Gardening

[PanBiker]

Sorry folks, and administration error has resulted in me inadvertently deleting the original gardening thread so I have created this new one. I will try not to do that again!

[PanBiker]

I'm in the throes of constructing another raised bed for the front garden. Slightly smaller than the last one I made last year. I ordered all the pressure treated timber from Lanlee but the plastic coated mesh I wanted for the lids was temporarily out of stock so I had to wait for that to come in before I got the order delivered.

3 x 3.6x150x22 Sawn Rail (Brown Treated)
3 x 3.6x50x5 Sawn Rail (Brown Treated)
2M x Multi Mesh Green PVC 1M High

This will make a 140 x 100 raised bed 300 high (12") with two removable mesh lids (to keep the birds and moggies off when the plants are first put out). I already have stock of plenty of the screws from last years fencing and bed production. I have made the ends and am just having a brew while my cordless drill charges. Long front and back rails are cut waiting for the bed to be screwed together. Should get the bed done and in place before dinner and I'll set about the lids this afternoon.

[PanBiker]

Right all sorted, here are a couple of pictures of the finished job.






Over to Sally now to fill it with something, think it's going to be more veg.

[Stanley]

This is not high input gardening! I did the annual refurb on the front garden yesterday. Cleared off most of the dead mint stalks and stacked them behind the lilac to rot down, zapped the weeds with glyphosate and scattered blood fish and bone to give everything a boost. The mint is already poking its head through and in a few weeks the garden will be filled with greenery, the annual miracle. I love mint, good for the insects and cooking, lovely tough green foliage and completely maintenance free once you have cleared the old growth off.
By the way, the ladslove in the bottom left hand corner looks forlorn after its haircut but the green shoots are coming again from the bottom. It's a sturdy little plant now and has a strong stem, it too will explode!

[Wendyf]

I haven't been able to get on with my veggie patch as much as I would have liked to over the last few weeks but the poly tunnel is doing well so far.
There are broad beans and a few early peas already in flower in the first bed, a few cauliflowers just planted out in the brassica bed, radishes ready to eat in the salad bed alongside lettuce, spring onions, pak choi and spinach all nearly ready to start cropping. That bed also has 2 courgette plants making a good start and a few fennel seedlings which are coming on nicely. The fourth bed has some new potatoes, early carrots, turnips and beetroot....just a small amount of each, and a fine crop of garlic planted last autumn which should be ready to lift on the longest day.
Round the sides I have tomatoes in grow bags, cucumbers, aubergines and sweet peppers in pots, plus a few more early potatoes in big pots.

[Tripps]

Good heavens - where would you be if you had done as much as you wished. I have planted a few chilli pepper seeds which I intend to grow in a South facing window. Just in time - packet says before the end of May.
Have you been watching Chelsea? Totally overblown and pretentious I'd say, and getting worse by the year. . Can't stand any of the presenters - especially Monty Don.

[Wendyf]

I would have beaten back some of the weeds in the outdoor veggie patch! No, I haven't been watching the Chelsea flower show, I am useless at any gardening except vegetable growing and programmes like that just make me feel even more useless!
Been out to take a piccy...everything except the cauliflowers grown from seed.

[Tripps]

That beats the whole of Chelsea for me. I bet your tomatoes have some flavour too.

[Stanley]

I agree with David, if anyone accuses you of being useless, refer them to me and I'll mark their card for them!!



In complete contrast to Wendy's admirable efforts, I've just popped out and done this pic of the front garden (isn't it great when it's light this early!) and as you can see everything has started moving. The mint has survived yet again, the chives are in blossom and the ladslove is starting its annual miracle! And of course the lilac is magnificent this year. The gardener is sniffing the annual weeds which are looking poorly now after spot treatment with Roundup.

[plaques]

Probably the best of our rhododendron bushes.

[Stanley]

Rhododendron in a lost garden I found many years ago near Arisaig. It was abandoned after the owner was ruined in the 1929 crash. He was an avid plant collector and it is full of rare species. Looked after by a Scottish University, Dundee I think. Still there and well worth a visit. Totally wild and fascinating.

[Stanley]

When Susan visited me the other day she said that the Lilac blossom was a bit later this year. I remembered this when I was looking this morning at a pic of my front garden last year and the year before. She's right about things being a bit behind, on 22 May last year there was more growth. I don't know whether this is the season or a fault with my fertility!

[Stanley]

Compare this image of the front garden on 29 May 2012 with the image above. It was further forward then.

[Stanley]

The front garden has hardly advanced at all since my post on May 23. I am forced to the conclusion that my minimal gardening strategy has failed and the problem is compacted soil, lack of nutrients and lack of mechanical action on the soil. It needs forking over and a good heavy dose of well rotted manure! Problem is of course my back won't let me dig and I have no muck heap. Any suggestions as to how I can do something about this gratefully expected. Jobbing gardener. Someone selling well rotted muck. I don't mind spending some money on this. It's only a small job but it needs doing!



Should I sack the gardener?

[Sue]

Herbs and wild flowers seed is the answer Stanley, especially the latter, they don't like fertile soil.

[LizG]

I'd be spreading a bag of compost and covering it with thick pea straw. Water it well and repeat every year. Not sure if that will work in your climate but it has improved my veggie garden soil. We could hardly grow anything for the first few years.

[Stanley]

Sue, it's all herbs and it is they who are suffering! Liz, I'm sure you could be right but it's like concrete and I suspect the best response will be from stirring it up and getting some air into the soil. What I need is a jobbing gardener, I shall find a man.....

[Sue]

Rake the surface sufficient to loosen it , add a packet of wild flower seed.

[Stanley]

I haven't got a rake but I have a Dutch hoe.... I shall try a bit of aeration!

[Sue]

Good idea.

[Stanley]

Thanks for the encouragement Sue! I need a dry day.....

[Stanley]

Things are looking up! Stone flags cleaned and weeded, the surface hoed and hopefully aerated and some signs of growth. I still think I need some well rotted manure to encourage the worms. Anyone got any ideas where I can get some?



Here's a pic taken in June 2010, not a great deal of difference perhaps apart from the fact that the lilac bush is obviously very happy!

[Wendyf]

When I bring your copy of Stephanie's book and the assortment of shirt buttons I'll add a bag of manure as well. Will tomorrow morning be OK? I'll pop in before I go to the library.

[Stanley]

Yes, yes yes!! (Thank you....) I usually walk Jack again from 10:30 until just before 11:00.

[LizG]

Well how lucky are you? A visit from a friend and a bag of poo. It doesn't get much better than that.