Beginner

[Ummbilal]

Salaam alakum , ok i am a complete beginner here so have sabr with my dumb questions!

Our garden is grassed, do i need to dig up the grass to make a veg plot?
also any tips on which vegetables to plant that will grow easily?

I have started squashes and garlic in little pots on the window ledge, also have seeds for onions and green onions and carrots and bell peppers, i want to start the bell peppers too and some chilis but its too cold even on the sunny window ledge,

tips welcome!:sunny:

[Pashmeena]

walikum asalaaaam! :D and welcome to MG! The best part is sabar of this forum :P hehe... I have so many dumb questions but I get all my answers here :D
You're lucky that its cold where u live because then u can have garlic!! I have to wait 8 months before I even think about it!
Good luck! :)

[~Obsidian~]

WaAlaykum AsSalaam

Yep you're going to need to remove the grass. Riz has a thread on this, here it is (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=229), although it is a bit longwinded (the procedure I mean, for me anyway - sorry Riz!).

What I do when I plant in the garden is..brace yourself...:

Wait until the weather is right, dig up/break up the soil and plant/transplant. If it grows, it grows, if it doesn't it doesn't! :eek:If it sprouts and doesn't seem to be growing too well, then I give it some proper attention/feeds/whatever it needs.

Although that probably only worked because it was my first year. You can get pH testing kits and other such stuff too if you want to be more thorough!

You might want to raise the veg patch, or at least give it a border to define the patch and keep out marauding pets and animals, but thats totally up to you.

The garlic will do fine outside (has it sprouted yet?). It thrives in the cold, in fact it needs an initial cold period in order to flower. Don't put them out unless they have sprouted though - I did that with mine and the compost froze solid so the sprouts couldn't even break the surface.

I've started my chillis and peppers already, they need a bit of extra warmth so cover the pots/seedling tray (whatever you germinate them in) with clingfilm for a mini greenhouse effect. I started mine quite a while ago and they're doing fine, they aren't even on a sunny windowsill and yet they are still okay! The peppers are doing quite well, I just chucked the seeds from a supermarket one into the compost in the tray, lightly covered them and put clingfilm over them, and they sprouted. I think I got near enough 100% germination (sprouting) from the seeds, had loadsa seedlings (in fact most of them sprouted after I took the clingfilm off because of the soil attempting to go mouldy). When they've sprouted just pot them on, or if they're big enough and the weather is mild enough (I'm aiming for around late may to do the same) you can plant them out into the ground.

As for the carrots, when do they say on the packet to plant them? If the time is okay (now) then go ahead - scatter the seeds thinly though! I say that because you'll need to thin them out eventually in order for them to have space to grow, and apparently there is a fly that is attracted to carrots:rolleyes: so that when you bruise/break them/the leaves, they come and cause havoc/spread disease.

What else could you grow? You could grow potatoes, which are very easy (you could even grow them in a bag!), also cucumbers seem to be vigorous growers (it's my first year with those) and tomatoes grow very well/easily too, just start the seeds in pots now and plant them out later on. Radishes are also supposed to be pretty easy to grow.

NB: Last year when I planted my tomatoes out, I had thought that they'd grown pretty big inside - but in the ground they grew so much more bushier/bigger and in a short space of time, so be prepared for that (possibly with anything you plant out).

I know nothing about onions from seed so forgive me for not saying much about them.

I warn you - once the fruits of your labour are revealed, you might want to plant more things! So take advantage now, it's spring and the perfect time to start growing different things, might seem a bit much with so may different things but this is just the start and they need to be established - by that I mean you're just starting things from seeds and finding out where they'll go and what care they'll need - but once it's all done, you'll find it really easy, just water, feed, prune and pick things!

You might need some canes and string later on down the line in order to support heavy plants (such as tomatoes) and climbing plants (such as cucumbers) so if you can get some now that'll save you the hassle later on down the line - tomatoes need quite thick/sturdy ones so bamboo is quite good for that. I found that my chilli plant last year needed a tiny thin one to stay upright because it was rather lanky - I used an ordinary short bean cane for that.

If your nearest garden center is any good it'll have all of this stuff already and more, if not, B&Q it ;) (or you can find a DIY store, thats where I get my canes from). B&Q also have seeds for kids, so if you are stuck for any ideas or would like to share the growing experience with them you should go and see what they have on offer!

You might want to grow some flowers too? I didn't last year, but thought they'd make a pretty horticultural addendum this year, maybe try some sunflowers? I'm doing so this year because they get pretty big, and attract birds (the kids might like that!). Although the birds may be a bit of a mixed bag as they mess with seedlings sometimes (never did anything to mine so I dunno about that).

Herbs are pretty easy to grow too, and handy to have with the cooking! You can grow loads and freeze it for later on in the year :GreenThumbs:

I tend to plant any veg that grows underground in pots/bags and with fresh compost (veg such as potatoes, carrots, radishes and garlic) because I can't always tell where the cats have been, so I prefer to be safe rather thatn sorry!

Here are a few threads relevant to some things you have mentioned (and some things I have done too!), some are old threads containing general information and showing how we got on last year that you can refer to, others are current threads where you can ask any questions, share your progress and pictures too - so please do so!:

Growing Peppers (Capiscum) 2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=220)
Growing chillis in the UK...2008/2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=6)
Radish grow 2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=55)
Growing Cucumbers 2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=224)
Growing cucumbers 2008 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=77)
Tomatoes F.A.Q. (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=89)
The tomato thread 2008 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=82)
Growing tomatoes in containers 2008 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=59)
Growing Tomatoes 2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=222)
Growing Potatoes 2008/2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=9)
Planting Garlic - NOW! 2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=199)
Growing green onions 2009 (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=300)
Growing carrots (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=304)
Growing Herbs (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=65)

If you're planning on making this an annual thing, you might want to check out this thread too:
It is a BAD IDEA TO MIX THESE PLANTS (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=145)
It's not quite up to date but has some info at least!
On second thoughts that thread is missing plenty, inshaAllah it'll be updated this summer.

And this thread I've chucked in because you mentioned squashes.
Symbiosis (http://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=136)

If you need any ideas on what you'll need to buy, just let us know what you are planning to grow and hopefully we can stick some sort of list together for you.

InshaAllah you will do well with your growing, and feel free to ask ANY questions - when internet articles and other such things are too complicated for me, I prefer to ask the people that have done this before.

[farah]

walaikam asalaam & welcome :D

[Ummbilal]

jazakallah khair lots of tips to keep me going there, we have bought garden tools to turn over the soil and plan to do the entire garden and turf some and use the rest as a vege garden inshaallah, i understand now that we cant just plant on top of the grass!

i dont fancy using manure though, i might try the blood n bone stuff though i am sure it reeks.

[~Obsidian~]

Hope it goes well for you inshaAllah sis, be sure to keep us updated
:butterfly3: