the daydream fund challenge thread

witchwoopiggy

aww thank you ukmaggie45 that explanes why my roses do so well here i will look into lime, im just trying to break it up enough so i will be able to plant the little seedlings when they are big proper plants and plant the seeds or it will be a seed per lump lol

oo Rummer that sounds like mine is, well hopefully in three years mine will be better glad to hear that it can be improved, and yours is getting there :buddies:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

whitchwoopiggy..

would it be easier if you done raised beds,and add compost manure etc? maybe concentrating on maybe one or two beds first of all, would make it easier to make them productive

lostinrates

The experience I've had has mainly been on clay soils. I like lots about them. They can be improved with lots of manure. I learned form my mother to top dress twice a year with manure, and use the not soaking and not baked periods to dig more of the same in where you can. Here, in this new garden, the bits that have been cultivated before are clearly very evident....the addition of..probably manure, over a few hundred years has tuned clay to loam. Its been feeding the ground elder, sticky weed and cuckoo pint rather too well.

DH is really still pretty poorly so we made an interim arrangement for the next year. The bed we've been working on will be another holding bed for a year....its got half adozen or so currents, a few raspberries in and the strawberries I've not found other holes for. I might even put in the horse chestnuts for the year a head. These grow between all those roses and I sowed a few poppies.

Can't believe the weather tunred....we did have an extra day of sun though....cooler, better for me tbh. The rain really fell though....thank good ness for everything we ust planted and have been hauling out watering cans/buckets/ plastic boxes full of water to!

Davesnave

Some funeral, CTC! From the background I've read it seems he was a very nice guy and will be sorely missed.

A mate who used to ride with me when we had small Hondas at college is now proud owner of an 800cc Suzuki Intruder which he drives around Swansea and the Gower, apparently meeting up with others regularly at a cafe in Port Eynon (I think!) Sometimes wish I could be 62 and little footloose too, but to be honest, a bike like that would scare the willies out of me.:o

Clay soil is what we used to have, but now we are sandy(ish.) Maggie is right, clay is fertile, and once it's made workable it will serve you well. We added grit to ours, as well as organic matter.

No sign of lostinrates' rain here yet. It was really warm and humid for most of the day, and it began to look like rain after lunch, but nothing happened. It's like August out there.

I spent the morning propagating, and the afternoon planting the remaining 35 'small' yew trees and 15 spare beech transplants in their holding beds. I'll try to get 15 more beech into a bare section of the road hedge tomorrow when the weather breaks, as I can't water them like the elms which border the garden. I have 10 of those still to go in, but that means I've done 55 gap-fillers up to now. With the 105 beech we put in during the week, it's no wonder I'm fed up with digging holes!

alfie_1

hi all,
firstly sad day for CTC but hope you celebrated a life and it sounds like you did, fond regards.

i cant comment on clay cos my garden is years of natural mulch etc...it had been left uncultivated for over 30 years !! anything i put in here in the flower beds goes beserk and im having to move things cos theyve grown too big !!!:o
my lawn tho is rubbish, got wrecked when i had my dogs 11 pups running rampage and never recovered, tried re seeding but nope, just gets so many bald patches i cant even do a "comb over"...:(

it feels very strange without Harley my cat...didnt realise how much food he was eating !! the other two prefer biscuit and its sad looking at a stack of tins in the cupboard...he was very vocal and was always under my feet it seemed...miss him...:(

iv been and planted at my friends veg garden [think i said, he built it,he pays for it, i tend it,we share produce] its the 1st good regular carboot sale starting tomorow so im going to look for any good plants there too.
im going to sell too, have lots of the posh clothes left over [that dont fit!!] and a few other bits...been given 60 dvd's to sell from my son....i did sort of mumble that that cost him over £600 new and to think what he could have saved by renting cheaperly.....met with derision...[they just dont "get it" at that age!!]:)

i was hoping to put some garden pics on but cant get my "stick in the side" thingy to light up when shoved in !! it took long enough for me to learn how to do it in the 1st place [well was until shown by wise owl davesnave actually in one easy swoop !!]:o

i dont seem to have much energy at the mo, iv had this cold/cough hanging about and i seem to be gung ho during the day then someone switches me off by 6pm !!:rotfl:
plus losing an hour tonight or rather tomorow means im up earlier than my body thinks to get to bootsale !!

oh well, could be worse....and if i sell s*d all tmorow it will be !!:rotfl:

Poosmate

Hi all, CTC sorry to hear about your friend but sounds like he had a fantastic send off.

Alfie, I dread the day I lose my little Poo and I don't envy what you are going through. Thinking of you.

Davesave, enjoy your new chainsaw and be safe.

