The gardening thread
- Thread starter ringo
- Start date
Wolveryeti
Detty Pig
Ages ago I found a discarded roasting tin outside someone's house. The depth makes it perfect as a leek seed bed. These have been indoors for 10 days; now they are going out on the patio. Leeks like room temperature to germinate, but once sprouted they are very tolerant of cold.
I will leave them to grow on the patio til July or so, when they will follow my second early Charlottes in the ground.
I will leave them to grow on the patio til July or so, when they will follow my second early Charlottes in the ground.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
First outdoor bit of gardening of the year for me.
Planted a bit of jasmine that was reduced to £1 in Tesco.
First use of homemade compost - put it around some under-performing rhubarb.
Sowed some butterfly flower seed in a trough that nettles have found their way into. I'm keeping the nettles too, as don't have any in the rest of the garden & good for wildlife!
Planted a bit of jasmine that was reduced to £1 in Tesco.
First use of homemade compost - put it around some under-performing rhubarb.
Sowed some butterfly flower seed in a trough that nettles have found their way into. I'm keeping the nettles too, as don't have any in the rest of the garden & good for wildlife!
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
My veg patch is busy at the moment
I have been feeling so despondent about the allotment, I have been thinking the unthinkable and considering giving it up. Mostly because there is a new council worker who loves to throw his weight around, especially regarding what we grow and how we get rid of our woody waste. After over 20odd years, I have been told I must now only grow 'produce' and cannot burn my woody waste. Been told I have to take it home (where the green bins are emptied every 4 weeks) or to drive to the council tip. I have been through a really stressful few months, dealing with illness, evictions and broken hearts and just felt I was not up to any extra struggle. However, after a hard day of toil, I find I am not inclined to simply give up without a fight...and actually, I have law on my side, allowing me to burn arisings on open land between November and April and in a garden incinerator over the summer months. And checking my allotment lease, I see that I am totally allowed to grow as many flowers as I like. Course, the owners of the 'luxury' flats overlooking the site may have complaints but they can go and fuck themselves. Bring it on.
Idaho
blah blah blah
Rhubarb, onions and garlic have overwintered beautifully. The broad beans much less so. Probably won't bother planting them now - the blackfly are bad here and you have to steal a march on them.
The black tarp with the wire mesh below is me trying to get my mange tout germinated quickly and protected from the cheeky mouse that loves peas.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Really miss growing rhubarb over here
Callie
Pivoting
Not my garden but I saw an interesting tree today. It was in a street lined with quite tall silver birch. But this one was rough. Really really rough!! I thought maybe it was diseased but now I think it might be a black birch! Anyone good at tree ID? 
Bonus cat who was trying to break into the work canteen
Bonus cat who was trying to break into the work canteen
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
Grafted my arse off telling my wife how to put concrete footings in for the arrival of her new greenhouse tomorrow.
In the morning I'm going to teach her to lay brick and put a screed floor in. All from the comfort of my hammock.
Can't wait to have a greenhouse
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I am very gladdened to know you won't give in, but struggle and fight and keep on.
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
I gave mine up about 6 years ago because of the petty politics of the allotment. I was going to move house at some point so it was inevitable but I'd really had enough of some of the Tarquins that had plots on my allotment. I buried a bath to make a small pond for wildlife and someone complained because his children could fall in it and die. My response was if his kids were wandering around the allotments unsupervised there was a problem with his parenting not my plot. I had two hand operations in 18 months and the local gestapo on plot 11 complained that my plum trees had been left unpicked and my plot was becoming unkempt even though I was down there most days fighting the mares-tail and still pulling in a good variety of veg. In the end I turned my plot over to the lad next door who was a good egg but equally harassed by the cheshire set strasi. I miss the space but I don't miss the rules and the bickering of retired people who have nothing else in their day to worry about.
Thankfully we've got all the space we need now at home.
Don't give up chuck. Give it back
Allotments... Every pest, problem, disease and the worst of the weather batters them but a few hours on a day like today - nobody else around, the soil just dry enough not to stick to your fork and every bit of flora and fauna keen to make their presence known - makes them a real tonic.
I'm not sure there's much by way of bickering at our site. It's rare to actually see anyone between September and May.
I'm not sure there's much by way of bickering at our site. It's rare to actually see anyone between September and May.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Hold on, that means nobody's there weeding and cleaning up the site. I'd complain
The site fairies are all retired and do it in the week when self-respecting folk are at work. Either that or they've signed a demonic accord with Gaia... but I'd guess the former.Hold on, that means nobody's there weeding and cleaning up the site. I'd complain
Good call, Callie. I have a trio of river birch on the damp edge of the wood, next to an alder grove (put in with some outlandish idea of recreating some medieval building platform). Mine are still looking fairly reddish, but that rough, peeling bark is so distinctive. I have seen them grown in quite a few urban environments which always surprises me cos they do love the damp soil of reedbeds. In a few more generations, I think these are likely to be our only birches, tbh as there just isn't enough winter chilling time for our silver birches to survive (climate change).Not my garden but I saw an interesting tree today. It was in a street lined with quite tall silver birch. But this one was rough. Really really rough!! I thought maybe it was diseased but now I think it might be a black birch! Anyone good at tree ID? View attachment 367333View attachment 367334View attachment 367335View attachment 367336
Bonus cat who was trying to break into the work canteen
A greenhouse! Mine takes up a whole third of my home garden (10 x14ft). I bloody love it. Mine has a brick floor, laid on sand, so tiny ferns, poppies and mexican daisies pop up along the edge of the concrete footings and brick pavings. It is full all winter with seedlings and tender perennials, while in summer, I grow tomatoes (and other non-legal plants). The best thing ever. Enjoy yours.View attachment 367338
Grafted my arse off telling my wife how to put concrete footings in for the arrival of her new greenhouse tomorrow.
In the morning I'm going to teach her to lay brick and put a screed floor in. All from the comfort of my hammock.
Can't wait to have a greenhouse
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
Insulation and concrete tomorrow.
It's only 12 x 6 but it will be fine for both our requirements. Gonna tile the inside.
It's only 12 x 6 but it will be fine for both our requirements. Gonna tile the inside.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
Can anyone recommend a mini-greenhouse that is weighty and won't get destroyed by strong winds?
This sort of thing:
This sort of thing:
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Good ones seem to cost a fortune. Flimsy ones abound.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Another warmish day and more work to be done. Cut the lawn for the first time this year. It's looking ok. I think getting the thatch out last autumn will have helped it. I have ordered some high nitrogen fertiliser for it.
Sowed wild flower seeds around my compost bins.
Got the pressure washer out and did the front (it's paved with brick beds). The Lavender plants all seemed to have died. All grey and no sign of green, a mystery. Cleaned a bit of the neighbours front garden, paths and step.
Sowed wild flower seeds around my compost bins.
Got the pressure washer out and did the front (it's paved with brick beds). The Lavender plants all seemed to have died. All grey and no sign of green, a mystery. Cleaned a bit of the neighbours front garden, paths and step.
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
You got chickens dude?
I finished the base yesterday thanks to Finn Larden who came over and barrowed all the sand and gravel from the front gate to the mixer for me. He's been working in the roofing trade since he left school and it's clear that he's developed a bit of a "Let's get it done" ethic that he never had as a teen. Very impressed with his output.
Greenhouse is supposed to arrive tomorrow.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Did you really delegate the hard work to your wife under the guise of training?
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
and my son. They like to impress me so it would be a shame not to encourage them.
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
We've had two. In the end I built a cold frame as that's all the small one's are good for really. A cold frame is really easy to make
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
Those youngsters hey!ooo I wouldn't be measuring to the inch, my chippie who was proper pro measures to the mm
When I was on my YTS Bricklaying course I turned up on site with my Dad after a couple of weeks of my day release at collage and one of the old wiry Scouse trowels said he'd let me work on a manhole.
He gave me an old trowel and showed me how to set it out and said he'd come back to check it was square once I had the first course down. Getting cocky I said "Do you want 10 mill beds and 10mill perbs on it?" to which he replied
"Take that hod son and load your dad up with brick and come back later when you've stopped talking funny"
At tea break I got the piss ripped out of me for talking all metric. I didn't see the funny side of it and had a bottom lip out all day.
The following day I came into work and there was a tool bag on the brew table and said wiry Scouse brickie said "Right Metric, grab your tools and leave your brain behind. It's time to learn".
They'd all clubbed in and got me a Spear and Jackson trowel, a Stabila level, a brickhammer and a set of line and pins and an army surplus canvas bag. I never mentioned millimetres on a building site again.
Last edited:
Similar threads
