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Gardening resources and tips, etc.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby halfateabag » Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:53 pm

my lovely n'bor has flat leaved p. that has been going for 3 yrs. she shares it with me and she has our toms and cucs.

i have just used a pile of roasted toms in a bolognaise, i stirred, he chopped.

i made a passion fruit cheesecake the other day and ended up with a load of seeds so have raked them into one of my tommy plants 2 c if they germinate, apparently up 2 4 weeks.... time will tell....

i have 8 brussel sprout plants, the slugs got 2 of them, mite b ready 4 crimbo...

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:15 pm

i'm hoping that large white caterpillar season may be over, just about.
one kale plant, that i'd accidentally harvested the whole growing top rather than just leaves and then rooted in water has some new and uneaten leaves on it and the cavalo nero, totally stripped, has only one caterpillar that i can see. they will be given the same treatment as the accidental kale rejuvenation to see how well they'll come back and produce overwinter.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:30 pm

i have cleared and planted up a couple of raised beds. one with the leeks that were produced from bulbules on the flower head last year - they are straw sized so they will do what they will do - hopefully giving us something. the other has been planted up with the baby chard plants which self seeded in the bed the leeks were going in. I've also shaken some more chard seeds and giant parsley seeds into the edge of one of the beds.
the top foot has been snapped from the cavolo nero plants and put in a bucket to root. they are beginning to show some growth after the attack of the caterpillars so hopefully we'll get some over winter.

this website is rather good. you can put in your location for finding when your last frosts usually are and there's a customised planing and rotation calendar, too.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Fri Sep 11, 2020 9:48 am

I planted a few leeks in pots a while back. They aren't doing much. An experiment. No room to put them in the ground. I have two 1.2m square raised beds. One is full of rhubarb. I intend to get rid of a lot of that, and put two lots in huge pots. I have a segment of decommissioned beehive composter that would make a good mini raised bed for one, but not sure where to put it. The 'nowhere in the ground issue' applies to locating a new raised bed. There is a spot where a hazel we cut to the ground is growing. If we could get it right out, would semi-shade do? Probably more shade than sun though...


The number two raised bed has beans (that I need to decommission. Some still flowering but most have had it.) and then it needs rebuilding as the walls have collapsed making it a punt 7 inches high.

I'd like to move both beds to where the water irises are, but this the area prone to flooding. IN that spot, I'd say about 5 inches of water at worst, that lasts for a few days and happens once or twice.

Still need to get rid of one tom on the balcony but feel inclined to leave for a bit. Dunno. Will decide at the weekend.

T&M have another £1 seed sale. It's tempting... but I'd only be buying things I fancy rather than need or even very likely to get round to growing. I don't think I can grow so much from seed next year. Or can I... oh for a greenhouse (to be located where raised beds are currently... Husband actually agrees to this, but then no raised beds... unless we sort out the flooding.) That's a lot of work to accommodate £1 seeds :)
https://www.thompson-morgan.com/seed-of ... und-110920
Goodness I am going on too much this morning.

Thanks for the link, Scully. I think I have come across if before while looking for specific advice. I shall have a good look at it. The personalized growing calendar looks jolly useful. I have a paper one from Grow YOur Own magazine but this is more user friendly. Can't find the frost info though... I am sure I have before.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:57 am

the rhubarb will be fine in the shade. a neighbour had a big bed of it, in full shade, that produced masses of long fat stalks every year.
i have two 'tree' pots of rhubarb that i think would prefer to be planted in the ground. it's reluctant to produce enough for one meal let alone two.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Hope » Sat Sep 26, 2020 7:55 pm

It's been an amazing year for my veg garden. After not being able to grow veg in my heavy clay soil because I wasn't able to double-dig it (which I thought I needed to do!) I then found "no-dig" gardening and have been able to grow so much. for the last 3 or so months about half the veg we've eaten every day has been homegrown. I've not bought potatoes since June. I've not bought cucumbers since about mid july. I've got so many french beans in the freezer and still picking about 200g a day. I picked 4 cucumbers today, which were growing in the jungle in my new greenhouse. there may be more lurking there unseen.

From growing in only pots before, I've now got over 300 square feet of veg beds. It's been amazing physical and mental health therapy for me which has been particularly invaluable this year (especially as I've had to shield, so didn't leave our home for 5 months and still rarely go out now), as well as adding more learning experiences for my children.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:33 am

That sounds brilliant Hope

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Sun Sep 27, 2020 8:06 pm

Sounds great, Hope. I too have discovered the mental health benefits of gardening this year. Like a lot of mental health things, I have to make myself do it, as my belief in it's efficacy wanes quickly.

I am a little envious of your 300 square feet. I am stuck with pots, mostly, and two 1.25m squared raised beds, and two 1x1m - the latter being in the shade. (One currently contains cavolo nero, and I planted the other up with everlasting spinach, adn some hopeful, but unlkely to succeed in the shade (?) white sprouting broccoli) just before i went on holiday. Hopefully the slugs won't have had it all...)
Autumn job will be to rebuild the two non-shady raised beds, the walls of which have collapsed, and decide what to do with the rhubarb that occupies almost an entire one (was hoping to put in big pots, but have been told its a bad idea).

I have room to create another two or three 1.25m square ones where water irises are currently making a bid for world dominance, but this is ground that floods for a week once or twice a year. Also told this is a bad idea... But if I could do this, could have a greenhouse where current beds are.

Sorry thinking on screen...

Anyway so glad you have got so much out of it. There is something magical about gardening. I think it's a combination of a little physical exercise (although I do as much of my gardening sitting own as I can get away with :) ) and what's effectively mindfulness? Focussing on something that takes enough of your attention to stop you thinking about stuff that you need a break from, but not so much that it's mentally tiring.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby miss mouse » Mon Sep 28, 2020 6:11 pm

Wow, well done Hope. I thought 'double digging had been discredited years ago, what madness was that? To keep us too busy to see what was really going on around us?

Dump compost on top when the bins get full and it has sunk suitably, the worms will do all the hard work for you.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Hope » Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:11 pm

Herbi - yours sounds great. I don't know how I've managed to find so much space and it doesn't look that much in the garden. We turned an unused part of the lawn in a potato bed at the start of lockdown. I prefer to say the number in square feet because it sounds more than it does in meters! :lol:

Miss Mouse - I know, double digging sounds crazy now. But having clay soil, I really thought there was no other option! Glad i've since been corrected.

Just had another (mostly) homegrown lunch with kale, green beans and herbs (plus some buckwheat). So nice to just be able to go outside and pick something to eat.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Fri Oct 02, 2020 11:17 am

I think it's quite a lot anyway, Hope, metres or feet :)

I have a 110x40ft garden that's divided into two by a row of camelia and rhodedendrons. The bottom half bottom half can afford to look a bit less decorative, so that's where I do my hardcore vegetable gorwing. But it's also proone to flooding and shaded by trees :? Not ideal on either count. (Although I really like down there. It's also home to various wild flowers and wildlife, such as robins and long-tailed tits... and biting insects...)
Weirdly my neighbours' gardens don't flood as badly as ours. It slopes up a bit agin at the bottom so that area is ok and the sides don't seem quite so bad - fruit bushes survive at any rate. We probably need to either raise the level of the whole things (hideous amount of work) or maybe get a pump. But not sure where we would pump the water to. I should be a bit more 'can do' about it and get on with it. If we could sort out this problem I could have a greenhouse.
The shed is sitting on a raised concrete platform...

I need to get out in the garden and do a lot of tidying and chucking out. I got rid of all but one tomato plants on the balcony but left the pots with compost up there. Down in the garden I need to my veg plants. Looking out the window right now, the idea of having such peppers, aubergines and tomatoes in the garden seems incongruous with the weather. It's porbably be time to pick what's viable and then chuck out the plants. My poor dahlias are taking a battering in teh stormy weather.

I may have ordered too many bulbs. They all came while I was on holiday, course. A few hundred. (Plus some from last year.) A lot will go in pots, but for the ones that are to go in the ground, I am considering getting an augur bit for the drill to make holes for them. Has anyone tried this? Husband is not keen as he thinks it might damage the drill. Was thinking of buying a cheap cordless drill just for this purpose but not sure if such a thing would be powerful enough. (Or heap enough!)

I have a 20% Sarah Raven discount code if. I think it's just a generic GW subscriber code so anyone should be able to use it. I can PM it to anyone who is interested. It expires end of the month.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Hope » Fri Oct 02, 2020 11:25 am

herbi - you're lucky! Your garden is a lot bigger than mine - it's only 75X22ft. We are hoping to move in the future. Ideally I'd like at least a quarter of an acre! I don't grow a lot of ornamentals anymore. The whole left side (south-ish facing) of our garden has a 6ft wide veg bed, with the new greenhouse at the end.

I was going to pull out the remains of my courgette plants today and replace them with some lettuce plants I have in the greenhouse, but it's absolutely pouring down, so i'll do some sewing instead!

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby scullion » Fri Oct 02, 2020 12:24 pm

i was wrong about large white butterfly caterpillar season being over - there was a batch of babies chomping away, and a load of eggs, earlier in the week. maybe they will be bird food before they eat all the kale again.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Fri Oct 02, 2020 12:25 pm

I know I am very lucky with the garden, and there is a huge school playing field at the bottom too, so we are not too overlooked. (Although now they have taken away the trees on their side, we get ferocious winds coming across is and onto my raised beds. A wind break has helped a bit.) Our previous house had a 40x25ft garden, and was a mid-terrace house, surrounded by other terraces. There was little privacy and no peace and quiet, and too many cats per square whatever. (I love cats but this was a problem for our cats.) But we less lucky here with its aspect and all the shade.

The top half is planted with shrubs, so also shady at ground level. I created a small flower patch this year in an area from which I think the previous owners took shrub with them, and we have started creating a new one on the other side. We still need to get the roots and stumps out still, and then put a lot of organic matter down. I am really excited about this. It creates a 15x 1 or more metre strip for me to plant up next year. I have had/have a lot of flowers in pots on the patio this year, which I enjoyed immensely as I can see them from where I sit when I work. But it would be good to have fewer things in pots. It took me at least an hour a day to water everything - flowers and veg - at the height of summer and if we get to go away ion summer next year, this will be problematic. The watering also had to be mainly mains water, so not great either in terms of cost to us or in the bigger scheme of things.

Talking of which, the cat sitters left the hose pipe on (and the back door unlocked) while we were away. I don't know when they last watered. Hopefully not last week.

The white sprouting broccoli I planted in a shady area before I went away grew a lot in a week. I am wondering though if it will fail to sprout where it is. I shall find out, I suppose...

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby mistakened » Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:08 pm

Just update you on the state of gardening in the Eastern Med.

The back garden is bare earth, grass requires serious watering systems. It is planted with mature fruit trees, almonds, apricots, pomegranate, olives, carob trees that were there before the house was built and various citrus trees.
There is a watering system which was not functioning but the plumber fixed it last month. The system waters assorted bougainvillaea, jasmines, plumbagoes, oleanders and things whose name I don't know.
Deb has a large collection of cacti and succulents, mostly in pots, they get moved up onto terrace as they come into bloom. There are assorted aloes and agaves, some of them of the ferox type, they live outside the wall.
The fruit trees are under planted, mostly with indigenous bulbs and orchids, most of the latter were rescued from building sites. There are lots of anemones, they are endemic here. Obviously they only bloom in spring.
The acacia outside the front gate was severely lopped yesterday, the car was in danger of splitting branches

The Sternbergias have yet to emerge, they are late but it has been v hot. A new fig tree has been planted, the last one did not survive the water shortage.

Moira

Stop Press, one Sternbegia has flowered

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:01 pm

it sounds lovely. You grow herbs too?

How easy is it to grow stereo-typical mediterranean veg? I imagine that while the sunshine is perfect, the watering might be an issue. (During the heatwave here, I was having to fill up each 30l tanks (4 tomato plants) every day - doubltess quite a bit of this was evaporation though, and things are, of course, better off in the ground.)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Hope » Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:55 pm

It stopped raining long enough this morning for me to do some actual work in the garden. planted out some of my seedling veg, potted on some others. Pulled out a courgette plant that had finished. I've got some new compost (dalefoot) which is about 3 times the price of normal compost, but everything is growing about 10 times better. I did some comparison sowings. Well worth the extra money. Still picking green beans, about 200g every 2-3 days or so.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Mon Oct 05, 2020 8:26 pm

Will look out for that, Hope. I had no choice re compost for most of this year. Some of it was like dust :( But I was lucky to get any (and only did because I bulk bought for home dleivery.)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Badger's Mate » Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:58 pm

Dalefoot compost seems to divide opinion. Mrs B has had good results with it in tubs and baskets. Various people at my gardening club think it's rubbish. I understand that it holds water very well due to the wool content and there's a risk of overwatering. Avoid that and it's very good.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby mistakened » Tue Oct 06, 2020 7:32 am

herbidacious wrote:it sounds lovely. You grow herbs too?

We grow herbs both in troughs and in the garden although there is trouble with thyme which is odd as it grows wild here. We give away dried oregano.
No vegetables, the soil is very thin and poor, it was only ever used for grazing goats. Luckily the local vegetables are excellent.

The sternbergias are popping up

Moira

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