Still no spuds showing through here yet ( some planted 3 and  some 8 weeks ago ).

Been to B&M bargains who had what I thought was a good deal on fertilisers: 1kg of Bone Meal for £1.49, 1kg of a balanced 7-7-7 fertiliser also for £1.49, so bought one of each. If you live south east of a line from March to Salisbury you may not have a B&M unfortunately.
Just searched the 'net and found you can typically get 10kg tubs for around £13.

Does anyone know if fertiliser goes off or has a use-by-date? I'm thinking of buying a few years worth of the stuff.

^ sounds lovely

Been concentrating on splitting and drying firewood the last month. Excellent conditions for that. Been dry and windy.

Only a couple of warm days down here in Zummerset. Some pretty cold nights.

Cloudy now, which should keep temps up overnight, so will be repotting peppers and toms this weekend and putting them in the greenhouse.

None of the seeds planted outside are doing much, except for rocket and radishes. Simply been too dry and too cool for spring onions and kohl rabi to appear.

Just starting our veg plot so would be glad of any advice.  It is about 20ft by 12ft.  It was rotavated last autumn and had horse muck dug in.  It is edged by sleepers and has had black plastic keeping weeds away since then.  The Mrs has been reading up on it but nervous about taking the first steps.

What should we plant?!

Here are couple of pics. I just noticed the mice have had a nibble

What type are they, anyone know ?

http://i44.tinypic.com/o0pan6.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2zzro1z.jpg

I regularly pick wild mushrooms in the autumn and have a simple rule: if it's obviously edible, then eat it. If you have to pause and think about it, then don't.

Those stripes radiating out of the centre aren't what you see on your bog-standard smooth, white edible mushroom; and the time of year is the exact opposite of when they usually appear.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out they are in fact edible, but there's no way I'd eat them without bona fide expert guidance.

I have just put the asparagus in.  Took the best part of two hours of pretty solid work as i was pretty ruthless with the weeds and forking the ground.  Last weeki put my first spuds in  and only spent about twenty mins doing a similar job and have put lettuce, beans, onins, spinach in a while ago without necessarily doing everything y the book.   I can live with it if they dont come  up but will be proper gutted if the asparagus doesnt produce in the next few years.  My housemate is keen and says she will be digging over her bit tomorrow while she gets courgettes ready onthe window sill.  My big worry is the council thinki havent. Done enough work, but reckon that would be pretty harsh personally, didnt see anyone else down there today.

Yippee! Just noticed the kohl rabi and spring onions poking above ground at last after the overnight showers.

Doesn't matter how conscientiously you water, nothing beats steady stuff from the sky.

@Jack Hacksaw: You've got a pretty generous plot there. Just plant things you fancy and find out what's suited to your soil/rainfall/shade/sun.

The 4 criteria for determining climate we were taught in geog classes - latitude, altitude and position with respect to the sea and to hills - will vary for everyone. So part of the fun of gardening for me is discovering what works for my garden and why.

One suggestion is to sow radishes between your rows of "serious" crops. Shade suits them, something always emerges, they grow very fast and even when they fail, perhaps through bolting or slug attack or the dog burying its bone, everything you salvage is edible - the leaves are delicious raw when young or cooked as a pot herb when older and tougher. So you're guaranteed something to show for your efforts, even if you have a disaster with everything else first time.

Does "others" include spuds?  The stuff ive read suggests spuds are quite important in a cycle system.  My theory is to try and grow stuff that i normally buy, not the most sophisticated system, but hopefully will save me a few quid.

Seeing as this is my first year i am probably not the best person to be giving answers, but my theory is just get stuff in and learn as you go.  Seeds dont cost much and dont grow in the packet.  Broad beans and spring onions are already showing, if the yield is down because i didnt get it perfect who cares, anything the first year is a bonus imo, Ive read a bit and there is some great advice on here but it is very easy to get so bogged down with the intricacies of it all and think what is the point, all sorts of fertilisers, chemical additions, insecticides, rotations, lime quantities, soil acidity (havent even tasted mine yet)even types of digging.  I thought digging was just breaking up the soil but one book had all sorts of diagrams about how you do this properly.

I'm not pushing radishes as something you'll love, but rather as a means of being pretty certain of getting something to show from your work, and pretty quickly at that. And they take up no space, as they're suited to being scattered between the serious stuff.

As I said, you don't even have to like them. You can just chuck the remains of a ruined plant, leaves, roots and all, in with something like bolognese sauce or a pan of frying sausages or bubble and squeak, and you'll barely notice them, but you can say you're eating fresh veg grown yourself. (The leaves, the part we normally chuck away, is more nutritious than the bulb, which we normally eat, oddly enough.)

Without seeing your paddock, I'd suggest the ash tree will be good to the SW, as that will provide shade in the afternoon, when the sun is at its most intense. Also, ash doesn't come into leaf until summer, so it won't prevent the sun getting through right now, while its lower in the sky and you want all the heat you can get.

If the hedge is so high it's shading the plot, it might need cutting back. As it's to the south, it would be shading the plot 24 hrs/day, so little energy would be reaching the soil.

Top of a slope's good for drainage.

The rest depends on precisely where you live wrt latitude and altitude for temps and the sea and hills for rainfall. As Dylan says, plant things, see what works and what doesn't and you'll soon find yourself calculating and researching the reasons. It can be a real education in how the world works.

When you thin them out, and the leaves and stem are still young and tender, try one raw. I find them lovely and peppery as a sandwich filling. If you still don't like them, just chuck 'em in with something else to cook. Last minute, mind, as they'll curl up pretty quickly when young.

If you're lucky enough for them to grow to maturity, you'll find each radish will give you enough greens for a day's meal. By this time the leaves and stalk will be tough and rough, so they'll need cooking a bit longer, like a conventional pot herb.

rob_dylan you dont eat radish because you have never grown your own to taste how good they are perhaps?


like alot of produce, home grown ones can make you change you mind about things...

I only grow them for my chickens

ps, the pics are two separate lawns, not just one taken from a different angle.

Walked the dog past a field w

I just put in the second earlies and pink fur(main crop). Plus some onions and shallots.  Was a lot of digging and weeding(lots of stuff for the compost though which was good) but the weather was perfect and when i got tired i just did some watering.  It is getting to the stage where it was actually quite enjoyable and therapeutic instead of being a chore.  Pretty sure there were a couple of lettuces coming through to add to the broad beans and spring onions.  Well over half the plot is now being cultivated.  Only downer is when i took a smoke and drink break i suddenly noticed that some chancer has half inched my plastic chair, which is a pain.

Sorting my greenhouse out this afternoon...fillign the triughs with new compost / topsoil then planting up tomatoes, peppers and chillis, and may stich a courgette plant in a tub.

Bongo.. I'd hardly call them paddocks
However, I was thinking of some fruit trees, maybe dwarf apple/pear varieties etc.,
and having some chickens maybe ducks instead. (I was at a point to point meeting today and there was a stand there selling all sorts of stuff to do with chickens and ducks.. pens and enclosures etc, as well as the birds.... just got me thinking that's all, made me miss a race as well!)
I might have to be in the position of hiring equipment to do the groundwork though, I said earlier that I might not be up to a lot of digging at my age, and as for the 'lawns'... they seem so pointless the size they are.
I'm in Loughor, near Swansea just for info.

chickens and ducks for eggs? - I know this sounds daft - but make sure you get female - most sellers will stitch you up with male after swearing blind they are female

also if you want eggs get a bred that lay instead of just look nice..