Is it worth it?

ixwood

That brilliant. Well done!

I agree with you about growing stuff. When you garden, you garden the soul!

Megansmum

I am SOOOO happy !:D My brother works at a scaffolding comany and today he gave me 6 scaffolding boards! We cut 4 into 4 foot lengths and the other two into 2 foot lengths...... Meaning I now have 4 4x2 (square foot gardening) raised beds for the allotment!:rotfl:

I can get them in place within the next week and start my square foot gardening plan - with each bed for different food types - Brassicas, potatoes, roots etc. I can rotate each year etc etc.... Hooray! He has also given me a roll of green netting and is getting me a water butt and a galvanised steel drum that i can burn stuff in and make myown potash!!! And i thought brothers were only good for giving you insect phobias!!

Thanks ixwood for the kick up the butt to check out the square foot gardeners web site - it is fab and such an inspiration... I will post more as it happens!!

Happy growing all.

ixwood

That's great news. And some recycling to boot.

You're more than welcome. I'm just glad you've beaten your fears and are enjoying it so much!

Listen to you and your potash talk! I'm impressed. I've got a fireplace I keep all the ash from. You could also use the drum for disposing of weed seeds and infected leaves/branches etc.

ixwood

I've just posted this link on another thread and thought it might be handy for you too:-

http://www.pfaf.org/leaflets/other_uses.php

It's a list of useful plants (for fertiliser, fungicide etc.)

Megansmum

Not much to mention - had NO time to get to the allotment so I dread to think what sight I will see when i finally get there!:mad:

I have to go soon, my sweetcorn are getting really pot bound and need to go in the ground!

Today I forgot i had put the tomatoes in the other greenhouse and didn't open the door...:o I remembered tonight and they are sitting in some water with me praying they stop wilting and make a full recovery!

My cucumbers have flowers and i am starting to see the difference between the male and females.... should i cut the males off now or wait until i'm positive they're the males?

The cucs also have long tendrils on them - what's that all about?

I have offered to rehome 6 ex bat hens - so figuring how to make my own coop and run at the minute! We back onto a farmers field and have foxes and rats around here......will i still be able to keep the hens safe????

Ahhh, this self-sufficiency is not as easy as it's cracked up to be.... i feel a migraine coming on!!;)

On the plus - but totally off subject - me and my eldest did the "race for life" yesterday..... then I really DID have a migraine !!:rotfl:

NualaBuala

Hi MegansMum,

I've really enjoyed reading this thread. I'm so impressed at how brave you are tackling your phobias. :T:T:T:T I've recently inherited a complete jungle of a garden and have barely set foot in it as I have a terrible phobia of slugs and snails and it's overrun with them. I feel sick and paralysed just seing one and get nightmares, sweats - you get the picture. I've realised that in my case it's not so much fear as disgust which paralyses me. I'm not good with any ugly slimey creatures - I don't mind wasps and bees though and I quite like certain spiders!

I've been reading Jo's thread here and that has also helped me want to tackle my triffid jungle. Mine's much worse than hers though.

So thanks to you and all the people who've posted here for inspiring me.:beer: I haven't done anything yet except get some books from the library. I'm so clueless that I don't even know what questions I need to ask yet!

Nuala

Megansmum

Thanks for that post Nuala. :)I hope you get through your slug and snail disgust. I think once you are in the garden and see them more and more, you will just de-sensitise to them. That seems to have happened with me and my phobias! I spent so many years avoiding my fears :eek::eek: that I let them grow more and more. Now I have no choice but to face them (As long as I want to "grow my own" anyway!),they don't scare me half as much!

I finally got to the allotment today and everything was the same as a fortnight ago! Nothing seems to have got any bigger and my seed potatoes seem to have gone to seed...... not a glimpse!!
It poured with rain whilst I was there :mad: but I got my onion sets (that were growing nicely in their pots) in the ground and my 10 sweetcorn plants which are massive!!

We are going away tomorrow so they are all fending for themselves again for another week!:o

I am trusting my 17 year old dd to water my cucs, toms, lettuces and radishes which are still at home in the plastic greenhouses! :undecided I really hope she does this as they are all growing really well and I am so chuffed with it being my first year and everything!! Fingers crossed!!! :eek:

Happy growing all. :j

NualaBuala

Thanks MegansMum, I hope you're right. I gently kicked a snail in its shell off the wall and under a bush yesterday. For me that is major progress. I was out for a walk last weekend and saw a few slugs. I tried to challenge my automatic reaction and remind myself that we're all sharing the same world and they have as much right to be here as I do. I still freak out but I don't run away screaming any more!

I'm so impressed at how your allotment is coming along, current setback aside! I'm starting to think I might start with 1 or 2 containers while trying to tackle the overgrowth so at least I feel some sense of achievement early on.

Have a lovely holiday - I bet you'll miss the gardening!

Megansmum

Hi all.

Well the holiday was great but boy did I mess up with my "well thought out" gardening plans!

First - i put my tomato plants, radishes and lettuce in water before we went, thinking they will self water and only suck up the water when they need it!! (I did say I was new at all this didn't I? ):o They all wilted away after being drowned in too much water!!! :mad:

Then I put all my cucs in my small plastic greenhouse and the ****** thing blew over while we were gone and they are all broken and bent and looking really poorly!:mad:

On the phobia front the holiday was a roaring success - every year I freak about doors and windows being open in case mosquitos get in and bite me.. and I NEVER went out in the evening in case I was the meal! This time, i didn't worry or panic, i sat outside in the evening, had the windows open and I didn't get bitten once!!:D I know they were there though, cos the mother-in-law got bitten five times!!

Good luck Nuala, people don't realise how much of a challenge facing your fears can be!

NualaBuala

Never mind - I guess that's what they mean by a learning experience!:D

Well done on the phobias - bet you enjoyed the holiday a lot more. That'll be positive reinforcement.

I haven't got started on the garden yet but as it's been so wet I've had plenty of opportunity to practice not reacting to the molluscs. I haven't picked any up but I've been a lot calmer. I cut my sister's grass and was pulling up weeds around the edges without a care. In the past I would have been too afraid of what might have been lurking there. I saw one slug on the grass and didn't react so I feel I'm making progress.

Hope you manage to rescue or restart your veggies!