New to gardening!

gememily

Sounds like a good idea daz501. I have no tips to give you but would be very interested to know how you get on!

K8eP

daz501 wrote: »

I'm going to make myself a greenhouse from bamboo and some sort of sheet plastic. Any tips on this one?

Bamboo is really cheap, first year I did gardening I got some for a few pence at a garden centre.

Plastic... the cheapest is at poundland. You get a massive sheet for the money (well, the width of our small garden, so to us, it was quite big, Lol)

dom300186

i looked at things i use the most when i cook, so herbs in my kitchen window are used alot in my curries or chilli or anything else.

onions/carrots/lettuce/corn/broccolli we get through lots of them, im going to see how these grow and see what i plan for next year if i can take on more?

a tip fpr slugs any egg shells crush them up and sprinkle them around your veg/plant slugs hate the sharp roughness and stay away.
good luck

daz501

dom300186 wrote: »

a tip fpr slugs any egg shells crush them up and sprinkle them around your veg/plant slugs hate the sharp roughness and stay away.
good luck

Good idea - I was thinking of buying crushed oyster shells from the pet shop, but yes egg shells.

Also, any remaining or unwanted eggshells can go on the compost heap.


Now for the big one -

DETERRING CATS

The last thing you want after planting your veg and going to a lot of effort is next door's cat fouling and digging your garden.

I have been sticking wooden kebab skewers in the ground, as well as sprinkling chopped onion pieces around the soil.

Any other tips?

rabidbun

For the frames for your bamboo GH I would put tennis balls (cut open just enough to allow them to be put on) on the corners to mind your eyes.

As far as the cats go, I would net to around four or five foot (no top unless you specifically want to keep pests other than cats out), using a bamboo frame around the whole of your bed. Either that or grow your veggies through a wire mesh of some sort (I am using those shelves from the mini greenhouses at the moment all over my beds) as they won't like to walk, squat or dig on those. Only things that have worked for me. Tried covering with pots and plates to stop them, they pooed on the plates. :mad: Other deterants all failed (around 10 to 20 cats within a road of me, so there's always one that ignores something).

When I do my herb bed next year I will be planting between large ish rocks so that there's no bare soil for the cats to get at. I am also gradually adding large cobbles to more permanent beds, same reason.

Spring onions are great to grow as fillers for when other crops come out. Fill one of those seed trays (can get them free from garden centres) with compost. Make holes around two inches apart and put ten seeds in each one. Keep watered and handy and when the seedlings are anything from around three or four inches high you can plant out a clump whenever you have space for them to grow into full size plants. Pea shoots are also great to grow from some of those supermarket pea packets (the type that they sell to cook from) - plant, let grow to a few inches tall, cut off the tops (3 or so crops from each before replanting needed).

Good luck with it all!

K8eP

Pepper is a good cat/dog deterrent
but you need to use quite a bit
at least it's cheap to buy
[when you sneeze, you know you've put on enough...] Lol

daz501

I've started building a sqaure frame from bamboo. It's almost finished, and now I just need some plastic tarp.

What I really would prefer is one of those plastic children's tents that are constructed by means of plastic tubing with in sections with moulded T-Shaped and V-Shaped joints. You get a cover that goes over the whole frame - usually a branded one as part of a merchandise range.

The great thing is, is that I know I'd be able to make my own cover to fit snugly over the top, and it could be pegged down into the ground to secure it. They're very light, very portable and would work perfectly as a small greenhouse.

I must track down a product like this and hoepfully modify it as I have described.

Sally_A

@daz

loads of people have knackered old gazebo frames hanging around, they have normally been bent a bit by gusts, also some of the connectors are brittle, but it is a good starting point and you can make them any size you wish.

and this company came up tops when I was searching for a big roll of debris netting:-

http://www.tarpaflex.co.uk/acatalog/Debris_Netting.html?gclid=CMDKy7aqsqgCFYEc4QodexkLCQ

daz501

Recycled greenhouse using empty 2 litre plastic bottles

http://www.simplygardening.co.uk/whitgift_recycled_greenhouse.htm

gememily

Wow! I love the plastic bottle greenhouse! Is this an excuse for me to drink more cola???