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chimp_choker

Olliebeak wrote: »

Since then, I've done a trough with an assortment of herbs (parsley, chives, coriander, basil) and another one with an assortment of salad stuff (mixed salad leaves, radishes, spring onions). At the moment it's too cold to leave them out of doors overnight, so keep putting them out in the daytime and then bringing them back in again when the sun has gone down.

For your salad leaves, radishes, beetroot etc go the sucessional route. In other words sow a few seeds now then again in 3 weeks so some more. 3 weeks after sow some more and that way you will have a sucession of produce throughout the season rather than a glut of produce all at once.

Congrats all the same

chimp

chimp_choker

it'smeinit wrote: »

I have just put together some raised beds to start my own veg garden. So I will keep an eye out for any tips for the new grower.
Any advice given will be greatly received. And believe me I'm gona need it.


:T

For deep beds it is important that you don't walk on the soil to compact it. Deep beds ( DB ) should be no more than 1.2m to 1.5m wide to enable you to weed and plant from all sides. Also check out rotation cropping which is where you move the crops grown in one bed to the next the following year. Also leave one bed fallow each year and stick loads of compost / manure on it. I personally cover this bed with at least 1ft of well rotted manure then cover the whole bed with black polythene. This helps to form a barrier for the weeds and helps all the worms take the manure down into the soil over the course of the year. During the next 4 years ( 5 year rotation) I top dress the beds with chicken manure as and when needed.
Don't grow the brassica family in the same area year after year for clubfoot will surely appear ( can be controlled by liming the area).

If you have a bucket put some rainwater in it and then fill it with nettles and leave for a couple of weeks. Stir it a few times (anticlockwise) and then leave it a further two weeks. Strain the water off and this can be diluted say 5 parts water to 1 part nettle juice. A good fertiliser / feed. Also do this with comfrey leaves. Don't grow mint in the ground as it's a !!!!!! to control, use a bucket or a long 3 ft pipe sunk into the ground then fill with soil and plant into this.

Oh and make sure your wood for the deepbeds are not creosoted like the treated railway sleepers. Apparently acording to monty don this makes them carcinogenic.


Nuff to be going on with ??

Chimp

supersaver1000

I'd like to make a raised bed for my daughter to grow a few veg in, but I'm loathe to fork out money to buy one. Does anyone have any ideas about how I could make one that would be substantial enough to last a few years but also look good? Thanks

chimp_choker

supersaver1000 wrote: »

I'd like to make a raised bed for my daughter to grow a few veg in, but I'm loathe to fork out money to buy one. Does anyone have any ideas about how I could make one that would be substantial enough to last a few years but also look good? Thanks

The best way is to buy a few scaffolding boards. This can be easier said than done but there are a lot of companies out there so a local one to you shouldn't really be a problem. The reason I, and many others use scaffolding boards is that they are strong, thick and deep so they won't rot for many a year even without the use of preservative. They go a grey looking colour and are quite asthetic looking.
Buy old boards or "seconds" or those that do not have the metal banding on the ends. This just makes them cheaper. Depending on your garden size or what you want them for ( your duaghter, age etc) then you could probably get away with 3 x 3m boards. Two of these will be the long sides and the third is cut in half to make the end boards. It's important not to go over 1.5m deep ( hence cutting the 3rd board in half) as you will have to walk on the soil if it's any wider. You will also need 4 lumps of wood say 2"x 2" for the corner posts. These are hammered into the soil and the boards nailed to these. You can just nail the ends of the boards together but for a more substanyial job that lasts longer use the posts.

Up here in darkest north east 3 scafflod boards will cost around £10 the posts can be found easy enough ( I never walk past a skip without looking in it).
These will last at least 10 years +.

If you want a smaller deep bed then just get two boards and make a 1.5m square deep bed etc. The aim with deepbeds is not to walk on the soil and manure well.
Also if you go for a deep bed you can grow on the square system rather than in long rows. I't's more productive when you plant out your plants equidistant to each other rather than in long rows.

