The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: rustyme on January 06, 2008, 08:51:40 pm
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My veggie plot is in total about 95'x95'. However not all of that will be used as yet . Digging ,what was just virgin field, is hard going to say the least. Over the whole area you only go down about 9" or so and you hit a layer of stone about another 9" or more deep. These days my digging ability is poor at best ,not sure if that is age (50) as well as all the broken bones getting their own back. But I have dug an area about 70' x 25' , or so ,for veg and another section about 40'x 10' for willow growing. These will be the stock I will use to grow for cuttings to plant in the main willow area ,along the track, an area some 160 yards x 12 yards .There would have been many more growing but my horses ate 5 buckets full of cuttings and the rabbits must have eaten at least as many again.
Another area dug is the comfrey bed . This has about 50 2 year old plants in . I have about the same as rooted cuttings, starting to sprout now , ready to go in the next section yet to be dug .My back hurts already.....The full grown plants will provide hundreds of cuttings this year , so the comfrey bed should be huge by the end of this year. They all started from just five root cuttings of bocking 14, from chase organics. I did have about 200 more at one time , but cows got in and ate the lot , compost and all.....1 step forward and about 10 back is the norm with me.
Last year (2007) was a forget year for veg . I sowed god knows how many times, only to get them washed away by heavy rain. That that did grow was eaten by bunnies slugs ,millions of them, or just succumed to the wet weather. What a year !!!!!. I have however grown enough veg to cover all my eating needs for over 3 years. That inlcludes all potatoes , onions, garlic, salad stuff,peas and runner beans ( I prefer french dwarf now). Cabbages and the like have been really hard work , only got one or two ...the rest went to you know what...I now have 3 sides of the plot protected with rabbit wire and the rest ready to go up now. So this year should be a bit better, weather permitting. The whole veg area needs clearing again this year , but as it has been dug for a few years now , it is easy to do . So I will be just doing as much clearing as possible, when I can get on the plot .
So, I am ready for this year and have loads of seeds waiting to be sown . I really want to get a load of mangels going , as the ones that I have grown got to huge sizes 15-20lbs each. That would give plenty of food for animals, only need 120 or so for a ton of feed. I also want to sow some strips of grain ,10'x 50', to supply the seed to grow straw for the house roof....and surplus seed for poultry feed and the like. As usual , some things will work and others will fail . But it is always fun finding out which ones will be which?
I also have a few large Jerusalem Artichokes ready to plant now. They make a nice change from spuds, plus piggies like them too , so I have read? Nothing should go to waste ,either animals get anything I don't eat or it goes on the compost heap . I really want to sow a patch of sunflowers to. They will be mainly for oil , but they are nice lightly roasted too.
What is everyone else getting ready to do this year?
cheers
Russ
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Very interesting plot you have there. In Dorset (small back garden) we have a few deep beds which did very well last year (except I didn't get the nets on in time to stop caterpillers!). But, as posted elsewhere, we are moving to a much larger plot in Brittany later this year. We have a lot of work to do on the house so don't plan to grow anything except hay this year. This is a shame but it will allow us to observe the site through the summer so that we can be better prepared for spring 2009! I plan to grow all the usual veg plus a decent range of fruit. I'm keen to grow fodder crops for animals and green manure crops but have to do much research first! We have about 5 acres of gently sloping pasture with chestnut and hazels - I hope to plant Willow also but again have no experience with them (I'll be interested in your progress). I plan to make raised beds for the veg and a large fruit cage as well as a poly tunnel. A Larger area for potatoes, corn and grain also. Blimey! It's exhausting just thinking about it! Think I'll get the kettle on!
Keep us posted on your progress
Liz
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Wow,i can only dream of a veggie plot like that!I have never grown anything before and really have no idea where to start!What i need is a plan.lol.Help.
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Hello Natasha,
if you really want to grow veg but are a bit daunted by all the work , just start a very small patch at first. A patch 3'x3' will do . You could grow real easy stuff like radishes,spring onions, lettuce and beetroot and maybe one or two new potatoes and a few french beans. All very simple and once they are ready you have the best part of a salad ....Once you have the first 3'x3' dug and sowed you can do a bit more as and when you want or feel upto it. The main thing to remember is don't fiddle with the stuff. Sow it, water it when needed ,and keep it clear of weeds and slugs etc. You can do the same sort of thing in pots or tubs, but you would have to get lots of compost or soil to fill them ...unless you live in a flat why bother? just dig a patch of ground. It really is very simple and easy on such a small scale , hardly any hard work at all . While your STUFF is growing try to make some compost too ....once again very simple , nature does nearly all the work for you . Once the compost is ready it will feed the plants you are growing, just place it on the soil surface and gently dig in .
Cheers
Russ
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I only have a small front garden and lots of pots in the back to work on. recently this has changed as we have been allowed to uses the side bit next the the house (i like in an end of terrace council property)
linz
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Hi, thanks for your ideas.I think i am a bit daunted by it all.I want to grow everything! and have the space now i live in Shetland but have only really grown salad in tubs when i lived in Bedfordshire.Your spot on with starting small but i will have to hold myself back as i feel the need to run before i can walk.lol.Sometime in Feb/March i am going to invest in a polytunnel as the weather up here is varied to say the least.That's when i shall make a plan of what i can fit into it.Hopefully there won't be too many problems.Has anyone worked out how much money each year they spend on fruit/veg etc?I did and its nearly £2000 a year and that was a conservative estimate!!![i have a large family]I am hoping to cut that down by half at least over the next year or two.Speak soon.
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i have a large family]I am hoping to cut that down by half at least over the next year or two.Speak soon.
OMG !!!!!! Sweeney Todd style ? or just starve them to death ? I have heard of making cut backs but blimey ....a bit drastic....lol....yes I do know what you mean really....lots of money goes on food , and as a nation a lot of the food we buy goes in the bin ...I think it is about a third gets chucked, I wonder how much the big super markets chuck ? Growing your own can cut your bill back to just about nothing . You can even get your own salt if you live by the sea...mind you if you are anywhere near Doonray the resulting salt would most likely glow in the dark...
cheers
Russ
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hehe keep us posted on how you get on. To keep you motivated you can always start a planting diary or an online blog. I have foudn it really helps for me it just the weather got the better of me. so i had to stop with the gardenning, thats the prob with living northwards
linz
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rustyme: I wonder how much the big super markets chuck ?
when i was studying at college i worked part time in the local morrisons (formaly safeway!) the stores bins were stored in the warehouse and kept under lock and key! only the store manager had the key and authorisation to throw food away! if any packets split, tins dented etc they were selotaped back together reduced by a couple of pence and put back onto the shelves! a good company money saving practice i suppose but i felt it was all very un-hygenic esp if things had been on the floor or left for days before being selotaped (unhygenic in itself!) all fresh fruit and veg mainly came in on a daily basis and was religously rotated, if any was going to go out of date it was reduced and placed on the till ends and always got snapped up! if anything had gone say one or two days out of date like a tin of beans, some muchrooms etc these would be used up in the staff canteen! when the store was safeway the bins would overflow with bags stacked up next to them when morrisons took over and their practices were fully in place i cant rember the bins ever being completley full even once! i dont know what the others are like on waste but i would imagine they all have similar rules!
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Hello Stephen,
nice to hear that at least one store tried to keep waste down to a minimum. However, I bought my land from some 'new age travelers' and they used to travel the country getting all their food from supermarket skips. They said that they would go round all of the stores in groups and wait for the out of date stuff to get binned and would then dive in . Now if I were starving I would no doubt do the same ...but ...yuk...I really would have to be starving .They said that they hardly ever had to buy anything, the only thing was they had no choice over what they were going to eat .They did that out of choice though , most of their money going on drugs and booze, but since then I did make a point of looking to see how big (and full) the bins behind bigger stores are. I didn't go round jumping over wall etc. just look from car parks and the like. Things may well have changed lately, as I haven't looked for some time. It would be nice to think that they waste very little , but somehow I doubt it ? The waste in fresh food ie veg and fruit, is well known . They only want perfect shapes etc. I hope that has changed lately too.
cheers
Russ
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We asked our local Tesco if we could have waste fruit and veg for the pigs, but were refused. Shame, really.
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we used to get asked if people could have out of date things for animals (normally bread for ducks!) but due to health and saftey laws etc the stores legally can not give it to you if it is out of date! they have no protection if you were to eat it and become ill! i agree with you rosemary i think its a shame if its for animals, waste could be dramatically reduced and it would make big supermarkets alot greener if they recycled waste produce like that but unfortunatley they cant! :)
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Not sure if it applies all over France, but in our area, we can go to any boulangerie or depot de pain and buy stale bread for the animals. A huge sack usually costs around 3 euros. the animals love it. In our supermarket they also have a large basket of fruit and veg and salad which has 'gone over' which they sell for cents which is great for the rabbits and pigs. Last season I bought huge trays of over ripe apricots, plums and grapes for 1 euro each and made jam, and the same in tomatoes and made chutney and peppers also which I pickled.
Meat goes right to date at a reduced price as do cakes etc and they sell them off for silly money.
It is being in the right place at the right time usually, but it can be very cost effective.
Different stores seem to do things differently - some do the sacks of bread but don't do the fruit and veg and visa versa. I think it must depend on the view of the store manager. All good stuff for the consumer though and no waste!
Kate
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just a thought rosemary... kates email made me think! try the local greengrocers, one of our neices used to work in one and her boss had no problem her giving us trays of out of date / bruised fruit and veg for the animals for i think £1 a tray or something close to that! the geese we had at the time always seemed to love it the most! :)
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We have a veg market once a week in Newcastle Emlyn, I get a lot of very cheap pony apples, sacks of carrots that supermarkets dont want (not straight) and veg for my pigs and hens there, So if you have a local market try that
Tony
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That's a good idea - why didn't I think of that? We have a market on Thusrady - it's full of crappy stuff, but there are fruit and veg stalls. Once we get our new piggies, I'll try that. Result!
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while in wales i found loads of 'small' shops selling the sack of carrots very cheaply all found the tatties very cheap in the sacks down there with beon the hunt up here too.
I don't think their is a fruit/veg stall in alloa on a thursday or even a greengroucers in alloa. I do now they did do a fruit bara in tullibody on a thursday, not sure if they sell veg though
linz
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Yup, definitely a fruit and veg stall at the Thursday market. Bags it's mine!
Rosemary
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hehe
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For 3 days now we have had lovely weather . Yesterday I was able to dig a few feet of the veggie plot over, and today I got a big( ish ) chunk dug over. I have to take things steady as I have a duff shoulder and back, so I will just carry on doing as much as I can while we have the dry weather. It really feels good getting things back into shape after so long . My aim is to have the lot dug and cleared by the end of the month ????? Seeing an area 20'x6'ish all turned and cleared is a real boost to my enthusiasm , only another 1400 square feet to go .....I need the boost....
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hip hip horay lol
I was think of 'digging' this week
but didn't happen as i got rushed to hospital with adomain pain.
Still not sure what it is waiting to see doctors but hospital said it is most prob an infection 'LOVELY'
so all i can do at the moment is look at the weeds and will them to go away
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Oh Linz, poor you.....hope you're up and about and raring to go very soon......the veggie plot/pots are beconning. :)
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there are lots of bugs going round at the moment, hope yours is just one of them and soon goes away Linz...I had one a few weeks ago ....
I tried the wishing weeds away thing too...it didn't work !!!! It is at times like this that I wish I could just spray the lot and be done with them all ..... but I do it all without chemicals, that just leaves elbow grease....perhaps someone has some of that going spare ? wish I did!!
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/me sends elbow grease and weed remove willing to rustyme
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lol....many thanks ....much needed and appreciated , every little bit helps....as soon as you are ready to hit the plot your end, I will send some back to you .......
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I have no idea when that will be, have probs bending even to pick stuff up of the floor, not great for a 27 year old lol.
Today i am felling really old 1st time out of pj since saturday so not doing to bad.
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I feel old every day...( maybe thats because I am ? ) but there is no point in rushing Linz !!! take your time and get well before you hit the plot. It took me years to learn to take things easy ...but I got there in the end. Mind you there is no choice but to get out and carry on , the horses and dogs can't feed themselves....well the horses can later on ...but no grass at the moment. Oh the joys of being a smallholder...... ;D Woudn't want it any other way really....
Russ
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still good weather here in Wales today ! It was about 17 c again , for about the third day now. It isn't going to last though as it is set to go cloudy but much colder , down to about 6 or 7c over the next few days , roughly what it should be for this time of year. However I have been able to dig everyday , the shoulder and back have held up well so far . I still have to de-weed, and get all the grassy bits out of it at the moment , but that is much easier to do ,( than digging ! ) , although it can be a more long winded proccess , as you all know.... ::) It has been sooooo nice not to be walking about knee deep in mud !!!! I hope that at least some of you have had a bit of the lovely weather , and that you have been able to sort out all the winter damaged sheds and fences etc.... Oh well more digging tomorrow....
cheers
Russ
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I too am so glad that the weather has been good here in France for the past week, Yesterday we managed to put up some much needed fencing for the veggie plot - keep the dogs out ;) I can't stand that heavy feeling you get when all the mud sticks to your boots & then you lose them :P
Donna
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The last couple of days have been much colder !! The main thing though is it has stayed dry !!!!
I have managed to keep digging on the plot, although today I only got a bit about 18" x 18' dug . The reason for this was I had to dig a load of gravel out of the river, for the floor of my shed. I have to carry it in buckets for about 100 yards uphill in mud , so I can only do relatively small amounts. However it will only take a few days to get enough gravel to finish the floor , handy having a continual supply of gravel ,handy but hard work !!! lol. After I have finished the floor I can get back to digging the plot full time. They said on the weather that it was going to stay dry till the middle of next week at least..( with luck !! ), so I should be able to get the veggie plot dug completely. After that is done it will just be the digging of the sections for the grain . I measured them roughly today and they will be 8'x60', 4 of them . I also have to dig the ground for the comfrey plot !! , there is about 40'x15' of that left to dig. OMG !!!!! lots of digging left to do then ? The grain plots and the rest of the comfrey plot are all virgin ground too......so very hard work . At this time I can only hope I get it all done ...but at least the veggie plot will be up and running again . One more thing , I am now running out of digging tools .....the handles keep breaking .....I will have to make some new ones. Just one more job to add to the always ever increasing list .......
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But im sure you wouldnt have it any other way :D- i must admit i have now sent off for my cultivator- its neither the hard work nor the duff back which have led me to this decision but purely the time aspect , as we both work full time there are barely enough daylight hours at the mo to achieve the basic chores , and as we have all the veggie plot / fruit garden and the new 8 raised beds to dig - plus 8 trees to plant so i dont see us getting it done without a mechanical friend :D - although on a positive note i have now planted some first earlies in the polytunnel and made a new 4 tier strawberry growing table ;D
Good luck with the gravel Russ and look after that back!
Guy
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Well done, glad you managed to do some work
Linz
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cheers Linz,
I hope the bug/infection sorted itself out with you now?....
thanks Guy,
I hope everything goes well with the mechanical helper when it arrives ;) Working full time must make things a bit difficult to say the least. At least I can go out and do as much as I want when I want , well within reason anyway.
I got about the same amount of work done today as yesterday, so all still going along nicely so far . I have hit a patch ( on the veggie plot ) where I only dug down about 9" or 10" before, and at the bottom is a layer of large stones. They are from about the size of a fist upto very big ones...the largest I couldn't lift at all . It was about 3' x 2' x 1' , so very big indeed. Rather than go to all the effort of making a tripod and getting it out with a hoist , I just smashed it up with a lump hammer. That took forever , but made some good hardcore for the track. Digging the gravel is hard work ,as it is under 6" of fast flowing water and it is mixed with loads of big stones, house brick and breeze block size, so I can't just push the shovel in and get a good heap out .
The back has held up so far , fingers crossed it will stay ok for a while longer. I think the main danger at the moment is doing heavy work in the cold , very easy to pull a muscle.
Cheers
Russ
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cheers Linz,
I hope the bug/infection sorted itself out with you now?....
nope waiting for results but am doing stuff around the house aswell as being totally bored sitting on my @rse doing naught. Did go for a drive in the car yesterday and 'tried' to take some photos, 1st i had forgotten the memory car for camera then after coming back to get that and back out again the batteries died on me so gave up as i was getting cold too.
lol.
hubby did a bit yesterday and cleared the shed out for his workshop :) but we have discovered that it has a real bad leak in it so we'll have to get the council out the sort it.
but lots of wood came out of there that i can use for my raised beds.
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Good grief Russ - by the sound of your day , it almost makes me glad i was at work today ( almost but not quite! :D) those rocks sound a pain in the wotsit - but at least you have made some good out of it for the driveway - we had a visit from the inlaws today and were given loads of strawberry plants and raspberry canes- a nice surprise when i got home, so in celebration we cracked open a bottle of last years celery wine- :) and somehow everything seemed easy again :D
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blimey Linz, I really hope you get sorted out soon .....nothing worse than waiting for doctors results. Luckily ,so far , I have only had broken bones and such , and they are pretty much instant diagnosis...ie broken leg... try to stand on it ...you fall over....no need to wait for ever to find out what is wrong ...lol. I am glad that it is not just me that has days like you did though , with the camera and such....I do things like that all the time. Fingers crossed for you with the docs results though .....and I hope the council do the repairs on the shed before too long .
Rocks , rocks , rocks, I see them in my sleep now Guy!!!!. Years ago people had to commit murder to do time like I do it at the moment , well I think they had it a lot harder than me really !!!! ;D I can at least stop if I feel like it . Along the river I can look at the bank and see the line of rocks under the top soil, so it is over the whole of the land. Handy getting the strawberry plants and the raspberry canes , saves paying out money for them , something I have very little of ;D. Thats why I take cuttings of everything I can , buy one and take as many cuttings as possible .
More digging and gravel collecting tomorrow. I just hope that I don't hit too many huge rocks . All of the rock/stone that comes out of the plot, will now be going into the floor of the barn that I intend to put up very soon now, I need it for the hay in winter. It is funny how doing one job indirectly leads into another !
Oh well ..off to dream of rocks now .... Russ.
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We too are not over furnished in the currency stakes :D so we hope to take runners off the strawberries and raspberries this year to increase our plant numbers and yeilds in the years to come , whilst selling off the glut of fruit we are going to have (theres optomistic for you ;D) -
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whilst selling off the glut of fruit we are going to have (theres optomistic for you ) -
yes ...glass half full and all that ....always look on the bright side-----er, no thats a song !!.....
I have just managed to dig a couple of rows of the plot per day, for a few days now. Haven't been able to get gravel for the shed floor as I have had to collect and lay rocks on the track. It is only the bit at the end where I turn the 4x4 round.The heavy frost has totally killed it ,and where as before, when it was very muddy , it is now frozen solid apart from the top 1/4",so the car just slides sideways instead of doing my usual 33 point turn . All the rocks from the plot are going into the ruts/holes at the moment, I think I shall have to collect a load from the river too. The pain of all that is , I have to carry the rocks uphill from the plot to the track ,about 70 yards . I can assure you 2, full of stone, 3 gallon buckets , are very heavy.Years ago I would have done the trip in one go.....well not any more ...lol, I have to stop halfway and catch my breath for 1/2 a minute or so . The river is another 60 yards away , but at least that bit is flat.... When I first got the land the track was very rough , and it took over 200 wheel barrow loads to fill all the ruts and holes. All of that stone came mainly off the fields and out of the river. Last year nothing got done to the track , well this year I think I am going to have to get a big lorry load of gravel , the track is about 350 yards long ....lots of gravel...oh well off now to collect some more stone and do a bit of digging....
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keep going Russ - yer nearly there!! luckily i dont need to worry about the old 33 point turn!! ive got a little (verylittle) fiat - carbon footprint and all that. the only downside is i cant find a trailer small enough for me to pull ! so although i can fit feed , straw , piglets etc. in it - i cant take them to abbatoir so have to rely on others!!! sounds great to have yer own stream -We are desperate to get some land , we tried buying the field behind us at auction last year but it went for £73000!!! for 12 acres. ive asked all the farmers around us to sell me just half an acre - but no joy , it seems they use every square inch of thier 40 - 50 acres each - maily used to store rusting machinery or let to go to ruin ( really productive ::))fields , fields everywhere but not a plot for me! i'm sure that fate has a reason for us not being able to live our dream fully - that glass is quickly going from half full to bone dry :D
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(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/IMAG0006.jpg)
that is the river as it was just after the next door farmer reworked it , it is different to that now. It looks very small but in fact is about 10 foot or so wide. I am lucky to have it on the land as it has never dried up , so always water for the animals. I do have 2 springs on the land as well.
