Daydream thread continues.....

rozeepozee

Rummer wrote: »

I would really be grateful for your help!

can I ask, too, please? I literally have a blank canvas at the moment (well, there are no useful plants in there!) The challenge is that the south facing large field is very exposed to the prevailing winds, the front facing SW side, similar with a limited planting area (front lawn) and where there's better soil, it's north facing with a border of mature trees blocking the light.

I've gotta put some stuff in the garden soon or I'll be over run.

rhiwfield

Rummer, If I were you I'd start by drawing a scale plan of your garden as it is, noting orientation, trees/roots and shading, dry/wet spots, services, walls, paths, slopes. When you've done this, take a few photocopies so you can have plan a, b etc .

Then make a wish list of fruit and veg you want to grow, particularly noting permanent plantings such as fruit trees, bushes, vines and permanent veg like asparagus and rhubarb. You may well have some of these in place already.

At this stage you might want to share with us or you can start on the design yourself.

A few early tips
1) Edges are very productive especially for permanent plantings, so take full advantage of walls and fences
2) Plants can be trained to fit spaces (cordons/espaliers/stepovers)
3) A pergola can be used as a support for a vine or for annual climbers
4) Walk the garden and think where any structures will need to go (compost heaps/greenhouse/pond/paths)

When you've established where your permanent plantings are going, and whether you need to train trees (in which case you'll need stout posts and wires) you can decide where to locate the veg plots. You know that my preference is for a bed system separated by paths for easy access. So we gradually converted our back lawn to a series of central beds, with edge beds for fruit bushes and trained fruit trees.

My veg beds are all 4' wide for ease of access, and to avoid treading on the soil. Even a single bed can be very productive if the soil is kept in good heart but when growing veg you ideally need to have a rotation system, so 3-4 beds is better, to avoid pest and disease build up and allow nutrients to be replaced.

BTW, all this wont and shouldnt happen overnight!! A project like this can take years to mature, especially tree plantings. Equally, if you've got a plan, its easy to complete it in phases and get a buzz as each new bit is done and seeing the jigsaw take shape

rhiwfield

rozeepozee wrote: »

can I ask, too, please? I literally have a blank canvas at the moment (well, there are no useful plants in there!) The challenge is that the south facing large field is very exposed to the prevailing winds, the front facing SW side, similar with a limited planting area (front lawn) and where there's better soil, it's north facing with a border of mature trees blocking the light.

I've gotta put some stuff in the garden soon or I'll be over run.

Rozee, large or small plot the planning process is similar And if you plant quickly you might end up wanting to change it all!

I'd be interested in what others think but the large field seems to need a hedge windbreak if you are planning growing crops, but atm I'm not sure whether you plan to have livestock. I think Seymour may be worth a reread to help clarify your own wish list of animal and plants and how you plan to zone your land to fit it all in. But a smallholding is obviously much more work than a garden and I'd be thinking as well about ease of management, mechanisation, grazing etc, and wouldnt be inclined to make any rush decisions.

In the short term, if long term plans aren't firmed up, its not too late to make a temporary plot, close to house, where the youngsters can grow peas, beans, potatoes

Davesnave

Itismehonest wrote: »

Blimey, where do you go shopping? :rotfl: That's one heck of a scenic route if it's to BarneyRubble.

Nah, it's not!

Although there are smaller supermarkets closer to us, they tend not to have everything we want, so 20 miles is the usual distance we need to travel to reach a larger one. If we go to Rosemoor, we can do Lidl in Torrington.

However, if we didn't visit the gardens, from there we could pass onto Morrisons in Bideford, collect a few things in Sainsburys at Roundswell and then take the Link Road Home via MVF in SM for chicken food if we want to.

Of course we don't do that circuit all the time, or even once a month, but as 40 miles is the minimum journey, when we shop, we shop!

That's only one direction. Going other ways, we can visit Tiverton or Okehampton, as there are farmers' suppliers there too, if needs be. Then there's Exeter or Taunton, if something else is needed; both around an hour from here.

Being in the middle of the county gives the advantage of variety, even if none of the shopping centres is near at hand.:D

Of course if we don't want to travel far, we can manage, as we have a good butcher here, a not terribly good baker, a Spar shop and a deli. Only the Indian take away is unacceptably bad.:eek: I'm not referring to hygiene there, just the fact that they can't seem to cook anything remotely hot or spicy. Tis a mystery!

Davesnave

When starting out with any plot, it's brilliant if you can plan and execute in one, but very often other constraints get in the way. In that case a temporary solution is better than doing nothing.

Here, most areas were so badly weed infested or had big, unwanted things growing in them, we cultivated the bit that was under black plastic or already in rudimentary beds. It's only now we are starting to build the proper veg & fruit garden, which will be more sheltered.

