Vegetable patch

[blokeybloke]

Anyone have one of these in their garden, or rent a local allotment?

I had an unused space(35'x12') running along one side of the house that i'd totally forget about & would have to weed once a year as soon as it got to summer & i(read my wife) could see waist high weeds through our bathroom window :redface:

Anyways, after one particularly rough stint of de-weeding i figured i should utilise this space much better and with something that would keep me more mindful of it & also motivated to stay on top of its upkeep. So ... i decided to turn it into a vegetable patch

I did most of the donkey work the other year. I used groundclear to kill off all weeds, graded it level, made my own 6x3' raised wooden beds out of 6'x2' lumber(6 beds in total) & gave them a cpl coats of primer. After placing the beds i shovelled in a fine layer of soil in the walkways & then covered that with Palm Springs gravel. I dont like pavers & thought the gravel would tart it up a bit. Au ccontrere ... it made it look more like a crematory if i'm brutally honest lol ahem ...

Anyhoo ... then i went & forgot about it again for another year lol :redface: Sooooo, after de-weeding it AGAIN, i'm ready for actually planting stuff

I've a feeling i'm going to actually take to sticking with it this time through as i've been taking much more interest in the rest of my yards maintence of late & i've just installed a new sprinkler system, timer & marathon sod for my front & back lawns. I did all this work myself, a long with the much needed help of my laborer & his brother in law who works in the field of commercial irrigation. Proud as punch of my new lawns i am ... gawd i'm gettin old i guess lol

Any tips, info, stories of what you're currently growing in your own little patch would be muchly appreciated ... over to you lot for your fine words of wit & green thumbed wisdom

 

[Seano]

Using a mulch can keep weeds at bay depending on what weeds you have.

 

[blokeybloke]

My next door neighbour dug his old lawn out years ago & the cheap mofo seeded his new one instead of turfing it. It was particularly windy when he did this & so i believe my problem has always stemmed from with getting overrun with blades of his grass sprouting up chuffin everywhere. In all of my flower beds, veg patch, just bloody everywhere.

So yeah, when i said "de-weeding" i really meant pulling up tons of blades of rampant growing grass. After i've mulched the flower/plant beds these blades can grow all of 3" inside of 2 weeks ... I swear, so frustrating lol

 

[blokeybloke]

I had a decent crop of jalapenos(dee-lish when freshly sliced & placed atop the kinda mature chedder thats so strong it makes you gurn effortlessly) & bell peppers last year. They thrive under Cali sun i imagine. Mixed lettuce was pretty good too, nice & bitter. but sheez they can overun your lot real fast if youre not careful.

Struggled with fruit. Strawberries yielded very little & the cantaloupe vines(?) grew about 20ft long before actually blooming one, i weas threading it up & down everywhere before finally giving in and digging it out. Was like day of the triffids back there lol. Cherry tomatoes were a success but i had to prune dead leaves back often after forgetting to water occasionly.

 

[motorboatJones]

I have a small garden on my mom's property. Planted some cabbage and broccoli 2 weeks ago. Will plant some other stuff like sweet potatoes and watermelon and green bell peppers when the weather heats up a bit.

I use a combo of newspaper and mulch on top to keep the weeds down. The newspaper really helps a lot.

 

[MC3521]

Planning on a rasied bed this year. I'll plant eight or ten tomato plants. I planted some random turnips, Queen Anne's Lace, and pumpkins. We'll see what happens there.