That stuff is nasty. mixed with a bit of water, you don't want it on your hands. (medieval soap recipe)
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Onoff
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Right then, back to evenings only on this.
I need to backfill this trench. I can only get fresh horse manure which I believe can burn plants.
Is cow manure good?
I've possibly half a compost bin that can go in, is that enough and where? At the bottom, halfway down?
Is it worth mixing anything in like lime or builders sand etc?
Cheers
I need to backfill this trench. I can only get fresh horse manure which I believe can burn plants.
Is cow manure good?
I've possibly half a compost bin that can go in, is that enough and where? At the bottom, halfway down?
Is it worth mixing anything in like lime or builders sand etc?
Cheers
Seems like your overthinking this a bit and making it harder than you need too.
Just mix the soil that you've dug out with whatever you can get your hands on, contents of your compost bin, some fresh horse muck (just not too much as it will burn your plants neat), grass clippings, whatever and mix it up as you back fill.
Let it stand for a couple of weeks (in the mean time sow your beans in trays or pots on a warm windowsill or greenhouse, to give them a head start. It's still too early for outside until the risk of frost is past).
When you do plant out, mulch with grass clippings etc.
Worry about lime, more compost etc next year. But if you have got access to loads of horse stuff, start a pile now so it starts rotting down then get it dug in next winter.
Stuff will grow well enough if you just break the soil up and get rid of the weeds for this year without loads of messing around.
Just mix the soil that you've dug out with whatever you can get your hands on, contents of your compost bin, some fresh horse muck (just not too much as it will burn your plants neat), grass clippings, whatever and mix it up as you back fill.
Let it stand for a couple of weeks (in the mean time sow your beans in trays or pots on a warm windowsill or greenhouse, to give them a head start. It's still too early for outside until the risk of frost is past).
When you do plant out, mulch with grass clippings etc.
Worry about lime, more compost etc next year. But if you have got access to loads of horse stuff, start a pile now so it starts rotting down then get it dug in next winter.
Stuff will grow well enough if you just break the soil up and get rid of the weeds for this year without loads of messing around.
Onoff
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Interestingly there's neighbours down the road with alpacas. I don't know them though and have never spoken to them. Nor have I spoken to their owners...
Onoff
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You reckon mix rather than layer? I was going to chuck some soil in, then compost and rake over, more soil, grass clippings and rake etc.
At least I know where the next lot of grass cuttings are going! At the mo they go on a big untidy pile in one corner of the garden. Shaded by the tree house and not covered tbh I can't imagine it rots that quick. I should perhaps sensitively start to uncover it. When we first moved in there was a big old compost heap in the same place made with corrugated tin sides and with an old green tarp over it. You'd pull the tarp back and invariably there'd be a snake or two.
Thinking a line of compost bins in full sun on the new veg patch.
Mix, layer, makes no difference as far as I can see. Just get it in there for this year.
Big piles of grass tend to go slimey and stink if you just pile it up, but if you've got a pile of stuff that been there for a few years and rotted down, just dig that in.
All your doing is breaking up the soil and getting some nutrients into it.
bigegg
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Onoff
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The bean A frame is 3800mm long. It never had any eyes or anything to tie the "strings" to.
I could just wrap single core electrical cable around the galv tube...or something better...maybe some drilled and tapped in eyes or slide on, 3D printed rings with an eyelet on?
What string is best for this and what spacing should the strings be at, to match the plant spacing?
I could just wrap single core electrical cable around the galv tube...or something better...maybe some drilled and tapped in eyes or slide on, 3D printed rings with an eyelet on?
What string is best for this and what spacing should the strings be at, to match the plant spacing?