If you don't want to buy some scaffolding boards then get some floorboards etc but you will need to replace these before scaffolding boards and maybe need to fix two floorboards to the posts to get the required height.
HTH

Chimp

P.S. try your local freecycle for scaffolding boards. I've never had any from there but it's worth a punt if you can wait.

patsywatsy

I wonder if someone can help me with a plant growing from under my back door step, it is one of my favourites "verbena bonaris" about 5 feet tall, it is shooting up loads of stems, I cannot get the root out, but, can I take of the cutting and pot them up now, or is it to late, help!:j

chimp_choker

patsywatsy wrote: »

I wonder if someone can help me with a plant growing from under my back door step, it is one of my favourites "verbena bonaris" about 5 feet tall, it is shooting up loads of stems, I cannot get the root out, but, can I take of the cutting and pot them up now, or is it to late, help!:j

It is getting a bit late now. You should take stem cuttings in late summer or early autumn or propergate by collecting and sow the seeds in autumn or spring.

However why not make some layered cuttings or are you going to get rid of the "parent " plant asap.

For layering get a plant pot of about 6" diamiter and fill with compost. A good one would be john innes #1 but ordinary garden soil where the plant is growing will suffice if you don't want to buy the compost. Bend over the branch of the parent plant making sure you don't snap it and lay it onto the top of the pot of compost / soil. Where it touches the soil make a small cut in the stem so the cut touches the soil. Peg this down with a piece of wire bent into a U shape. Water the soil and then cover with a poly bag or clingfilm. Wait a few weeks and then you "should" have roots developing from the cut into the soil. simply cut the pot off from the parent branch and that is your layered cutting. Nurture this in for a year or so and then you can transplant it next season into the place you want it to grow. One other tip is to remove any of the flowers and most of the leaves from the sibling branch as you want the plant to put all it's energy into forming roots.

Another way is air layering which is the same as above but instead of laying the plant branch down on the soil you get some spagnum moss and put this round the cut in the branch. You then cover the moss and the cut in a poly bag and the roots form into the moss but it looks wierd having the poly bag half way up the stem,lol.

I garden organically so to remove the plant it is a case of digging all the roots out but if you are wanting to get shot of the plant once and for all once you take the cuttings and don't garden organically then you can buy a systemic "weed" killer which will kill everything down to the roots. There is a spray version that you spray on the leaves and that is drawn down into the roots or you can get a jelly version that is red and is painted onto the leaves for it to act in the same way.
HTH

Alan

dee63_2

Thanks matin like playing in the garden, but have lots to learn still

Lesley_Gaye

In the constant battle with slugs I haven't found anything that really works except two things.

1. I go out at night, at least half an hour after dark, and take a torch with me so I can see the little blighters, then, using a plastic glove otherwise it's too gross for words, I pick them off and tread on them. The really HUGE ones can be salted, which I don't like doing, or use a half brick or something.

2. Copper. I have had hostas for years but every year they were ribbons by the end of May. Then I got hold of a copper water cylinder and knowing how slugs hate it, I cut the cylinder in half and planted my hostas in the two halves. It worked a treat, so now I get beautiful, large hostas, don't have to use any slug pellets, and just have to do a little light watering when they get a bit too dry. Didn't know how the hostas would fare sitting in copper, but they seem very happy and have grown into really large plants now, they've been in the pots about 5 years.

Along the same principle, this year I have been investigating copper strip tape. It has worked beautifully stuck on the bottom third of some old clear plastic which was then tied up into a cylinder and the whole thing placed over plants I wanted to protect - Little Gem lettuce, dahlia seedlings, sweet peas, newly planted out runner bean plants etc.

So I am now wondering if it would work stuck around the timbers of my raised veggie beds. I nailed on some leftover copper pipe, but the blighters just climb over it. Anyone any idea why the pipe doesn't work? At the moment I am thinking of panel pinning the strip tape around the smaller of my two beds and seeing if it works.

Lesley

nimbo

mcardinalblue wrote: »

thankyou Martin will use the forum alot this year as this is my first year with an allotment.

you lucky so and so...

the wait where i am is HUGE... (been on the list 2 years:()

bernice_2

does anyone know where i can get discounted tickets to HAMPTON COURT FLOWER SHOW?