Basically, ours will be six deep beds and a fruit cage, all laid out in a boring rectangle! But why not?

Itismehonest

Davesnave wrote: »

Nah, it's not!

Although there are smaller supermarkets closer to us, they tend not to have everything we want, so 20 miles is the usual distance we need to travel to reach a larger one. If we go to Rosemoor, we can do Lidl in Torrington.

However, if we didn't visit the gardens, from there we could pass onto Morrisons in Bideford, collect a few things in Sainsburys at Roundswell and then take the Link Road Home via MVF in SM for chicken food if we want to.

Of course we don't do that circuit all the time, or even once a month, but as 40 miles is the minimum journey, when we shop, we shop!

That's only one direction. Going other ways, we can visit Tiverton or Okehampton, as there are farmers' suppliers there too, if needs be. Then there's Exeter or Taunton, if something else is needed; both around an hour from here.

Being in the middle of the county gives the advantage of variety, even if none of the shopping centres is near at hand.:D

Of course if we don't want to travel far, we can manage, as we have a good butcher here, a not terribly good baker, a Spar shop and a deli. Only the Indian take away is unacceptably bad.:eek: I'm not referring to hygiene there, just the fact that they can't seem to cook anything remotely hot or spicy. Tis a mystery!

Ah. I didn't think it could be Barney.

:eek: You make your place sound even more 'remote' than we are. We do have 3 Lidl, 3 Tesco & most other supermarkets - but not Aldi, Asda, Morrisons - within about 30 mins drive.
Must admit we haven't been to Taunton (1.25-1.5 hours away) since we stopped doing the school run. We very occasionally go to Exeter but that's more a case of when we're looking for something a bit special which none of the local towns caters for ...... OK, let's be honest. when we're looking for anything vaguely decent :rotfl:

Our nearest village shops are about 5 miles away, I guess. There was an Indian restaurant & Chinese takeaway in one village for years but we never used them.
Some of the hotels do Take Away (all sorts of things from Asian/Far East to chish & fips) but we haven't tried them. We tend to either eat out or dine in.
Bread is all home-baked so the poor local baker doesn't get our patronage, either. We did used to have the local dairy deliver milk & things for the first few years we were here but it closed. Shame that. It was proper milk in proper bottles.:cool:

Oh, & the postman used to deliver papers. That went west, too.

lostinrates

Itismehonest wrote: »

Ah. I didn't think it could be Barney.

:eek: You make your place sound even more 'remote' than we are. We do have 3 Lidl, 3 Tesco & most other supermarkets - but not Aldi, Asda, Morrisons - within about 30 mins drive.
Must admit we haven't been to Taunton (1.25-1.5 hours away) since we stopped doing the school run. We very occasionally go to Exeter but that's more a case of when we're looking for something a bit special which none of the local towns caters for ...... OK, let's be honest. when we're looking for anything vaguely decent :rotfl:

Our nearest village shops are about 5 miles away, I guess. There was an Indian restaurant & Chinese takeaway in one village for years but we never used them.
Some of the hotels do Take Away (all sorts of things from Asian/Far East to chish & fips) but we haven't tried them. We tend to either eat out or dine in.
Bread is all home-baked so the poor local baker doesn't get our patronage, either. We did used to have the local dairy deliver milk & things for the first few years we were here but it closed. Shame that. It was proper milk in proper bottles.:cool:

Oh, & the postman used to deliver papers. That went west, too.

It's amazing being somewhere now where we have the full choice of supermarkets and a huge choice of places to eat within thirty minutes.

Before it was a terrible and not very big tesco or a decent morrisons, later joined by a Lille and an aldi. Then a small waitrose and a bigger sainsburies a bit further away.

I used to hate having a morrisons as the local, but now its all posh veg and I wish I were closer. The one where dh sometimes gets the train to is huge, but I don't know till the evening of that day where he is coming to, so I rarely need to shop then.

rhiwfield

We're pretty well served for shops, Cardiff is 20 minutes away and there is plenty of local choice. Our nearest town is 3 miles away with good restaurants and shops and all the supermarkets are within 6 miles.

As an occasional treat we will visit Swansea market, great fun and local produce. An even bigger treat is to bypass Swansea and head for the Gower!

lostinrates

Unplanned pregnancy.

Mixture of Alfie's snowball x silky and millefleur bantam x silky. The white crosses should look ok...what on earth will the millfleur crosses look like? I know zilch about the genetic dominance of fluff v feather.

Davesnave

We have a season ticket, so if we go into Rosemoor it's maybe for 90 minutes max and out again. We don't have to stay and get our money's worth!

I like going to different places for the shopping, and trying out different routes home.....well, apart from that place we went to yesterday, which seems to be in another space/time continuum!:rotfl: