How does your garden grow?

[Onoff]

As I'm filling the trench / clearing the ground I'm pulling up this ground ivy. There's masses of it. Usually you grab a bit and a 6' long tendril comes up. However bits of it are breaking off and a good number of bits I'm sure have gone into the trench. I'm worried these will re-seed and grow in my new veg patch. Am I right to worry?

[saveasteading]

11 hours ago, Onoff said:

Flints anyone?

They keep the cats off your beans if applied appropriately.

 

Try some beans straight in the ground and some on the windowsill, either in compost (no peat) or just on wet kitchen paper.

If you can get them started quickly then you get a longer cropping period...but sometimes they rot indoors rather than germinate.

Then report back please, as the nation is watching.

[Onoff]

I tell you what, I reckon this gardening lark is good for mental health. I read somewhere about doctors prescribing it for such.

Must admit after a day of filling the trench, sorting stones, breathing in "dirt" etc I felt quite chipper yesterday. 

 

I want to "ring fence" the veg plot. I need it defined by a boundary to give me something to focus on.

 

8"x4" sleepers would be the ideal but that's out on cost. I wonder if treated scaffold boards, on edge would work? 

 

I need something anyway to clip my twin wire, electric snail deterrent to and the eventual frame that's going to go over the whole area. 

[SteamyTea]

25 minutes ago, Onoff said:

I tell you what, I reckon this gardening lark is good for mental health. I read somewhere about doctors prescribing it for such.

You sure

 

 

[Onoff]

52 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

You sure

 

 

 

Nah, got to be The Goodies and the Beanstalk for me.

[SteamyTea]

 

[joe90]

I have found gardening Very good for mental health. I built raised beds using scaffold planks as ours is heavy clay, yet to sow seeds tho 😳

 

[Onoff]

Definitely good for the soul this gardening lark. Bloody hard work hand raking the soil back in that the digger took out!

I've a couple of jumbo bags of flints I've taken out. Nearly there.

The site of the patch is on a bit of a slope and that offends me a bit. I think some of this is about control, or at least controlling what I can in life. A shrink would have a field day  As I want to build a box section frame over it I think square and level is best.

Rough plan is to surround the patch in sleepers but have them set level. Not sure if I've enough like the one shown, might have to dismantle the play pit that's made from them. SWMBO I think has this mad idea that one day she'll have grandkids playing in the same sandpit, with the same (now brittle) toys ours did. Some chance, one rarely goes out and I think the other bats for the other side!

I'm thinking the sleeper set a walkway's width from the trench. Not sure whether to set the tubular bean frame in the dirt or place the 6 legs on some sort of padstones? Basically an A frame, one side shown missing the two end verticals.

 

 

 

Will beans grow up "wires" like conduit singles?

Wondering how SWMBO will react if I ask for an expensive hoe for my birthday?

[ProDave]

In March, when we had summer, we lawn raked the larger part of our garden.  We now have patches of that where is is at least 50% earth showing between the blades of grass now the moss has gone.  When summer comes back we will be re seeding that bit and lawn raking the other part of the lawn.

 

It seems to be an ongoing job every year or 2 otherwise it would all turn to unmowable moss.  Surely someone must have invented a better way to stop moss growing in a lawn or an easier way to remove it that does not strip the "lawn" bare?

[SteamyTea]

[joe90]

41 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Wondering how SWMBO will react if I ask for an expensive hoe for my birthday?

Nah, get a machine in like I did 🤣🤣🤣

[ProDave]

53 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Nah, get a machine in like I did 🤣🤣🤣

Bought yourself a new tractor?

[joe90]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Bought yourself a new tractor?

No, got a neighbour (contractor) to do it, half an acre took less than an hour and he charged me £60, well worth it 👍

[saveasteading]

8 hours ago, Onoff said:

Will beans grow up "wires" like conduit singles

Wes they will grow up anything. When small they sometimes need small canes or twigs or string to grab hold of. When bigger they wind around  anything and also cling together.

Conduits, threaded rod, reinforcing bar are all good, especially as they need to be well into the ground for stability. then wind some horizontals in, using cane or sticks.

If you have a line of beans they act like a sail, so guy ropes may be advisable too.

 

Meanwhile have you planted any beans in pots, so that they are ready to be planted in their new bed.?

[Onoff]

17 hours ago, saveasteading said:

If you have a line of beans they act like a sail, so guy ropes may be advisable too.

 

Meanwhile have you planted any beans in pots, so that they are ready to be planted in their new bed.?

 

Cheers, good advice and I need all the help I can get. Complete newbie at this. 

 

Finally a use for these pvc pipe off cuts and the red will match the bean flowers!

A bit of pea shingle in the bottom to set them level (with the post and spirit levels). I put a disc of landscape fabric down each then backfill with flints. Might top off with another bit of fabric and smidge of pea shingle for effect. Hopefully the frame will then sit dead level. Appreciate the advice ref the sail. I'll either guy them or anchor in some way to the eventual netted, box section frame that'll go over the top of the whole patch. 

 

 

 

 

These are the seeds I have:

 

 

Will plant in pots today/tomorrow. Any tips, inside/outside, under glass etc?

[SteamyTea]

39 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Any tips

Slug pellets.

[Ferdinand]

On 10/04/2022 at 23:10, Onoff said:

As I'm filling the trench / clearing the ground I'm pulling up this ground ivy. There's masses of it. Usually you grab a bit and a 6' long tendril comes up. However bits of it are breaking off and a good number of bits I'm sure have gone into the trench. I'm worried these will re-seed and grow in my new veg patch. Am I right to worry?

 

Yes.

[Ferdinand]

13 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Slug pellets.

 

Banned as of 1 April 2022, I'm afraid.

 

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/homes-interiors/gardens/a39606324/slug-pellets-banned-uk/

 

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Banned as of 1 April 2022, I'm afraid

Yes, why I suggest people stock up.

[Ferdinand]

On 21/03/2022 at 13:48, Onoff said:

Very roughly below, the red lines show the plot front and side boundaries. The yellow line the approx bean trench which will run north east to south west. North to south which I understand is the ideal would offend my sense of symmetry! Saying that the feng shui may be better...

 

 

Catching up.

 

If you put a Feng Shoooey chap in that lot, he would come back like one of these lost Japanese Officers from WW2 in the jungle in 3 decades' time.

[Ferdinand]

On 21/03/2022 at 11:39, saveasteading said:

I will try that dough idea. otherwise I have to stick with the sacrificial lettuce plan.

the slugs come out at night and crawl all over the lettuce, in full view, including tiny ones, and they are easy to remove by torchlight. after a week there are few left...for a while.

 

I read that slugs will not crawl (?) over sheeps' wool due to barbs in the surface. this was in an advert for expensive wool pellets.

As a whole fleece sells for about £3 it would be handy if farmers could provide the garden market and perhaps get more.

 

Also, the principle of intermingling the veg and flowers (not all carrots in one spot etc) works quite well, and marigolds/ citronella/ herbs can disguise the scents that pests home in on.

 

 

I scatter crushed heggshells on the top of hosta-pots to keep slugs away.

 

If you need a big batch, then buy a lot of heggs (perhaps 2 or 3 trays), and lightly mix them together in say 3s (to make an omelette or scrambled heggs) for the freezer. Then your heggs store in a much smaller place - perhaps 1.5-2 dozen in a margarine pot - and you get pre-portioned heggs and less clutter.

 

Works for me.

[Onoff]

47 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Slug pellets.

 

Not happening. Too many friendly critters here. Slow worms, hedgehogs, toads etc. 

[saveasteading]

4 hours ago, Onoff said:

inside/outside, under glass etc?

My indoor ones have rotted, so now have some in the greenhouse. After 4 days, nothing yet.

I think straight in the ground now, esp in the Costa Thames Estuary area.

 

Ruthless gardeners plant 2 beans together and cull the weaker one (if there are 2 that sprout).

It seems like drowning the spare kitten so I tend not to.

 

But outdoors they will attract slugs, rabbits  etc until they are about 6 metric  inches high.

So pots  is still worth a try, or try both and become an expert.

 

[SteamyTea]

Get 75 years of advice in 45 minutes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001638f

[Onoff]

The frame is up where it's staying (wind dependent, I will guy rope it). Not quite as square as I'd like looking end on but the ridge is pretty level. Might revisit the squareness.

Covered the trench in some Correx sheets to keep everything warm and moist. Figured it should speed up the layers of grass cuttings etc in there rotting a bit quicker.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Onoff