Vegetables garden

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So I have 0 experience it's for food production.
I have lots of questions.
1.How deep should I dig the soil
2.Any plants that don't go well together
3. One side has more shade what should I plant there
Any advice welcomed
 
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I'm in Scotland, UK (so cold, wet climate).

I started vegetable gardening about 3 - 4 years ago. The main thing I'd recommend is no-dig/raised bed gardening. If (like me) you're starting with lawn or weedy beds just place down some sheets of card and pile compost on top of it. You can then plant directly into the compost. Each year (around December) put about 2 inches of home made compost on top of the beds and that's all you need to do - no digging, no feeding. Many argue that you don't even need to crop rotate.

Off the top of my head:

1. Beans and peas don't like onions.
2. Brassicas tolerate shade (but here in the UK you do need to net them else they get eaten by cabbage whites).
3. I prefer to start things off in modules indoors and plant them out at about 6 weeks old - more work in some ways but avoids a lot of problems.

Good resources are (on youtube)

Charles Dowding
Huw Richards


Easy crops (in my climate):

1. Potatoes
2. Onions
3. Leeks
4. Beetroot
5. Carrots
6. Peas
7. Runner Beans / French Beans
8. Courgettes
9. Tomatoes (if you have a polytunnel/greenhouse)
10. Cucumbers
11. Salad leaves
12. Radish

I've found brassica's difficult because of the cabbage white problem. If it's similar in your location then, unless you're able to net a large area, they are more bother than they're worth.
 
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I just took a look at your climate in Romania - much warmer in the summer, and a longer season than Scotland. So I think you'll have a lot more options than me when it comes to choosing crops. Last and first frost date's are key. My last frost date is early June and first frost date November. So we have quite a short growing season with temps in high summer averaging about 18 degrees C. Rumania looks to have a much longer, warmer growing season?
 
Joined
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I'm in Scotland, UK (so cold, wet climate).

I started vegetable gardening about 3 - 4 years ago. The main thing I'd recommend is no-dig/raised bed gardening. If (like me) you're starting with lawn or weedy beds just place down some sheets of card and pile compost on top of it. You can then plant directly into the compost. Each year (around December) put about 2 inches of home made compost on top of the beds and that's all you need to do - no digging, no feeding. Many argue that you don't even need to crop rotate.

Off the top of my head:

1. Beans and peas don't like onions.
2. Brassicas tolerate shade (but here in the UK you do need to net them else they get eaten by cabbage whites).
3. I prefer to start things off in modules indoors and plant them out at about 6 weeks old - more work in some ways but avoids a lot of problems.

Good resources are (on youtube)

Charles Dowding
Huw Richards


Easy crops (in my climate):

1. Potatoes
2. Onions
3. Leeks
4. Beetroot
5. Carrots
6. Peas
7. Runner Beans / French Beans
8. Courgettes
9. Tomatoes (if you have a polytunnel/greenhouse)
10. Cucumbers
11. Salad leaves
12. Radish

I've found brassica's difficult because of the cabbage white problem. If it's similar in your location then, unless you're able to net a large area, they are more bother than they're worth.
Thanks for the answer
Il probably do raised beds eventually but I'm not starting with grass or anything it was a vegetable garden for the last owner also.
So the ground is soft and dark and probably pretty fertile.
From your list of easy to plant il try :1,2,5,6,7,9,10,11,12.
The climate is pretty similar maybe Winter goes a bit lower -10c but now it's 14c day time and 5c night.
It's gonna frost over one more time and planting is done after that as far as I understand.
Have no idea what bug's to expect and what they do...I've seen plenty just digging around that I have never seen in my lifetime.
Il look at the YouTube channel too again thanks. Excuse any grammatical problem's too it's a second language and this is my best promise.
 
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I just took a look at your climate in Romania - much warmer in the summer, and a longer season than Scotland. So I think you'll have a lot more options than me when it comes to choosing crops. Last and first frost date's are key. My last frost date is early June and first frost date November. So we have quite a short growing season with temps in high summer averaging about 18 degrees C. Rumania looks to have a much longer, warmer growing season?
From what I understand by the end of this month we get one last frost and I can plant after that.(it's called something like the old lady takes off the last winter coat)
I've been to the UK never in Scotland.
I think we have a lot less rain and more Sun but I'm no expert.
I know the season ends by September 20 and then it gets cold fast sometimes it even snow's.
 
