The Garden Community for Garden Lovers
 

West Midlands, United Kingdom Gb

Hi,just a quick question about veggie patch, what is the best soi to have? what sort of mixtures is required for a good patch,thankyou all.deb




Answers

 

Very complex question Deb, almost the sort of question you get at horticultural college (nudge, nudge, wink, wink ;o).

As usual it depends what you want to grow. The largest group, and one of the easiest, is the brassicas (except for cauliflower). They usually like a soils pH around neutral, that is about pH 7. This includes things like cabbage, kale, sprouts plus many roots veges like turnip and beetroot. It is better to be slightly acid than alkaline for these. In fact most veges are happy around neutral pH, including the ubiquitous potato. Soil mixtures, again, can be very technical. Generally aim for a good loam with plenty of organic matter like well rotted manure or compost and loads of drainage material. But then again many roots, like carrots, will 'fork' if the soil is too rich and like a poor, sandy soil. Sorry not to be able to write you a thin volume on this but I hope this gives you some idea.

The best thing to do is to try growing it and if something doesn't grow properly then ask someone on here what you could have done about it.

26 Feb, 2013

 

Thank you for you help ,will try out your suggestions,.One more question, i hear you can add other things to help out the soil , mushroom compost,and the more bacteria present the better? is this true?.thanks again.

26 Feb, 2013

 

Yes Bluemoon you can add spent mushroom compost and any organic matter that you have to your veggie beds. As Sarraceniac points out carrots and parsnips need a lean sandy soil or they are likely to fork - this is the only area of the veggie garden where even small stones need to be removed if possible! In general the more bacteria working on breaking down the humus in the soil the better. You might want to invest in a book on growing veggies or find a good website to give you advice, other than GoY :-)

26 Feb, 2013

How do I say thanks?

Answer question

 


Not found an answer?