I know how you feel about getting some land , I was like that till 5 years ago when I got my little bit. Some land that looks like it is just left, is in fact set-aside , so farmer is getting paid to leave it that way. The other problem is access to land . Farmers don't want people too near them . Keep looking though a patch will pop up in the end somewhere, it did for me. 73,000 for 12 acres...phew.. I paid 8,000 for my almost 6 acres . Mind you I don't think I would get it for that now.....as for the glass , well just keep pouring, it will fill in the end mate...
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wow - that looks lovely Russ , 6 acres for £8,000!!! prices certainly have gone up. Youre absolutely right , the right thing will turn up at the right time - i am a firm believer in that. I sometimes forget how lucky i am to be able to do the things we do - not everyone can produce their own fruit / veg meat and eggs out of their back garden ;D - that thar glass is filling as we speak (talking of which - i think ill open a bottle of celery 2007) - a vintage year , cheers
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(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20shed%20going%20up/th_IMAG0057.jpg) (http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20shed%20going%20up/?action=view¤t=IMAG0057.flv)
the above should take you to a short video of the land , you should be able to see all the other videos and pics of the land on there too. It was the wrong time of year to shoot really , it looks really lovely when the trees and grass are really green. It is a very quiet spot , you can sit there all day and hear nothing but bird song ,well just the odd car here and there, and the odd tractor too oh and every now and then you get the jets go over at about 100 feet off the ground....oh well nearly perfect....lol. Most of the time it really is very quiet there though ! I look at my tiny bit of land every day and think how lucky I am to have it . Lots of work to do on it now this year . I need a barn on there and the house needs to get done too and a few sheds for cows and such and the water wheel for power and ..... well I had better stop there , the list just keeps going .... ;D
I hope that glass isn't too big , that falling over water er celery wine sounds nice ...mind you I don't drink .. cheers anyway mate.....
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Ho Ho - we had two hercules go over today seemed about 100 ft but im sure it wasnt , although tell that to the pigs!! i guess thats the only downside with more land-more work to keep it maintained and of course more animals to fill it!!!!! vid looks great but how do you put pics and vids on? im no techno wizard more a tech. neanderthal,if it doesnt work ,hit it :D , better do the last round of the animals and garden i s'pose before i let the celery breath!!!
Ta ta
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to put pics or vids on you first need to start up a photobucket account ( if you don't already have one ? ), it is free and is a handy place to store all your digi pics and vids. Then, when you have got your pics/vids on there, if you want to put a pic on the forum just look above the bit you type a reply to a post in ,you have the little smiley things then above them you have the square boxes. To put on a picture you need the second one in ( insert an image ). Left click on the box once and you get this appear img][/img] ( there should be another bracket [ at the front , but if I put that in the text it tries to load a piccy up ) . You then go to your photobucket album and chose the pic you want to place on the forum . Below each picture there should be 4 lines of choice, you want the bottom one ( img code for a picture ) left click on that line and you will get a little yellow box appear that says ' copied '. Now go back to the forum post and place the curser bar between the central back to back brackets of the img][/img] (remember there needs to another bracket [ at the front end..) and hit the left mouse button once. Job done , if you then hit preview you should see your picture appear. If you want to put the video link on the forum ? go to the third box, the one on the right of the insert image box. Click that once and then do the same as for the picture . It takes ages to write it out , but only a second or two to do , very simple mate . It is just a pain at first ...... I hope at least some of that made sense ? cheers mate....
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ta russ,
i will give that a go , or at least will try!
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still digging and carrying stones.....over halfway now on the plot , so I should have it ready for seed sowing at about the right time. I will have to do a seed viability test on some of the seeds I have as they are a couple of years old now, easy to do though ....just place a few on some damp kitchen tissue and see how long they take, or if they germinate ? Blimey getting hungry just thinking about all that home grown veg. New potatoes , baby carrots , radishes , spring onions , lettuce , baby beet , rocket .....the plate will be overflowing ....I would have said peas too ...but the first ones never make it to the plate, I eat the lot as I pick them ....MMMMMmmm I can taste them now.I have got to start poo picking again now too. All the compost has been used up now, so out with the wheel barrow and get as much as I can . Funny really, my life seems to be just moving one pile of crap from one place and another back the other way ...Oh well ... more digging again tomorrow....It feels like groundhog day .....
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we too are now sorting through our seeds of last year and organising this years ready for planting - good news though , my "mantis" cultivator arrived today - have just finished putting it together and am itching to give ita go - alas i have to get into work at 7 tomorrow morning so cant try it till sunday :(- the good thing is the manufacturer seems to sing its praises so much on versitility i am also expecting it to make the tea - hurrah!! :D - will update you on how good or bad it is - if anyone is thinking of adding a cultivator to their armoury ;D
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great news about the Mantis...(I hope they didn't call it that, because everyone who has one is PRAYING that it starts ok ?)... lol ..just my sick mind mate take no notice....I will be thinking about you on sunday ...as I am digging by hand , in the wind and rain and cold ,as I bend over with my poor aching back !!!! ;D ;D I hope it goes really well Guy.... oh and tell it I take 2 sugars please.... :D
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hell - i never thought of that!!! it must have got its name somewhere :o - dont worry , i shall prob. end up in casualty after "cultivating" my toes or being dragged off down the a30 behind the beast lol :D - i shall tell it about the sugars - but have just realised it doesnt have opposable thumbs , so the darn thing cant pick up a spoon!! ;D
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cultivating toes in rows....different. You could then at least grow your own body part replacements ? Who needs stem cell technology ? Joking apart for a mo though ...take care with it mate ... if any weeds get caught in it, make sure you turn it off before untangling . I have heard some really horrible stories about people getting caught in them .....Just look at what it does to the ground and then imagine what it would do to you !!! Oh and there must be a little hopper thing somewhere for the sugar....
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hehe hubby just saw the one in aldi and is thinking of buying if for m,
It's he nice lol
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wowee!! what a piece of kit! have just spent the day with my new toy (still have all my extremities ;)) for a small rotavator it has sooo much power and agile enough to get into raised beds etc.( now i sound like an advert) managed to turn the fruit garden over , two raised beds , half the veggie plot AND dig the holes for my new fruit trees - and my back still is in one piece!! it broke down some really compacted ground to a really fine tilth without thinking - grand!!
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Ok that sound good then i might even be-able to uses it why dodge stomach at the moment lol
been out too day as it was lovely have have taken some photos now am just 'playing with them' you'll be able to see them on my flickr account
Linz
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great stuff Guy,
I am really pleased for you mate....sounds like it is just what you wanted/needed ? I will expect you here tomorrow morning prompt ... (to do the rest of my plot...lol ).... Once you have done all you need to do ,try to make sure that you start and run it for 10-15 mins every few weeks just to make sure it stays in good running order. If you leave it till the next year you hit that age old problem of spending days trying to start the bl**dy thing.
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look forward to those linz
Funny you should say that Russ , but i did have a problem starting the damn thing today - until i realised that to start it , the "on" button should be set to "on" not "off!" lol :D - well mechanics were never my strong suit!! seriously though , it "did everything it said on the tin" :) the only slight thing , as it is so light- weight , when it does hit a stone it cant half put some distance between itself and the ground!! the OH had a few concerned expressions on her face lol. hope youve got on well moving your gravel / rocks / boulders etc?
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lol...that sounds just like the sort of thing I do ...I have a chainsaw that I use very rarely,( I mainly use a bow saw :D ), but every few months I start the chainsaw up well I spend about half an hour pulling the starter chord endlessly ...till I remember about the ON switch......First time start then ..... ;D The rotavator I had used to buck violently when it hit big stones, it still kept going though , just at a different angle lol.....
Just dug the one row today , about 18" x 20' , plus some weeding and a few buckets of stone up to the track . I swear that I have a black hole at the end of the track, just keep tipping stuff in it and get nowhere...
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well done you! - you dont think the gravel falls into the black hole only to materialise back into the river??lol- at least i get a day off tomorrow (that is i go back to paid work - but that always seems like a day off after the weekend here , only not so fullfilling!! :D)
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lol ... funny you should say that . I did fall arm over ear'ole ,or something like that? ,the other day while carrying buckets of stone . Well sods law would have it that both buckets rolled all the way down the hill , leaving stones every few feet .....yet another half hour wasted picking them all up and carrying them back to the top again....talk about Jack and Jill !!! Tomorrow will be just the same for me ....I wish that black hole was full of filling .... ;D
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Thought I would put on a pic of the top field , the veggie plot is in the far corner of it !
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/IMAG0012.jpg)
The picture was taken from the gate at the end of the track , thats where I carry the stone upto. The river field is through the gate , and the river runs through it left to right as you look at the pic , it is about halfway up the right hand side of the pic. I know there are lots of weeds in the field ...well most are now gone , just another of those endless jobs. ;) Here is a pic of the hay field:
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/IMAG0006.jpg)
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/IMAG0008.jpg)
Just did one row of digging today , about 18"x20' again .It was very windy and started to rain , so left it at that for today ....phew an easy day ...I can't wait for the fields to look like they do in the pics again .....
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hehe,
Keep up the good work am gona cheap with my patch as we are getting a culivator in the next couple of week so am gona wait a while for that to come in to lidl/adli
Linz
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Guy, remind me - what kind of magic machine did you buy?
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hey Russ - i remember the sun and the nice weather - it was a while ago now though :D - i reckon 20' 0f digging is enough for anyone!!
well done Linz - hope yer feeling better?
Evening Rosemary - my magic machine is a "Mantis" tiller the 4-stroke version www.mantis-uk.co.uk is the website
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apart from a bit breezy at times , it was a lovely day here today . Sun all day ,nice and warm ,almost, dare I say it ...like spring !!! Oh god... thats it, black clouds will roll over and torrential rain for a month now.....Still , it was a good day on the plot today. I got about 6'x20' dug today, although I didn't carry any stone up to the track . I am at that point now, where I am nearer the end, than the beginning of the main digging . Phew what a relief.....I really do hate digging .....Mind you ..there is the area for the grain to be dug over yet , thats about 35'x70'....and the rest of the comfrey bed...and the jerusalem artichoke bed....."oh shut up Russ"....that has just scared me silly.....as all that is fresh untouched ground....it is like concrete....and all that stone , still, the black hole will soon swallow all of that ....( after I carry it up the hill !!) I will take some photos of the plot, when I have got all the grass and weed out of it !!
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bloomin' 'eck Russ - you've scared me now!!! i feel a real whimp for buying the "mantis" for my little area!! :Dp.s. like the spinning wheel pics!
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lol..... well if that scares you how about this then ....In William Cobbetts Cottage Economy ( still one of the best smallholders books available) , he states that a good man should be able to dig 12 rods per day , the rod as an area, as he used it there was 16'6"x16'6" so thats one hell of a lot of digging (198'x16'6"). Also the type of digging he was talking about was double digging :o :o and it was also 12 rods per day EVERY day....I just dig for a max of an hour (more like 30 minutes) though .....I want to be able to walk the next day .... ;D
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u guys are making me tired just talking about it lol
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well , either im not a good man-or..................our friend william is mad!!! :D - alas, its not down to me to make the distinction!!! sounds like a good book though (and not for the comedy value!) - i guess its difficult for me to quantify that kind of work load whilst working full-time. its all about routine / time and method i guess (not that i believe i could dig that amount ,work nonwithstanding :))
dont worry about it linz - the time for talking is over........its time for action (well maybe tomorrow ;))
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William Cobbett wrote Cottage Economy in about 1821 but the basics about looking after and feeding animals are as good today as they were then . Also, if like me, you want to do things a more simple way (that doesn't mean less work though !) without just chucking money at it , then he tells how to do things the old way ... but when he wrote it , it was just THE way to do it. The book is really funny in places too . The section about tea making as opposed to beer drinking (small beer that was very weak) , is hilarious. What makes it even funnier is he is deadly serious.....On the whole it is well worth getting a copy ,another good one he wrote is his ' Rural Rides ' very interesting !!! It covers him on rides all over England, as was at that time . All the sowing harvesting and ploughing and general life he encountered , it is a direct insight to what life was like ( as he saw it ) at the time, fantastic , I read both on a regular basis. Below are a few links, about him and the two books :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cobbett
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp?t_id=Cobbett
http://www.archive.org/details/cottageeconomyco00cobbrich
cheers
Russ
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It seems the Breton countryfolk live to a ripe old age, they have a very healthy lifestyle with lots of fresh air, good food etc. Well last year we noticed the farmer who lived up the road out digging over a plot of land, about 10' x 20'. It took him 2 days to dig over the whole thing and we were very impressed, it was very hot at the time as well. A day or two later we noticed his property was taped off and there were gendarmes wandering around. We later heard he had dropped dead - obviously he wasnt a "good man"!
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:o :o poor bugger....lol... oops sorry..shouldn't laugh...still, maybe I am writing this from veggie plot heaven ? having already keeled over after turning one sod too many ? Nope just pinched myself, I am still here !!! I just hope I wake up ok tomoroow now !!!, as I dug an area about 5'x20' today.....Lovely day again , funny how much difference the weather makes to how much work I do ......I make a point though of NOT digging when it is very hot . I could dig all day when I were a lad...( the faint sound of the hovis music plays in the background !!) eeee it were grand ...., but these days I just do 30 -60 minutes a day . I do other things as well , but just a short time digging ....I think I may have said before ...I HATE DIGGING ..... ;D ;D But I do love the smell of freshly dug soil at this time of year...same as gentle spring rain mmmmmm I can smell it now as I write...luverly.....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TOWJECdobqk&feature=related
ahhhh back in the good ole days when they made real adverts...( with real butta ) ;D ;D
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;D hahahaha nitwit!
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Are you sure the sun hasnt got to you today Russ? and was that you on the bike??lol :D - think i will have to pick up a copy of that book though................... :'( rip breton farmer
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Absolutley Brilliant Russ ;D ;D ;D Made me chuckle
Donna
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all this talk of digging has made me thrist
am off for a cuppa
be back soon lol
and i'll tell you all what i have done today
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two sugars in mine please Linz ;D ;D ;D
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okay lidl's i bought pear tree to go with the other one i have so it will 'set'
Got a bin off freecycle a place in doune(not far from here)
and have plans of what to get tomorrow lidls in ways of the garden also justs got some timber of freecycle (in stirling town centre) which am gona collect tomorrow after lidls trip,
Hopefull i can get out and about tomorrow and start digging
Linz
really exciting huh
/me hand rusty a cuppa with 2 sugars in it
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aaahhh cheers for the cuppa ..... stick a picture of David Cassidy in the tree and you would have a partridge in a pear tree...lol... sorry bout that .... exciting ? ...my days are really so boring that I can't tell one week from another let alone days....this time of year just revolves around feeding horses and dogs oh and digging ...Freecycle is soooo handy , I got 4 beehives off my local one.... Good luck with the digging Linz , hope the virus thingy cleared up ok .....don't do too much at first , it is easy to put something out or pull something ....Plenty of time left till the season really gets going.
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yeah it not a virus think it an internal thing still not sure what it is 100%,
i also forgot that i have put some runner beans in a glass of water to start lol
I have a plan that each year i will grow runner beads but each year I only get one pod lol
so now i have the space they are gona go on my new fence cos it is too bear and horrible looking 'new' wood
linz
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Are you sure the sun hasnt got to you today Russ? and was that you on the bike??lol - think i will have to pick up a copy of that book though...................
I think the medication has worn off Guy , I must get some more from the assylum errr doctors ;D. Yes that is me on the bike , they don't show the bit at the bottom of the hill though ...where I fall off the bike and break my leg again ... ;) The book Cot.Eco. is well worth a read , even if you never follow anything from it ( and who would want to sit by rush light at night ? , that will make sense when you read the book ! ) it really takes you back to a very different way of life , an instant leap back nearly 200 years.
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well at least you know what it isn't ...thats something. Take care digging though ... Runner beans ...blimey ....just a few plants will see you knee deep in them . You must try dwarf french beans though , they are fantastic and very easy to grow.
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rush light at night
please tell me their not reccomending people go out and get rush candles, they stink to high heaven, being made from anything and everything lol
The smell of animal fat/fur/animal skin/animal hair it not a great smell lol
I worked/helpped out in a medieval 1st person re-enactment museum place give me beeswax candles anyday lol
:)
am still knitting my socks btw
Linz
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lol... no, no more rush lights ,the book they were mentioned in was written in 1821. William cobbett was born in 1763 , so grew up with rush lights. I like beeswax candles too , I even made a few from my own beeswax. I made rush lights once , yes they stink orrible...... :D the socks look good .... if they are the blue ones in the piccy ?
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sulking now cos i have my new culivator all made up and it is rainning :(
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I hope it stopped raining for you in the end Linz !!! did you get to try out the new cultivator ?
Although it was cloudy all day here today , it was at least dry again ;D
I managed to get another big chunk dug over again today, about 5'or 6' x 20' again . So not that much more to do ,although it doesn't seem like that while I am actually digging it ?
As I want to get the main digging done now ( I am well and truly cheesed off with it !) I am leaving carrying stone up to the track till the digging is done. I will get plenty of chance to collect the stone when I am de-weeding the plot . The comfrey is shooting up well now , and I am getting a tiny bit of it weeded each day, when that is done I will have to start on weeding the willow bed . I must also start to make the jerusalem artichoke bed very soon now, why is it everything I want to do involves digging ?
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looking forward to reading that book more and more!! we tried the dwarf beans last year and found them v. successful ( as you say you can get inundated with runners - but that did enable me to make a few bottles of wine from the glut :D)
i think you must have some secret fetish re. digging Russ - sorry mate but you must seek out some help :D
Linz - you must update about yer cultivator - which model was it? how did youfind it?
dont think i'll be rushing to make my rush lights though
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Hello ...my name is Russ ...and I am a diggerholic..... ??? eh ? what ? what the **** ?
Yes I think are right I do need help ......a BIG plough would be good... ;D ;D I can't remember the name of the dwarf beans I had ( will see if I have the packet somewhere ) but they were sort of mottled green/brown I think ? They tasted absolutely beautiful with some butter on them and with some fresh home grown peas and new potatoes MMMMmmmm I think I could easily convert to them instead of runners..... gotta go and dig the yard up now......
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nutter!!! :D
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Yippy it did stop raining and i ran out lol
well am totally knackers lol,
Did quite a few bits in the garden
Dug over the front bit i had on the 'lawn' which had the homemade compost on it so tuned that in with the cultivator,
Then had to go out and collect the wood from stirling,
then went in to alloa AGAIN cos mum total be about reduce 'fruit bushes' in woolworths
spent about £15.00 on 4 rhubard crowns, a Chinese Gooseberry ?,Tayberry, Olive, Cranberry
they are currently sitting in the kitchen in a bucket of water lol
As well as the pear tree
Hubby wanted to play on the culivator as well so he has started on the new land and found lots of stone so while he was playing with the culivator. I was going around taking photos and collecting the biggish stone and putting them in the wheel barrow, was thinking that i could even uses them for base of the path or a rockers or something lol
Cut down the dividing fence between the garden and the new bit of land.
In my wisdom when we 1st move in i started wrapping one of the strubs around it so it would look nice accross the fence 'boy' is it stuck fast.
Also being frugel and keeping the fencing for a climbing frame for my fence for the plants etc.
The Cultivator is 700W from aldis
here the link but not sure how long is lasts
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_5185.htm (http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_5185.htm)
this is what it says on the tin lol
Electric Cultivator 700W
each £44.99 *
Rips through soil, shreds grass and tears through leaves, clearing/preparing the ground for more effective seed planting and fertiliser spreading.
* Prepares soil for seeding
* Works in shredded matter
* Perfect for peat and fertiliser
I would have like a petrol/diesel one but as i have never used on before i think it is brilliant.
