Robjoby's Profile

I am a sixty three years young married man with four children and two grand children.

I live in East Yorkshire, near Withernsea and I have a garden of about 1 acre and an adjoining paddock and stables, (so lots of good manure and straw available).

My garden is mainly lawn, with borders and islands consisting of heathers, conifers and various shrubs and trees, but two years ago I set up a 15 metres by 9 metres fruit cage containing six 15 metre long raised beds for growing soft fruits and vegetables, which is proving very productive so far.

I also planted 12 assorted fruit trees to complement my soft fruit crops.

Early this year I built a 14 feet by 8 feet greenhouse and have had a good crop of tomatoes, (Sungold, very sweet cherry toms), peppers and melons (Ogen, very juicy and sweet).

I'm very new to all this "growing your own" stuff, so I've got a lot of learning to do and inevitably making a few mistakes along the way, one of which was to mix too much manure and straw in with my newly created fruit cage raised beds. This has provided good crops, but excessive amounts of foliage on some plants.

What I miss most is access to an experienced gardener, who has probably seen and solved most of the problems that keep appearing. I've got lots of gardening books, which are very helpful, but I still have difficulty identifying some problems.

I'm enjoying the challenge, but getting short on time to keep on top of it all during the growing season.