if possible.

Have a good season everyone.

That sounds fantastic !
I had to google brassica,Post a few pics if you can.

BrownFinger

BrownFinger wrote: »

Light as in grow light ?
No,
Do have a small heater that keeps it slightly above 5 degrees.

Doesn't have to be a grow light. Any kind of light would do.

I had a great crop of chillies last christmas using just a small desk light and a 60 watt bulb.

kylith

Finally get a garden I can grow stuff in, and the soil is fecking clay. Have dug over a bed and added leaf mulch and hay, but don’t know how that’s been going with the rain ( garden was flooded last week. Have no idea what i could grow in it

Harry Palmr

If it's horrible clay from turf to subsoil I'd not spend any time trying to rehabilitate it, I'd just go up, foot deep raised beds with fresh topsoil mix.

kylith

Harry Palmr wrote: »

If it's horrible clay from turf to subsoil I'd not spend any time trying to rehabilitate it, I'd just go up, foot deep raised beds with fresh topsoil mix.

We went down about 2.5feet putting in a fence post and it was clay all the way. I’ve postulated with Himself about raised beds, but those things are not cheap.

You can totally make them on the cheap from posts and wide boards.then line them with a tarp.
I have one made out or real sleepers,while it looks really nice it's not high enough and cost loads.

uck51js9zml2yt

Make them out of pallets

uck51js9zml2yt

https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Garden-Equipment/Garden-Accessories/Seed-Tins/Pea-and-Bean--Seed-Tin----with-Veg-Seed-10_265525.htm#265525

Code GY220 gives them to you for total of £4.99 postage to ROI.

A bargain:)

MacDanger

Novice gardener here, thinking about trying these this year in a ~60m2 plot:

Early potatoes
Carrots
Brocolli
Sprouting brocolli
Cauliflower
Celery
Leek
Rocket
Onions
Garlic
Some herbs (parsely, thyme, rosemary, coriander, lavender, sage, chamomile)

The Red Ace

I have just got in some of my seeds for this year, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli,peppers,carrots, parsnip, usually buy the lettuce plants. Will also be planting the spuds and plenty onions . Will be preparing the ground shortly for this years gardening and adding in some well rotted seaweed

Karlee Magnificent Valve

Karlee Magnificent Valve wrote: »

https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Garden-Equipment/Garden-Accessories/Seed-Tins/Pea-and-Bean--Seed-Tin----with-Veg-Seed-10_265525.htm#265525

Code GY220 gives them to you for total of £4.99 postage to ROI.

A bargain:)

cheers

how did you find that

uck51js9zml2yt

[Deleted User] wrote: »

cheers

how did you find that

Veggie group on Facebook

Also seed parade are having a flash sale at the moment on seeds

Karlee Magnificent Valve

Karlee Magnificent Valve wrote: »

Veggie group on Facebook

Also seed parade are having a flash sale at the moment on seeds

What's the link to the group?

uck51js9zml2yt

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What's the link to the group?

Can't remember. I'm part of a few gardening/ allotment/ no dig groups found in the UK and Ireland

CelticRambler

cuculainn wrote: »

Quick question for you on the Garlic, when did you sow and how much is it up?
I planted garlic bulbs in November and only one or two are starting to appear now. They were up much more this time last year.......they grew so well last year i would be p'ssed off if they didnt grow this year. i used bulbs from what i grew last year

This year is going to be "interesting" seeing as we've had no real winter. Garlic likes a good cold spell and although I have a few feral plants from bulbs that escaped being harvested last year, I'm not hopeful of a good crop this year from anything that needs a hard frost.

On the other hand, I already have a drill of potatoes growing nicely - it's an experiment, to see if I can have new potatoes for St. Patrick's Day! They're the last 3m of my autumn crop, which had already sprouted before I got to lift them (probably due to one cold-ish week at the beginning of December). I'm heaping grass clippings on top of them, expecting the heat from decomposition will protect them from any future frost.

uck51js9zml2yt

CelticRambler wrote: »

This year is going to be "interesting" seeing as we've had no real winter. Garlic likes a good cold spell and although I have a few feral plants from bulbs that escaped being harvested last year, I'm not hopeful of a good crop this year from anything that needs a hard frost.

On the other hand, I already have a drill of potatoes growing nicely - it's an experiment, to see if I can have new potatoes for St. Patrick's Day! They're the last 3m of my autumn crop, which had already sprouted before I got to lift them (probably due to one cold-ish week at the beginning of December). I'm heaping grass clippings on top of them, expecting the heat from decomposition will protect them from any future frost.

Planted my garlic last October and it's coming along nicely.
Don't know what part of the country you're in not to have had a hard frost in recent weeks.

CelticRambler

Karlee Magnificent Valve wrote: »

Don't know what part of the country you're in not to have had a hard frost in recent weeks.

Probably not yours! I'm a few degrees of latitude down towards the equator.

But usually a few degrees of temperature colder than Dublin in the winter (like 10-15°C colder) Average temperatures here - central France - are currently about about 13°C higher than normal for this time of year, hence the plentiful supply of grass clippings.

uck51js9zml2yt

CelticRambler wrote: »

Probably not yours! I'm a few degrees of latitude down towards the equator.

But usually a few degrees of temperature colder than Dublin in the winter (like 10-15°C colder) Average temperatures here - central France - are currently about about 13°C higher than normal for this time of year, hence the plentiful supply of grass clippings.

You need to come home:)

Planted some plum and pear trees today

Karlee Magnificent Valve

Karlee Magnificent Valve wrote: »

Planted my garlic last October and it's coming along nicely.
Don't know what part of the country you're in not to have had a hard frost in recent weeks.

We had a hard frost during the week.maybe two.
Garlics have gone a bit yellow on the ends.winter onions are looking a bit floppy too.
Hopefully they will be ok.
Been harvesting some radishes.lovely!!

Relative newbie to growing veg. Made so many mistakes last year. Potatoes got blight, carrots were planted in soil that was too rich and forked, cabbage got decimated by caterpillars. This year I’m keeping things simple, one bed for potatoes and the other two will be as flower seed nurseries as I’m redesigning my cottage garden.

Vicarious Function

Having just two raised beds 6' by 3' each, there are certain things I need to leave out, due to lack of space. One of these is potatoes. Right now, being the end of Winter, I have a fairly large selection of herbs such as sage, thyme, rosemary, fennel, etc. I love being able to run out to the garden and cut a bunch of fresh herbs for my latest recipes. Also have three varieties of kale, which are great growers during the winter. Have some salad varieties growing in pots in a shaded corner of the garden. They survived the winter fairly well. It doesn't sound like much but I must say I take great pleasure in what I have.

Later during Spring, I hope to sow a variety of salad leaves and some root veggies such as carrots, beetroot etc.

CelticRambler

Vicarious Function wrote: »

Having just two raised beds 6' by 3' each, there are certain things I need to leave out, due to lack of space. One of these is potatoes.

Grow 1-3 plants in 20-litre buckets/old food containers (e.g. catering-size oil drums, water-cooler bottles, etc).

Vicarious Function

CelticRambler wrote: »

Grow 1-3 plants in 20-litre buckets/old food containers (e.g. catering-size oil drums, water-cooler bottles, etc).

Thanks for that suggestion, CelticRambler. I'm not a great fan of spuds, so I may or may not try it.

I forgot to mention I have spinach growing well at this time in my raised beds. Also have various mints in pots. They can be invasive as regards root spread if planted out in the beds - hence are confined to pots. Bay leaf shrubs grow well in reasonably sized pots and are good herbs for flavour in cooking. I love having herbs outside my door.

Right now I am making some fish chowder and the herbs come in very useful for making the base stock.

scarepanda

I probably won't grow much this year and anything I do will probably end up being in pots. I might try get a herb garden going, maybe in nice pots for outside the back door. We're trying to buy a house and if the sale goes through I'll be building the veg garden from scratch so that will take up my time.

Regards to building a veg garden, Is there anything anyone has done that they are really happy they did, or anything you regret doing? Ill be going for 18in high beds,build from 9x2 timber. 8x4ft beds. And hopefully making it a bit of a smart garden.

Vicarious Function

scarepanda wrote: »

I probably won't grow much this year and anything I do will probably end up being in pots. I might try get a herb garden going, maybe in nice pots for outside the back door. We're trying to buy a house and if the sale goes through I'll be building the veg garden from scratch so that will take up my time.

Regards to building a veg garden, Is there anything anyone has done that they are really happy they did, or anything you regret doing? Ill be going for 18in high beds,build from 9x2 timber. 8x4ft beds. And hopefully making it a bit of a smart garden.

Sounds like a great plan, scarepanda. Having herbs in pots at your back door will probably enhance your chances of selling because it may give prospective buyers some ideas as to how they can make the place homely when they move in.

Your plan for your new garden once you move house sounds brilliant. You're obviously a fitter, possibly a younger person than me, as far as work goes. If you are up to it, then fair play to you!

I'm very delighted with what I have out back, as when I moved in two years ago there was nothing but lawn. I got everything I needed from a brilliant Irish online company. If anyone wants the name, feel free to PM me.

I chose 3-foot wide beds rather than four-foot because for me it would be easier to reach across from both sides. That's just me! I also got a compost heap that 's constructed from wood but no nails. You just stack up the slats one cubic metre high. I lined it with weed protecting fabric, so that the compost doesn't leak through the gaps in the slats once it breaks down into crumbly compost. For those interested, this company has a wide range of ideas for varying sized compost heaps.

I didn't need my compost heap to be the full metre high, which left me with another metre square low bed for containing my rhubarb. The rhubarb is now growing for the 2nd year and so far is about 9 inches high already. I will be having some rhubarb crumble in no time at all!

So far so good! I'll probably leave it a couple of weeks before I plan Spring planting because my garden has been quite productive right through the Winter and still is.

My only regret was that I missed out on planitng Swiss chard. I hope to rectify that mistake next yeart.

Best of luck with your plans, scarepanda!

scarepanda

scarepanda wrote: »

Regards to building a veg garden, Is there anything anyone has done that they are really happy they did

I don’t know where you’re based but I collect and add seaweed to my flower and veg beds, free great fertilizer! Also we have dogs so building a fence around the veg patch was something I’m glad we did as they would have the beds destroyed.

The Master.

kylith wrote: »

We went down about 2.5feet putting in a fence post and it was clay all the way. I’ve postulated with Himself about raised beds, but those things are not cheap.

Hi. I was able to use fresh EURO pallets and those hinged collars ( treated with weatherproof paint)on top to make my raised beds. Scavenged everything from my job. Very cheap.

uck51js9zml2yt

The Master. wrote: »

Hi. I was able to use fresh EURO pallets and those hinged collars ( treated with weatherproof paint)on top to make my raised beds. Scavenged everything from my job. Very cheap.

Where did you get the collars?

The Master.

Karlee Magnificent Valve wrote: »

Where did you get the collars?

They were hard to come by as I just asked around.they are always sought after. I am truck driver so am able to visit a lot of yards.you can buy them from a place called AJ products in Ireland but I haven't dealt with them because I eventually got enough by mooching. It's a great idea though. One ton of topsoil was able to fill 4 of the collars.

The Master.

Here is one after being treated and soil in. There are 12 beds altogether and I've garlic in one that is shooting up. I've no idea what to put in the others or when to plant it!

kylith

Those look fantastic. Nice work!

scarepanda

Tatranska, we're only buying! We're moving from a rented house where I have a bit of a veg garden set up. I redid it 2 years ago, and really not sure what I'll do with regards bringing it with us or not. I've 4 8*4ft beds, 18in high. Really happy with the set up. But it will be a **** ton of back breaking work trying to move the soil. I am dismantling the greenhouse though. It's a bit higgildy piggildy, but I have plans for the perspex in the new garden.
I do need to get a compost heap set up, but that'll be a job for after the garden is fixed up.
My rhubarb is growing like mad already this year. I need to transplant it into a bucket this week before it gets too big in prep for the move. I also have some blueberries and roses that I want to bring with us. Hopefully it's not too late to do it.

The master, I have a lock of those as well! I currently have all my fruit in them. I got them off my dad, who got a rake of them a few years ago. I know from working on construction sites, plumbers get fixtures and fittings in them, industrial scale jobs.

Snowymuckish, I will definitely be fencing the new garden off from the dogs. The youngest lad loves nothing more than hopping up on freshly sown beds and doing laps whenever I have my back turned and the gate open in the current garden :-)! Unfortunately we're nowhere near the coast. But there's a horse stables up the road from the new house, and I'm going to see if I can get some manure from there. I'm also getting chickens, probably towards the end of the year so I'll have chicken manure aswell.

Vicarious Function

The Master. wrote: »

Here is one after being treated and soil in. There are 12 beds altogether and I've garlic in one that is shooting up. I've no idea what to put in the others or when to plant it!

Very impressive, The Master.

Funny, the term "raised bed" can mean different things to different people. Your emphasis seems to be on height.

Mine are nine inches high and rest on the ground. They are just frames with no bottoms that rest on the lawn. I covered the lawn with several layers of large cardboard cartons, opened out flat inside the frames. I also lined up the sides on the inside with weed prevention fabric, stapled onto the wooden sides, just to make sure weeds didn't sprout up along the insides. Before putting in the compost, which was half-and-half home-made and bought from the shop, I sprayed the cardboard sheets with water to dampen them. It has worked out perfectly.

If you are not sure what to plant, The Master, might I suggest you keep an eye out for places like Woodies and Homebase or any Nurseries to see what they have for sale at any particular time. Salad type crops are great for starters, but unless you have protection, you need to wait until the danger of frost is over. It's a bit early yet. I like to buy the plug plants ready to plant out, rather than sowing from seeds, but it's everybody's choice.

An interesting technique, when space is limited is "Square Foot Gardening". I just used string stretched across from opposite sides to divide the space into foot square sections. There are lots of articles and videos on the Internet as to how this works. Basically it's based on how much space various plants need and there are various charts available on the Web showing how many of the various plants to plant per square foot. It's a great use of space. For instance, you can probably get four lettuce plants into a square foot, but a cabbage plant will need more than one square foot.

There's another technique called "No-Dig Gardening" which is quite interesting too. Loads of info on the WWWeb!

Have fun, The Master. That's what it's all about.

Vicarious Function

Scarepanda, I don't envy you making the move! LOL! It's over two years since I made the move from a place which was bigger than what I have here - hence more work.

I left my raised beds behind as they were about ten years old and the wood surrounds were past their sell-by date. I did have a compost heap that was matured and ready for use. I shovelled it up into eight bags and took it with me. Delighted I did that because it got my raised beds here off to a great start. I had to hire a man with a van to transport it for me but it was worth it.

scarepanda

Vicarious Function wrote: »

Scarepanda, I don't envy you making the move! LOL! It's over two years since I made the move from a place which was bigger than what I have here - hence more work.

I left my raised beds behind as they were about ten years old and the wood surrounds were past their sell-by date. I did have a compost heap that was matured and ready for use. I shovelled it up into eight bags and took it with me. Delighted I did that because it got my raised beds here off to a great start. I had to hire a man with a van to transport it for me but it was worth it.

Ha! I don't envy myself either! I'm dreading it if I'm honest!

I'm thinking I might dig up a section and see how bad it actually is. My dad will be able to transport it for us on his trailer so that won't be much of an issue. Our landlord couldn't give a fiddler's that we have a veg garden, but I'm not sure if he'll want it left either, so either way it might need to levelled. We're only moving 10mins up the road so not a crazy distance either.

I'm going to start the post winter tidy up of the garden this week and start digging up the few bits I want to bring with us while I'm at it.

CelticRambler

Just bought 15 packs of seeds in Lidl for 4.50€. For the veg garden: giant pumpkin (40-50kg it says on the packet :eek: ... we'll see - have only ever had 10kg-ish before); white onions, yellow onions; two types of carrot (summer and winter); lettuce; leeks; Charentais melon (don't know who's going to eat it - I won't, and the family insist on visiting too early in the summer - but why not ...); and new for this year: jalapeño chilis.