How Does Your Garden Grow?

[T5 TDI]

Apologies if this has already been posted but my Mrs has just got the 'Merlin' app on her phone. When you set it off, it identifies all the birdsong it can 'hear' one at a time as each one comes up. It's amazingly sensitive and it seems quite accurate as far as we can tell.

 

[aesmith]

First crops today from the polytunnel. Potatoes planted in Feb, and some over wintering peas. Runner beans are climbing nicely, well ahead of the French beans.

 

[Onoff]

One out of the 50 beans just would not break through the soil in it's little pot. I tipped it out and found the Lidl compost had a few big bits of stem/bark or whatever in. I sifted the soil and re-potted it. Fingers crossed. Tbh they really need to go in the ground but I'm still prepping the overgrown bed. Doing a bit each evening until my back says stop.

 

[Onoff]

I AM going to get this dug over, raked and the beans in this weekend! It's bloody hard work this gardening lark.

Going to clear an 18" wide no man's land outside the sleepers to give the car free run at approaching vermin. Last year the only issue was slugs and snails.

 

[gaz1]

I AM going to get this dug over, raked and the beans in this weekend! It's bloody hard work this gardening lark.

Going to clear an 18" wide no man's land outside the sleepers to give the car free run at approaching vermin. Last year the only issue was slugs and snails.

im going to make a suggestion here on your framing note the easy picking

there is other ways to make it stronger even walkway trellis can be used then you can grow either side and easy to dig and cultivate

you can use the walkway method on alot of hanging fruits and veg its also stronger by there supports

 

[Onoff]

im going to make a suggestion here on your framing note the easy picking

This was my Dad's bean frame I made him 30 years ago so it has sentimental value.

 

[Smallfry]

I am fighting the good fight with Goose Grass, Cleavers, or Sticky Buds. Whatever its called in your locality. You can almost watch the stuff growing, and the crafty plant loves the Stinging Nettles as protection.
Not helped by not cutting the grass at the moment because the tractor in the middle of the "lawn" has Great Tits and Robins nesting in it, plus the Long Tailed Tits nesting in a Briar. They should be gone in a few days though.

 

[Seadog]

Sticky willy, Devil's coachman, Robin-run-the-hedge. It has so many names.

Pick some, dunk it in a jug of water for 10 minutes, and you get a not unpleasant, refreshing drink. It can be boiked and eaten, but, if not young enough, does stick in your gullet. Ask me how I know

 

[Onoff]

Getting there, even with the slight hangover Pretty much all weeded save for a little purple thing I'm leaving until the last minute. Back out now to get that bit of dpc nailed on round the other 3 sides. Easier said than done as I've got to dig/trench around the edge. The idea was to help stop any nasties leeching out of the "real" sleepers along with keeping moisture in the enclosure.

https://flic.kr/p/2oEYvf2

I'm going to burn all the weeds in the drum incinerator to make some ash for the slugs and snails later on. Whenever it rains next it'll be game on for them! Plan is to top up a lidded bucket with ash for use as and when.

Lad's going to reprint the frame connectors and this time I'll finish the frame off with the rivetted gussets. The idea there is it can later be netted if I decide to grow anything that needs netting.

 

[Smallfry]

Sticky willy, Devil's coachman, Robin-run-the-hedge. It has so many names.

Pick some, dunk it in a jug of water for 10 minutes, and you get a not unpleasant, refreshing drink. It can be boiked and eaten, but, if not young enough, does stick in your gullet. Ask me how I know

Stuff I am doing at the moment is where the dog pi**es, so I will take your word for that !

 

[T5 TDI]

We get that sticky stuff in our garden but we also have Herb Robert which is equally common and has small mauve flowers. It isn't sticky but it smells horrible. Stinking Bob is one of it's other names. It's interesting how some weeds cause trouble in some soil types and not others. We lived in Surrey for 15 years on heavy clay and our nemesis was bindweed which choked everything and trying to pickaxe through the rock hard clay to plant anything was murder. Here on our sandy soil on a headland in Cornwall, bindweed is around but is a wimp. Our garden has plenty of evil brambles and ivy though which will take over if you don't watch out. Everything is as dry as a bone within minutes of torrential rain. Fun stuff gardening!

 

[Smallfry]

Plenty of Herb Robert here too, also Brambles and Ivy. Lots of Holly and Box and quite a few Yew trees. I try to keep on top of the Ivy because it kills the trees. We are on chalk here, with a thin cover of topsoil, which also dries out very quickly. Also a nightmare to plant anything ! We have loads of Primroses and Primula and wild Strawberry, but this year all this Goose Grass has appeared, along with loads of Thistles. I am trying to stop it before going to seed.

 

[T5 TDI]

Interesting to hear what other gardeners experience by weather and soil. When I say gardeners I must confess that I am really just a digger of necessary holes, a carrier of heavy pots, a general fence person, mower of our small lawn and a trimmer of the wayward 8 foot high (and 6 foot plus deep) hedges that stop the winter gales destroying everything in our exposed position. I'm a garden enjoyer rather than a gardener.

My favorite place in the garden in summer is reclined, in the sunshine listening to the birdsong with a beer and chatting with Mrs T5 as she works.

My worst gardening chore is hours of ivy pulling and bramble digging out which always does my back in.

 

[Seadog]

I've some self-set wood forget-me-nots, strawberries, and white campion. Together with the usual run of the mill thistles, herb Robert, green alkanet, sticky willie, wood sorrel, identified yesterday, common sowthistle. Etc, etc, etc.

 

[Smallfry]

I am not a gardener ! I hate it, its just a chore to me, but one has to keep on top of it. We have no flower beds, the borders are all native wild plants that look after themselves. I just cut the grass and enjoy the garden as it is. The wildlife loves it, and we think it looks attractive and natural. Thats the front garden. The back garden and beyond is about three feet high at the moment. Too many other things to do.

 

[Keith 66]

Shallots are growing like crazy, Asparagus is coming to the end, Maincrop spuds (Sarpo) are going great guns. Earlys are in big containers & also doing well.
Tomatoes plants Captain Beefheart, Consuelo, & Tigrella are now nearly 4 ft high with loads of flowers, some tomatoes already swelling.
Chillies, Padron is now 4ft high & covered in flowers, Purple jalapeno & Ring of fire over 3ft, three more varities catching up, All are covered in flowers & the hoverflies have moved in to pollinate them. I took a load of cuttings off an old Vietnamese coriander plant & they have all taken, Its a gorgeous herb with fantastic flavour. Morrocan mint is going well, Mint basil also, I grow it because it has loads of purple flowers that the bumble bees love.
As i get older gardening is more satisfying.

 

[DanZac]

I love a bit of gardening, in fact whilst lots of other hobbies and interests have come and gone, gardening has always been there.

I find pottering around in the garden relaxing and quite therapeutic and there's nothing more satisfying than sitting down to a plate of home grown produce or watching the birds and the bees as they work amongst the flowers on a summers morning.

We've only got a small terrace house with gardens sized to suit, but I've managed to make it a nice place to sit (or I think it is) and I've got an allotment within walking distance that keeps us in fresh veg for most of the year and I'd be quite happy to see out my time pottering on the Allotment.

 

[Onoff]

As i get older gardening is more satisfying.

I've come to gardening late in life. My Dad was the gardener and this lovely veg just appeared as if by magic. Like with Mum's cooking, I wish I'd listened more.

It's a bit of an escape for me from "everything". Quite uplifting, working with the soil. I think in some way too it's something to do with having control over nature. You certainly get back what you put in. Creating a level bed of decent soil out of a rocky slope gives me something to stand back and think "I did that". I find it incredibly hard work mind, not helped by our soil. I should really try and involve the kids and try and guilt trip them with the whole "I wish I'd listened to my parents" thing.

I like that I can put an engineering science slant on it, whether it's building a bean or cold frame, repurposing an old bath, making up a garlic or neem spray or just levelling sleepers.

 

[Smallfry]

I should really try and involve the kids and try and guilt trip them with the whole "I wish I'd listened to my parents" thing.

I think most come to a time in their lives when they realise their parents, unless they were scummages, were right all the time, and missed the opportunity to talk to them more.

Mike and the Mechanics, "The Living Years" sums it up nicely for me.

Anyways, my Mum was completely different, she would literally have to be dragged in from the garden when it was dark. Absolutely loved it. Sadly I have not inherited her enthusiasm.
The downside however, was that after she died, I found that she owed thousands on a couple of credit cards that she had spent on the garden, and had "buried her head in the sand" because of it. Took me a couple of years to clear it, as they wouldn't let it go back then.

 

[Onoff]

Definitely not doing no mow May again! I'll just leave some wild bits.

This is the soon to be salad bar...th:

https://flic.kr/p/2oFfKjq

Finally some order amongst the chaos! The sleepers lined inside with DPC tacked on with galvanised nails. The soil nearly levelled. Had a few Triffid nettles to pull out before I could work safely...

https://flic.kr/p/2oFkJhd

The plan, the same plan as last year oddly, is to expand the veg plot to the right. Going up have to break it down to say clearing a m2 each day. (There's also a midden I'd like to get down into but that's another story). Loathe to get the digger on due to all the wildlife therein. It'll have to be a slow hand job. Maybe SWMBO will help...

https://flic.kr/p/2oFkJdW

This time next year Rodders!

The beans really need to go in now. They're looking for something to climb now.

https://flic.kr/p/2oFjUcK