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Worth looking at how much veg cost and how available they are. For example I grow very few potatoes, most are dirt cheap, but it is nice to have a few new ones for the taste. That's another thing, there are certain tomato dishes the missus does not cook unless she has tomatoes from the garden, but some things don't taste that different. runner beans you won't usually find in the shop, they lose all their attraction a day after they are picked, garden ones cooked the same day are a favourite.
I wouldn't dig if it is fairly clear, if it is covered in weeds I would turn it over to bury them and take out the tap roots like docks and dandelions,
 
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Worth looking at how much veg cost and how available they are. For example I grow very few potatoes, most are dirt cheap, but it is nice to have a few new ones for the taste. That's another thing, there are certain tomato dishes the missus does not cook unless she has tomatoes from the garden, but some things don't taste that different. runner beans you won't usually find in the shop, they lose all their attraction a day after they are picked, garden ones cooked the same day are a favourite.
I wouldn't dig if it is fairly clear, if it is covered in weeds I would turn it over to bury them and take out the tap roots like docks and dandelions,
I don't have to pick and choose the garden is about 100 square meters and the property has 6km in total some forest some pasture and some agricultural land for corn..
I'm new to everything so I just want to do the easy stuff to grow .
Same with animals I'm probably getting a sheep or 2 and keeping them only on grass and some corn.
The garden is not covered in grass it still has some onions that didn't die this winter some radishes made it too they are huge.
 
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Thanks for the answer
Il probably do raised beds eventually but I'm not starting with grass or anything it was a vegetable garden for the last owner also.
So the ground is soft and dark and probably pretty fertile.
From your list of easy to plant il try :1,2,5,6,7,9,10,11,12.
The climate is pretty similar maybe Winter goes a bit lower -10c but now it's 14c day time and 5c night.
It's gonna frost over one more time and planting is done after that as far as I understand.
Have no idea what bug's to expect and what they do...I've seen plenty just digging around that I have never seen in my lifetime.
Il look at the YouTube channel too again thanks. Excuse any grammatical problem's too it's a second language and this is my best promise.
Your 'second language' grammar is better than my first !! LOL (Seriously, would never know it wasn't your first language).
 
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I don't have to pick and choose the garden is about 100 square meters and the property has 6km in total some forest some pasture and some agricultural land for corn..
I'm new to everything so I just want to do the easy stuff to grow .
Same with animals I'm probably getting a sheep or 2 and keeping them only on grass and some corn.
The garden is not covered in grass it still has some onions that didn't die this winter some radishes made it too they are huge.
I'm very jealous! We have about 1/4 acre garden. We're in a small rural village in a quite street of bungalows backing onto open farmland. So we are very lucky. But I'd love to have space to grow my own firewood, some animals etc. We're thinking of getting ducks to help keep the slugs down and provide us with eggs. Would love a goat of two for milk, but we don't have enough space.

You've no doubt already done so, but there's a wealth of knowledge and experience on youtube for this kind of thing. I like Charles Dowding, Liz Zorab, Huw Richards as they are well matched to my climate etc.

If you haven't already done so I'd recommend looking into permaculture - there's a great book called "Permaculture Design Companion - A practical workbook for integrating People and Places" by Jasmine Dale. As the title implies - it's a workbook that really helps guide you through the process of designing your garden to make the best of everything from microclimates, sun, shade, etc etc. It will help you avoid a lot of mistakes!

Finally - please keep posting your progress etc as it's lovely to hear what others are doing with projects like this.
 
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I'm very jealous! We have about 1/4 acre garden. We're in a small rural village in a quite street of bungalows backing onto open farmland. So we are very lucky. But I'd love to have space to grow my own firewood, some animals etc. We're thinking of getting ducks to help keep the slugs down and provide us with eggs. Would love a goat of two for milk, but we don't have enough space.

You've no doubt already done so, but there's a wealth of knowledge and experience on youtube for this kind of thing. I like Charles Dowding, Liz Zorab, Huw Richards as they are well matched to my climate etc.