It took me about 30mins to run it over the plot in the 'lawn' where as the last time i did it it took me two days and it is not a big plot
4ft by 6ft if that lol
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you know you are doing it all wrong Linz !!!! you should be putting the stone in buckets and carrying it all up the biggest hill you can find.... ;D
I am glad you got on well with it. Sounds like you had a good time? You should be ready for seed sowing time ok now ? Well done ......
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wow linz - havent you been busy then !! sounds like a really handy tool youve got there , sounds like you could do with a cuppa yerself now - Russ i think its your turn in the chair!!! :D
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Wellllllll am not sure what to put in the 'lawn' i had tatties there last year but because we are quite open here it got blight really early
then put leeks and cabbage and brussels in it and some lettice but as it was a new plot the letice bolted but the leek where lovly, will defo grown them again, I'll need to find the shop i got them from as it was the 'shop' down the road in i belive fishcross (i found them as market, so not a 100% sure where they are acually.
Hubby wants to till the soil a couple more times but it is no way near finished the plot at the side but be at least 40ft by 10ft but will be cut in half with a fence so we can have a patio away from the neighbour
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2289036932_3e0fffc078_m.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2141/2289032954_1696a335ca.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3036/2289032320_5a85d3f9bc.jpg) in the last photo i am standing on the area that has just been tillied
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looks like you have a nice little spot there Linz !!! you should be able to grow most of your veggie needs , to save space you could grow new potatoes in tubs ( old dustbins work well ) that way you can move them about if they get in the way....
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just found this , thought it may be of use to some....?
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-331/426-331guide.html
I thought it very helpfull for working out the years planting......
I also thought that this was handy , a month by month planting guide for the UK ....I always forget something....
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_index.asp
I need all the help I can get in the memory dept....
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ooh i like em links and booked marked them under garden in my firefox browser lol
My plans for today is the make a plan for the garden
/me digs out her geof hamiliton computer programme
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well it looks like there won't be any digging today !!!!! So far it has rained all morning , steady moderately heavy stuff, so just feed the horses and slip all over the place in the instant Somme recreation !!!! This has been about the longest dry spell I can remember , well it's over , back to normal , knee deep in s***er mud. As I type the rain is getting heavier and the wind is picking up . Oh well I nearly finished the plot !!!!
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phew !!!!! I got a few rows of digging done in the end !! It was tipping down while I fed the horses ,and even through my waxed coat, I got soaked to the skin. However, it more or less stopped raining , just down to a drizzle , and the wind dropped for 10-15 minutes, so I thought might as well do a bit !!! I got about 2'6" x 20' dug , so not bad . I was, however, soaked covered in mud and knackered , so left it at that . Little by little it will get done . I wouldn't advise anyone to dig wearing all your normal clothes then a waxed coat and waterproof over trousers , very hard work ......well it is when you are soaked as well. ;D ;D
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It's abosultely tipping it down here and strong winds = horizontal rain! Dan couldn't walk the dogs along the river bank - it was just too windy. Not good for the weekend.
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I hope the wind and rain eased off a bit today Rosemary, and that Dan was able to walk the dogs ok ....? Here today , was quite nice in the morning but went a little overcast and drizzly this afternoon . I was however , able to do another chunk of the plot. I got about another 5'6"x20' done , also did some more de-grassing etc. and I little bit of de-weeding on the comfrey plot .I will have to clear my 2 rhubarb plants soon now too. Since I have put it in I haven't had any as yet . Not that it isn't growing , it is , it is just that there is a very large two footed rabbit nicking the stuff when it is ready. I will catch them before long , and depending on wether it is male or female will dictate my actions at the time .... I wouldn't really mind if they wanted some and just asked, I would give them half of what there was. But to just take ALL of it really P's me off to say the least. Anyway, everything is well on course now for sowing and planting in a couple of weeks time . It looks like a veggie plot again now, rather than just a lump of waste land.... ;D
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hehe weather not been to bad very windy it was lazy wind today it was trying to go into me not around me and it zap most of my energy just going out and putting the washin out on the line athought i have been trying to be productive and design my garden on the computer but i am having a lot of problems using geoff hamilton's 3d garden designer (it hell for me)
hehe
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:D as long as the washing doesn't get blown away all should be ok ...hopefully anyway... ;)
I have an old version of G H's garden designer. I gave it up as a bad job in the end, I would spend hours getting it just as I wanted it and then lose it all , or it just wouldn't do what I wanted it too. Also , I found I was spending more time trying to get it to work than I was working on the REAL garden...lol. Now I just do it the old way ...draw it out on paper and then work from that .
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hehe, I was think of that going back to paper and pencil or using paint lol
The washing dried pretty quickly to day because of the wind
hasn't done much but i did update my blog a bit created my dh in to a start lol
post some picture of him working just to prove to people he does work as must of the time it's me in the garden lol
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did you put him back in the cupboard under the stairs ,when he finished the garden work ?... ;)
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nar i put him in the shower then in the cupboard,
Cos you have to look after your tools other wise they don't last lol ;D
Linz
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;D ;D ;D ;) ;)as long as he was nice and dry before you put him away !!! you don't want him going rusty.....new ones cost a fortune these days..... ;)
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Yeap the old ones are the best (hence the reason i got an older version ) lol,
Anyway i think i am getting somewhere with the prog
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well done .... hope you have more luck with it than I did !!!! I may dig my copy out sometime and have another go .....but then again maybe not... :D
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Morning all!!! what a busy week (alas , busy at real work - not fun work ;)) mothers day obviously -( happy mothers day to all you mums :)) so one of my departments busiest times of year ( ordered £60k worth of flowers this week - glad it wasnt with my money) at least thats over with for another year , and we can get on with work here! good news though, we have our tomatoes / cucumbers / peppers etc. coming through in the propagator!
your plot looks a good size linz - hope its coming together ok?
that planting guide is great Russ - v. useful , as you say there is always something that is forgotten!!
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Glad the guide was of use mate....I really do forget loads ,so need all the help I can get !!! Toms,cucs and peps....blimey, the early bird and all that ! I take it they are for a polytunnel ? It is a great feeling when things start popping up at the start of the year .
Oh and REAL WORK ????? ;D ;D ;D
I failed.......I wanted to get the plot all dug by the end of February, well I am still digging !!! I have got another 12 ft x 20ft to go .The bit dug gets wider towards the front (30ft) so as I get nearer the back there is less to dig . So , with some luck I should be done with the digging ( on this bit) sometime this week !!! hehehe. Anyway , although I DID fail ...it wasn't by much .. I want to make the plot more rectangular too, so that will mean digging all the odd bits at the sides, that is only a foot or so here and there , so shouldn't take too long.....I did manage to get another 5'x20' done today and half of that was very heavy going for some reason. Still , nearly there ... soon be sowing loads of seeds....woopeeee....
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well done guy and rusty,
Because you are all getting on it has stopped me procasitating and I finally started. 1st of I atacked the pallet that I had laying around I then took them and made square areas and lots of hammering and sawing later i have a wee raised bed, I have collected cardboard and newspapers and put them in the bottom of the patch then i have added the soil on top.
Even thought it is only about 2ft squared i am so proud that i have made it from stratch.
This morning i also seached out all the fruit bushes that i had in pots and lined them up along the fence BOY have i got to many(15 in pots). I think that some might be dead but can't a hundred percentage as some of them are showing now sign of life but they sprout in to live . lol
Now am knackered
I was also in fear that i was become too dometic with the knitting lol
Linz
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thats really great Linz.... well done .... The size of what you are doing doesn't really matter much, it is the fact that you did it YOURSELF. When you get your crop of whatever you grow, be it fruit, flowers or veg, it will all be down to YOU ....That is where the satisfaction thing comes in . We can all go and buy the fruit, flowers or veg and even get it all organically grown now ( at a cost), but to grow it yourself and to have done the work yourself, IS, an achievment . As a nation we seem to have grown away from our roots in so many ways . So many people have never grown anything in their life, I think it is such a shame . The joy and satisfaction from growing your own veg or rearing your own animals is almost beyond words. So well done Linz ( starting is always the hardest bit to do ) well done......keep up the good work , oh and keep going with the knitting too ....The more strings to your bow the better....now have a nice warm cuppa and a biccy and feel proud of yourself......
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oh and keep going with the knitting too
1st sock completed :)
even hubby is surprise that i manage it lol
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yep , they are certainly polytunnel bound - although as our bedroom is downstairs and off the conservatory (this is where we keep the propagator), it is nice to look out and see all the new life first thing in the morning :) - and i know it seems daft , but i love watching (not in real time you understand) the seedlings all growing towards the light - magical :)
Again , a huge well done from me Linz - as russ says its all about what you have achieved for yourself - the self of satisfaction watching whatever you plant grow - is worth its weight in gold (or socks!! :D)
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hehe
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well done Linz ...You never know you could have started a new career 'Scot Socks' ? Mind you scarves are easier ...they are straight !!!!
You are right Guy ....it is magical seeing new plants grow. You can almost see plants move , sunflowers follow the sun round in an arc, and you really can almost see them move , does that make sense ? Oh well maybe not ...but you get what I mean ....well I do anyway... ;D Another one ,Willow ... just a cutting at the start of the season, by the end of the year it can be 3 or 4 shoots 10 feet plus tall....once again ...magical ...
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hehe sunflowers and daffies :)
I love them and the make me smile, you see them progress
:)
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yep... the Daffs are out all over round here now....I love this time of year from now on ...well apart from tomorrow.... they said on the weather forecast that we are in for maybe 6" of snow....oh how I hate snow....even more than I hate digging !!! well at least they said the cold splat would only last 48 hours, then the temp will be back up to what it is now....fingers crossed xxx they get it right .
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yeap we got a flutter of snow,
No digging for me lol I like the warth of my house when it is like this but i am think of look what seads i have to put a swap up for the ones i don't want.
and pot some of the ones i want in to potts in the kitchen (shhhhhhh don't tell hubby, he doesn't like the mess i make)
Linz
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hope you didn't make too much mess doing the seeds etc. Hope the weather was ok for you too. It has , so far , been ok here . Just a few hail showers here and there , but then the sun has come out and melted it all. I think the next 12 hours are likely to be iffy , but then back to warmish wet weather....the norm for round here lol... Anyway , I did get some digging done today . About 5'x'20 and some of that was very heavy going . It was undug very stony stuff ,about 5'x 6' , and needed to be attacked with the pick axe and all the stone cleared out . So very long winded and hard going . Looks like it may be much the same again tomorrow too , oh well keeps me fit ;D The ground dug so far measures somewhere about 30' (narrowing to 20')x 65' , and that is all dug down to a double spade depth, so well and truly DUG. Just another 10'-12' to go now. I just wish it was the easier stuff , rather than the very hard stony bit.
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well done Russ - only a little left to go now........and then you can start on the planting!!! :D - hope you dont get too affected by the weather , its gone v cold here tonight , so had to put the lid back on the propagator , even though its in the conservatory. The p-tunnel seems to be keeping some of the cold out although i may make a dash out later to put the heater on. i need to thin out the carrots tomorrow , but as i dont like to waste anything i am going to try and re-plant the thinnings elsewhere :o - that should be nice and fiddly , still with a cup of coffee and jazz fm on the radio, it should prove quite a relaxing "chore!"
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yes nearly done Guy.... just got to hope the weather holds up for sowing etc now..... Weather has been ok today till tonight !!! very heavy hail/sleet showers every now and then . They said that it will clear up soon though, fingers crossed. With carrots I tend to sow fairly thin anyway , but if I want to thin them I just leave them till the ones I pull are about the size of my little finger....they are really lovely at that size, I am an animal sometimes as I just clean off as much soil as poss and then eat them as I walk round the plot. I do the same with spring onions ,radishes, peas and so on ... The only thing with doing that is I have had my dinner at the plot , I don't feel like eating later, can't get any fresher though ....good luck with the weather and the carrots mate.....
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Another lovely day here again today !!! I didn't expect that !! Still, I will take it .It has gone very cold now though , but it is meant to warm up again, although get much wetter .
I got another goodly chunk of ground dug today . There maybe 2 days left of digging ( this bit ) depending on weather . The ground left to dig is about 20' wide and 15' foot of it is easy ::) digging to one spade depth ,the other 5' is very hard ground so therefore slows progress a lot . However , as I am down to about 6 feet or so left to go , it should be all done soon ::) . About a quarter of it will need doing with the pick axe , that is a very slow job with me . Pick axes and my back and shoulder do NOT mix at all. Still ... the end IS in sight .
I am having a very hard job though, stopping myself from looking at the comfrey bed , and the artichoke bed , and the grain plot , and the willow bed. They all need digging :o :o OMG ...why do I do it ?
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you do it because it makes you a better person!!! :D - plus you would be bored otherwise!! i managed to get the wood for the raised beds put together today - but not the carrots thinned - alas!
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ahhhh right ... that would make me a saint then ,(with the amount I am digging) .....Saint Russell ....yep I could live with that .... 8) but could the rest of the world ?..... :o ... I doubt it ... ??? oh well day dream over ::) back to just plain old ( very old ) Russ.... :( ....
Well done with the raised bed stuff ....soon be full of the first crop .....oh thats like me full of cr**...er no, thats a different thing altogether ????... well done anyway... ;D ;D ;D
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i am well chuffed! for the first time ever in my life i am having a go at growing vegetables (from seed) in some pots around the garden! my garlic has sprouted twice!!! i dont think i have ever been so happy!! quite sad but i feel very proud! im waiting on my potatoes, carrots, raddish and spring onions now! last year i brought some vegetable plants and tried to raise them in a veg grow bag, they all died quite quickly tho! i dont normally have a problem with flowers, i ignore all the stuff on the back of the packet, decide where i want them dig a hole chuck the seeds in and they always grow! i just hope that my two babies (garlic plants!) dont suddenly decide they are going to go and rot away on me! ;D ;D ;D
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hehe keep going trail and error is normally the best way to go :)
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well done Stephen ,
the first ones are always the hardest and probably the most satisfying to grow. I got my first allotment when I was about 11, and most of the 39 years since, I have grown something . However , even now things go wrong ! one year you may get a great crop of one thing and another just disappears without trace . Another year it could be the other way round. So many things can affect the success or failure of veg it really is just a matter of give it a go and hope for the best really . Provide as much of the plants requirements as possible and leave the rest to nature. Most of the time it works. But never give up if something fails , just keep going and try something else till the next year. The best thing to keep in mind is look around and what do you see ? plants growing just about everywhere. They will succeed to one degree or another . In the main it is humans that do more damage to them . Garlic are , as a rule , pretty much indestructable . I can't remember any failing ? It just depends on the weather and where they were grown originally. I have only ever grown ones bought from the supermarket and from the year before crop. Same with spuds , never bought seed potatoes. Funny thing too, digging the plot today I dug up 3 nice big spuds from the year before lasts crop . That has sorted din dins for tonight ... Good luck with the seeds ....
cheers
Russ
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I managed to get about half of what is left to dig, done today. That left, is now just pick axe stuff !!! So not sure how many days it will take to do . I would like to think that it will only take one day . It will, however, depend on my shoulder and back. Once it is done , I am going to have a day or two completely 'digging free'. I really need it :D. Stone collecting and carrying will take over for a while anyway. Just hope that the black hole has closed up ;D ;D
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hehe russ why did you have to remind me that i need to put the tatties out in to pots, It's too cold, I want to stay indoor next to the fire lol
also try in to get s dh fiance to get me some tyres from work with out getting in to trouble
I have 3 raised bed now and plenty of cardboard to put in them (I asked on freecycle)lol
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sorry Linz,
stay by the fire mate....the tatties will wait for a warm day ;D You could easily get tyres from freecycle too surely? Well done with the raised beds too. What do you use the cardboard for Linz ? ontop to supress weed ? Sorry if I am asking a daft question , just I am really old school style gardening ;)
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yeah am a lazy gardenner i put the cardboard down on top of the grass (the land was used as comunial ground) then put clean soil on top
no tyres have got to be disposed of properly so very unlikly for a 'normal' freecycle member to have any have asked before and had no luck but my s dd finance work in a garage so thought i would see if he could get me any
Linz
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ahhh right with you now. Yes he should be able to get you at least some tyres.... Shame you aren't nearer , I can get hundreds ...only problem is they have the wheels in them still .... Funny story about communal land...A friend of mine bought a house (years ago ) near a chapel . He cleared his very overgrown garden and dug a veggie patch , well he actually used my rotavator to do the job . He did a really good job of it too , and grew loads of veg, then while digging by hand after the first year , he started to dig up bits of old wood and then some sort of animal bones ....well yes you guessed it , he was digging up an old graveyard . It hadn't been used in living memory , and was only after checking the chapel records that they found out that his garden had been part of the cemetery back in the early 1800's. Like me you may think that they dig graves 6 foot deep , well they do now , but didn't always back then . Plus they would put family members into the same grave one ontop of the other . So after a few years they are only a little way under the surface. Well , after lots of police visits and council people the area was dug up and cleared . My mate laid a lawn over the area and sold the house.
He did however grow some really good veg there for a while .... :o :o
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ooo eer Russ - that sounds a queer story and no denying it -"it was a dark stormy night............." type of story!!
Hopefully i wont encounter much in the way of corpses when i dig my new beds :o - garlic , alas , is less than indestructable in my garden - never had a good crop (although we are trying again this year) - hope yours remain happy and healthy stephen! - as Russ (that is saint Russ!) says , it can all be about trial and error (try to keep a record of what problems you have had and where , for future reference - i lost a whole crop of leeks 2006 - moved them to another site 2007 any hey presto , we are still picking them!!! ;D
linz - i must admit i like sitting in front of my fire (although i nearly cleaved my thumb off when chopping logs yesterday!) but you cant beat strolling around the veggie garden first thing , when its v . cold and fresh , seeing how it is all coming on :)
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lol he was lucky that he didn't discover any old world diesease too
Did you ever wonder why the grass in grave yards is very green it the high nitroge and oxygen, plants love it .
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Leek soup ...luverly.... yes sometimes things work , another time nothing ....zippo , zilch ,nadda, or in English, not a single bean old chap......lol. I dug up a load of bones once ...I really thought they were human , till I got to the skull . Boy was I glad it was a sheeps skull . I read in a book about old farming ways once , how they used to put dead work horses into the manure heap . It was back in the days when heaps were really big 20'x however long needed. They would have to put the horses body/ skeleton through a number of times till it was comp pletely gone. The reason they did it was, it was just easier to drag the horse there and then pile up manure ontop ,than dig a huge hole to lay the horse in . No diggers in those days , so it was just the easy way out plus the horse would go back on the land it had lived it's life on .
Speaking of old world diseases, I once followed the University boat race along the Thames , (it was only a 20 minute train ride from where i lived ) while walking along the riverbank after the race , I saw a taped off area. Now I was a nosey young kid of about 12 or so, so I looked round and there was nobody in sight , so in I went to see what was to be seen .... Well it was a load of old bones in a huge hole . I mean it was about 20'x 60' or even more . It instantly reminded me of the death camps in the war. I got out of there so fast it was unreal ... what it turned out to be was, they were clearing old buildings along the bank when they uncovered an old plague pit ...full to the brim , and theres me walking around in it ...yuk ....I think I may have started to convert it into a manure heap , it scared me so much. I still poke my nose in where I shouldn't though .... dem bones dem bones dem dry bones !!!!
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phew , a plague pit - sounds akin to the canteen at work :D - fascinating though , in a morbib kind of way
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Mind you, Linz, you're not that far from the old anthrax pits...
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lol where be that then?
linz
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DONE !!! dug the last of the plot today...no graveyards or plague pits ;) ;) ::) just lots of stones. Anyway , it is, at last done ......What a relief. Obviously, there is loads of work still to do , like weeding and getting all the grass out , but that is nothing compared to the DIGGING , which I hate doing, ( think I may have said that before?) :D :D. I found some more spuds today too ...enough for a dinner or two, but I left them down there , not to worry , tomorrow will do . I am going to have to make a stone mountain somewhere ( what a div ?...all mountains are stone !!!!) ,as there is so much stone lifted already and LOADS more to sort out . I would guess at at least 50 or so trips , so thats 100 3 gallon buckets. I do not fancy shifting all that in one go, up the hill . Just do the odd couple of buckets here and there when I fell fit..(er that would be never)...sooo , just the odd couple when I have to ...lol.
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good keep up the good work
I did a little work today but it was tired from driving to Falkirk and back in the dark as well (some people might think so what, but am not long been driving and i find it very tiring this to drive).
I put the last of the cardboard on the bottom of the raised beds and filled it up with 'shop' bought compost (mine is no way ready, i think they are placed in the wrong place at the moment but will be move them soon just before it get really warm for them to start breathing, lol.
Then got a email on saying more cardboard was available, Just need the wood now to do some more raised beds. I think there is room for 3/4 more in the area (am a little limited at the moment waiting for hubby to put the divider fence up then i can start the herb garden) As soon as the fence goes up i can put the nearest ones out.
Went in to lidls and found that they still had some of the gardening things which i wanted from before so bought them also bought some fence paint to paint the fence a nice dark brown, It look the same colour as my hair on the tin lol.
Also bought some leeks seed today so i can start them, I must have a look in the seed box to see what seed i can put on in the areas.
linz
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well done Linz,
sounds like you were very busy . Driving is tiring if you aren't used to it , very much so if driving in heavy traffic . With regard to the raised beds , If you are using soil based composts to fill them that will be fine , but if you are using peat based or even home made compost , made from organic stuff such as waste veg and grass ,paper , cardboard and so on , then this type of compost will just disappear as the plants use up the nutrients and the process of decomposition continues ! Therefore after say 6 months to a year , you won't have anything to plant in !!! You will need some real soil ,otherwise,a very deep pocket to buy lots of bags of compost . Have you already thought of this ?
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Hi, Linz
the anthrax pits were where the Tullis site used to be - it was originally built as a tannery. It may, of course, be urban myth but I don't think so.
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i belive it was a myth I am on the understanding that it is being sold off as building land for new house
It a wee bit from me,I would class that as the centre and we are at the bottom end of tullibody
not far from here
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2322/1500443301_a7d9e59743_t.jpg)
taken from here http://www.flickr.com/photos/peteredin/1500443301/in/photostream/
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rosemary - anthrax pits ??? i dread to think what is in my area!!
linz - thats great , bet you cant wait to get planting?
Russ - what can i say - well done , what a sense of achievment for you - i guess youll have nothing to do now!!! :Dlol - only joking. - just think - if you did create a "stone mountain" in eons to come with shifting continents , tectonic movementetc. etc. there could be another "Russ" digging them all up again , and if you are one for re-incarnation , it could be you again aaarrrrrghhhh!!!!!! :D
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cheers Guy,
yes , it really feels good to have reached the end of digging on the plot. Oh how I wish there was nothing more to do ::) The thought of digging all the stone again oh god...think I would rather go drown myself IN carnation...lol. Next, is a day or two off from digging now , plenty of other stuff to do instead. Not really sure what I will get stuck into now , but it nearly all involves more bloody digging .....but at least, not the veggie plot bit.
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Russ- just a thought dont you have a horse?? why not try using the horse to pull a plow? may be a rediculous idea as i have no experience of horses whatsoever! but if the horse can pull a plow then surley it can also pull a trailer full of your stones? just an idea to save you breaking ya back!!!!
well done linz all sounds v.exciting! im using pots at the moment but already have a raised bed veg garden planned out in my head and cant wait until i can attempt to make it a reality!!!!
some advice - am i right in the thinking that cats 'presents' are toxic to plants and dogs are fine? or are they both fine or toxic????
;D
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you get more surreal with each passing day Russ - well done!!! :D
stephen - good luck with the raised beds - ive just put mine together (8 new ones) surprisingly not as easy as i had thought!!( well no real surprise then :D) i now have to start turning the ground and filling them - hurrah for the mantis!) with regards to presents - im not sure how welcome either would be in the veg. garden - (especially as my dog leaves elephant style gifts :o) i thought it was something to do with them being meat eaters??? whereas horses etc. have only vegetation??probably way off the mark - so excuse my ignorance everyone.
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some advice - am i right in the thinking that cats 'presents' are toxic to plants and dogs are fine? or are they both fine or toxic????
Dog urine can discolour grass etc not sure about cats
but I have no idea about toxic but parasites are something to be concern about
ok it is that way run only if you know if the dogs hasn't got worms
Generally because cats are 'wild' the owner hasn't got a say on what they eat and not everyone worms them and they can travel a bit of a distance to go on the hunt they can pick up any thing.
Where as dogs on the other had are 'normally' indoors or stay in a closed compound etc so can't eat anything which can cause problems and owner and a tentancy to worm dogs more than cats
Hope this helps
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http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40000480/
the above link should explain the problem far better than I ever could. The other problem is things such as heavy metals in fresh er presents.....humans manure is the same . To leave any fresh dog or cat manure on flower or veg beds , would, for working purposes, be very unpleasant, for obvious reasons. So the best thing would be to compost any cat/dog manure ,well, and then only use it on non food areas if possible. It does depend on what the animals eat to an extent, but any manure even human can be used ,as long as it is well composted. The best way to do that would be compost as normal ,with as much other material as possible and then when that is all completely changed to compost and the worms ( thats the banded type 'Tiger' worms not earth worms ) have worked their way through it , you should be able to use it ok .You can set up a wormery very easily and bypass the ordinary compost heap stage , if time were a problem .
On the subject of horses , yes you are right Stephen, I have 3, well 1 horse and 2 ponies. The idea of getting the big horse was to use her for work . However , she was my first horse and teaching a horse to plough isn't that straight forward. You would ,really, as a rule use 2 horses to plough with , as it is a very hard thing for them to do . The plough itself weighs as much as a man . Another problem is the cost of all the gear ( all the leatherwork etc) is very high , far to much for me to get new . I have now , just about got most of what I need , even the plough , and it remains for me to now teach my big horse to work .She is a good learner but as with all things time is the killer. I do have a very big tractor (100 HP 2-4 wheel drive) thats one of the really big type. I don't however have a tractor plough ....lol. The other thing is with the veggie plot being comparatively small , the tractor just would not be feasible , and even the horse only just . It is all to do with headland , turn round space at each end of the ploughed furrow. The tractor would be ok for shifting the stone in summer, it would kill the land in winter, but I don't have a trailer for it yet . The horse would shift it too , but I hit the problem of working gear/tack again and a wagon to pull . So .... until I get everything needed the only thing to do is get a good fork and spade and get dirty.
cheers
Russ
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ive seen a cat / dog composter type thing (big hole in ground chuck in magic powder stuff and it dissapears??) but not one big enough to accomodate our needs! just wondered if it would be ok to put the 'presents' on the flower beds, i could eat veg grown in horse manure but not cat or dog for some odd reason!
i think its only the female wee that discolours grass.... something to do with different hormones or summat!
just thought insted of throwing away bin bags full of the stuff (we breed cats so have lots and have 3 dogs now!) i could use it on the garden!
i introduced my new puppy to the garden this morning (ie this is where you poo and wee not on my floor!) she is the same size as the other dogs 'presents' lol she diddnt take the hint tho.... weed on my bed while i was getting dressed!! couldnt tell her off tho, she tried to hide it!
im assuming parrot droppings inc, seed shells, millet and sand paper sheets are ok to put in the garden???
;D
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Cheers russ - think ill keep chucking the presents away as we havent the space for a compost heap at the mo! i suppose in effect it would be a human / cat / dog composting toilet idea! although i dont think id be able to do human!
haddnt thought about all the bits and bobs you would need for the horse / plough idea! good luck teaching him / her when the time comes!! would love to see some pics!
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i found this went i did a search
http://www.cityfarmer.org/petwaste.html (http://www.cityfarmer.org/petwaste.html)
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Parrot dropping would be ok , once again, best to go through the compost heap though ! The sand paper I would put through the heap too . As for the seed, I used to keep budgies and parrots and put all the waste through a heap and then on the allotment , well I grew a goodly crop of sunflowers millet and even hemp.... saved a fortune on bird feed. It is best to compost anything really, as putting it straight onto a flower or veg bed will cause nitrogen inbalances due to the decomosition process. Plus most manures will be far too strong 'fresh' for most plants . One exception to that would be comfrey . That can cope with huge amounts of fresh manure and thrive.
Russ
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thanks for the replys! think ill stick with throwing it away for the time being until we have more space and i can compost it or use the idea in the link linz provided! ;D
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Russ , ive heard loads around comfrey - is it used for a liquid fertiliser or such like? if so how good /easy to grow?
looking to the final end product of all our composting activities- the purple sprouting is now in abundance and awaiting harvesting - best crop ever ( not difficult as last year the dog got in and trampled it all to nothing!!!) plus when i see the cost of it at work it gives you even more reason to be cheery ;D
also - the new calabrese seedlings and cauli seedlings are starting to say "hello" in the greenhouse ( get ready for a massive cold snap to kill them off! ::) - better get some more parraffin ready for the heater!
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Comfrey is just about as easy as it comes , to grow. The best type to get is bocking 14. It is a sterile variety and therefore won't seed all over the place. You start off with a root cutting , I got mine from chase organics, and whenever you want more just dig up a plant , and take some of the thick root chop it into 1" sections, plant, and away it goes . You can use it as a liquid feed , just cut some comfrey stick it in a barrel fill with water and leave for a few weeks . The gunk that comes out stinks to high heaven , but when watered down is a very good feed. You can also just cut it for the compost heap . You can cut the plants every 6 weeks or so and if you put plenty of manure on it , it will provide huge amounts for composting.
Well done with the purple sprouting....that is sooo lovely fresh , and from what I have read , is very very good for you too. If heating oil is still cheaper than parraffin you can use that instead. I tried it in parraffin lamps and it worked fine.
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thanks russ - thats good to know - i will start to look into it - much better than putting anything manmade onto the garden if poss.
didnt think of using heating oil - tick v.g.
well off to work for me now - my turn on "duty" to face the wrath of the customers , abuse of the staff and the general chaos that is working in retail (at least i have the thought of my quiet easy life here to keep me sane :D lol)
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(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/IMAG0020.jpg)
thats Josie my big lump of a horse. She is about 16 hands + so is a fair size, she has some Clydesdale in her so is quite heavy . The other ponies are much smaller , still able to do some work though .
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very nice russ... like the white nose and "boots" (dont know if thats the right term!) ;D
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Blaze and socks I call them , but that doesn't mean it's right ...lol. She is nice, as are the others...it's just the food bill that isn't so nice !!!
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haha i know that feeling!! we get a breeders discount on cat food but the bill is still always massive, still you get what you pay for i suppose!
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well guess what ? I was digging again today !!!! :o :o ??? yep... I kept looking at the very rough edges of the plot and along one side it was very curved, so I just had to straighten things up a bit . Still a bit more to do , but it is something that I can either do or just leave, so isn't such a weight on my mind ;) I did pick out a huge heap of stone as well and did some other bits and bobs , not too bad weather wise either. It felt very much like a showery spring day today ....which is exactly what it was really ??? I couldn't face carrying any stone up the hill or digging any gravel from the river for the shed , so had a really nice sit down and just watched all the birds getting ready for nesting for a while. I was watching an aerial dog fight for 10 minutes or so . A buzzard was attacking a red kite right above me. Their territories must overlap above my land as this is always happening . Really good to see so many kites about again now though .
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Hi, Russ
Do you work your horses? I broke Smokey to drive last year and I always kind of thought that if we had more land he could do a bit of light work, if I coudl get the equipment. He's bred for it, as a Highland pony.
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Hello Rosemary,
Josie is broken to ride ok and Welly ( the middle sized one ) has been sat on a few times, but other than that no . I have been collecting smalls bits of tack/working gear over the years, but it has been a slow process , as good stuff is so dear. You can get old stuff cheap but I found that most of it was so old and rotten it needed completely remaking. I have a horse plough now and enough gear to train them now so , as and when time allows, I shall get them into doing a bit of work for me. There is a chap not far from me who is a champion horse ploughman . He trains horses to work with the plough , but once again it means lots of money about 400 pounds to do. So it would seem that it is down to me to try .... ;D Well done with getting your one trained . He should be able to do plenty of work , they are very hardy , tough little lumps highland ponies...all the gear costs the earth though ;)
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You just cant leave your fork alone can you Russ?!! :D - mind you although i am now a total convert of the "mantis" the fork is still always there - like a trusted friend , always happy to help in any weather or condition - plus its really handy for hanging my coat on!!!! i like the horse - i must admit i do miss having mine , but as you and stephen say i dont miss the feed bill , nor the farrier costs :o
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lol ..yep...all this digging, I must be a forking maniac :o :o :o ::) I hang my coat on either the fork or spade too. Food bills ....god they are a pain ...16 quid a week for a big round bale of haylage. That isn't too bad as it is equal to about 12-14 normal small hay bales , maybe even a bit more . Hopefully only another 6-8 weeks of feeding till the grass starts up again, maybe even less? Thankfully I already have enough wormers for the horses, so thats another 45 quid I won't have to find . I don't shoe my horses , so that saves on that score . I trim their hooves myself , just give them a lick with the rasp now and then when needed.
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bet you can't guess what I did today ?............eh what ? oh you can ! ...yes thats right I was digging again . I think I am going to have to see someone about this now ? Things are out of control, and I have to admit, I have a problem. I just can't stop .....Can someone help me please ? I can't cope with this addiction anymore..... I thought of burning my spade and fork , but I just couldn't bring myself to do it to my friends. They have been so loyal and faithfull over the years !! They have stood strong next to me through all my troubles and woes . How could I betray them in such a way ? Well , as I said I couldn't do it . They are made of metal , mostly , anyway ??? what a pillock !!! I only did a few feet anyway , as it started to rain .
I did start to mark out the grain plot though :o :o ;D ,and I may start the comfrey bed extension Monday . ..Day off tomorrow going to my nephews for the afternoon, after feeding the horses.....might do just a tiny bit of digging before I go though ...hehehe ;) :D ;D
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Oh no russ is high on 'digging' don't think i'll every get to that stage
lol
Not been doing anything today neighbour were being pain's in the @rse this morning at 3.00 but i have started on a new pair of socks for s-dd birthday in august their only ankle sock so should be done quickly, just hope she doesn't cotton on that they are for here lol
Linz
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Well Russ - i do sincerely hope your day off has done you some good- you need to get away from it all :D we were off this weekend also and saw my pops in milton keynes - hate driving and it took 3.5 hours :o - still i managed to find a corner of his garden to stand in for 5 mins and convinced him to dig some raised beds - cut back some trees with him (well with a saw actually!!) cleaned his pond filter and we did some first aid on 3 of his koy carp (his little hobby!!!) this involved netting them, anaethetising them ,cleaning the infection , putting on iodine etc and popping them back and ressucitating them!! nice relaxing break!!!!! great fun though - the kids were left in charge of the place here and surprisingly it was all in one piece on our return :)
linz - digging is addictive - never say never!!
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hehe
I like fish and want a pond here /me wonders off dreaming of 6 foot koi lol
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lol...yes Linz... I think there must be something in the air. Mind you .. you say you won't get that bad !!! just you wait till you start creeping the fence out another foot or so just to get some more veggie plot !!! ;) Never have probs with neighbours round here thank god....3 am ? :o
Oh I would have loved that .....I can just hear my request for quiet .... "I say old chaps , would you mind awfully, trying to keep the noise down a touch ? " hehehe ... well something like that anyway. :o :o ::) Good luck with the socks too...lucky they weren't elbow socks !!!! they would have taked ages to do !!! ;D ;D
Cheer Guy , yes I think I need a stay in a special hotel with special rooms with special wall paper, very soft THICK padded wall paper !!!! Where all the staff wear white ... ;D I had a really nice afternoon , saw my nephew, niece,their little kids and my sister and another younger nephew. Had a lovely dinner and a really good laugh and chat . All in all a really good day , a very much needed break too.. Glad you had a good day as well . My auntie lives in MK and her son lives in Wick,Scotland , funny how close we can all be !
The wind is getting much heavier here at the moment , just hope the big tree I am living under,stays up ok !!!! If you never hear from me again , you know it didn't !!!! ;D ;D
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If you really are that obsessive then come and visit me in Normandy! I would love a veggie plot but have no disire to dig! Ten minutes into it and my already bad back wont take any more. Alas I am to be ever destined to buy supermarket veg, which is so dull and very little to choose from which may surprise some of you, it did me. I assumed the French would be big on selection but they stock their own produce not very much imported other than sprouts and a few odd bits from Spain.
So my friend get your passport in order and be welcome. You can be assured of a good supply of PORK, a warm bed and over friendly pigglies to make you feel at home!
Kate
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do they allow spades/forks/culivators on plaines?
Linz
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No worries, I have all the equipment - all I need is a man that can!
Kate
Ooops - just read that back - well you know what I mean!
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lol
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:o :o :o :o :o
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Oh Rusty you do have it bad ;) I've been reading this thread for a while now & it keeps me amused :P :P :P Digging is not my strong point & for month's have been gently persading the OH to by a rotavator & he always says 'NO'. Then just the other day he says 'I think we should get a rotavator' as if it was his idea ??? ::) ??? (I don't mind though) :-X
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the wind and rain let off long enough to feed the horses , I even thought about doing just a tiny bit of digging ;D ;D , but then thought "NO" It then went very windy and rainy for 30 minutes or so and now it is very calm and no rain .. Getting ready for the next wave no doubt. From what the weather people are saying it looks like a forget week here at the moment. Still, it will allow me to charge my batteries as it were !!!! ;) Not sure how the nerves will take this enforced NO DIG time .....
However nice it would be to shoot over to Normandy to do some digging Kate , I am not so sure my horses and dogs would appreciate no food for the months it would take me to do it ....and then I would have to come back and dig mine all over again lol.... ;D, and as I may have said before ? I hate digging !!!! ( oh god...no digging for 2 days now....not sure I can stand this much longer....) eh what ? who said that ? ;) ;D
Digging is by no means my strong point either FB , I even thought of getting a rotavator , but then remembered the one I used to have, and thought better of it !!! I don't have anything against them , it's just I am trying to get away from mechanical dependance as much as I can , ( mind you , I am trying to set up a big sawbench run by a waterwheel in the river !!! even I don't fancy the idea of cutting trees into planks by hand ,I have done it , and it is a killer !!) ,mechanical power makes life easier but also costs a fortune , something I don't have. So, I am destined to do things the old way ... by hand ( apart from cutting planks) as long as I take it steady I get there in the end.
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you know Russ , i know people who can support you and the little " voices of the fork" which visit you so frequently!! the only trouble is - you have to want the help for it to be effective :D i must say the water wheel idea sounds fabulous if you can get it to work - i just hope you dont run out of planks to make it before you can make any planks - i think!!!
well done FB glad all that gentle persuading has paid off - - you should try the same for that estate in the bahamas next ;)
what a great offer Kate - in fact we could all come over and dig a little bit - then move to the next holding and dig there etc. etc. until it was all done!!-mind you with all the pork / home grown produce and wine we would all end up consuming , we would be in no fit state to do anything in the end
linz - i believe you can take rotavators onto planes , as long as you have ordered the in -flight meal :D
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cheers Guy,
but I think we will be ok thanks.... ;) We can cope with all our problems ok now ! We do have nearly 6 acres to dig , so we should keep busy for a few weeks to come ?
The waterwheel problem is exactly as you said , no planks to make the wheel to power the saw to cut the planks ???? oh god ...thats just done me ed in ...... back to digging .........
Yes that would be a great idea !!! ALL go over and dig EVERYWHERE ....we could be like woofers....yes and we could all go dogging !!!! er... GOD NO thats something completely different .....I need a cup of tea.....( think I really need a straight jacket ?) There coming To Take me away HA HA !!! http://youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4
This is nice . They have given me my own room here !!!The walls are so soft!!! They say that if I behave, I may be allowed to go and dig the flower beds !!!! I don't know what they have done with my friends though ? ( they don't know but I have already worked out how I can escape!!!! he he he ) ;) ::)
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I doubt there will be any digging today. The wind keeps on popping up every now and then , and we are getting medium/heavy showers as well . The very heavy rain has turned everywhere into the Somme now, yesterday it was even difficult to walk across the fields, (the top field and hay field are sloping), without almost sliding arm over elbow! Although it won't do me any harm having a break , it does get boring ,stuck indoors most of the time. :(
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Ok the weather here has been okay up until about 2.00 o'clock, so i went out and did a little bit with the cultivator, then came back in for a rest cos with the winds we get here it can be a bit much for me sometimes, I put everything a way and then hubby decided that he would do some cultivating too so out came the cables and the cultivator , he got to work while he was doing this I was busy setting up the new 'mini' Polly tunnel system I bought recently in lidls. I have been able to put them over two of the raised beds not sure if they will survive in the weather we have but you can only try these things, while hubby was still using the cultivator I came back in doors as it started to rain but before I started the dinner I planted a few seeds to go in to the raised beds, I have plans to make some more raised bed in the near future.
The seeds that I planted in to the individual trays
they are
Leeks musselburgh they where great last year in the front garden so am gona try them again but I am giving them a head start by planting them in to seed trays first.
lettuce -Crisphead
Corn salad 'Baval
and finally some Cabbage 'Copenhagen Markert' (summer)
hope fully they wont take too long and the frost and the snow will be warming up soon so I can plant them out.
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Well done Linz ( and Hubby) ,
sounds like you had a productive day inspite of the weather ? It can be a gamble , (seed sowing ) , this time of year ,but if they get through ok then at least you have a really good head start to the seasons first crop !!! The leeks should make it through anyway , tough as old boots as a rule. Although I don't know what your weather is like for growing in ? Mini poly's
( cloches ) can sometimes take off like really good kites in the wind !!!! ;D, yes, it has happened to me a time or two !! Yours should get a fair bit of protection from the house and the fence though !!! fingers crossed anyway .
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lol yeah the cloches are waited down and pined down with stones and 'tent pegs'
they are not gona stay on for long just untill the wind dyes down and the weather warms up.
the seeds are in the kitchen sitting on a drainner at themoment and will do untill their is live, they are the wee individual cell trays so they can't say in them for long, was gona go out and take some photos but it rainning to much i think just to stand out in the rain for pictures.
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yep, belt and braces ( stones and Tent pegs ) , better safe than sorry !!! ;) . No point in getting soaked just for a few pics, there will be dry spells to pop out in to do that , won't there ??? ::) ::)
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mm few and far between lol,
Just had an idea and popped to the green house and found the heated propergator and pop the need seeds on to it the warm their feet
no lid as it think it might be a bit better
it to big for plastic bag over the top
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isn't it dark there yet with you ? It is almost dark here !!! can just still see to walk around . I have heard of gardening by the moon before , but didn't really think people did it ? lol ;D
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well at least you have all seemed to survive the weather (touch wood)i have spend today on damage control - all fencing and trellissing back in place now - although the broad beans are still looking battered. The polytunnel faired better than i expected ( i guess the hole the pigs chewed in the side of it allowed the gales to blow straight through intead of taking off!! :D) luckily this hasnt stopped my early lettuce developing - i reckon another week or so and they will be ready to start harvesting ;D
potted on the tomatoes today - we now have 100 tomato plants of different varieties and the conservatory looks like a nursery - i plan to keep 20 plants and sell the rest on (as with all surplus plants this year) what price should i charge for an established tomato plant?? i had thoughts of about £1000 therefore creating an income of £80 , 000 - but im not overly sure if my marketing skills would create enough interest :D lol -
the caulis are doing wonderfully well also so they will need potting on soon to ;D
Welldone with all you have done Linz - sounds like you are making great inroads
Russ , what can i say!!! the video has confirmed my worse thoughts - on a serious note though i hope the ground is starting to dry out and you can get out and about a bit more - nothing worse than a forced stop to work :)
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yes ...no news is good news , so they say ?, no horror stories !!! lets hope everyone got away without too much disruption . The weather was a bit blustery here today , but blue sky most of the time, nice and warm too. I did a little bit of digging too ...hehehe... I think it is back to lots of heavy rain though soon , oh well ..back to normal.
Good news on the lettuce being nearly ready Guy.....and think of all that money you can spend when you sell the toms.... what type were they ? Moneymaker ? ;) :D ;D
Oh yes ...as you have no doubt guessed ...I escaped ...hahaaaa heheee hohooo
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welldone on the escape!! - yes , my plan is to sell of the excess toms and cauli plants to pay off my mortgage - cant believe i didny think of it before doh :D.
v. close with " moneymaker" though - they are maskotka - spooky eh!! we also had a "ping pong!!" to plant on in hanging baskets - we thought this would be a novelty seller? time will tell.
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ok ...did a bit of digging on the plot ...just trimming edges mainly , but did cut back a bit at the far end , to widen it up and make it more even sided. However, the weather was a bit drizzly and was threatening to tip it down . I couldn't go onto the dug ground as it is still far to wet to stand on , so couldn't do much else , the rain settled in to more steady stuff so knocked it on the head for the day . Still got a bit done....I must start on the J. Artichoke bed next , as the ones I have ready to plant are starting to sprout. So back to heavy digging , this will be on virgin ground too, covered in a thick mat of tufted grass and brambles. It is mainly ,clear bramble and grass and then hit it with the pick axe, far to stoney to try the spade or even a fork.
Maskotka toms !! are they cherry type ones ? I think I have grown them , very nice they were too...if I remember correctly ?
Thanks for the guestbook message (on my stud dog web site) Linz and Jan, Kate and Townie , I always forget to check that page ! Steve is always the one who gets the aaahhhhhhs and oooooos , well he is named after Steve McQueen after all !!!!
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good luck with the artichoke bed russ - sounds heavy going! the maskotka are a general purpose tom( so it says) but hopefully tasty!
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We have a large wooden hangar which is in a very sunny position and I had planned to put tomatoes in pots all along one side and in hanging baskets, I have planted loads of seeds (Moneymaker) which are now starting to come through in the plazzy greenhouse but now I have been told by a neighbour that no-one in my area grows tomatoes outside as we suffer badly with blight so it looks like I will be growing under cover and will have to scale down my operation to just a few plants in the plazzy :(. Maybe I should cover the spud box with netting as well, what do you think?
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It may be a very good idea to follow local growers as they have good reason to follow the path they use. I think I must have been just very lucky as I haven't had too much trouble with it myself , and when I have had a touch of it , I was able to cut down all foliage and after a few weeks compost it with manure. I was always told it was ok to do this , as long as you get good heat in the heap and you leave the haulm long enough to die completely before placing in the heap . Here is a link that seems quite good: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3102.html I know it is from the USA , but it does cover the problem in question very well. I hope that helps some.....
cheers, Russ
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http://www.packetseeds.com/index.html
Just found the above link ....good price compared to some shops I thought...everything .95p ;D I also found a really big cabbage upto 11 lbs http://www.packetseeds.com/acatalog/Cabbage_Kamienna_Glowa__Brassica_oleracea_var._cap.html
thats the sort I have been looking for ....they also do the Maskotka toms as well ( these are the ones I had before I think ):
http://www.packetseeds.com/acatalog/Cherry_Tomato_Maskotka__Lycopersicon_esculentum_.html
Funny how when looking for one thing you find another ???? ??? oh well I know what I mean ... ;) :D maybe ? ::)
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thats a good link russ - v.usefull i reckon - we now have our first spud coming through in the polytunnel ;D
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well, another lovely day so far here. I haven't got hardly anything done on the plot really , as it has rained so heavily at night for a few nights now , that I just can not do anything at all . The ground is totally waterlogged , far to wet to work . I have managed to just widen the plot at the far end , just a bit ....a few more feet to go , but I can only just dig and turn the sod ... hehehe literally.. ;) Picked a few stones that could be reached from the side , and de weeded some that could be reached without stepping on the dug soil . It really is frustrating that the weather is really lovely in the day time but really wet at night . Still it will soon change and I will be able to get some seeds sown ... ::) I hope everyone else is doing ok , getting ready for the sowing rush ....lol.....
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Okay i have been quite for a couple of days had a bad 'stomach' attack again but got fed up with sitting on my arse all day and the weather was good too so i got up and packed my troubles in to a draw to to be opened again, lol.
I have now Planted the herbs out in the front of the new section (move them from old garden).
Got some blue bell bulbs and have put them in a lumped area go i can alway move them later. I have been nailing up tellies for the fruit bushes a long the fence, also put up some wires for them to find finally drilled in the hanging baskets i have a couple more to go up but need to buy the bracket, Nailled some 'fence' baskets (the little half ones) and filled two of them with strawberries plants (they are very rustet looking as my hubby save them from the skip, and i have put them up as is).
Also taken some pictures which i will up load to flickrs site soon
Oh i also dug over a small raised bed for the local school Mainly used the rotavator
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really sorry to hear the tummy is playing up again Linz....I hope it eases very soon mate.....but well done on getting loads done despite the tum.....take care though and try not to overdo things especially digging !!! Rusty looking baskets ? ...nothing wrong with RUSTY looking.... ;D
As long as they do the job , good enough , even better as they were free... Just heard the weather for the weekend ...cold spell on the way , possible sleet and snow !!!! watch those seedlings....
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Good morning all!
ive just had a lovley long weekend off work and spent most of it in the garden, planting seeds, bulbs, weeding, burning etc etc if you live near a shop called 'pound-stretcher' or even better 'poundland' they have loads of plants for really really cheap prices (the name poundland is self explanatory!) got a bit carried away with bulbs and ended up making two more trips out to buy more compost and pots! also wyevale are doing a grow your own mushrooms in a box thing for £5 ive never grown them before so thought this would be a safe way to have a first attempt!
;D
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Oh stephen why did you have to tell me that lol
My step dd works in pound-stretcher so i get them even cheaper lol
I'll have to take a look an annoy step dd at the weekend lol
Linz
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here are some picvtures from gardenning that promissed you all
(http://static.flickr.com/2138/2340477667_d45f4fe385_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2290/2340477161_427264794f_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2303/2341308844_825796493d_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2340/2340476391_c769745087_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3111/2341307978_ea268d333a_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2352/2341307562_62bcec178a_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2366/2341306000_8dd289a72d_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3173/2340473555_322fb391bf_t.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/2373/2341305110_2507ed3012_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3101/2340472719_723c77db75_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3143/2341304094_38aeef9382_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2113/2341303600_cdb8373278_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3188/2341303180_c8ba7547dc_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2049/2340470681_fe7ef9c7be_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2319/2341302268_2652de6bcd_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2174/2341301856_58589bf35b_t.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/3060/2341301500_34a50313f2_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2080/2340468761_c7749720ac_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3070/2340468197_439c0e88b3_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2089/2340467967_088365ee05_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3116/2340467851_fc0a047118_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3183/2340467623_eaa11c3432_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/2002/2340467371_9b4c977b80_t.jpg)(http://static.flickr.com/3141/2340467145_131acdacb1_t.jpg)
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good to see everyone has been keeping busy!! hope you are better linz? we have started off the chillis and aubergines now , andhave potted on the caulis (250 of them :o ) started to dig the asparagus bed on Sunday (despite the atrocious weather) so it was all muddy and clay like -it ended upbeing an unmitigated disaster - so i huffed off and chopped some logs instead >:(!!! the weather has now cleared up , and it promises to be a dry (if cold) week ahead , so i shall attack the bed with renewed vigour this weekend!! ;)
Good luck with the mushrooms Stephen , ive tried the plugs this year - dont look too promising though!!
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bad luck with the asparagus bed Guy , I am having the same sort of problem here at the moment, very wet so can't even think of standing on dug ground. The Somme like mud, sticks like the proverbial to a blanket....Watch out for the cold spell on the way now though ...it may zap any unprotected seedlings...
Good luck also with the mushies Stephen .....the boxes usually work quite well . I haven't done any for a while now , but when I have they worked for ages , giving plenty of lovely fresh mushies....I am very lucky though as I get plenty of big open mushies from the land. I also have to watch my Wiemaraner,( Millie ), as when they are about, she eats the magic mushrooms that seem to abound on the land ....she is out on Pluto as it is , she doesn't need any help in that department.
Looks like things are getting done there with you linz !!! It's THAT time of year now when everything starts to pop up ....lovely....Mind you , it can be hard work keeping up with it all from now on ... I hope you didn't spen toooooo much money in Pound stretcher ;) ;)
I only got a bit more widening done today . Not that much more to do, seem to have saying that for weeks now ????, but whats left is slow going as I have to turn the top 6"-9" of soil then break up the stone layer underneath de stone it then break up the clay underneath that ....and the one thing I hate more than digging ..is pickaxing !!! The worst thing is when the pick bounces off a huge stone , it nearly kills me .... :'( :'( levering out the big stones is murder too....here are some I dug out earlier.....along with mental Millie and poor lovely ole Ghillie RIP.
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/Image30.jpg)
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rusty ive thought of a possible money maker for you.....
might be worth a try and see if the local garden centre would like to pay you for your large rocks! wyevale and the local garden centres normally charge a fortune for 'decorative rocks' like the ones in ya pic! proerably be best to ask at an independant gaden centre rather than a chain like wyevale!
ive been banned from the mushrooms!!! They are my oh's little project and im not allowed to touch!! i suppose its fair as i have claimed all of the space in flower beds and all of the pots and i did spend quite alot of his hard earned cash on more pots and compost lol
;D
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lol... if I had really dug all those monsters out of the plot I would be dead.... :o :o ;) Although I have had one or two like the smaller ones in the pile , the ones in the pic are from the quarry just a hundred or so yards up the road. It would be a really good money maker if they were mine though , as you say it costs a fortune these days .
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we have received a set back today - two of my cucumber plants have decided to flopover and pretend to be dead -i wont have any of that malingering though ,so have given them a jolly good talking to and told them to pull themselves together. it seems linda used a new compost with high water retention qualities - so i dont know if they are just too moist? will replant and see ??? it will be like an episode of dr kildare in my conservatory today trying to resussitate the plants - i have asked if linda would put on a nurses costume to add to the dramatic feel of the situation - but alas, no!! :D lol - although i think she liked the idea of the conservatory having medical overtones 'cause she walked off muttering something about me needing to see a dr!!! :D lol
my mushroom logs containing the "plugs" now have a healthy covering of white spores and are nearly ready to go out ( as long as "harvey" doesnt drag them around the garden.
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lol oh no i thought we only had one nutter but know we have two Russ and Guy,
But am alright in my wee little white room with pillows on the wall incase i hurt my head lol
Not been in the garden today i have that thing we call some work todo, This happen when you don't have a normal 9-5 work and you get summode todo work and work you @rse for 3 week straight lol (althought it best todo it this way when you have a diable son as you can take him along and the 'bosses' don't mind) The only prob is am knackered didn't get home until 7 last night and started at 8 in the morning It's great being contractors aye. Finished early today so am home vegging out watch all the progs i recorded.
Linz
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thats really terrible news Guy ...I am so sorry for you mate ....you could try a tenns machine , that may be enough to resuscitate your cucumbers :o ( ooooh er misses ) can't think of anything worse than a floppy cucumber !!!! ;D Oh well good luck with them .....
The nurses uniform !!!!! :o ::) ermmm oooooh arrrrgh ...well I would have thought that would cure floppy cucumber syndrome in an instant.... :o Go on Linda ....play the game , think of all the poor little cucumbers you could save!!!......oh and err.. pictures required.... :o :o ;D ;D Purely for scientific research of course..... ;)
Make sure the mushroom logs are well out of dog wee reach ..... or is that Harvey the invisible 6' rabbit ? Anyway , I think dog wee kills the spore/mycelium so therefore no mushies !!!!
Nutters , NUTTERS ? ...nothing wrong with me .....they said that when they let me out ....I even got a certificate to prove it ....well they said I was certified anyway so near enough ...
Well if you can't get on one veggie plot, then vegging out on the sofa in front of the tv is near enough Linz...why not...the weather here is going downhill rapidly at the moment ....getting very dark and dismal , steady rain and strong wind , and the temp is going down and down ....winter is back .....still I did get a bit more digging done today before it started to get bad....Really annoying , as the ground has just dried enough to get on and clear ....oh well ,back to the Somme again !!! Think I may go back to the 1600's again tonight and watch Tales from the Green Valley !! Only the warm summer ones though .. ;)
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you have a well deserved rest linz!!
yes Russ - Harvey is one of the dogs , the 6' rabbit is under control these days - he lives in the big warren over the hill and under the oak tree!!!
alas the cucumbers , are still floppy :( but nevermind day off tomorow , so im sure a rest from the pressures of work will work wonders :)
good news in the polytunnel - we now have 7 spuds coming through!! hussar!
Russ , i think i know why you like to spend so much time in hospitals - not for your "special problems" - but for interest in nurses !!! :D lol
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It is a really horrible day here today now . There were a few ok spells around mid day , so managed to get a bit more widening of the plot done . Just a little tiny corner bit left to do now. There is still the pick axe work to be done on the widening strip , but I will just do as much of that as I can each day. I seem to manage about 6'x4' per day of that , but I don't really try anymore than that as it is probably my most hated job of all, it jars just about every bone in my body .... :'( Inspite of all the rain , sleet and hail we have had here, the plot seems to be holding up ok ...it must be the very strong wind drying it out . So with a lot of luck , I will be able to clean the plot of all weed and grass before too long. ::)
Nurses: the last asyl....errrr hospital I was in , all the nurses were male ... >:( didn't like that idea much , so dug my way out ...hehehe.... Good news about the spuds Guy ....they should make up for the floppy cucumbers ???? ;)
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( didn't like that idea much , so dug my way out ...hehehe....
So how does this make you feel, do you still feel that you have missed something, is this the reason why you still dig !!! hehe
Nothing done here in ways are gardenning just bit of work (which is guess it good) not much rain around where i was but their was some sleet pretending to be snow around here.
It's typical tomatoes and pumpkins sitting on my breakfast bar and it starts to snow, I can't even put them in the greenhouse cos it is not been clean or cleared yet of the other winters items that you chuck in it when you get caught in a rainstome over the winter. It a very small greenhouse i think about 4 x 6 foot which isn't big at all
hope everyone is doing fine
Linz the working one who is fed up with it already lol still have a couple of week of it to go, untill the next lot
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I didn't stay long enough for the Psychoanalysis , I managed to escape ;) Like people that climb mountains or go potholing , I dig because it's there..... :D ;D
The weather is really horrible here at times .... howling wind , rain sleet and a touch of snow here and there . But so far it is only in short blasts , then it goes a bit calm and dry before the next batch. But it is cold......They are saying it is going to be like this till Tuesday !!!! So I am glad I don't have anything sown as yet ....Don't work too hard Linz , and keep warm, spring will soon appear !!!! ;) ::) well maybe ?
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it's just one of them jobs that isn't finished until it is finished, So just do what dorry say (finding nemo) 'Just keep swimin, just keep swimmin'
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dont worry linz - the weather will soon turn and you can be out and about again!!
carefull with that pickaxe Russ , that jarring aint 'alf painful. weve had a really bitter wind here today , really cutting :(
managed to chop loads of logs though , which are now happily "roasting on an open fire" (which in turn is roasting the dogs lying in front of it aaaaahhhhhhhh :))
10 spuds now showing through in the "tunnel" -cucumbers ,alas , now seem to have given up the ghost , although they are now back in the propagator to warm their bottoms :o - personally i believe its Lindas fault for not going along with my ideas ;D
we also managed to get two rows of 1st early spuds into the garden , they are "home guard" - stupid boy!!!! :D - i used scaffolding planks to walk on the tilled ground in between the spud rows which made it really easy and spaced them apart perfectly - although a gust of wind nearly blew me into the greenhouse - "dont panic !"
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yep ... your right mate .. the jarring goes through my whole body ...tip to toe... I really do hate it , the only problem is I have to give it a good old swing to get the pick down into the hard ground. It is just a matter of luck if I hit a big stone or not !!!
Those poor ole cucumbers ... warming their bums ? they don't like it up 'em ..they don't like it up 'em Mr Mainwearing !!!! ;) ::)
I will start with my spuds as soon as this cold spell has gone. My old planks I used to have, gave up the ghost ...rotted to nothing . So will have to get something again , I may make a string ladder type of thing . Just loads of 2"x1"x12" with a hole each end , then thread some thin rope through the holes and knot it to kep the 2"x1"s an inch or so apart . Then when I want to walk on the ground just roll it out ..instant path . Keep warm .....
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like that idea of the instant path , v. ingeneous , you weren't a producer on "blue peter" were you? :D
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lol.. I prefered Magpie when I were a lad ....( the sound of the Hovis music plays - oh sod it not that again ... ;D . I actually nicked the idea from a type of rope ladder looking thing, with metal rungs, used in deserts to get vehicles out of soft deep sand. Just have 4 , drive onto 2 of them then move the other 2 to the front and drive on them ..and so on ..then when you are out of the sh--sand just roll them up and chuck em in the back .. I always think out of the box , I see something and think how could I use that idea ? Maaaaaaaagpieieieieie, one for sorrow, two for joy, three fo----oh goddddd must go and take me pills...
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oh dear !! never mind russ , the pills should last some time i think ;)
have planted on another 2o strawberry plants today - these are now snug and warm in the p-tunnel. the first of the radish are through also , and..........we have managed to salvage two of the cucumbers!! hussar , although it is still early days!! the log pile has also received a new roof , since the last one blew off :o
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a beautiful day today - nice and warm , with a good wind to dry things out - we have got the next batch of spuds in (charlottes) and have also covered the new raised bed area with cloches to help them dry out before attempting more digging on them after the last attempt. i have also received notification of my transfer to another store which is much closer to me , thus saving on the travelling time - this will give me loads of more time to work here!!! :o - my boss couldnt quite grasp the reason for me wanting to move stores , and just looked at me as if i were slightly deranged when i discussed it with him!! but at last it has happened (well from monday anyway)- just in time for the clocks to change too - even more time!!
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yep .. I think the weather has been much the same here as you've had Guy . It has gone a bit cloudy and cold now though since about 4 this afternoon. Well done with getting some more spuds in ...The ground is drying out well here too now , at last .
Good news about the transfer too eh ... well done... as you say more time from now on to do all those jobs that you haven't done so far that you should have done....errrrr maybe not so good after all ....? ;) :D ;D Oh well, congratulations anyway mate .....
I have been digging away as normal here ... the plot is very nearly done now. The pick axing is the pain still ... so much stone comes out it is unbelievable , still it will come in handy up on the track . The weather is meant to be getting warmer again now , over the next week anyway, what we will get after that is anyones guess ? Fingers crossed , the temp will rise enough for the grass to start moving again , I can ease up feeding the horses then . From what the chap who I get my haylage from was saying today the cost of hay/haylage/straw is going to be through the roof next year....so be warned everyone. ::) ::)
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at last ...this time I really have done the last of the digging on the veggie plot . All that remains now is to do the pick axing of the newly dug stuff . What that is , is I have dug down about 6" or so and then I hit a layer of stone . This I have to break up with the pick , remove all the stones and then replace the top soil and sow with seeds...So still plenty to do but it is only a triangle going from nothing one end to 6' the other end and 60' long. The comfrey bed is really in need of a good clean up now , and now that the comfrey is growing away well I can see where to dig out all the grass etc., without digging up the plants. The comfrey bed will have to be enlarged as well now , that is really hard going as it is all undug ground full of stone, but with that I can just do a 2'x15' strip across the bed each day . That will just be an on going thing throughout the year. Really good thing comfrey ...it will provide anywhere from 50-100 tons of plant material (for either feed for stock, compost heap or liquid feed for veggies) per acre, per year . I would recommend getting Lawrence D Hills book on Comfrey, he covers just about everything you could think of including all the information an all varieties of comfrey with all the good and bad points . I grow the bocking 14 type, very consistant and sterile so no seeding everywhere. From 50 plants I got about 500lbs of feed for the horses last year , that was 5 cuts giving about 2lb per plant per cut, and off the top of my head I think comfrey is about 22% protein , so very worth while as a free feed supply.
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Where did you get your comfrey from? Did you sow it from seeds? I got a couple of roots off e-bay, which is obviously not going to produce very much.
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I got my first 5 root cutting portions from chase organics . I cut these in half to give me 10 root cuttings and then each year I just dig up a plant and take a couple of the long thick roots and cut them into sections to plant again. The only way to propagate bocking 14 is by root cuttings as the plant is sterile , seeds will not germinate . If you dig up a plant you will see a big bunch of roots , on a big plant , these can give a large amount of cuttings , so 5 root cuttings after a year will produce say 20-50 more root cuttings each . So you would have between 100-250 plants the second year. Each of these will provide as many (20-50) root cuttings again , so plant numbers can increase by huge amounts. By using the plants to provide cuttings , they won't produce maximum amounts of leaf growth . However, they will still give a fair crop, just try to give them as much manure as you can .
cheers
Russ
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We've done the same as Russ but on a smaller scale. Marvellous stuff, comfrey.
We have it growing wild around here and we did take the elaves from that before ours grew.
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(http://[img])(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk194/guyengley/DSCF0009.jpg)[/img]
Hussar - got the picture thing working!!!! - welcome to my world :o - a close up of this years purple sprouting ;D
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There's no stopping me now!!! this is clearly work in progress , so now you have all seen it , it will inspire me to go and get it fixed!!!
[img(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk194/guyengley/DSCF0012.jpg)img]
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well done Guy ....mastered this new fangled techno stuff at last mate...? ::) ::) the first pic blimey ,I could taste the broccoli... and the next one ....well I just wish I could be so neat and tidy .... :-[ I will have to take some new pics of my tip now. I went mad today and did 40'x5' with the pick .....nearly killed me ...although I only have about the same amount left to do ...I doubt if I will do it in one day ...in fact I am sure I won't. ::) ;D But however long it takes , the end is in sight .... :o
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(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/The%20Veggie%20Plot/IMAG0001.jpg)
that is a picture of the plot in the first year of growing, strange really it doesn't look too untidy there ... :D The plot is wider and longer than that now....(but NOT as tidy!!!).
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You are both stars!
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dont worry - im not always that tidy - but as it was for a photo!!! that was a lot of pickaxing!!! i thought your veg patch looked a bit up and running - til i realised it was an old one!! - not long to wait til its looking better!!
ta Rosemary - i reckon everything that everyone on these forums does makes them all stars!!!
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the next few weeks will start to get more and more busy on the sowing side of things. Lots of raking and weeding, huge amounts of manure shifting ( that was SHIFTING by the way !!) . From now on it starts to become a rush to get it all done. Lets hope theweather is kind to us all for our veggies....
Oh and the amount of stone I dig out of the plot would make me a rock star hehehe... but the real stars are those that do a full time job AND keep a holding going ...
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got another 12'x5' done with the pick today . I stopped at that as it started to chuck it down . However, it did stop after a few minutes so I could have done more ....but to be honest, I didn't feel like doing anymore !! :o I did do some more stone collecting though , not huge amounts , just a few buckets .The weather forecast says that we have a day or so of yukkie weather on the way so I don't know if I shall be able to get the last bit of pickaxing done over the next couple of days . There is only a patch 28'x5' left to do now anyway , so no panic .
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Hi russ
your soil looks worrying like ours - stone and more stone. We grow most of our veg in raised beds but have just started a new area in our field which looks quite promising. Now we know why our predecessors smiled ruefully when we talked about bringing some stone with us that we had at our old place.
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the picture was taken not long after I first dug the plot. The soil is much more loamy, I suppose you would call it, now . It was very much just like clay in the picture. But a few years of growing and the application of loads of horse manure have changed it a lot. It still does have loads of stone in it though . It is strange , but no matter how thoroughly I dig and de-stone the plot , it always seems to reappear in equal quantities ? I wonder if the pet stone craze will ever return ...?,I could make a fortune if it did... ;D
cheers
Russ
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You are all so good at this! I dream of having plots like this and do feel inspired to have another go when we move to the other house. It certainly makes sense to have individual spaces making weeding so much easier. The problem for me since I have lived in France is that for the two summer seasons I tried, for the first time ever I may add, I got so overwhelmed with the weeds. I planted young plants bought from the market and tended them regularly, but it was all done in one larger plot. The runner beans shaded everything and the weeds were a nightmare, so disheartend I gave up and didn't even try last year.
I will plough through all the advice and info on this thread, but in the meantime, COULD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME ON MY SEED PROBLEM on the garden section. I really want to put some colour onto the new propery and try and made the huge bank leading up to the road a little more interesting. One thing I have noticed since assisting/project managing the fencing down there is that the wind is cutting right across that whole area. Could this be the reason for nothing growing on the bank area?
It could be just the place for the sort of planting in the Scotish areas perhaps - wind proof!
Thanks
Kate
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Kate,
oh blimey ..two years of weeds and THEN you stopped...the first couple of years is really the worst time for weeds. All the weed seeds in the soil get their chance to germinate after years of being dormant. The best way round it , if you have the patience ?I don't!! , is to clear the plot, dig it and remove all perenial weed roots, and then let the weeds germinate. After a few weeks remove all of those , either with a hoe or just pull them out . Then let them germinate again , remove again , do this 4 or 5 times and nearly all weeds will have gone. That way you have an empty plot for the first year . I can never do it that way , I just clear what is there let one lot germinate , clear and then plant my veggies, and do loads of weeding ...lol. It is though as I said the first couple of years that are the worst . The number of weeds that pop up after that is very few. Another thing to remember with weeds, and is very true , one years seeding is seven years weeding !!! so never let a weed go to seed. Most have loads of seeds and will cover a plot in no time.
Regarding wild flowers, the thing to remember with them is , they need no fertilizer , in most cases the poorer the soil the better sort of... Most wild flowers will find it hard if not impossible to cope with fast growing modern grass, they will get swamped by it and just disappear. one way to get them established is to make little clear patches of ground and sow in those , like little mini flower beds. They should grow ok in those and go to seed ,and then slowly spread their way about.
As with all things there is no easy fast way round it really .... It is just a matter of trial and error , to find out what will grow in the situation they are in . What you have to work out is, do you want all the flowers to be wild type ? and just from that area ? That way you can find out what are native to your area and plan your seed sowing from there, or go the non wild route and sow just what you want there , taking into consideration the conditions that they are being sown into. Hope that helps a bit ....not sure if it does though ..?
cheers
Russ
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Thanks Russ, what you say makes a lot of sense. I will give it a go on the bank and do as you say. The garden plot is a little way off yet - autumn probably but will take note of the weed info - I need to find some patience don't I. My OH would say I have none so hopefully with your help I can prove him wrong!
Kate
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Hello,
I found with my own garden that the best way to find stuff that will grow is just to ask my neighbours what works and then copy that. In my first year I bought loads of plants by mail order from England and Wales and most of them were entirely unsuitable for the hebridean weatherand either died immediately or struggled for a few months, then died. I stuck in some plants from the local nursery, that everyone else has here and they took off. I hope that's not insultingly obvious - but it took me a year or so to catch on to this.
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It is a really sensible suggestion. The problem is that we are surrounded in fields and there are no wild flowers on our property or around that I can see. This may well be telling me something as you say in reverse if you follow me.
There must be something that will do the job. I will persever and see what happens when I get there.
Where we live at the moment, some 5km away, the hedgerows are deep in primroses and wild daffs - what you would expect to see this time of year. That is what I would like to see at the other house.
Thanks again for your input.
Kate
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Hello Kate ,
over here in the UK it would be illegal to dig up wild flowers but I am not sure if it is the same where you are ? . However at the moment it sounds like both places are yours ? ::) soooo, you could just move a few from where you are now to where you will be moving too...Therefore you aren't stealing anyones wild flowers !!! You would that way at least find out if they will survive on the new property. You could also buy the big bulk bags of daff bulbs cheap and plant them ....I hate doing that , it seems to take forever. With primroses and the like , a few packets of wild types will provide loads of plants ,and if you sowed those in trays and potted on into 3" pots and kept them in those till large enough to transplant , you could then plant them where you want. Over time at least some will survive , hopefully !. As with any form of gardening , time is the main problem . It takes a fair amount of time to transplant say 200 plants. But you could break it up and just do something like 10-20 a day. The thing to remember though is don't go for the bigger garden type crosses or varieties , as they probably wouldn't cope with what sounds like a bit of a harsh environment. Just go for wild type ones , they are very hardy . Just a thought though ...have you about growing your own fuel for the house ? Willow... you could easily grow all your own wood . Free heating !!! you could also make baskets from it , even burn the baskets when they wear out . Like I say ..just a thought...
cheers
Russ
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had a few days of not getting much done on the plot. It has been so wet, I could do hardly anything . Still , I got about 3'x5' done yesterday and about 6'x5' done today . So it is still getting done very slowly. I managed to pick a fair amount of stone out , but I am sure that someone is sowing STONE SEEDS on the plot :o ::);) There is a deffinite feel of season change here at the moment. It feels much nicer in general , the birds know it too , they are singing like mad now. The land is in a small valley, more or less surrounded by woodland on 3 sides and tall hedges and the bird song is almost deafening at times. All I need now to make life perfect, is for the grass to start growing, along with the veggies of course... ;) :D ;D
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Well done Russ- at least it is something. Things have slowed up a bit here to , due to the weather , but as you say there is a definate change afoot - which is really helped by the clocks being altered - bliss!!!
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Oh yes to the time change. Got home today and it was still light - could inspect the greenhouse, the hens were still out, the hills were still light - fantastic.
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It's been lovely here the last few days - hope it lasts 'cos I'm on holiday from tomorrow night for a fortnight and I have a long to do list.
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well then , where shall I start ? The thing is, although the weather has been lovely here for a few days now, I haven't been doing much on the plot because I had a funny turn as they say... :o I was doing my favourite job 'pickaxing ' when I had a horrible feeling in my left arm . Not a shooting pain , just a horrible feeling , along with shortness of breath and feeling very clammy . Hey ho I thought !!! here we go ...but it stayed at that and got no worse . Today I actually got to the docs. He checked my blood pressure and heart and said they were those of a 20 year old , mind you , he didn't say wether the 20 year old was alive or not ? ::) Anyway ...I have to go and have tests , all the usual ones , and we will see where we go from there. I can carry on doing all that I do as normal , just leave off the pickaxing , no worries on that score then . So I am feeling a bit better in my mind now, and can put my thoughts back towards the plot and sowing all the seeds etc. I can tell you for sure it scares the c**p out of you when something like that happens !!! Well it did me anyway. :o
So all systems go again, all be it on a slightly , well a bit more than slightly !!, reduced level , till I have the tests and get the results. I don't want to tempt fate too much !! I can tell you one thing ... the thought of having a heart attack is enough to make you have one !!!! ::) ;D Anyway ...still alive and kicking, albeit no picking !! hehehe A heartfelt cheers to you all ...Russ :D
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Russ, lovey! Take care and really look after yourself. We certainly couldn't have anything happening to you. What we all do here on TAS without you? Take it easy, less gardening and more posting! - let your fingers do the talking and the walking!
Kate :( :(
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Hi Russ - take care mate - keep to the drs orders until the all clear eh!! ;) and no more watching the "Taffinator" if that is the effect it has on you :D
I too am on holidays from next week , and there are endless tasks to get on with. hopefully we will all survive the cold snap which is being promised!! out with all the fleece again i suppose!! good luck all!! Keep us posted as to how you get on Russ!!(http://[IMG]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk194/guyengley/DSCF0003.jpg)[/i(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk194/guyengley/DSCF0003.jpg)mg]
a little piccy to cheer you up!!
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Impressive Guy! They really look like a healthy plants!
My mum bought me two marrow plants a few years ago with all the instructions on what to do with them. I did everything asked of me and the plants were georgeous! When she came to visit again I was keen to show her how well I had done.. Yes I had done well, but not with the plants she gave me - I had cultivated two dock leaves and killed off the marrows!
Kate
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hello Kate and Guy,
thanks for the nice words....I will be taking things very easy till all tests are done and results are back . The doc did say I could do everything that I normally do except very heavy prolonged hard work !! PICKAXING !!!! well I only have about 10'x5' left undone so that can wait till I know whats what. Mind you the farmer that drops the haylage off, dropped one right in front of the entrance gate to the land , that meant that the day before yesterday I had to shift a very big heavy round bale at least 30' along the very muddy track...Sods law kicked in, the one in the way , I had 2 delivered , was twice as heavy as the other one !!! Well , instead of putting my shoulder to the bale and just pushing , as I would normally do , I got out the chain and winch, hitched them up to the 4x4 and shifted it that way . I still can't drive past it , but I can at least walk in and out of the gate now. So as they say, more than one way to skin a cat !!! :cat:
Funny you should say about the taffinator Guy , I was in stitches at some of the clips while I was feeling a bit strange .... So limited myself to watching just a few at a time... The plants are looking good mate ..I love this time of year when it all starts to kick in again , a little blip on the way at the weekend snow on sunday so they say ? So watch out !!! Oh and enjoy your holiday mate !!!
Kate ....why didn't you ask ? I have millions of docks you could have if you want them ? I did something sort of similar when I was a kid. We had a lot of convolvulus in our garden and I thought the best way to get rid of it would be to chop up all the roots into tiny bits !!!! Result, billions and billions of bindweed plants everywhere for about 3 years .... We live and learn ;D
cheers
Russ
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hiya all glad to see that every one is up an about on their plot (sorry to hear about pain in your arm rusty, how it works out allright), am back in the land of the living again.
Well I have had a week and a 1/2 of contracted work I was based in inverkeithen and i saw my frist bee lol of the season, I have some picture of the lovely scenray on my camera phone
Then a nipped off to Ayr (craig tara caravan park) for a wee four day holiday, and also have some lovely photoes which i'll add to my flickrs page soon, once i have gotten on top of the post etc at home.
I have gotten little plants on the window sill (i set up two heated based with capillary matting under them) while i was away and I have come home to find little seedling enjoying the sun from the window the next thing is i just need to weather to warm up and no frost or snow to come down (can someone tell nature that it is April up here please...................) Again i post some pictures of them once I have gotten myself organised.
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slight change in the weather...lol ... well they did say it was on the way !! Today is very cold and windy , and about every hour or so we are getting small snow showers. Nothing sticking so far . I did some work on the plot though, by the time this cold snap goes it should be ready to start everything off slowly .
Glad to hear everything is ok Linz...hope you had a nice few days hols too...I am fine at the moment thanks ..... taking things easy for a while , all the really heavy work is done now anyway. Just easy stuff from here on in . Keep warm in the cold spell . ;D
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thanks kate - yes i am very impressed with them , i think it is fantastic you tried to cultivate docks - a most undervalued and misunderstood plant!!!!! we are now using our first lettuce of the year from the polytunnel which are tasty and crisp (maybe they are just frozen!!! lol :D ) and the radish are starting to grow nicely as well -disaster though , the propane bottle ran out which runs the p-tunnel heater AND i forgot to fleece the newspuds coming through , so all the plants have now flopped over ( b*gger)- we are administering first aid with fleece and warmth etc.so we will see - linz , perhaps you could knit them all scarves!!!!
hope you are better Russ and still not overdoing things?
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lol mabe be i could come up with a pattern that used doc leaves lol
Am currently paintting/staining myself mainly but surposed to be the wall and wooden bits in the house lol(Oh well only taken 2 years to decorate the house).
Just finished stainning the front window frame and have the windows wide open because of the smell of gloss (from skirting boards ) and the varnish.
Also lots of shouting with my disable son as he normally find the wet bit and leans in it lol
I Just need to move my Junk important vauable items around the computer area so this need to be painted which i think will be done at a later date lol.
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Hello Guy ,
yep still alive , so far !!! shame about the spuds getting caught a bit by frost . If the foliage has gone black cut it off before it rots down to the seed spud. New shoots should then sprout again ok . Otherwise fingers crossed they pick up again .
On the plot I have just been taking things steady . Picking stones and a little bit of weeding and removing grass etc. ,and a little bit of gentle raking . So nothing too energetic. Hopefully ? this coming week will see everything starting to get sown . I should have got some stuff done already but circumstances dictated something different over the last week or so...lol ::)
(off topic stuff) I have got some cotton seeds to sow now , that will be to have a go at making my own cotton material/thread etc. , and on the way are some mulberry seeds . They will eventually be the food for some silkworms I will be rearing. The first lot of which I will be feeding bought in dried mulberry leaf. If all goes well I will be able to supply just about all my own needs in cotton , silk , linen(linseed), and hemp. So I will have to get the spinning wheel completed and a loom made , got a really good set of plans for a loom now too.
Linz ,well done on the decorating !!! to get rid of the smell of paint try placing an onion cut in half in the room near the painted parts. The onion seems to soak up the smell !!! Don't use the onion after though as it soaks up all the dodgy chemicals that make the smell , just chuck it afterwards. ;D
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(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk194/guyengley/CopyofDSCF0001.jpg)
a quick update on the raised beds :)
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look good,
still decorating also taking this time to put up pictures etc that has been in boxs from the time we moved in (about 3 years
now). I can't really do much with the gardenning as it still a bit cold and all the seeds are doing their own bit on the window ledge.
Just has 2 mins brake why i eat a packet of sweets my s-son has gotten for me from the ice cream van,
Oh well that all the mix up finished back to work
Oh btw i have decided to become a sort of vegaterian, cos avoiding meats seems to help my stomach problems :)
:)
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Hi, Guy
the beds look great. I like the split rail fencing with the trellis - are you growing anything up it and does it keep the hens out?
What kind of tree is in the foreground?
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well done Guy . Done some more work there then ? Looking tidy as ever !!! Just think it will only be a few short weeks now and the beds will be getting full of veggies......all that lovely grub....I can taste it now. Keep up all the good work mate ...I really do wish I could keep my plot that tidy.... ??? ::) ;D
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thanks all!! - Rosemary , the trellis is used to grow honeysuckle , we also have roses growing up the rose arch in the middle , this is just to give a pleasing aesthetic (spel.?) look to the middle of the garden (like to have some nice flowers around the place) we do, however, grow mangetout , baby corn and french beans up the trellis along the side of the house :D . The tree you mentioned is a victoria plum. the trellis does keep the hens out thankfully , alas as i have neglected to clip their wings for a while they are jumping over the fence at the side!!!! :D
Thanks Russ , it may look tidy there - but you should see my house!!! :D
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I need some advice!!!
I planted some garlic a few weeks ago, they sprouted and all seemed to be going well.... i checked them the other day.... 1 is fine and the leaves / sprout is still green and standing proudly the other 4 have gone a bit brown and limp, (after the snow) should i cut the dead / dying leaves off? leave them? remove the plants? i did unearth one of them and the clove i planted looks fine (no obivous signs of rotting) but i dont have a clue what to do!
Also i (proberably stupidly) put loads of potatoes into a very large pot with no space between them thinking only a couple of them would grow if any at all (im a first time veggie grower!!) i checked on them after the rain yesterday.... i have a pot full of green shoots! is it ok to leave them this closley planted or should i remove some of them?
??? ;D
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hello Stephen,
I have never had that happen with garlic!! still I would just leave them to get on with it, unless , the brown bit starts to rot !!! in which case just cut it off . You could also just buy a few more bulbs and plant another load as well as the ones you have. You can never have too much !!!
The spuds , well it depends on so many things ...size of tub , type of potato, type and fertility of soil, and so on . I have grown potatoes in an old plastic dustbin , and I put 3 King Edwards ontop of about 6" of soil/compost, and then just kept adding more soil mix as they grew till the bin was full. when I emptied the bin it was completely full of very large perfect potatoes . I have never seen so many from so few !!! ;D , it really was full to bursting . So if your tubs are about the size of a black plastic bucket , I would go for about 3 new potatoes and 1 maybe 2, main crop types ! If you take any out go careful and replant in another tub, they should be fine as long as you don't snap to many roots or sprouts. By the way , I have never bought seed potatoes or garlic, I only ever use what I get from the shop/grocers. Just make sure that they are healthy and it should be ok .
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Thanks rusty! i shall leave the garlic alone for the time being and keep an eye on it! both the garlic and potatoes are tesco savers that were on the veg rack for quite a while! i wasnt actually expecting anything to grow!! hmmm well the pot is about the size of a dustbin (gets bigger towards the top) and its filled with a mix of: organic compost, multi purpose compost and soil from the garden! the potatoes sit about 1 and 1/2 foot from the bottom and about 7/8 ins from the top. Ive put quite alot more than two or three potatoes in! i think its more like 15 / 20 large ones! (yes i did get a tiny bit carried away!) my main concern is that they wont have enough room!
:)
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they won't mate!!! if you can ?, empty it out and start from the bottom , a layer of soil/compost then the spuds (say 3 or 4 or maybe upto 6 ?) then a layer of soil. Then as they grow say 6" of sprouting top ...put about 4" of soil on that leaving just 2" above soil . Do the same each time they reach 6" . You carry on like that till you reach the top .The spuds will grow all the way up the stem/roots . When I did mine in a dustbin , I cut the bottom off and turned it upside down. Just like the plastic composters you can get now, it made it much easier to empty out as it is cone shaped...just lift it up and the soil/spuds just stay where they are. Nothing to stop you using one of those composters if you want to keep the bin with a bottom though!!!
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thought i proberably got too carried away!! ive got another big planter with nothing in it so ill empty the current one and use both pots!! i diddnt actually know that the potatoes grew from the stems i thought they grew downwards! think i should research things a bit more in the future! ;D Thanks for your help!! ;D
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you're welcome ...half the fun is in learning ....the other is getting it totally wrong and feeling a right plonker ( a feeling I know only TOO well !!) , but hey ho who cares as long as you enjoy what you are doing . The main thing to remember is , the right way to do something is the way that works for you .... Good luck with them anyway....
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Hiya all just to let you all know because it was such a lovely day today i have been in the garden, would have love to say i did lots of things but alas i havn't but i would say i feel that it has been very productive. In the garden there is three new editions of raised beds sighly different to that of the original three, where as i had run out of useable wood and had to wait for more timber.
My pray where answered with about 30 or so length of pine cladding which was brilliant for me as i have been able to added a couple of pieces together for each side,
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2051/2413518797_f449a91bce_m.jpg) (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2244/2413519303_90e00dda0e_m.jpg) (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2095/2413519857_d148a8805b_m.jpg) (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3243/2413520285_8266de815e_m.jpg) (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2275/2413520893_baa0db7c34_m.jpg) here is a couple of pictures of the new raised beds, the pots are sitting in the raised bed to stop the cardboard /thick paper from flying around in the wind, this in turn to to try and prevent the grass from growing any more before i get a chance to do anything with the raised beds.
I need to get a lot of compost to fill up the raised bed and also the original beds need to have some more compost put in them. I can't really think about planting anything in them at the moment as the weather is not quite good enought.
The big pot that are sitting in the raised bed have got potatoes in them, and are waiting to grow up a bit and then i'll add some more soils to them. There is also a pot which has two onions in them, They where growing on the veg rack so i thought i would see what would happen if they got planted.
Also waitting to be put in the grown is some pink fur apples (which i got from ebay from a seller in orkney)
I have some seedling growing and also some 'starter' plant i pick up from a garden centre very cheaply.
I must retry the runner beans again as the frost has gotten them and need to be redone
Also something to add but wasn't done by me but my hubby is that wee now have outside power and the starting of outside tap :)
We are getting there slowly
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well done Linz,
all looking good with you there now. The weather will soon be changing for the better soon ( fingers crossed ). Never thought to plant sprouting onions :o you will have to let us know what happens to them !! I just use the green sprouting bit instead of spring onions and then the rest just as normal .... I should think that at worst they will just run to seed ? ..nothing to worry about there really , at least you will end up with plenty of onion seed !!! :D
I got the mulberry seeds today !!! I will sow them in a week or so . I was almost shocked at the amount in each packet, there must be 200+ maybe even 500...oh well , here we go round the mulberry bush the mul....errr ummm...sorry about that.....lots of mulberry fruit later then ::).
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not much to report on the veggie plot at the moment . It has been very wet here at nights the ground is still too wet to do much with . If it continues I will put a tarp over it to keep the rain off for a few days. I have been doing a very small amount of weeding but it is far to wet to walk on, so can only do the edges. I did weld the blade part back on the hoe yesterday, it has only been broken for a year ( or so ). It hasn't done too bad ! I bought the hoe and one of my rakes in 1984 !!!! Since then it has had 23 new heads and 19 new handles !!!! HA HA .. :D not really, couldn't resist that. I will have to spend some time making new handles for my spades and forks now too. They are all about the same age as the rake and most have now broken .
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haha im the same age as your ho and rake rusty!! weird!! well done with the raised beds linz theyre looking really good!
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Don't you hate it when folk say that? ;D I have the occasional Skillseeker at work and they cause endless pain / hilarity depending on your standpoint since they were born in 1991!!
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Am a totally dissapointed today as i was getting on with job around the house and in the garden and at some point between 3pm yesterday afternoon and 9am this moring i had stuff taken from my garden, It was only rubbishy wood which i was using for raised beds as far as i can see but it was taken with out permission and it was plain to see what i had been using it for. But it is no where to be seen. An now am stuck with out any wood to finishe my project with and totally pissed off that some one would go in to my garden and taken stuff like this
btw i was only 4 when rusty got his rake and hoe lol
An am all original hehe.
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oh blimey Linz!! what an absolute bugger....They want their hands chopping off. There has been a load of breakins and thefts around here lately too. Someone even stole the papers and mags from outside the one shop in the village ?. I think some people must just steal anything because it is there. At least it wasn't something that had cost the earth , but all the same....they are absolute Bas***ds ....
Now, thanks a lot Stephen and Linz.....you have made an old man feel even older now ???...I was 26/7 when I bought them .... ::) I also still have a hammer that my dad gave me 40 years ago, that still has the original handle ...I (although still all original) am a bit battered and torn , frayed at the edges, worn out ,totally ****** to put it bluntly ... :o ;D::)
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i have come to the conclusion it must have been kids but now we are gona hurry up the plan for the second fence to be put up we have blocked up the partition between new and old garden and moved 'all wood' in to the old section.
Linz
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thats the way Linz - youll beat them in the end (preferably with a big stick!!!)
on a more serious note - i was still at school when the aformentioned rake was purchased :D !!!
Good news on the spuds - after cutting them back (following your advice Russ ) they are showing lots of new growth :) We have also dug the asparagus trenches ( but holding back on planting due to the vvv. cold weather!!!)
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yes yes yes..... I get the idea....no need to rub it in .... I AM AN OLD FOGEY....I have lots of other tools that were new when God was a boy ...and YES that was BEFORE I was born ....just ;) ::) I remember when I were a lad ( the sound of the hovis music plays in the background) errrrrr have I done that before ????? mmmmm, think I must be having one of those moments....anyway.....good news on the spuds mate...usually as long as there is an actual potato there, it will sprout again as long as it hasn't gone black or mushy...
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Hay good news all i mananged to get some more wood this time and it even better that the old stuff lol
It is now tucked away nicely in the shed lol yippy. I have also been granted more of thesame if i need an more
Linz who is a happy bunny today
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Well done Linz,
the only thing is , it means more work making raised beds.... ::) anyway , it's good news . No stopping you now then ? A nice big dog with an outside kennel might be a good idea too ? It would make anyone think twice before jumping over your fence !!!!!
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I did have a medium size dog but he pass in oct would love a new one but hubby don't like :pug: I just lean my parents one, when i visit lol
What i think i need is a randomly spraying water thingy lol that get the :cat: too
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sorry about the dog Linz, I lost one of mine at christmas. One of those movement sensing cctv would catch on video , anyone prowling !!!
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lol knowing my area they would nick that too lol
We are going to put up another section of fencing and possible see if there is a motion sensor or a simple electric circuit we can wire up to the fence (not to make it electrified, but it would be a good idea) that would make a noises if the circuit is broken. eg gate is opened
Linz
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The :dog: would be nicked too lolo
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An old trick from my security consulting days...... Take some old scaffold boards the length of the fence you want to protect,lay them flat on the grass/soft surface,and then randomly nail 6inch nails right through them. Turn them over,nails facing up,and line about a foot inside of the fence. Alternatively,depending on what type of fence you have... twist two strands of barbed or razor wire together and secure inside the fence an inch down from the top. Both options are totally legal and the laws have changed to protect the homeowner,not the victim of your security measures,now. Or...... a trip wire attached to a crop/crow scarer (it's like a sawn-off shotgun barrel,with blank or rocksalt cartridges fitted). ;D
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lol i like the last one but i think it might make a mess of the fence
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Okay hiya all,
The Garden jobs that have been done so far are
- outside electric
- outside water supply
- the post for the new section of fencing
- Planted some bulbs of daffies, and other corm etc which i have bought and put in bulbs until we had room
- Un-dug some stones which have been buried in the areas that i wanted to put the bulbs
Jobs done in the house
- Laminate flooring lifted (and is gona be used in garden the make the fence 'billy proof' for when he come to stay)
- New lino bought and placed in kitchen
- New lino bought for both bathrooms (still waiting to be place but that will be easy~hubby is doing this while i type) ;D
Miscalinus jobs
- I managed to get some more wood so it is now safely tucked up in the shed
Here are some pictures from today
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2203/2421489790_42304b9b88_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2334/2421490026_d8c65c825a_m.jpg)(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/2420675385_8dd4c180e4_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2125/2420675823_360135b634_m.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2420676173_d1fa28f042_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2390/2421491578_02fc7a31d8_m.jpg)(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2420676861_9d25c9a9a6_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2421492250_feec1f0a37_m.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2355/2420677643_091158623b_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2271/2420678015_05e79f3d3e_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/2420678507_4dcf6d734d_m.jpg)(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2420678923_8871e4aba6_m.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3222/2421494342_5159489f78_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2036/2421494930_02fb6cc401_m.jpg)(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3274/2420680257_b15e611a5e_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2386/2421495726_eb7dd4a8e3_m.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2161/2421496132_9f933c6209_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2411/2421496564_c6186b1a85_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/2421496986_2d8ee05861_m.jpg)(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3186/2420682313_ee6ebae365_m.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2421497740_76c1f52074_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2207/2420683053_d60e02aea8_m.jpg)
btw the stone pictures are especially for rusty[/list][/list]
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lol ;D cheers Linz,
the stones made me feel right at home...( if you want anymore , just shout and I can send you tons of them ;) :D )
Well done with all the work ! looks like you have been busy . I don't know what the weather was like with you there today ? but here it was really very windy !!! and it was a cold one too. I just got a section of the plot weeded and de-grassed . I had to ease back the last few days as I zapped my back . All seems ok now though ;D still got to go very steady till I have had the tests etc., but de-grassing and weeding is easy really ...just take it slowly and it will all get done . Over the last few days the plot was too wet to do anything on anyway, so I have just been twiddeling my thumbs more or less. The spuds will be ready to go in soon , hopefully about the time I complete the weeding etc on the section I am clearing now.
Nice stones Linz.... :o ::) ;D
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okay fence is compleyed and look totally alien at the moment
but i have some nice brown paint to be sprayed on to it soon, I think hubby is even looking forward to the veg raised beds just popping out to take a couple of pictures
:) :bee: :bfly: :cat: :chook: :cow: :dog: :goat: :horse: :pig: :hshoe: :ladybug: :paw: :pug: :sheep: :turkey:
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all seems to be going splendidly around the country (this one and abroad) for everyone - well done all!! we now have the asparagus in situ and seems to be growing well , and our first cauli. is hearting up which is fabulous - time is however at a premium these days with the longer days and everything starting to show through - great fun though ;D
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good luck with the asparagus, that is one thing I have never tried to grow...eaten it a few times though. I must get some seed and have a go . I have just been weeding and the like here. Taking things very steady , but getting there now. I have one section of the plot half weeded. The section is 15'x30' , so 15'x15' is done and ready for the spuds. I will be growing on a 4 year rotation system, so that means the plot will be divided into 4 15'x30' sections with a few feet over for odds and sods....It is a real pain in the bum having to take things easy just when I really need to go up a gear , but , slowly slowly catchy monkey ::) I will get there in the end. Fingers crossed the season shapes up well for everyone , and we all get most of what we want done.... :D ;D
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It's been so dry here, we've been watering thelettuce we planted out last weekend. It's been sunny and very windy - a real north easterly, which is unusual for us, as it's usually westerly. It's really cold in the wind, but lovely if you can get out of it. But sooo dry. Rain forecast for Wednesday though.
Spuds are in, beetroot sown, seedbed for carrots prepared (should have been sown this weekend but chicken plucking took precendence), swede sown. The greenhouse- sown calabrese will be ready to go out next weekend so we'll need to get the fleece ready.
Cleared out some of the freezer this weekend - found three boxes of frozen gooseberries, two of rhubarb (this year's is almost ready to pull), some brambles and some raspberries, so it was rasps on the Bran Flakes this morning and apple and bramble sponge for pudding. In fact, I hear the oven timer now - see you all many calories later!
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mmmm - sounds v. mouthwatering Rosemary - its always great to find things like that in the freezer , tasty ;)
alas our boiler seems to be on the blink , with black smoke and soot belching out of the flue :o doesnt look too promising good job we have enough logs to burn!!
keep up the goodwork Russ , without taking on too much eh!!
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been diging today, been diggy my startes of raised beds today I squished em down a bit (the shoe shuffle effect) to stop the cats thinking it was toilet time as i havn't recreated the side of the bed yet. As i want to make them higher.
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No work outside to day due to rain but plenty of 'planting' inside for seedling
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Good morning!
A friend has been given some garlic plants in small pots (about 3 inch square) the leaves are about 6 inches high. is it ok to transplant these into the ground or should she leave them in the pots? and when will she know when they are ready to be pulled up?
Thanks!! ??? ;D
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Hello Stephen,
yes get them in the ground , they will do fine. She will know when they are ready to pull as she will see the cloves formed within the bulb. If any try to start to flower cut off the flower part . When they are ready all she need do is pull them and lay them in the sun , like onions, to dry off and then when dry , store them either in nets or make a garlic rope type thingy with them. Store them in a cool dark DRY place, they will sprout again if stored in a warm kitchen.
cheers
Russ
ps: forgot to say , the tops will turn yellowy brown when they are ready . ::)
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Excellent thanks for the advice as always rusty!
;D
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Morning all , what a lovely day - apart from the rain and wind!! just thought id start the day with a piccy of our first cauli. of the year - enjoy!
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk194/guyengley/Copy2ofDSCF0001.jpg)
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yum whats for tea lol
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well done with the cauli Guy....it looks a goodun... ;) Nothing much to report on my plot at the moment. I have been taking things easy anyway...but it has been very wet here for a few days now . Today being very VERY wet . Still, I have been getting bits of weeding and de stoning done as well as shifting mud/crap off the track inside the main gate and along to the horse feeder, about 30-40 yards , oh and carrying a few bucket loads of stone upto the same area to fill in ruts etc. That is very slow work , as I only carry for a few feet then take a breather....The rest of the week looks very wet too, so , it will be a while before I get every thing in . Oh well back to dodging rain showers....
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hiya ll update from me now,
As i am now totally enclosed with the fence i have been doing a bit of landscaping while hubby has been sortting out the two gate we now have on the partition fence and on the back fence and the old gate is sealed up so people can't get in their or be nosy :)
Inbetween showers and during some i had been doing some of Russ favourite thing.......... yeap digging well it started off that i was gona dig a bit and stop but as at that time the sun was shinning !!!! so i started at the paretition fence left a section for the gate/path then dug about a 2ft wide section so i can plant to trees/fruit bushes as soon as the fence has been painted which we had hoped would be this week so all i have done it dug the width and the holes for the trees/bushes to sit in with the pots. Also while Sitting in muck litrally i had an idea some might say this is the best place to have ideas but my idea was to create a small pond in the corner of the garden to help attract the wildlife. Not sure if it will work but worth a try.
I'll al so be creating a pond a bit near the patio is gona be so i can have a water feature that i got of freecyle 3 years ago !!!! but it has been sitting in my greenhouse since.
Went out after lunch today to have another go at the garden but because of downpour yesterday I have found the ground to be very 'squelchy' to walk on so am guess that is not a good thing to have so i have decided I'll have a snooze in the warm house instead. There are photos over on my flickr album (am to lazy to copy links over today).
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well done linz!!! dont understand why you want to introduce even more water into the equation at the moment - havent we all had enough???
Good to hear from you Russ - at least the weather being poor has coincided with your "having to take it easy" stretch. The cauli tasted good also , as well as the carrots we managed to pull from the ole' polytunnel ;D
we now have our first cucumbers forming - about 1 inch long at the mo ;)
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lol you are showing off guy arn't you
:)
I have life in my garden mainly slugs lol
on another note i have lots of seedling getting ready be put in also have peas and broad beads in that where cheap (i mean £1 a tray cheap) from B&Q
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lol.... yes, with the amount of water around at the moment perhaps we should all grow water melons...? ::) errr me minds gone me thinks... :o ::) one thing that I should have plenty of is water cress.... the river has it all along the whole 300 yards or so. It used to completely fill the whole river before I put the horses on the land. They must love the stuff ... ::) If you get over run with cucumbers you could pick some small ones and make a few jars of gerkins ( if you like them that is ? ) If you had BIG jars you could have ferkins of gerkins everywhere..... :o :o 1" long cuc's :(.... mind over matter and they will get much bigger :o...
Although I am taking things easy still , I am slowly upping the amount I do . Not as much as before, but enough to keep fitness levels up , and not so much that I end up digging me own grave.... ::) well fingers crossed anyway...lol ::)
I have plenty of slugs here to Linz, why don't they eat weeds ? they only ever eat anything I try to grow....
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we also seem to be a home for lost slugs at the mo!! great little things eh!but we also have a few mice and rats - the mice started to remove all the runner bean seeds from their pots!!! so invested in some traps - so far we have had 4 small rats - plus my ankle when i stood on one in the polytunnel - (and these are big traps!!!!!!! )serves me right for going on about the amount we have got in our p-tunnel so early i guess!!!!
i like the idea of gherkins - so if we get a load of cucs we may give it a go ( and have a glut of gerkins - not as good as ferkins of gerkins , but i have been at work all day!!! :D
good price for the p's linz!
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lol i got one tray of peas two trays of broad beans and a try a of sweet corns but i forgot about the sweetcorn out when we had a big hard frost and they all died oops
all at a £1 each
:)
Linz
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Hello all,
well I have at last got something in the ground....me spuds..... ;D About b***dy time too. Anyway , I got one and a bit rows of King Edwards, two rows of Maris Piper ,five rows of Nicola and two rows of Jersey Royals in , over a hundred in total . Now it is just a matter of getting the other three sections cleared of grass and weeds. Everything is on the move now , the weather has been like summer here for a couple of days now. As you will see from the picture , it is drying the soil out already. However when I move the top half inch of soil , it is still nice and moist underneath.
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/IMAG0080.jpg)
There is enough room left on the first section to plant the Jerusalem Artichokes in too , so I hope to get those in tomorrow ( a bit late I know ) . So after all the trials and tribulations that have happened I am at last 'GROWING VEGGIES' again :o ;D ::) I hope everyone elses efforts are continuing along well , now that the weather has changed for the better (dare I say that it was tooooo hot for me yesterday and today !!!! :o). Oh yes ... I also had to water the spuds today too... ??? ::)
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well done my garden is a state, behind as usually, put cabbage, pak choi,. getting ready togo away for a couple of day, I am going to grace . AM going to grace thoses of you in the south of the country that being Middlesex (i think) am going to see the Gladiators.
SO in honour of that i shall leave you on this note 2ACCIDENTAL SMALLHOLDER'S ARE YOU READY". lol
ttfn
i'll be back on sat/fri
fws
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Middlesex...thats my old stamping ground.....I grew up in Ruislip. I lived right next to Northolt airport(Ruislip Gardens). I could hear them start up the Spitfire they had there ( in the airport ) from our house , I would drop whatever I was doing and run round to the airfield to see them taxi it out of the hanger and then take off. I will always remember the sound of the old spit....I spent a few days , way back in about 1967/8/9 watching them film the Battle of britain . My dad worked as a booking clerk at Ruislip Gardens station , so I could go up onto the platform and watch the Spitfire , Hurricane and the Messerschmitt Me 109 flying all over the place as if they were having a dog fight ....Oh and by the way , my first allotment was only 50-75 yards away from the airfield. Oh dear ...those were the days ... when I were a lad ....the sound of the hovis music.....( I must stop doing that !!!!) ::) ;D
Have a nice time Linz &co.....( Wolf and co will be trying to knock each other off their zimmer frames nowdays...hehehe ).
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don't think wolf is in it now lol as we looked onthe website but he wasn't there
Linz
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yes - enjoy yer break Linz!
Those spuds are looking good in the ground Russ - bet you cant wait for those rich green shoots to make an appearence :) (by the way , since following you advice Russ , the frosted spuds look fantastic , saved our skin there!!)
We've been really busy here as usual , but I believe we now have everything in for this year !! Hussar :D
now all our time is taken up with watering and weeding - just the okra to pot on -we are now picking broadbeans as well - not a huge crop , but the first time we had tried them , so thats good news.
Hope everyone is well , and enjoying whatever they are doing ;D
keep well
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hiya all am back now and the garden is bone dry :o :o :o.
I guess scotland had the same weather London did!!!!
Travelling down it it 26 in the car Ouch
I got a sun tan just from sitting in the car with the window down.
Linz
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I hope you had a really good time Linz.....it was VERY hot here too , 3or 4 days from about 23-25 , and the ground looked really dry . However it was only the very top layer , less than an inch , that was dry . We have just had a huge thunder storm ,with very heavy rain, here 12.30-1.00 am , so that should have watered the ground well for a few days . Still clearing weeds and grass from the next section on the plot , but it is getting to look like a veggie plot now ...at last...
Glad the spuds recovered ok in the end Guy , they are fairly hardy things . I am looking everyday for mine to pop up now , along with the Jerusalem Artichokes I put in the last few feet of the spud section .I think I planted 22 JA's in the end.
I hope everyone is doing well with their sowing and growing ....just the watering and weeding to do now ....JUST ????? :o ::)
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lol am just contomplating getting dresses so go sort out the garden, I also have to go get a couple of things that i have been gifted from freecycle so lots todo today
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How everyones gardens/allotment/plot
I managed to pick up over 100 tubers of pink fir apple potaties for £1.00. They are currantly weightting to go in the ground, hubby has promissed to make a new raised bed in the front garden (more stright looks)
Linz
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right ......well , nothing much been going on for a bit really . Just been getting the other sections of the plot ready for plants, weeding and de stoning. I have been taking it easy so , it seems to be taking forever. Anyway, I have another 15'x30' section ready now. So will be getting loads of seeds in now ( albeit a tad late !!!!). I couldn't do any today as it was so wet , very heavy rain after virtually none for ages. I have managed to carry a couple of dozen buckets of stone up to the track . That has to be done carefully to say the least, but I get there in the end. The spuds are well up and getting buried as they grow now.The rain will make them rocket away now I should think?. Even though I am so far behind now, it is really good to look at it and see a veggie plot before me again !! :o. Seeds to go in will be carrots (I have some white ,yellow, purple and red ones to try ), radish, onion, cabbage, sprouts, brocolli, lettuce, swede , mangles, peas, dwarf french beans, leeks , marrows/courgettes, cucumber, tomatoes and whatever else I have in my little seed collection . So , although late now with some of them , I should catch up by the end of the season .
That was a good buy Linz, the PFA's ... you will have to let me know if they taste as good as they are meant to ? I put in a couple of rows of Jersey Royals , I like them a lot . I hope you got your extra raised beds sorted ok in the end. Looks like we have a few days of rain and generally crappy weather here , but looks like you may have the better weather ...
Hope everyone is well and things are going ok .... I will take some new pics when I remember to take the camera with me !!!
cheers for now
Russ
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not done much in the garden recently as i have been fit my my stomache probs again so am very reliant on everyone else at the moment but hubby has done is back in to we are like a pair of old crocks at the moment.
Just managing to water stuff at the moment with the hose
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It's soooo dry. Hopefully we'll get some rain tonight. The garden is like a desert, with the pig pen just a dust bowl, except where the wallow is.
We had a few spots of rain this afternoon - just some at night would be good. Hope all you folks further south are getting some dry now - it looked awful over the last few days.
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cheers Rosemary,
it was really yukkie here to say the least. We had constant rain and then some very very strong winds, but all calmed down today . It was a very nice day really, I think we are due a lot more rain yet though ?.... still I hope you get some , enough to water the plants anyway ...It should be ok to sow some seeds tomorrow...if it doesn't tip it down again ? lol....
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did a little bit of earthing up on the spuds today.....only two rows left to do, but they are the Jersey Royals and won't need doing for another week yet maybe. I think there is about 130 growing away like mad now. Although the weather is ideal ,at the moment , I hope it does stay too wet through the summer. Otherwise we could be in for a bad blight year !!!
Did you get your PFA's in yet Linz ? Hope you are feeling a bit better by the way...
How about your stuff Guy ? all growing nicely I hope ?
Russ
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hiya all no pfa in yet hoping to do it this week end hubby has promised to make 'raised' bed.
but did get a small row of iceberg lettuce and a row of all year round lettuce. This will be a second sowing of lettuce as i have already put some in a basket on the fence.
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I managed to get some seeds sown today , at long last .
Seeds sown included :
Leeks (musselburgh) 1 row
Spring Onions (bunching Ishikura),Carrot (Autumn King 2),Rocket,Carrot (Norfolk Giant) 1/4 row each.
Cabbage (Golden Acre),Brussel Sprouts (Bedford) 1/2 a row each to transplant later.
Parsnip (Whit Gem) 1 row
Broccoli (Early Purple Sprouting) 1 row
Carrot (Berlicum 2) 1 row
In total it was 90' in 6 rows . Some like the cabbage, sprouts and broccoli , will shift over into the section next to where they are at the moment later in the year , ready for autumn winter and spring cropping . The soil was just right for sowing , and as luck would have it , it rained later so there was no need to water them in .
Weather permitting , more tomorrow...fingers crossed. Hope everyone elses stuff is doing well .
cheers
Russ
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pfa planted today a bit late but better late than never :)
hubby did some rotavating a digging and i did some weeding, lots of rain so that always good for after the planting.
Linz
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wonders will never cease ...I remembered the camera today . I Took a couple of video clips of how everything is doing so far . It is all way behind where it should really be , but no matter ..it will sort of catch up in the end ( hopefully !!) Only two more sections left to do now (clear the weeds that is ) and lots more seeding . Eighteen rows so far seeded and the first thing to pop up was the rocket !!! ::) Anyway hope everyone is doing well ...here are the videos :
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/th_veggieplotjune2008pt1.jpg) (http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/?action=view¤t=veggieplotjune2008pt1.flv)
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/th_veggieplotJune2008pt2.jpg) (http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc21/rustyme57/the%20Land/?action=view¤t=veggieplotJune2008pt2.flv)
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well done the weather looks lovely there rusty :)
linz
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well i am a very happy boy! on sunday i emptied my over crowded pot full of new potatoes! i was going to split the potatoes between two dustbins but just couldnt find the time so left them all (about 20 / 25!) in the one pot and looked on it as an experiment! i was actually hoping they would all meld into one giant spud but insted i got lots of medium and small perfectly formed tatties! they only lasted two days ( i live in a house of 11!!) we had lovley new potatoes with melted butter on the sunday as part of a bbq and i have been eating my way through a giant batch of potatoe salad that has now all gone!! i planted a new batch straight away in a 4ft tall dustbin so am aiming for twice if not 3 times the amount i took out of the pot!! also my peas are growing and the pods (right word??!) are forming! they are not big enough to pick yet and having to leave them alone is killing me! im so impatient! everything else i tried seems to have died unfortunatley due to neglect on my part! and while watching river cottage spring last night out came the pen and paper with plans and a list for next year! would love to start this year but other comitments mean i simply wont have the time! im even going to have a bash at making my own watering system! and i need to make the pots / beds cat and puppy proof as my dog loves to dig! most of my inspiration came from this site so a big thanks to everyone for being so well.... inspiring!! (spelling!!) ;D
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We've been having the first of our new potatoes this week as well, they were delicious! It was sooo satisfying gathering potatoes, spring onions and lettuce for a salad. Unfortunately my tomato plants all died (again). I lost the first lot I put in the plazzy greenhouse because I forgot to open the roll up door and they got frazzled and scorched so I bought a whole load more, they seemed to be doing really well and got to the flowering stage and even 2 or 3 toms on each plant. I fed them some tomato food I bought and they all withered! They are all sat there now withered up with green tomatoes on! Dont know what I did wrong but will definitely have to rethink for next year. My cucumbers are doing well though, I have one which I am treating with kid gloves, its about 4 inches so far, albeit curved like a banana, but going strong! Carrots and turnips are also doing beautifully, its so exciting lifting up the canopy of leaves to see these snow white turnips getting bigger and bigger and the tops of the carrots showing at the base of the leaves. This is the first year proper for our veggie plot and I am enjoying it so much, even the weeding is satisfying in a way. I'm learning so much from my mistakes that next year we should have a really productive plot hopefully!
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Really glad that you are all slowly starting to get crops from your plots....I have had a few spuds , mainly from escapees that have managed to live in the plot from the last planting. I am still clearing the other two sections at the moment ...other things keep stopping me though , but I will get there in the end. I am at the moment trying to sort out the comfrey bed ...the grass went mental in it... still I have been cutting loads of comfrey for the horses.
Russ
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myveg plot so far i have been busy doing other stuff that needs be so have neglated the garden a bit but i have got snap peas small turnips (from thinings) and a couple of early tatties but everything is going brilliant apart from the pak choi that have bolted. Think that go to hot i kept em under plastic bottles too long.
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I am still annoyed that my tomatoes have got bud end rot.. grrr... but am pinning my hopes on the side shoots I pinched out and put in pots. Never realised you could do this till my father in law pointed it out. So, instead of wasting the sideshoots.. i have plenty of late tomatoes coming on! :-) Just stick 'em in a pot and they grow fine! :-)
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My shallotes and parsnips are really coming on, but me cucumbers are going a bit bad. not sure how to bring the life back into them.
And as for rain, it aint stopping down here, like the damn wind!
Also my chilly plants are deteriorating on the edges of the leaves, i think this may be the contact on the walls with the wind. I can't think of anything else it can be as it does seem to be on only one side of the plant.
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hiya all
My garden is going great gun (i didn't think i would be saying that this year)
Everything i planted have been going brilliant apart from too things the pak choi and the carrots (both got effected by the weather)
Tatties got blight BUT !!!! they are edible and i put some more tatties in a bit later and they are doing okay :)
must take photos soon.
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hello all,
back to normal here now. My keyboard went up the creek along with my mouse , so it was nearly impossible to type anything more than two or three letters. Still , got a new k/b and mouse now and all seems to be working ok . Veggie plot !!! right , well I have been getting a few bits and bobs off the plot as of late. A few new spuds and plenty of radishes, also had some spring onions and a bit of lettuce . Everything is doing reasonably well after hanging a bit in the dry spell we had earlier on . Now it has to cope with the wet one we are still having now. The other two sections of the plot have sort of gone on hold , as I am trying to catch up with ragworting the land. God do I hate that job !!!!! , still it isn't as bad as last years lot . I also had to do some re working of the river bank , as it had shifted a lot and was washing huge chunks of land away . Doing it all by hand takes forever , but after a week or so you can see where you have been working . I think I have broken the back of that job now , it has to be done in the summer when the river is low. However , this year we have had so much rain it hasn't gone down that much really. Hopefully I will get back onto clearing the other two sections of the plot soon ( more ragworting to be done yet ) and if nothing else I will be ready for next year . I did get a few hundred sunflowers in , but the bloody magpies (I think) got them . I have got to ( very soon ) sort out the beehive on the land . It has been neglected for 2 years now , and is in desperate need of repair , it has been nocked slightly off level and the super has slid over a touch on the brood box. It has been completely glued in place by the bees and I think the whole hive will collapse if I try to split it . So I will try to put another brood box on it and wait for the queen to move into it and then pop an excluder on to keep her out of the old one . Then I can remove the old super and brood box at the end of the year, leaving a new brood box and super along with a new floor and crown board . The hive in the yard is really going well . They have just about filled two frames with honey along with lots of work in the other supers and brood box.
Will put on some pics later , hope everyone is doing well and has lots of veggies...
cheers
Russ
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Courgettes, lots of cougettes! Tomatoes coming now, potatoes, carrots and peas. Sweetcorn looking a bit sad. Beetroot and swede need thinned - maybe today.
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my garden is going great Gun plenty of snap peas (luckly i love them) Tatties where a bitof a disaster for me got blight on them and on removing them the soild was sopping wet not sure what happened. But the second lot of tatties i put in are doing brilliant and are nearly as big as the out side 3foot fence brilliant (not sign of you know what on them),
Turnips, kohlrabies , Lettuce, leeks, spring onion are still come on so all okay so far.
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Hi all , comfrey , read lots about it with bocking 14 ? etc.am interested in starting some to make liquid fertiliser but wondered how big a bed would i need to give me a plentiful supply of fertiliser? when the fertiliser has been syphoned off , what can be done with the mulch that is left??
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hello Guy,
bocking 14 is the one to go for as it is sterile and therefore can't spread everywhere by seed. The root is just as prolific though , so is very easy to propagate . One plant (once established) will provide 2-3lb of plant material at each cutting . You will get that amount 4 or 5 times a year, so it is easy to calculate from that how much you will get . You can chuck as much manure on it (even raw fresh stuff) as you want, and it will cope and thrive. If you use it to make liquid fertiliser , then don't do it by the back door ....it really stinks !!! But it is very good as a LF. The gunk that is left can go on the compost heap , or even back onto the comfrey bed .It is still very good stuff. Oh by the way , mix the liquid fert. down to about 20 - 1 , otherwise it will be too much for most plants.
cheers mate ...
Russ
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thanks Russ , will start to plan it out for this season..... looks like a lorrys just turned up so best go
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http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/01aglibwelcome.html
Hello Guy,
RE:Comfrey. the above link will take you to a list of books available for downloading . You have to fill in a little form stating that you haven't had a copy of the book you want from the library before , and they then send you a link to download it from . On the main list , if you scroll down , is Lawrence D Hills book on Comfrey. One of the best and most comprehensive books on the subject. it is hard to find a copy secondhand and when you do they can be dear . So it is very handy that it available from the link for free. Lots of other good books on the site too.
cheers
Russ
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Thanks i have book market that page :)
Started another lot of broad beans off and some runner beans (yes it to early for them) but am gona try growing them indoors ! (yes am mad) it's something i read/saw about some one growing them in doors that gt me thinking to see if i could do it.
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sown some more seeds today and have had to move then because we wont have a kitchen next week due to a refit !!!
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I've just been planting some seeds too - went to Aldi's for two of these window greenhouses and they are now out in the conservatory. Still a bit cold out there as I don't have the radiator fitted up yet (and furniture went mouldy!) but have a halogen heater now so will put that on for an hour at a time to keep temp up.
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Hi
We are planning to start a vegetable plot in Northern France this year, we have grown vegetables in the past but not quite on this scale. We plan to have a plot about 35ft x 15ft and would like some advice on what we should be planting, we would like to be as self sufficient as possible in the future and will eventually turn more of the garden over to vegetables and fruit trees
Any Advice would be really gratefully recieved
Thanks
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to start with what veg do you eat and at what price would you buy them at, Concentrate on the mostexpensive variaties you buy in frist then work backwards to cheapest price :)
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It's been so cold again, I can't wait to really get going. I don't want to start too early with my seeds as I lost too many things that way in previous years. the only thing sown outside yet are early radishes, inside I've started out lettuces, Hokaido pumpkins and red cabbage. Early tatties are ready to go in in few weeks. :&>
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well it's snowing here lol
so no outdoor work
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Okay just sown my 1st batch of carrots in raised beds also put sown sweet peas in pots in the greenhouse.
Linz
edit make that also 8 potatoes in old compost sack (but don't tell hubby, cos he might think it's too much work for me as he isn't here!)
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planted today the last of the potatoes in tubs, horseradish, and 4 lots of Jerusalem artichokes.
Tam fixed the bolt on the gate, and also the outside tap so i can uses the hose instead of watering can (at lot easier at 4 months pregant lol).
being going mad like a militry operation trying to get things done before travelling starts.
Oh also put the irrigation system out for the tomatoes.
linz