Vocal Voices

I have next week off (yay) and plan to get my garden and greenhouse tidied and sorted out. And I obviously need to think about what to grow this year.

Greenhouse
Tomato, chilli and cucumber are a definitely yes; and I think Aubergines will also be a yes as well - they all did really well last year
Peppers and courgettes are a definite no-no after a few bad years of trying so I'm giving up on them (although I may give one pepper plant another try, but do it outside?)
Herb wise I'll do chives and basil as I like those and can freeze them

Outside
My raised veg bed collapsed so I need to redo the outside area and am not sure what space I'll have; but I think whatever I have will be used mainly for lettuce, beetroot and maybe radishes

I can't really think of anything else
Cabbage - I've tried once and had untold problems with cabbage white caterpillars that ate everything in sight; and again they need more space than I have
Spinach - I love to eat it, but again space will probably be an issue?
Corn - could give that a try and plant it out amongst the shrubs to see what happens? Never grown them though?

What are you planting - what do you find easiest / most challenging?

Where to begin lol my wife retired in November after 46 years unbroken service as a nurse and we downsized using her pension pot to buy our retiremement home, after living in a 5 storey Victorian ex guesthouse of 19 rooms and 69 stairs that I can no longer manage, we now have a 3 bedroomed dormer bungalow.

I have spent about £300 on plants and flowers shrubs and fruit trees in the last 2 months so slowing down a bit now, not to mention seeds lol

This is my first garden for over 30 years as we moved into this bungalow on New Years Eve, and the garden looks like it had little or no care for many years.

The budlia shrubs are about 20 foot tall and like mini trees, so half so far have been trimmed back to about 3 foot tall and those are about 2 inches diameter stalks/trunks lol
there are also about 8 sycamores growing in the 2 gardens ( back and front) with a couple of them over 20 foot tall others smaller down to about 2 foot tall the smallest.all the beds and fences are overrun with ivy
and we have tried to cut that back, but now it is growing like mad again.

In the greenhouse I have 8 tomato plants red/orange/yellow/ black 3 cucumber,2 peppers,2 chillis,a melon and a marrow ,aubergines and courgettes,6 mint 3 parsley.

I also have in planters against the southfacing wall loads of flowers 2 beautiful camilias one white one red and 2 hibiscus one orange one cream with red in it, lots of chrysanths and gladioli stocks etc.

I have a lavender bush a bay tree 2 weeping willows 2 broom, and 3 big bags with potatoes in already sprouting well about 6 inches tall.

I have also given over 1/4 of the back garden to create a big chicken run for my 9 chickens who are in a small run till weekend when I hope to have the big run finished and secured, they are currently producing 6 eggs every day and all big brown ones so tasty and fresh.

I have much to do in the garden yet as I said lots of overgrowth to cut and dig out and I have a 10foot by 10 foot summerhouse due to arrive shortly, that I need to create a hard standing for then assemble it as well so a busy few months ahead for me and my wife (who I volunteered to help hehehe).

We have found too that the garden floods every winter till about May according to neighbours and from what we have seen ourselves, so very claylike just under the surface so hope to get a man in with a micro digger if one will fit down the side of the house to dig me some trenches and install drainage pipes to try and dry out the ground, so I will be making and using raised beds as well like you for a lot this year and maybe longer.

so this is such a long post but a lot to tell xx

Manxie xx

Blimey! You've been busy Mankie x

Tomatoes and peppers for sure, not decided on the rest yet

Spinach is worth a go I think meriad, you can cut-and-come again with it, also plant some then plant more every few weeks, it goes on and on and is so lovely straight from the garden
Corn my mum used to grow, she never did anything twice if it didn't work so it can't be too hard.
Green beans, normal or dwarf are easy and productive even if there's not too much sun, don't take up too much space and freeze well too.

Manxie when we moved here the garden had been almost totally neglected. The trouble with large shrubs is, cutting them back is all very well but their roots take up so much space, you need to take a good look and dig out some really - especially things like huge buddleias, they're cheap to buy and grow fast if you still want some.
The ivy - the only way is to work your way round and dig/pull out as much as you possibly can; it loves being cut back and will grow twice as fast. I spent the first year here digging stuff out, but it's worth it

Oh yes spinach is a good idea, so nice in salads

We haven't done much yet. The potatoes and onions are in the allotment and we are still harvesting the leeks from last year.

So far in the polytunnel I have lettuce, a pepper plant, a chilli plant and at the weekend I put in some spring onion and radish seeds.

Plans so far for the allotment are - already in - potatoes, onions, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, red currants, white currants, black currants and blueberries. To go in - we are thinking corn, courgette (only one plant), parsnips, leeks, carrots, cabbage, cauli, broccoli, spinach, kale, peas, beans - runner, French and broad - beetroot, pak choi and not sure what else.

In the polytunnel we will be doing lettuce, spring onion, radish, beetroot, tomatoes, pepper, chilli, strawberry, carrots and peas.

I need to get on and start putting more in the polytunnel in the next week or so.

Manxie,
You said you had a garden.
Sounds more like a ten acre field.
What do you do with the eggs? Hope the neighbours aren't disturbed by the cock crowing.
Mine is only a samll garden. Part of th front is paved. Have a lawn and flower beds art the back. So no vegarables.

My summer garden was a failure, my tomatoes didn't grow above knee height, and the suppose to be big fat tomatoes in reality were smaller than cherry tonatoes. They were watered regularly, and I had straw around them to keep the soil damp. Any ideas?

This winter I'm planting broccoli, onions, cauliflower, garlic, cous lettuce, ermm not sure what else yet. I've dug it over last weekend and added compost, but still have garden 3 beds to do.