CTC, that place sure is remote! I know what youmean about getting the heebygeebys being there. When I saw it I felt it was kind of magical in a scary kind of way. The kind of location horror films could be films! I'm sure it's nothing like that though!

Been at my moms and sisters today so got nothing done in the garden (not that I could have garanteed anything was going to happen out there anyway!). My sis broke her ankle in 3 places and had an open fracture (eeew) almost 3 weeks ago. She now has zip like scars up her leg and about her foot where she's been screwed and plated. I was surprised at how bruised and swollen it still is.

Mom gave me some Wilja potatoes to plant which I'll do tomorrow (in pots). I love spuds. My other spuds that I already planted are doing great but I need to put some more soil around them just not sure how much to put in. Can anyone help me on that? The green shoots are about 6" tall now.

Think I'm going to get a few hours kip as I want to be up at 6 to watch the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Poo

P.S. Hope you do well at the car boot sale Alfie.

rhiwfield

CTC, guess your friend would have really appreciated the send off.

Alfie, sorry about Harley

Poo, add compost to the top of the haulms (shoots).

CTC, too remote for me! Just reading "a hovel in the hills", describing condensation running off the walls of a cottage in Wales on a 1000' moor. Romantic in summer, but in winter :eek:
Lir, sorry to hear about DH, hope he improves soon.

Davesnave, chain saws, I'll give them a miss!

Had a fun few days and sleepless nights after my upper back went into spasm after finishing the wood store roof. Fifth night finally got a few hours sleep, only to find that clocks put forward. And useless fact number 83, its b****y painful to type when you've got a lump of back muscle trying to imitate a football :mad:

Oh, and the wood store didnt get done for nowt after all, even though DW nearly had a fit when I walked out of the local wood yard with an armful of spacers without paying (but with owner's blessing). They burn them but I've found they are ideal for making plant supports and in this case, battens for extra hold for the roofing felt. Anyhow, had to fork out £6.56 for mastic to seal the felt, and begrudged every penny!!

Belatedly put tom and pepper seedlings into 3" pots, will take spares to a car boot in a couple of weeks. And toothbrushed the woolly aphids off the apples with white spirit. Today its pricking out the marigolds.

And finally got the water meter installed, so its extra urine for the compost heaps

Davesnave

Thought you'd been quiet, rhiwfield!

Sorry to hear that you didn't get off scot-free, in either financial or health terms, over that wood store.

I don't think you are late at all in potting-on your toms & peppers. Bet most people haven't done theirs yet.

Edit: With the clocks, DW crept around and altered all of ours at around 7.30am, but I didn't know, and glancing up at the kitchen clock, I thought I'd lost another hour somewhere! :rotfl:

Lotus-eater

witchwoopiggy wrote: »

im shattered i ache my hands are swallen and i HATE clay soil cant do any more digging i cant hold much with my hands , i have added horse muck,home made compost , is there anything else i can do to break up the clay soil, its my veg patch and from the sun we have had this week its as hard as nails

I can just echo everyone else. Clay soil like that is what I had here when I moved in. After a few years faffing about and experimenting with different things, I found the best thing is to add lots of manure or leaf mulch. And I mean LOTS.

You are looking at adding 6" over the entire bed system, which is why raised, or separate beds are a good idea, as they concentrate the humus.

Do that for 2 years and I can guarantee you will have soil like mine, I can stick my hand straight into the soft soil, right up to my wrist.

The problems you are having come from putting too little onto your soil, I know because I faced the same dilemma. You never have enough garden compost and the bought compost from last year doesn't go very far when spread on the beds. You need to bite the bullet and order a trailer load of manure delivered, unless you can get it another way.
I also get about 60 bin liners full of leaves each year from a source of mine and my growing space isn't that big!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

davesanve there is a cafe in the mumble's called Verdi's that alot of sunday riders go to, plus there is a cafe in Llandovery that bikers head for too...

Yes John was very well respected ....and genuinely a nice guy.... allways had a smile on his face.... a big softie at heart..

here is a link to his R.I.P facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/John-fckeye-Tattersall-RIP/183798631665593

R.I.P John.....night night...

***************************************

It look as though its going to be a nice day here.... so i think i will be in and out of the garden, inbetween doing some cooking..

might do food early, so we can all sit outside to eat it...

Rhiwfield.... sorry about your back...take it easy..... and hopefully you will be fully fit and back to normal in a day or two...

Alfie.... I am dreading the day we have to say goodbye to ur dog.... as even though he is a pain in the butt, has wrecked the house...etc.. Flip we will miss him when he goes.....I have said no more dogs after him.... I couldnt cope with the upset of losing them...So i am with you on your cat... big hugs.... hopefully the next few days will get better for you..

Think i need another cup of tea before i do anything...:rotfl: