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hello folks
happy spring 🙂
where we at then?
Winter cabbages and turnips are going strong and now the closhes are off.
kolrabi is not going to do anything i think but provides a bit of colour
perpetual spinach has been a real winner, has been providing a bit over winter and is now going really well
spring onions we sowed in autumn have done very little but have survived under fleece so should come on nice and early once the growing season starts.
Garlic and onions look great after spending Jan and Feb under fleece and snow
how about everybody else?
time to start a few things off in the mini greenhouse i think?
Oh and we had the last parsnip with our sunday roast a couple of weeks ago, after all that frost it was one of the tastiest things i have ever eaten
We moved into the new house with the garden pictured above in November. The garden's been kept reasonably tidy, but there's a lot of tidying up to do and the snow and ice over the winter, followed by work now, have made it slow growing. We're going for tidying it up this year, and throwing some stuff in the ground to see what works. We'll get something properly planned for next year.
We now have: a small orchard with apples and pear trees; a better home for the four chickens; a nice-sized area for veg growing; a dome-shaped greenhouse; and a bit at the bottom we can leave messy for wildlife.
Seven minute camera phone video tour from just after we moved in: http://qik.com/video/3288717 We've done lots of cutting back since this, filled in the pond, built Chicken Villas at the bottom of the orchard by the tack room, etc.
nice Mike, you've got your work cut out there! hope your kids are old enough to be put to work.
that greenhouse is a little interesting!
Same as mike, moved in september, this year will be mainly getting things sorted, hopefully be able to get some stuff in back end of summer.
The greenhouse looks ace when backlit by a USE Joystick when the wife's down putting the chickens to bed 🙂
The kids are 4 and 6, so they're "helping" rather than helping.
it's crying out for a cheap LED colour scrolling kit from ebay/on line djay supplier, UFO tastic
"helping"
take them to a coal mining museum and show them what kids their age did in darlington 150 years ago
then threaten them with the same treatment, take out your sun lounger, grab a G&T and watch the garden clear itself 🙂
Love your greenhouse Mike, how cool is that!
I have taken on more land on with my allotment, my neighbour who I had never seen, gave up and I managed to secure a bit more land. Polly lost its sheeting again, so been replacing that, someone somewhere keeps picking on my plot to nick stuff, which is a bit of a pain, lost a few tools last year and some git cleared two of my prize apple trees of their apples!
This is before the dig 😉
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& a few hours latter!
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Test driving a second hand rotavator I bought this week for £150! Cannot belive the the prices you pay for rotavators.
Got loads of seeds on the go at home, peas & broccoli are first to pop their heads through.
BTW - Bought my seeds from here:
[url= http://www.realseeds.co.uk/about.html ]http://www.realseeds.co.uk/about.html[/url]
The website is nothing special, but the service and quality of the seeds is very good, worth checking out if you are looking for a non-hybrid/GM supplier.
Moles is the other suppleir I use, do great prices on bulk seeds.
[url= http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/ ]http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/[/url]
We've now got the first raised bed in place in the bottom veg garden. The edges were put in by my father- and brother-in-law, made of reclaimed paving slabs topped with wood. It's about 18' by 10', and raised 10".
[url= http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4448502262_fff819e6ae_d.jp g" target="_blank">
The river which is currently nicely in its banks beyond the fence behind our bottom garage reaches about 2 feet into this bed when it floods, so raising it is rather essential. We're going to use this bed for non-root veg, for the same reason.
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I've also dug down to create a level area for a paved path next to this bed, beside which will be three small square beds, edged with sleepers, for our two kids (one each) and their friends (the other one). The soil under here is like blancmange as it's below the water table, so I'm hoping some rubble followed by a dry sand/mortar mix will provide a stable footing for the slabs. I might also hammer some more wooden pegs in, to act as piles (those pictured were just to get the level).
What are your weekend gardening plans?
I'm hoping to get the slabs laid in the path I levelled off last weekend, but may need to rethink levels, as it's under a couple of inches of water are the moment...
Will also try to get the Big Bed™ levelled off, so we can start planting.
Trying to sort out the veggies for this year. I am mostly interested in strawbs and tomatoes, maybe green beans. A pumpkin or two would be nice to if the slugs didn't eat them all before they were 1" across. Considering some kind of cold frame for the toms to help stop them getting too wet and blown around.
I'm tempted to scatter raspberries on the waste ground next door, so I can eat them but don't have to deal with them 🙂
What are your weekend gardening plans?
Encouraging the pregnant Mrs North to think about what she wants to plant in the newly dug over front garden, what can be rescued that hasn't died in the bacxk yard and what veg etc. we need to get planted.
Mainly, my gardening is at two ends of the spectrum: labour or consumption.
😀
I am all action stations this year. Moved into my house last May and was far too busy with everything to plant much, but I got 4 beds dug approx 18x4ft, a greenhouse put in and cleared away all the hedging and shrubs from both gardens to maximise space. 2 months ago I also secured a plot about 5 miles away on some private land with a large polytunnel and have spent some time digging beds. Planted 300 onions sets last weekend and a hundred or so potatoes. Going up today to plant more tatties.
In the greenhouse I have some herbs growing (chives going strong about 4 inches high, french tarragon from last year sprouting new shoots a couple of inches high, mint/oregano in pots coming through), also doing some onions from seed as an experiment. I have a 50% germination rate with those. 3 gutters of peas, some pots with coriander and parsely, a planter tub with garlic now 12" high and waiting for a summer harvest and a few other bits and bobs.
Indoors I have a dozen tomatoes of various types (including a wonderful santini mini plum I got from M&S lasy year) and a dozen marigolds to accompany them (beautiful little seedlings so they are!). These plants are 6 inches high and have good leaf growth so far. Also I have just sowed courgettes, sprouts, cabbage, purple brocolli, sweet peas and globe artichokes.
The plan is to set up a large crop of tomatoes and aubergines at the allotment, then chilli plants/grapevines/cucumber under cover at home (one greenhouse and a mini greenhouse). I have a permanent bed big enough for 30-50 asparagus plants. I haven't bought crowns yet but aim to do this in the next couple of months when I see a good offer.
I have also been doing a spot of random flower/bulb planting in the front garden along with some fruit canes and a family apple tree and a viccy plum tree. The daffies have been up since the end of Jan and I just planted a dose of wild garlic and bluebells I acquired from a garden I work in.
The cut back honeysuckle has nice fresh red buds all over it. I'm so excited about everything! Will try get some pics and get them up.
I love this thread.
Planning on planting out end of next month. Mainly potatos, beans, raspberries until the new raised bed is dug.
This morning I found frog spawn, wasn't sure how the frogs faired, as over the winter the pond's been mostly iced up, so was pleased to see our future generation of garden helpers surviving.
Today I've been replanting shrubs from the back garden into the front garden to make way for our new extension....
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We've removed the chickens from the terraced vegetable beds where they were overwintering and we're preparing the ground ready for planting out....
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BTW, the chickens are now dead due to a fox or badger visit a week or two ago 🙁
Meanwhile in a now vacant hole in the back garden (formerly inhabited by a red hot poker plant) my son has an unofficial pond making project on the go. Bloody guerilla gardeners 😉
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That's quite a slope you're on there slugwash!
My path ended up being a bit more heavy duty than I thought 🙂
On the mud blancmange at the bottom of the pit (I hit the water table) I put a layer of bloken slabs and filled the 2-3" gaps between them with soil. On top of that I put a layer of bigger broken slabs, with the gaps filled with sand. A thin layer of sand went on top of that, with the slabs on top.
[b]First slab done:[/b]
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Hopefully that lot will sit happily on the wet underneath - I pushed a metal stake down 3 or 4 feet with no effort so it's a bit boggy. Hopefully all the moisture will mean we don't have to water too often...
glasgowdan, are you planing outdoor tomatoes or do you have a polytunnel/greehosue on the allotment? Outdoor tomatoes will get hammered by blight!
Lazgoat there's a big polytunnel on the allotment and I have grand plans! Been very lucky actually, got it through landshare and the owner is happy to pay for the new polythene for the tunnel. Small greenhouse on the site too, be good to fill it up with seedlings come May.
Windowledge space runs short very quickly when doing early sowings doesn't it?
Sounds great. I'd love a polytunnel on my allotment but as I'm close to the city centre and next to a main road I imagine it'd soon get peppered with holes and empty beer bottles, traffic cones etc etc
I had some tomato plants last year and they were ok till September and I had to get rid of them. Still got bucket loads of tomatoes though.
Moved into house in November, it's been rain / snow ever since until last week or so. Have now planted carrots, broad beans, onions (all seeds) and garlic in veg patch, really a trial of several things to see what will grow well. Existing rhubarb suddenly exploded from the ground a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know it was there!
Dug in a young apple tree last week (Wheelers Russett) where I had removed a silver birch tree that was attacking the telephone cables above and generally doing far too mcuh growing near the house. Soil seems good at the surface, but within a couple of inches it's thick claggy clay (the stuff that usually wraps around my bike at this time of year!).
Everything else has mainly been pruning and cutting back last year's bushes and plants etc, wondering what is actually in there.
Looking at the weather this morning, I can't believe yesterday I actually cut the lawn!
Really looking forward to "proper spring" and for things to realy start growing.
I've also dug down to create a level area for a paved path next to this bed, beside which will be three small square beds, edged with sleepers, for our two kids (one each)
Don;t use sleepers, the creosote (or whatever it is in them that turns them that colour - some kind of chemical) will leech out and poison the beds.
has anybody seen or heard of a company making smallish triangular greenhouses to fit in a corner?
our little plastic one isn't really that good and i'd like something more attractive.
you can use new sleepers or some recycled ones, a good supplier will tell you which ones are good.
They're new sleepers, so think they'll be ok. They're not really sleepers; they're a square section. I think they're support posts for decking - brother-in-law got them.
Advice please.
I'm sure I heard on gardeners world a few weeks ago that when building a raised bed on your lawn, you can just turn the turf over and start layering your compost, soil and manure on top. Is this correct or will the weeds all just grow through?
The last one we made, all the turf was taken out.
thanks.
