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Hi

I'm turning part of my garden into an area for growing Veggies. I have a large terraced garden and I'm going to use the top half for doing this.

I have 6 large rectangular plots all overgrown with a lovely crop of Japanese Knotweed and Bracken.

I shall be clearing this shortly following which i assume i throw loads of manure onto it. I have sourced a place where i can get free horse manure. Can i plant straight after i have spread the muck or do i have to wait.

And can i still plant out so i get something this year. I'm thinking of growing Toms, Lettuce type greens, onions, garlic, peppers and marrows so me dad can make his chutney.

I wish i knew more but i don't and its all a bit scary really. Please help me get going as i haven't a clue what I'm doing but I'm determined to make it work.

Hi Nick + welcome

I wouldn't shout too load about your free manure - not a good way to make friends + influence people round here ;)

Seriously though, if it's well rotted (about a year) then yes it'll be fine to dump + go. If it's fresh, best to leave it on one side + incorporate in spring.

There are plenty of lettuce + oriental greens you can sow this time of year, along with garlic, over wintering onions, O/W broad beans. Good time (well, autum) to plant fruit bushes too.

I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions

D

HI Nick,

bit too late this year for tomatoes, peppers and marrows.

You are in good company on here. I only started this year and have learnt so much from this site in a short time. Very helpful friendly people!

Hello

I won't mention the manure again, i have a friend who has a horse you see... its who you know eh. Anyway i'm sure they have piles of old stuff lieing around, i'll get some of that.

All this over wintering stuff is fantastic, i never realised what could be done. 've been reading through the site and i think i'll plant some garlic and onions for next year, wil lthey need covering overwinter or do i just leave them to it? And where is the best place to get the sets and cloves? could i plant them without spreading muck, be interesting to see if they managed without the stuff.

I'll leave everything else until next spring, i grew some marrows about 5 years ago, didn't prepare thr gournd at all, just pulled up a load of weeds, then grew the seeds in pots which i then planted out, they were wonderful made the most beautiful chutney i have ever tasted, loverly on a cornbeef sandwich.  My Dad makes the stuff from a recipe passed on to him by his mother, must be about 70 years old.

I must say that its all very exciting. I feel like a schoolboy at Christmas with my new hobby.

Nick

Don't worry about covering - that's why they're called overwintering.

You'll need to get your onions from a catalogue - almost any one will have some.

Garlic you can order or try growing a "free" crop from supermarket stuff - chose the largest cloves + donate the rest to the kitchen!

Nick B   wilko and B & Q will have overwintering onions in, garlic too possibly  :) It might still be possible to buy a brassica collection from Dobies.  I ordered mine a while ago but not received it yet - September delivery I think.  I;ve just sown some oriental leafy mix and some winter spring onions (sounds daft) White Lisbon, sowed a row of Purple Top Milan turnips. 

You could do what some of us on here are trying to do and that is get some spuds for Christmas day by planting sort of between now and Sept.  I'm going to plant a few spuds of the ones I picked earlier this year.

Good luck with the gardenening and the manure.  if you get it you can spready a bit about for the worms to take down and maybe cover it all with black plastic to keep the weeds down at the same time  :)

have received an email today from www.mammothonion.co.uk

re: onions and garlic for overwintering. i think i will get some stuff from them - they seemed very helpfull from an enquiry i made a couple of days ago regarding an onion variety i havent seen anywhere else :)

get a couple of seed catalogues - the organic catalogue and kings seeds is what i would recommend. makes excellent bedtime reading ;)

Quote from: NickB on August 23, 2005, 14:44:57
l overgrown with a lovely crop of Japanese Knotweed and Bracken.I shall be clearing this shortly

Hi Nick,I don't want to be a party pooper but I was a bit concerned about your Japanese Knotweed. It is an extremely tenacious plant which can only be got rid of with glyphosate & even then it takes a while. I'd hate you to think you'd got rid & then it pops up in your veggies. Hope I haven't said the wrong thing.

Quote from: beejay on August 23, 2005, 18:38:40

Quote from: NickB on August 23, 2005, 14:44:57
l overgrown with a lovely crop of Japanese Knotweed and Bracken.I shall be clearing this shortly

Hi Nick,I don't want to be a party pooper but I was a bit concerned about your Japanese Knotweed. It is an extremely tenacious plant which can only be got rid of with glyphosate & even then it takes a while. I'd hate you to think you'd got rid & then it pops up in your veggies. Hope I haven't said the wrong thing.

Pretty much what I was thinking. I can't think of a worse plant to have. My dad battled knotweed for 12 years, in the end he sold the house, and won't even consider buying a house if there is any knotweed anywhere near-by.

Concerning the knotweed - if you pull any up, whatever you do - DON'T recycle it in council collections, and I'm sure you wouldn't dump it anywhere. Burn it if you can, or put in strong plastic sacks and leave it to rot.

Oh dear! here's a few don'ts...look in the side panel of "knotweed not's"
http://www.ex.ac.uk/knotweed/

That's a good link Roy.

I remember this stuff in Devon.  Give me horseradish any day! ;D

I also would be seriously concerned about the JKW.
Itis one weed that will seriously affect your cropping.

I knew i shouldn't have mentioned the Knotweed problem.

I've learnt to live with it since 1991, no weedkiller just hard work, my garden is divided into plots, terrace style, some plots are badly infected and others not at all.

I dig it over occasionally, take out what i can and when the shoots pop up i ip them out, over the years the knotweed dies away, i realised it was a long term project and i don't have an issue with it, the last thing i want to do is put strong weedkiller down.

There are websites that say you can eat the stuff when its young. Haven't tried it though

That's alright then. You should have said you were such long term partners!

We are long term partners, some things you just have to live with.

Anyway, back to the Over wintering onions and garlic, please excuse my ignorance but do they come in Red Onion as well as the more recognisable varieites and do i have to grow them from seed or can i get sets?

Most catalogues have sets now for the overwintering onions though the varieties are limited compared to growing from seeds. However don't take anything I say as gospel as I am very new to this and frankly don't have a clue.

And yes you can grow red onions.

If I had space to grow onions, I'd only grow reds as they are much more expensive than the normal ones from the supermarket.

Good luck with the JKW - it sends shivers down my spine.

And when is the best time to plant overwintering onions and garlic