If you haven't already done so I'd recommend looking into permaculture - there's a great book called "Permaculture Design Companion - A practical workbook for integrating People and Places" by Jasmine Dale. As the title implies - it's a workbook that really helps guide you through the process of designing your garden to make the best of everything from microclimates, sun, shade, etc etc. It will help you avoid a lot of mistakes!

Finally - please keep posting your progress etc as it's lovely to hear what others are doing with projects like this.
Literally just got the place 2 months ago it was more of a great opportunity then something planned out.
So every bit of information helps me because I'm basically learning everything now.
Last time I lived in a similar situation I was 9y old and don't remember much about anything.
I've been cutting Dead wood and cleaning the forest a bit it had areas where someone type of climbing plants was/is killing the trees.
I have no neighbors or the nearest one's are at least 1km away.
I'm loving the peace and quiet most but it does get spooky at night(no hot vampire's yet lol)
I've seen wildlife
Rabbits,Gazza( bird I don't know the name but image search if you like ,it was quite pretty an curious..),peacock female so brown and simple I'm hoping there's a male around and I get a picture.
Project's are plenty .
New walkway is needed, there's an old wood barn that I have to take down it's not registered and it's tipping probably rotten.
The main fence is good but the others not so much.
Everything is made out of wood and dirt with straw to hold it in place except the home.
 
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Don't remove all the dead wood and make it too tidy, that will be home for a lot of things for a few years.
 
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Don't remove all the dead wood and make it too tidy, that will be home for a lot of things for a few years.
I won't I'm just removing Dead trees that are still standing because I want to plant other trees . IL move the small ones stuck under things like the "blackberry inversion".
I leaving the roots of tree's in because it's a hill type situation and I don't want land slides.
I'm pretty sure there was a fire or a part of the forest was hit by lightning at some point.
Some trees are split and I can see burn marks healing.
I definitely have squirrels around I've seen one and found nutshells hidden all over the place.
 
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There was one year we had a huge storm, I worked with a friend clearing and re-planting a bit, a year later the bit we had worked on had individual trees spaced out, and the bit next door to it was a naturally regenerated jungle much taller. There was an Austrian forester wrote a really good book about trees. He found oaks in the forest surrounded by what he thought were young trees, but when he checked they were over a hundred years old, they were just waiting for the parent to fall and a gap to come in the canopy before they made their growth spurt. Do you see stag beetles, huge armoured beetles with big pincers. Their larvae live on dead wood and can spend up to six or seven years in the larval stage, great big white grubs. Do you get the red squirrel? Ours were almost wiped out by disease from introduced American grey squirrels, in America they live in coniferous woods and do a lot of damage in deciduous woods.
It sounds like a beautiful place.
 
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There was one year we had a huge storm, I worked with a friend clearing and re-planting a bit, a year later the bit we had worked on had individual trees spaced out, and the bit next door to it was a naturally regenerated jungle much taller. There was an Austrian forester wrote a really good book about trees. He found oaks in the forest surrounded by what he thought were young trees, but when he checked they were over a hundred years old, they were just waiting for the parent to fall and a gap to come in the canopy before they made their growth spurt. Do you see stag beetles, huge armoured beetles with big pincers. Their larvae live on dead wood and can spend up to six or seven years in the larval stage, great big white grubs. Do you get the red squirrel? Ours were almost wiped out by disease from introduced American grey squirrels, in America they live in coniferous woods and do a lot of damage in deciduous woods.
It sounds like a beautiful place.
No red squirrel around it was brown sorry.
I'm not in the mountains elevation is 200~
But there are Brown bear's in the mountains near me some wolf's too.
Il need to plant fast growing wood over one of the areas probably the pasture since I don't have sheep and will just get a couple of goat's for milk.
I know the Americans have a willow mutation that grows very fast and is good for wood burning but I don't think I can get it here.
Oak is probably the main tree here too the others I could not name in any language.
It rained a lot last night and the ground is very clay like.
Anyway when is the best time to dig a garden?
I tried it this morning but it was way to wet I was splashing all over the place and it was sticking to my shovel.
Stag beetles not yet but I remember playing with them as a kid but I think it was summer or later in spring idk we have them and I think they are awesome but haven't seen them around.
Butterfly's are out and prunes are going to bloom in 1 week max I can already see the flowers.
 

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