As long as there are a good few inches of soil on top of the grass it should be fine. In fact, I'm sure you could just build the raised edges and then dump a load of compost/topsoil in on top of the grass.
Anyone actually used nematode worms as a form of slug control? Or do they unwittingly uleash the forces of evil on some section of nature's harmony?
I just finished the second bed. This one is 4.35m x 1:35m, edged with 15cm 'sleepers'. This is going to be the bed for my two kids and their friends to grow stuff in.
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The path between the two beds had a tree stump in the way, which needed a little gentle adjustment to allow the sleeper to go in straight.
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Playing with axes and spades is fun 🙂
Advice please.I'm sure I heard on gardeners world a few weeks ago that when building a raised bed on your lawn, you can just turn the turf over and start layering your compost, soil and manure on top. Is this correct or will the weeds all just grow through?
The last one we made, all the turf was taken out.thanks.
For the time it would take I would dig the grass out, just in case you have any couch grass about.
Boy do I hate couch!
😉
ononeorange - we built a pond, which in turn attracted loads of frogs, these little creatures will naturally help with the slug control.
Thanks Bunnyhop. Already have a pond thanks to previous owner (apparently there are newts and I've already seen a fair few frogs), but definitely have a major slug population too, hence attempts to control them. I don't want to use pellets if I can help it and read about the nematodes somewhere.
we are trying nematodes for slug and cabbage white control this year.
I'm planning on growing some sacrificial cabbages for the whites though as they are rather pretty
We've got a second path in now, and one side of the third bed, thanks to my brother-in-law. It's starting to look 'proper' now.
Now have potatoes, strawberries, onions, garlic, peas, spinach and beans in the ground, and a host of seeds in the greenhouse.
The last of my parnips were dug up and cooked at the weekend, so, so sweet.
We had our first bbq at the allotment at the weekend this year, had a great day, meeting lots of new faces, we cooked bacon baps & chilli jackets, all washed down with some of last years home made Red wine and Cider!
Some other allotment holders cooked some amazing stuff, but we had no complaints and all the Wine and Cider dissapeared 😉
Early peas are going out this week. First crop of rubbarb ready to try.
Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers plants now transfered from my window sills to the polly, first batch of potatoes planted out.
Grape vine has started to bud at last, we planted some more this year, so keen to see how they come on this year. Managed to make 90 odd bottles last year, mixture of red & white. Hoping to improve my wine making skills this year.
Its all loooking quite bare at the moment, but will do some pics to see how it all comes on...
[b]Just a thought, if anyone here has any spare seeds and is looking at do some postal swapping? Drop me an email & I will sort out a list of seeds to swap.[/b]
Going low maintenance this year, due to time constraints.
Garlic already growing at an alarming rate, also growing peas again (broad beans get too much blackfly), spuds, onions, carrots, beetroot, spinach and (soon) courgettes and squashes.
Blackcurrants and raspberries look like they're coming back good too.
ski - i'm a little worried as our vine hasn't started to bud yet. It seems very 'crisp' and i wonder if the heavy frosts have killed it. How established are yours?
on the plus side, Peas, Beans, Courgette, Aubergine, Mint, Mixed leaves and Rocket all doing well. Perpetual spinach is still mental, making some amazing curries.
Did you try growing garlic now mrmicheal? Think it was you asked about it before.
yeah, we planted last year and overwintered them. They are going well. I'll take a couple of pics later.
mrmichaelwright - Memberski - i'm a little worried as our vine hasn't started to bud yet. It seems very 'crisp' and i wonder if the heavy frosts have killed it. How established are yours?
If its established I am sure it will be fine.
Mine vary from cuttings taken last year to an established vine of 15/20 years old which i have adopted, I have 7 different vines planted all over the place.
Done some secret guerrilla gardining of vines last year, on a couple wastland urban sites local to me, which are real sun traps 😉
So far only my 5 year old seedless Lakemont has budded yet, but it is in a hot spot in my garden & gets most of my tlc.
No vine expert btw, its all still quit new to me, but addictive.
yeah, we planted last year and overwintered them. They are going well. I'll take a couple of pics later.
Overwintering has always worked really well for me, but forgot last year and only stuck them in a fortnight ago.
I'm amazed how quick they're coming up now though.
we dug one up by mistake and it was like a fabulously garlicy spring onion. Sadly looks like we haven't grown a variety that produces shoots. mmmmmmmm garlic shoots.
Newest pic:
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4518689972_e72dc7818e_d.jp g" target="_blank">
More of the rest of the garden on Flickr (click above photo).
I just started growing this year but am a complete novice at it but I will keep on reading!
I did come across this today which made me smile!
[url= http://guerrillagardening.org/ ]guerrilla gardening[/url]
Bugger, just popped to my allotemt at lunch time to water the polly and my shed has been broken into again!
Who said having an allotment was relaxing!
lost my spades & forks and some hand tools this time, but they decided to leave the mower and rotovator?
On a positive note, they did not dammage any of my seedlings or plants, so that was a blessing I guess.
Looks like I will be plodding the car boots for tools again this weekend 😐
Hope everyone here is having better luck with their gardens and allotments.