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gread
03-07-11, 07:55 PM
I want to make a smallish vegetable plot in the back yard, hope to pull some tasty vegies and fruit from it.

The problem is, the soil is very bad, only about 6 inches of good topsoil, deeper than that is rocky/building rubble.

What is the minimum depth for good veg growth, I was considering raised planters, but this means buying materials.

Its quite a shaded area, its south facing but only gets light from around 2 oclock as there are trees/blocks of flats around. What are some good shade growing veg/fruit anyone can recommend

thanks

Stimpy
03-07-11, 08:03 PM
I bought some really good sized grow bags from B&Q the other day mate for £1.98 each. They are pretty big too.
You are running out of time to start a lot of things outdoors but if you grab say 5 of these bags for a tenner you can still manage lettuce, carrots, peppers, peas, beans etc.

Tesco have pots of Tomatoes and Peppers that are part grown in pots that are already showing fruit for a fiver each.

Keep an eye out for old pallets laying about and take them home to dismantle them, save the wood and build some raised beds instead of digging the rubble out. You can start by chucking the old grows bags in later this year when your other stuff has finished. By then you'll have saved enough wood to build the beds and get it all ready for next year.

B&Q even had a grow bag for potatoes ! it was about £4 I think and pretty big.

Ganesha
03-07-11, 09:32 PM
I bought some really good sized grow bags from B&Q the other day mate for £1.98 each. They are pretty big too.
You are running out of time to start a lot of things outdoors but if you grab say 5 of these bags for a tenner you can still manage lettuce, carrots, peppers, peas, beans etc.

Tesco have pots of Tomatoes and Peppers that are part grown in pots that are already showing fruit for a fiver each.

Keep an eye out for old pallets laying about and take them home to dismantle them, save the wood and build some raised beds instead of digging the rubble out. You can start by chucking the old grows bags in later this year when your other stuff has finished. By then you'll have saved enough wood to build the beds and get it all ready for next year.

B&Q even had a grow bag for potatoes ! it was about £4 I think and pretty big.

I'll second the pallet idea. I've never had a go at raised beds but many years ago I built an entire greenhouse from, er, 'liberated' pallets. I covered it in sheet polythene which you used to be able to buy by the yard from Homebase. A couple of bags of nails & some cunning design skills & the whole thing came in at under £15. (This was in about 1995, mind.) Surprising what you can do with a good pile of 4x2!

Stimpy's right, it's getting late for serious planting but you can start planning & building for next year with avengence. If you take a few months to build your raised beds & get them sorted you'll be quids in for next season.

Meanwhile, yeah, I'd go for some of the late deals the garden centres are offering. Quite honestly it's probably cheaper to buy a half fruited tomato or chilli plant from B&Q than it is to buy a bag of the fruit from Tesco right now. They're pratically giving them away, clearing the shelves ready for the Autumn stock of pre-Christmas rubbish.

dazza
03-07-11, 11:41 PM
I built a polytunnel against my south facing shed. Just cobbled together from junk and old plastic. Looks great. Got some fence posts driven in the ground and some girders on top for hanging tubs from.

It's a brilliant distraction from the weed plants at the back of the polytunnel. I need to get my tomatoes in the borders however before it's too late.

Do you know anyone who'd be willig to donate plants to you? It's too late to be germinating tomatoes etc now, surely? I was kindly given a chili plant tonight so it all adds to the potential yields.

snooplotty
05-07-11, 12:33 AM
Get yourself to ALDI they have cucumber, peppers, chillis, aubergines & strawberry plants part grown with fruit allready showing for £3 each. Got myself a few to go in the cheap greenhouse I got from there as well.

gread
10-07-11, 12:23 AM
thanks or the input guys, I like the idea of the raised bed pallets. Any diy tutorial for that? I have next to no skill with wood lol.

Alextheyid
10-07-11, 12:28 AM
some plants thrive in such soil, put some nice compost with it and it will be fine with some water care and sun :D

snooplotty
10-07-11, 03:00 AM
thanks or the input guys, I like the idea of the raised bed pallets. Any diy tutorial for that? I have next to no skill with wood lol.
The art of DIY is lost on some people lol!

Here is a pic to produce a 1M SQ plot x 250mm deep

https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=61415

Basically get 4 x 50mm SQ pieces of timber. Cut them at 350mm, space them out to form a 1M x 1M square and hammer them about 100mm into the ground.
Use 125mm x 12mm fencing boards for the panels, 4 at 1024mm long & 4 at 1000mm long and screw them into the 50mm SQ frame. Fill it up with soil/compost and jobs a good un!

gread
10-07-11, 05:22 PM
cool dude, thanks for the diagram. I'll be keeping my eye out for some pallets

Bud Step
24-07-11, 05:54 PM
Im no expert but A couple of good late crops that don't mind a bit of shade are red cabbage and sprouting broccoli. And as it's already been said you can pick up part grown tomato and chilli plants. Also check the seed blurb coz some varieties are bred to grow late in season I've seen some autumn carrots before.

Murdock
24-07-11, 06:00 PM
speak to your local scaffolding company and see if they have any old scaffolding boards that are no use anymore , i got my old mans from my local one and he made 3 cracking trenches 2 feet apart from each other with stone chippings around them to stop slugs etc