How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

EstherH

Thanks. There is hope after all.

Hippeechiq

Welcome PepPop
How clever is that idea hanging on the side of the shed?! I don't know if they've been specifically designed for plants, but they look very similar to shoe holders, don't they?

Kezlou Thanks for the tips on what to grow things in and the compost

I like the idea of the toy boxes, but they're too expensive for me. I only have the money my Dad sent me, and that has to cover everything, so the Te$co bags will have to do for me.

I can't get to a B&Q as it's several miles from me, but the H0mebase grow bags (which I'm using for compost) are £1.99 for 33L bags, so 132L will cost me £7.96, which isn't bad, and I can get a lift to H0mebase as it's down the road from me.

The P0undland pots sound great, but again, it's a few miles and a bus journey away, and I can't carry 30 pots on a bus ......life can be so difficult without a car, so I've come up with the best plan I can without one.

I bought one of the wine bags today that I mentioned in an earlier post today just to have a look at, and to see how suitable it is once the lining has been cut out, and I think they'll do the job just fine

I received another 6 tomato plants on Saturday, so I now have 6 Shirley F6 and 6 Sweet & Neat potted on in 5" pots on my south facing bedroom windowsill, and they're all looking very well.

anguk

PepPop wrote: »

ceridwen You are a star! I followed on of your links and found something that would be perfect...

The light is a bit of a problem but OH is very handy and I'm sure he could come up with something. :beer:

What a good idea! I wonder if you could use a hanging shoe store? Maybe something like these, you could hang them on the back of doors:
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/Clothing-Storage/Wilko-Storage-Hanging-Organiser-Shoe-12-Pocket/invt/0267702
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8754987/c_1/1|category_root|Home+and+furniture|14417894/c_2/2|14417894|Storage+and+shelving|14417975/c_3/3|cat_14417975|Shoe+storage|14417996.htm

I'd be a bit worried about them dripping water if they're indoors, but if you could hang them over the bath? :think:

ChocClare

Hello chaps, been MIA for a while, nothing sinister, just lurking rather than reading...;)

Welcome to PepPop and Mee and Mrs Aha; hugs to Mrs VP and anyone else who needs 'em.

It has been too hot for my whiter-than-white Irish skin to deal with which is a pity because I'd like to be outside clearing my so-called vegetable garden, aka buttercup field, so I can get all my plants in fairly soon.

The sweet, 80-year-old retired gamekeeper opposite came over to see if his rotivator would be any good to me, looked around in horror and said, this really isn't a job for a lady, you know. Sadly, DH wasn't listening, but I set to with my Tool and have actually cleared quite a big bit. It's just been too hot to clear the rest.

DH was obviously ultra quick to come up with lots of Tool jokes but it's been brilliant - just wish I knew what it was called. It's either a mattock or an adze - I think it's the latter - and it clears through carp quicker and more easily than anything I've ever used - plus it doesn't kill your back to use it, like a spade or a fork does, so those of you with allotment invasions might want to give it a go. We have meadows next to us and buttercups, nettles, docks, thistles, mares tail, couch grass and the dreaded bindweed invade in an INCREDIBLY fast space of time, but are being slowly adzed out.

Still, broad beans are in; strawberries and blackcurrants are flourishing; I've got a row of chard which has just grown from last year's, and I've got courgettes in the greenhouse PRODUCING COURGETTES!!!! Admittedly, they are only about one cm long, but it is only April... :T

Glad to hear my tomatoes etc are flourishing elsewhere in the country - hope mine don't all succumb to the blight this year.

And, just in case there are any of you who haven't yet heard - I have chicks! Six of 'em. Two are almost definitely roosters but the other four are hens. So we are chuffed. And they came just in time for Easter.

Which I hope was happy for everyone.

Rambling now. You can see why I don't post so often. Off to bed

grandma247

RE: Newspapers on weeds
this makes interesting reading. I do something similar but do not put anything like veg peelings in because they go in the compost bins.
some good tips here, here and here.

EstherH

Grandma, could I use laser printer paper do you think?

ceridwen

anguk wrote: »

What a good idea! I wonder if you could use a hanging shoe store? Maybe something like these, you could hang them on the back of doors:
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/Clothing-Storage/Wilko-Storage-Hanging-Organiser-Shoe-12-Pocket/invt/0267702
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8754987/c_1/1|category_root|Home+and+furniture|14417894/c_2/2|14417894|Storage+and+shelving|14417975/c_3/3|cat_14417975|Shoe+storage|14417996.htm

I'd be a bit worried about them dripping water if they're indoors, but if you could hang them over the bath? :think:

I've heard of people using hanging shoe stores like this.

There ARE specific things in a similar style to that made of dark material of some description - as I recall they are now on sale in Harrod Horticultural catalogue (free copy obtainable by post if one asks them. The ones I am thinking of are obtainable more widely - possibly eco goods firms would have them. Where I saw one in use was hanging on a garden wall of an eco house I visited and the owner seemed to rate it - and was growing various herbs and lettuce in it.

Here y'are - they are on this and there are various other ideas too:

http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/category/Patio_Gardens/

ceridwen

Re the wooden raised beds and the "bookcase" style shelving in that Harrod Horticultural catalogue - I imagine a handy DIY person could easily knock up something similar from discarded wooden pallets with appropriate sanding and weatherproofing done on them. Shades of the 1970s - when there was a bit of a mini fashion for making furniture from old pallets (NB: Dont forget - if they are painted blue then someone wants them back. Its only ones that are au naturel that are possible "discards").

Goes off remembering how I lust after an Adirondack style chair and there are instructions on the Net for how to use pallets to make one...:(

silvermaid

Good morning all,
We do not have any mare's tail luckily, but we do have a lot of thistles and dock.
Read the Lasagna gardening article and think we might try this on a bed in the Autumn.
It has rained overnight - but I don't know how much yet. It's quite cloudy and there are grumblings of thunder.
Starting to eat home grown salad leaves as well as loads of everlasting spinach.

Ceridwen we have willow herb growing in with our strawberries and saffron. How do you use it as a skin cream or lotion?
I'll be back again, but this thread grows like Topsy and can be a challenge to keep up with, x

[Deleted User]

azadas

http://www.get-digging.co.uk/tools.htm

We have a couple and they were the only tool we used, to enable us to clear our very heavy-going allotment last year. The half allotment was fit to start work on in just 4 months by using one of these. You don`t get so tired because you just swing it and let its own weight do the work. We very quickly stopped using fork and spade as they couldn`t cope

I used a small hand one yesterday to chop my concrete(clay) soil yesterday, so that I could earth up some potatoes. It worked.

Brilliant tools and very os in that they are pretty prehistoric and tried and tested

edit: the right angled fork was also amazing for prising out couch grass