A woodland vegetable patch?

[mybarnconversion]

Bed is going in this coming weekend - any advice on what I can plant immediately?

[mybarnconversion]

UPDATE

I tried some root veg which as could have been predicted were a complete flop.

Raspberry and blackcurrant bushes going in this weekend...

[moocher]

hope the wildlife dont raid it often,artichokes are loved by pheasants

[JakeR]

there have been some good suggestions so far on this thread and I can't think of a specific recommendation to add other than to suggest just experimenting. With only 2 or 3 hours of direct sun a day, you won't get buper crops from most vegetables, but if you really like tomatoes, why not try a plant on the sunniest part of the patch and see how it does?

BTW - sounds like a delightful bit of garden

[MuddyWitch]

If you can manage about 12-18inches of root-free soil in your bed you can grow root veg. Otherwise I would try shallower rooted stuff like tomatoes, strawberry, beans, (all woodland crops, originally)as well as salad leaves, onions golf ball shaped carrots & beetroot.

I had a friend who grew all his veg in a wood. I grant you it was a 50 acre wood, but he just popped stuff in where ever there was a space. It was a working wood, used for coppicing ash for charcoal, & croped by a Bodger & a Wood turner as well.

Piccies please

MW

[bodrighy]

Isn't this more or less what was being advocated ton 'Farming for the future' on bBC2. It's still on Iplayer if you missed it. There were people growing crops in woodland areas who claimed that it was in fact far more nartural and ecologically sound than normal practice. Averaged a couple of days a year in maintenace, mostly in harvesting. Worth a watch.

pete

[Annpan]

Yes, but it seemed on that programme that the plants had been researched and specifically picked for their location - I think this is where permaculture has it right, it is about figuring out what nature wants to grow, and then tweaking it to fit our needs.

[bodrighy]

That's true. We have moved into a house with an established and overgrown garden and intend to do a sort of guerill / permaculture thing this year at least. The garden hasn't been touched for at least 12 - 18 months so the ground is full of leaf mould. Got dry stone walls, old rockery, small woodland patch, open beds....should be able to grow something. We were thinking root veg in the woodlandy bit. Let you know how we get on.

Pete

[mybarnconversion]

So, blackcurrants and raspberries are now in - perhaps a little closely packed but let's see...



Mainly through my neglect my original attempts at developing this little patch of Eden into a fruitful garden failed pretty miserably. The few stunted, mouldy carrots I dug out whilst planting my currants and berries all I have to show.

Hopefully things (mainly me) will behave a little better this time...my woodland garden

[bodrighy]

So far we are focussing on planting leafy crops where the tree roots are densest and root crops where we can get a reasonable bed of soil. J. Artichokes we have planted in a special little plot on their own as experince taught us that once in never out. We found a rockery under a carpet of weeds (which virtually rolled up when digging) which we have left as terraces and planted out with spinach & rocket. I'll get some pics up soon.

Pete