River Cottage

Cover the area of land you are not using with old carpet and leave it. After a year or so it will be weed free. Concentrate on your 3mx 3m patch. To make things easier for yourselve until you get more experience buy veggie plugs (baby plants) from somewhere like Dobies.co.uk. You can buy good value collections of veggie plug plants for about £30 and these will last you the entire year. Other seed catalogues probably do the same. They also send you instructions on the planting and care of the veggie plugs. Make sure the soil you have in your 3m x 3m is good. Either buy in some compost/top soil or dig in lots of well rotten manure. When you water your plants/plugs water with an organic fertiliser. Especially when fruiting. Good luck!

I know I've come in late to this one, but thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth anyway....

You mentioned that your patch is 3m x 3m - have you thought about giving square foot gardening a go? You can get the gist of what it's all about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening

But briefly, it helps you to break your patch down into manageable (square foot) sections, counting out exactly the right amount of seeds to yield a fairly predictable harvest. Best of all, each individual square is easy to manage - by knowing how much you've sown, you can dodge gluts of any one type of vegetable as well. It's also easier to keep on top of things like weeding and watering.

As others have said, the biggest favour you can do yourself is to grow things you actually enjoy eating or find too expensive to buy at the shops. Salad leaves and tomatoes might lack the glamour of your own asparagus for example, but they're day-to-day staples that are easy to grow and you're likely to enjoy eating.
For me, starting out, I gave myself the goal of eventually being able to have one thing from the garden on my plate every day, no matter how small - a radish, some land cress, rocket, whatever...it might sounds obvious, but starting out by picking the sure-fire hits will help you build the confidence to branch out.

Keep trucking, though - as others have said, you WILL get there in the end, it's all trial and error and when things go wrong, the worst that really happens is that you learn from the experience. Enjoy :-)

I started veg patch two yeard ago, I set up raised beds, filled with soil compost, chicken poo and other organic matter, I left them for a few weeks, turned then over a few times and left then again, for a couple of months till winter passed. Spring sprung and planting started, armed with cabbage, cauliflower and brocoli plugs, pea, french bean, and lettice seed, some carrot, and sweet corn (in it's own deep bed.)

All was growing well till my chickens discovered a way into the plot, firts to go were the cauli, cabbage and brocoli from that bed.

Find and fix the gap.

That would stop then, I was sure.

Two days later I returned home from work, the wife had let the chickens out, and there bold as brass, three birds tucking into my row of lettice.

Chase them out again, look for the hole where they got in, fix it, all the time under the watchfull eye of an angry hen.

A couple of days later the carrots and beets went the same way.

Beef up the security again.

By more plugs.

No Hens could get in this time of that I was certain.

Where did all my plants go, sluggs and snails.

Did I give up, NO

The corn grew and fruited I waited for it to rippen, and waited and waited, one viable cob from 9 plants.

The peas grew and fruited, success, the beans grew and fruited, success.

I have decided to try again with the cabbage and cauli, I have some spuds in another bed, some short crops and cut and come crops.

The new 5ft fence should keep the hens out, they now patrol the fence, on the other side looking for a gap in it, the collars on the veg plants should keep the slugs and snails at bay, the cheap polly covers should help protect the plants from other unwanted visiters.

My point is, don't give up. where there is a will, there is a way.
Good luck

I think you have done very well for your first year of vegie gardening that is fantastic job well done now every year you will be able to refine your skills work on adding two new veg every year. I have been growing veg for about 8 years now and some years are prolific and others are terrible. Yet again let me say JOB WELL DONE for giving it a go!

Don't give up!! Try again this year with perhaps a less ambitious list. One golden rule is to only grow what you know people will eat. Perhaps start with some of their favs and go from there. You could grow the space heavy potatoes in bags if you have a patio or deck, it is something I'm going to try this year as I found a year round supply of spuds was very land intensive.

Good luck and please let us all know how you get on!!

Hi- sorry to hear of your despair. The tv shows making growing veggies look easy. It is easy but takes a bit of planning and constant care. But if you managed to get corn on the cobs you are doing something right.
My tips are
- feed the soil not the plants,
-keep the veggies happy by constant watering- not feast and famine.
-if possible start your seeds in a cold frame, window cill or greenhouse where they can be cosseted in their early days
and finally remember there are a lot of creatures out there who want to eat your veggies too. So use companion planting to attract the good guys and netting etc to keep the bad ones out.
Hope this helps.

desperate, if you are going to keep bees, I would suggest joining your local beekeeping association. There have been a couple of forum threads on bees that you might find helpful.

Best of luck with your crops this year. We all have failures, but generally win with something in the end.

Hello, I have just joined in on the River Cottage blog and so I may be a bit late in replying.

I have a little plot in my garden which I have been growing veggies on for the past couple of years. Some have been a great sucess, others have not. We can all get carried away when we watch programmes on the telly about people who have been able to give up their supermarket because they are growing vast amounts of their own amazing produce. I personally think that unless you have a big plot that is not going to be the case, so just enjoy what you can grow and find a good organic veg box scheme to bridge the gap.

My rule of thumb is - only grow what you and your family will eat, but try to grow a variety. Even those who love marrows will not want them every day. My favourite things are peas, carrots and cabbages (because I can grow them). I have grown them in raised beds the last couple of years in normal compost and they have been good. Spinach is a favourite but, like you say, it bolts. Grow it in a pot, then it does not bolt as far! I am on mission this year to produce some chillis and some squash. Also, buy good quality seed.

Books:- Don't always buy a book because it is on the bestseller list. Take time to browse the book shops or Amazon.co.uk. My favourites are The River Cottage Handbook No4 simply because it is very very easy to read. There are technical bits in it but you just ignore them until you are ready to read them. The other I like is A Girls Guide To Growing Your Own by Alex Mitchell. Again is is easy to read and very amusing.

Blogs: Last year, I started reading gardening blogs which have proved very useful because for the most part they are written by people who have been in the same boat as you and have normal sized gardens. So have a scout around and sign up to a couple. I like Born Again Gardener (http://bornagaingardener.blogspot.com/), and my own blog (obviously) I Grew This Earlier (http://igrewthisearlier.co.uk).

Help: If the Landshare website is not providing the help you need, why not stick an advert in your local post office or paper shop?

Be Realistic: We are not in War time and veggies will always be available in the supermarket. Treat your growing as a hobby to start with, enjoy the fruits of your labour and don't expect to become Alan Titchmarch overnight!

Good luck.

Bless you. These are some things that have helped me in the past!
Only grow whaat you will eat and go for easyish crops to start with-try some tomatoes, beans,peas, strawberries.
Don't beat yourself up over it-unfortunately we watch TV and everyone has the perfect plot but they are worked on every day and kept up to scratch by a team of people behind the scenes-whatever Joe whathisname on Gardeners World says!!
Involve the whole family even if you have to resort to bribery and an amount of corruption to get them to do what you want them to do.
If you have time find your local allotment site and go talk to an old man about growing. Once he's recovered from the shock of someone actually wanting to glean some knowledge from him you will find a never ending source of facts. For example, one old boy told me once that runner beans grow far better if they are twined around their ploes clockwise. I just thought ha ha but did a little experiment and lo and behold he was right!!
But most of all just try to enjoy it cos its not doing you any good if you are so stressed over it that you end up a gibbering wreck. But...we have all been that gibbering wreck from time to time so take a deep breathe and start to plan your crops for next year!

you say hundreds of marrows, have you got room for anything else lol, give your patch plenty of fertilizer, thin those marows out., do a, ph, check on your soil , you can get these kits from the garden shops, you need fertile soil to grow alot of plants, and dont overcrowd your patch.