The gardening thread
- Thread starter ringo
- Start date
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I like the creativity.Might be easier to leave the compost bags where they are and plant the veg straight into there. Also frees up more of the allotment for other things
The rain has stopped. Big spliff then more work. I want to get this done so I can crack on clearing and cleaning.
Idaho
blah blah blah
Allotment day. Mixed blustery sunshine and showers in the South West. First job was some shanty town carpentry to fix my shed. The wind had ripped all the panels and almost turned it all inside out.
Halfway through planting the spuds, listening to the cricket... And there's a downpour. Luckily I have a fixed shed!
Seeing as I'm here, I may as well have a pipe and get the coffee brewing.
Halfway through planting the spuds, listening to the cricket... And there's a downpour. Luckily I have a fixed shed!
Seeing as I'm here, I may as well have a pipe and get the coffee brewing.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Good idea. My partner has two laundry racks and one is flimsy and trapped my fingers once.I'm using a laundry rack that someone left by a bin as support for one of the pea varieties I'm growing this year
Funky_monks
Neo-Rustic
Spuds, eh?
I'm too worried about frosts still to get mine in.
I've got calibrese shooting spears all over the place after the heads got rot in Jan, purple sprouting is zooming up, early peas are 6ins and growing....
Idaho
blah blah blah
With good
With good reason to there's a frost forecast in a week or so here! Although if that's the last one, then the timing is perfect. They won't have poked out the ground by then. Also spuds you can cover and they are fine I'm more concerned about my carrots and peas. But I can cover them too if needed.
Funky_monks
Neo-Rustic
You can fleece the carrots, peas might be Ok depending on variety.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I thought of you as I dragged my sorry self back to it at half two and cracked on ‘till six.I'm not nagging
Honest!
The thought of rain sodden compost, all my own fault etc was enough.
It’s nice though this morning to see how much I got done and I’m patting my own back for cleaning up thoroughly after.
I think I will have to net the beds initially because of mass feline frolicking being observed.
Leafster
.
Looking good! I don't have problems with cats (anymore) but the foxes and badgers like to dig holes in my raised beds. Chicken wire seems to be best over newly sown beds. If anything is growing, I've got some aluminium tubing (for fruit cages) which I've cut to size and then put enviro-mesh (?) or regular fruit cage netting over. If the any of the beds are going to be inactive for a while I just lay old paving slabs over them. This stops the foxes and badgers but also suppresses the weeds.I thought of you as I dragged my sorry self back to it at half two and cracked on ‘till six.
The thought of rain sodden compost, all my own fault etc was enough.
It’s nice though this morning to see how much I got done and I’m patting my own back for cleaning up thoroughly after.
I think I will have to net the beds initially because of mass feline frolicking being observed.
View attachment 260504
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I have been removing carpet and shite and huge lumps of rubble. I now have an impressive boulder pile and a big stack of london yellow stock bricks.
The back beds once removed of this crap were a seething mass of perennial weed roots.
Apparently this is Japanese bind weed. I have removed as much as I can and watered heavily. Let it all grow so I can kill it.
The raised beds got lots planted today too. Peas and carrots and garlic and French beans and spinach and leeks and salads and stuff I have forgotten already.
Thinking about a pond but have given up on ducks for the moment.
Lovely sunny day and beer o clock.
The back beds once removed of this crap were a seething mass of perennial weed roots.
Apparently this is Japanese bind weed. I have removed as much as I can and watered heavily. Let it all grow so I can kill it.
The raised beds got lots planted today too. Peas and carrots and garlic and French beans and spinach and leeks and salads and stuff I have forgotten already.
Thinking about a pond but have given up on ducks for the moment.
Lovely sunny day and beer o clock.
davesgcr
Reading books
Very well done Sir - bindweed is (from bitter experience - best dealt with just digging it out as best you can - even a 1 inch bit of root will come back to life - so keep plugging away) - bin or burn it as it does not compost down)
Yellow stock bricks - bound to be a good market , if you can bear the work - boring but slightly satisfying - try and clean them up a bit , knocking off the cement or mortar. Excellent recycling in practice.
Starting to look like I'm growing something other than mypex and bits of bamboo cane stuck in the ground to mark where things will be, now. Transplanted rhubarb is doing well. Lots more seeds to sow tomorrow and another row of potatoes to go in somewhere, and strawberries should be delivered this week. Entire plot seems to be full of fucking ant nests atm though.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Very tidy.Starting to look like I'm growing something other than mypex and bits of bamboo cane stuck in the ground to mark where things will be, now. Transplanted rhubarb is doing well. Lots more seeds to sow tomorrow and another row of potatoes to go in somewhere, and strawberries should be delivered this week. Entire plot seems to be full of fucking ant nests atm though.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
I have given up on Beans this year because of the cunts.
I won't be putting my spuds in for another 3 weeks. My allotment is a little frost pocket and any tops always get nipped, so I don't want any potato leaves appearing above ground until end of May...but I only grow second earlies. First tomato seedlings poking up in the greenhouse, along with almost daily germinations (it was phacelia and scabious ochraleuca today). Nicotianas seem to have ensconced themselves in every bloody pot.
I love this time of the year. I can almost feel the intense energies, sparking all over the garden. The lilies grew 2inches in a day. Germinations are a daily joy (although this will change once the pricking out, potting up, potting on, game starts in earnest. I already pricked out cornflowers, agastache and hyssop, this week, and have now run out of 7cm pots. I am going to buy 500 from LSB. Happy days - t can front the daily germinations with a stash of clean, shiny pots. Tagetes, potentillas and the first tentative persicaria (for making indigo) are up today.
My local houseplant shop usually have a box of used 6-12cm pots out for people to take for free. Since they're only open for click & collect atm I'm hoping they'll have a load saved up and if I play the charity begging card (supported accomodation gardening group) they'll let me have them.
I'm a lazy gardener though, anything that can be direct sown is. Stuff that maybe shouldn't be often is too, in the hope it'll survive under various combinations of wool and glass and netting and bubblewrap and bottle cloches
I'm a lazy gardener though, anything that can be direct sown is. Stuff that maybe shouldn't be often is too, in the hope it'll survive under various combinations of wool and glass and netting and bubblewrap and bottle cloches
TopCat
Putin fanboy
They done my beans last year and the broad beans. Plus the shits fucked with my poppies.
I have not grown broad beans successfully for ten years because of aphid farming ants.
I have located a red ants nest and the more usual pest the blacks ants nest.
I may dig up one and dump it in the other. They really don’t get on. The smaller more vicious red ant will have my backing.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Has anyone got experience of automated irrigation systems? I never used them successfully back in the weed era but I see good lookin kit available for not much. I like the idea of a sensor detecting dryness and turning it all on.
I can just set up the sprinkler and stick that on a sensor perhaps? Thoughts?
I can just set up the sprinkler and stick that on a sensor perhaps? Thoughts?
Please come and explain to my allotment ants that they're supposed to be driving each other away, not happily living side-by-side
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Oh dear. If they have formed an alliance you could be in trouble.Please come and explain to my allotment ants that they're supposed to be driving each other away, not happily living side-by-side
This summer's gonna be like that crappy b movie where an island gets taken over by giant super intelligent ants I saw once isn't it
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