Onoff
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The ideal is to net the growing area. Maybe this will even extend to a badger proof fence (some hope 
)
As I've bundles of 25x25mm steel box section I figured get No.1 son to print up some frame connectors. Something on these lines in PETG. Hopefully it'll be strong enough. Holes so I can drill the box ends and pop a self tapper in. Maybe some angled ones too. A couple of hours at 20% for a 4-way like this according to Cura. Then buy a roll of 1m mesh to go around the bottom. A bfo net over the lot...a door etc:
)As I've bundles of 25x25mm steel box section I figured get No.1 son to print up some frame connectors. Something on these lines in PETG. Hopefully it'll be strong enough. Holes so I can drill the box ends and pop a self tapper in. Maybe some angled ones too. A couple of hours at 20% for a 4-way like this according to Cura. Then buy a roll of 1m mesh to go around the bottom. A bfo net over the lot...a door etc:
Onoff
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I've read beans take a lot of water. That's fair enough. Also an old gardener's trick was to bury a matress under a bed they wanted to retain water, don't know how true that is? Maybe an old horse hair matress made from natural materials but a new one leaching nasties into the soil as it slowly decays for the next 200 years?
A 4m long trench, 1m wide and 0.5m deep, 4 bags of manure? They're like rubble sack sized.
A 4m long trench, 1m wide and 0.5m deep, 4 bags of manure? They're like rubble sack sized.
redlig
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They knew what they were saying! The mattress under my bed seems to hold a lot of "water". Luckily.
I don't know how many beans your planning on growing, but I grow them up a bamboo wigwam, 6 poles with 2 plants per pole, one with runner beans and one with climbing French beans (12 plants of each) and that's more than enough beans for me and the Mrs, plus a freezer full, a few jars of bean chutney, and anything else I can think of to do with them.
So I'd guess that 4m of beans at a spacing of 6" (do you like what I did there), will give you enough beans to feed approximately half the planet, with some left over.
I don't bother watering then unless its really dry, then they might get a couple of cans full, and because I'm incredibly lazy, I don't bother burying mattresses, old cardboard, shoes, elephant tusks, or doing any of the other rubbish that you read in old books.
I just dig the soil, add a couple of handfuls of pelleted poultry manure as I dig and if I'm feeling really generous a handful in each hole when I plant them out.
Your over thinking this, there just beans, but if on the off chance they are magic beans and you get a giant beanstalk can I have a cut of any treasure please.
bigegg
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Re: mattresses under garden.
They are an absolute nightmare to dig out.
And if you try to rotavate one you will be *very* *VERY* upset.
On the upside, apparently if you can grow 4 peas on them, you're a princess!
(Or is it if you can pee through four of them?)
They are an absolute nightmare to dig out.
And if you try to rotavate one you will be *very* *VERY* upset.
On the upside, apparently if you can grow 4 peas on them, you're a princess!
(Or is it if you can pee through four of them?)
Onoff
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Sorry, thought I was on the MIG welding forum!
It's not should we but could we?
Bean chutney, tell me more please.
I've used various recipes over the years, they're all similar though. Delicious with cold meats, or I sometimes dollop half a jar into a curry for a change.
Runner bean chutney
This runner bean chutney is a great way to use up any surplus beans. It's the perfect accompaniment for cheese or cold roast meats.
Onoff
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I've a barrow load of leylandii hedge cuttings. Would there be any harm in chopping them up a bit more and slinging in the bottom of the bean trench? Can't tbh see they world compost very well if buried under 2' of backfill. More wondering if they might help with water retention in the trench.
Onoff
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Raked the wood ash across the base of the trench, started backfilling, removing the big flints as I went . Chucked a 100 litres of bagged compost in, more soil, more raking. Cut the lawn, chucked the cuttings in, raked, more soil. More cuttings just now.
Got a couple of compost bins can go in. Will hopefully get my Czar runner beans in pots later today, under glass, clingfilm or whatever it is growists do!
A few conifer cuttings to burn along with miles of the neighbour's ground ivy. Must get that 50 gal drum for an incinerator.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
Bloody hard work this gardening lark. Debating a walk to the pub for a shandy and to discuss the horse brass of course.
Got a couple of compost bins can go in. Will hopefully get my Czar runner beans in pots later today, under glass, clingfilm or whatever it is growists do!
A few conifer cuttings to burn along with miles of the neighbour's ground ivy. Must get that 50 gal drum for an incinerator.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
Bloody hard work this gardening lark. Debating a walk to the pub for a shandy and to discuss the horse brass of course.
