total novice needing help

Hello gardeners corner. I have joined here in the hope that I can find out how to fix up my back garden. I had never lived in a place with a garden until I moved here a few years ago so I don't know the first thing about gardening. I must have had a dead keen gardener living here before me because I have big dug up patches for growing veg in the back that I just don't know what to do with? I end up with a jungle out there every year. This is the third year of it going jungle now and I don't want to be having to look at it/cut it all down again but have never grown anything so don't even know where to start? I get it looking all nice every year, all weedless and raked, but don't know what will grow in there or anything like that, so I just leave it and all of the weeds/thorns just come back and take over again? It is a nightmare because I don't want to go out there when it is all jungled up and am losing out on having a back garden. I'm alright keeping the front garden looking tidy but that hasn't got the patches of bare top soil for weeds to get on. It can't be that hard to stop the jungle coming back can it?

I'm thinking that I might even be too much of a beginner to cope with all I have out the back? The biggest patch looks like it would give up more veg than I could ever eat in a year? Again, I don't even know where to start when I get it all weeded out and dug over so I'm hoping I can find out what to do here in time to stop the whole lot of weeds taking over again next year. I cleaned the smallest of the jungles behind my shed today and it looks so much better, I just can't let it all come back.

peace

 

Have you got time to "weed" it twice a month once you've got it sorted out (from say April to November)?

If so that's the plan I would suggest. A hoe would be a handy tool for the weeding, or if the soil is good you can just kneel down, grasp the weed at the base of the plant, and gently pull it out roots and all, shake the soil off, then put it on your compost heap / pile

Sounds like you want to grow veg? Anything else? Something to look pretty in the back garden perhaps?

Very satisfying growing, and then eating , your own veg, and I can assure you it isn;t hard. But you will need to have a few hours twice a month - and hour or two every week would be even better :thumb: (obviously a problem if you work able from home for long spells, or something like that)

 

Hi jungle and welcome. It sounds like your back garden is getting you down a bit. If you think it is too much for you to cope with, select small bits of the already dug areas to use for veg growing and then level out, firm and rake, then seed the rest with grass seed, now is a good time to do it. You can always reclaim these areas back in the future, once you have the bits you can deal with under control.

 

Many thanks for replying Kristen and Blackthorn.

I would really love to grow some veg, I have always wanted to but I honestly think I have too big a patch right now for a lone beginner to cope with. I do have a bit of time and I have a few tools in the shed, including a hoe (even though I don't know what to do with it), so that's not a problem. If I could grow lawn over roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of the area of the dug up patches and leave a small veg patch for a few spuds and parsnips, that would be great. I will have it all cleared, dug over, and raked by the end of the week and then I'll see about getting some lawn seeds and how to grow the lawn bit.

I'm sure that, once I get started and see I'm getting somewhere, I will get well into keeping my back yard looking nice and even grow a few things. It's just all a bit daunting when you have never grown anything before, haven't got anyone around to show you how to get started, and you are faced with a jungle

Thanks again for replying. All the best.:thumb:

 

Couple of thoughts:

1) If you want to grow veg start of with growing what you like to eat. There is NO point growing stuff because someone told you too, or the picture in the catalogue wooed you, or a scantily clad girl was holding the seed packet ... I digress, sorry

What do you like to eat?

2) Plot size should not be a problem. Of course the larger the plot the more work. But you do need a half-decent-sized patch to grow enough to make a bit of a difference.

Instead of putting it down to lawn how about covering it in weed suppressing fabric? That will keep most of the weeds down, reduce the work "weeding", and keep some moisture in as a bonus. There is some cost associated with buying the "plastic" though.

Ideally put that down in early spring having put plenty of well rotted manure, or similar, down this Autumn. (I'm generalising, because Carrots and other roots don't like of manure, but its not a bad place to start from).

You said your soil was in good shape and you are growing show-winning weeds! so maybe the manure is not too important, but the heart of the soil does need maintaining, so despite it being very fertile you do need to keep it that way - a year or two's abused won't destroy good soil though.

If you can cover it with "plastic" then I guess we come to:

3) You need a plan of what to do when. Folk here can help with that (but it starts with "what do you like, and want to grow")

which leads to:

4) You'll need some inner-strength to overcome the things that go wrong and the fact that you spend months creating a crop and then it dies before you get the chance to eat it.

In my experience that doesn't happen often, and provided you haven't grown only Potatoes, like the English required the Irish to do during the potato famine years :(, the chances are that one failure will only be a small fraction of your total production.

And finally:

5) Have you got any kids? Growing Gourds (useless things, can't be eaten and have no other uses; strangely kids love them!), or Sunflowers (spit the seed packet into two : Kids and Adults,. Include a tape measure in the "kit" [tip: Feed theirs' more than you feed your own! although height is mostly Chance / Genetics]

My kids love picking the things that they like to eat; they know (now) that they taste much better fresh from the garden than the best they can get from the supermarket. They also realise, too late each time, that unlike the Supermarket if they don't pick the stuff they won't get fed

My blog may, hopefully, encourage you to have a go?

 

Go for the easy, low maintenance stuff.

Why not plant a few potatoes? They will happily make use of a nice big plot. They require next to no maintenance (in fact I neglected mine this year, and still got a good a crop of excellent spuds). They also have the advantage that they can put up stiff competition against weeds, and if banked up, you get twice the yield and even less weeds still.

Other than that, it all depends what you want from your garden. There's lots of low maintenance options. Earlier this year I filled a bare patch with Nasturtium while I was deciding on its longer term use. Nasturtium is ace. It couldn't be easier to grow, fills out very quickly, and its dense foliage blocks a lot of sunlight off the ground, those giving weeds a hard time. Its not a bad looking plant either, although a big patch of Nasturtium wouldn't win at Chelsea, but it will fill in the bare patches while you decide what to do. There's tonnes more stuff, I just thought I'd throw in a couple of super easy ones.

 

Hi, Jungle, and welcome to the GC forum. From the looks of your replies, I'd say that you should be well on your way to getting rid of your jungle garden and producing something more pleasing. Enjoy...

 

I think I would advise going with the suggestion of grassing down part of your back garden. September is the perfect time to sow grass seed (but don't leave it later than that) and it will start looking nice soon. That will encourage you to persevere with the rest of the plot next spring and give you a nice place to sit next summer. Growing vegetables is fun and rewarding.

 

Hi there and Welcome,

Nice to meet you,

 

Good evening Jungle and welcome to the site.:thumb: