Preparedness for when

Karmacat

I'm not quite sure what nfh is .... sorry! I definitely want to sort things in the garden, but what I've been doing with this tender tooth/nausea is walking around the neighbourhood looking at foraging opportunities - the park, and also some farmland thats been abandoned as there are houses going up in the next few years (planning permission granted, and the first couple of dozen have already gone up). Sweet chestnut trees! And a lot of cherry trees, but they don't get mature cherries, just green ones that fall off. So, there *might* be something I can do thats prepperish with baby cherry stones - crush for mulch? Anyone got any ideas?

moneyistooshorttomention

nfh = neighbour from hell (clue the vandalism in my garden).

Hence I'm not quite sure whether she's finished everything she had in mind - or is having a go at a bit more.

charlies-aunt

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Latest bit of prepping - ie planting up some vegetable plug plants (very small ones) not quite gone according to plan.
Currently contemplating whether the fact that they've all vanished from my front garden

I suspect your veggie vandals to be the usual culprits - nocturnal slugs and snails. We had a nice little crop of courgette plants dong well in our cold frame but they have chomped down to the soil overnight by the little hooligans!


We have a problem with baby rabbits squeezing through the wire fence at the allotment and launching assaults on the beetroot seedlings and don't get me started on the pigeons - incredibly destructive feathered fiends!!


A sudden cold and windy cold snap can also see them off sharpish. . . . . a gardeners lot is not a happy one! x

moneyistooshorttomention

Fingers crossed that it was "natural causes" that saw the demise of my plants - rather than owt worse iyswim.

Whatever the reason - I could do with having my conservatory now for bringing on baby plants in - but cant see me having the money to add one to my house for some time yet (as there's several other things I need to find money for first - 3 of them also expensive).:(

I'm wondering what I can do to "make shift" instead of my conservatory until such time as I have it (which I fear could be a few years away) and it would have to be VERY cheap indeed (free would be even better:)) to cover until then. Wondering if I could use a few of those large plastic storage boxes plonked in the garden until then - and just put their lids on them at night.

Mini plastic greenhouse things wouldn't fare at all well here in West Wales unfortunately - courtesy of the frequency and severity of winds there are here. I could see them taking off and not stopping until they got to the nearest hills. I'm not used to coping with winds (as that was something pretty rare and mild to me previously) - and don't really have much idea how people deal with them. Unless I went in for concrete gardens and shrubs (like a lot of people round here do) instead of the type of gardens I'm used to - but I shant be doing that - so its a challenge to have the type of garden I've always planned on here. Yep....correct...I'm southern English....and hence the way I decided years ago how my garden would be...once I got one (rather than a "courtyard garden" - which is what I had before).

All suggestions welcome on temporary conservatory substitutes.

thriftwizard

MTSTM, we get a fair blast from the wind every now & then down our driveway; the rest of the garden is fairly sheltered, but not there, the bins go over, and anything not tied down will take off. However that's also the only place we could put a mini-greenhouse... the aspects are all wrong in the only other spots we could fit one. So I went slightly upmarket & bought one of these & I'm delighted to say that it's proved pretty sturdy & has stood up to everything the South Coast weather has thrown at it in the last 5 years. The door did suffer a nasty accident recently, when OH removed it for some reason & DD2 accidentally stood on it, but half a roll of (psychedelic) duck tape later, it's back doing its job perfectly well.

It stands with its back to the fence, which I think helps to brace it, and also shelters it from the north. There are some late seedlings still coming on in there now, and several large tomato plants galloping up towards them, festooned in flowers. If we moved & had to leave it behind, I'd buy another straight away - even if we had a traditional glass one too - as I've been really pleased with it.

moneyistooshorttomention

I've seen adverts for ones like this over the years and wondered how sturdy they are.

How long do you think it would take to erect one of these? How easy are they to put together?

I could put something like that against a side wall that I am contemplating putting my conservatory on (when I get it eventually) and that would mean one side the wind couldn't get at it from.

jk0

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I've seen adverts for ones like this over the years and wondered how sturdy they are.

How long do you think it would take to erect one of these? How easy are they to put together?

I could put something like that against a side wall that I am contemplating putting my conservatory on (when I get it eventually) and that would mean one side the wind couldn't get at it from.

My friend has one of those against the back of his garage. It has been there 15 years, and still going strong.

thriftwizard

I managed to put it together in less than a day, if I remember correctly. I struggled a bit with the door, not realising that the pack contained fittings for it to open to either side, but obviously you only need it to open one way & I'd put them both on, so it wouldn't slide open at all. Pilot error! Once I'd worked that out, it was fine, and I reckon it's as sturdy as my brother's glass one.

Frugalsod

Update on the home made peanut butter.

I found an infographic on what tool for what purpose. Apparently a food processor with the blade tool is best for making peanut butter. It has turned out well. I also left it running on slowly for longer and only drizzled a little groundnut oil on and it has come out well. Now the fun part to get it into a jar.

moneyistooshorttomention

Frugalsod wrote: »

Update on the home made peanut butter.

I found an infographic on what tool for what purpose. Apparently a food processor with the blade tool is best for making peanut butter. It has turned out well. I also left it running on slowly for longer and only drizzled a little groundnut oil on and it has come out well. Now the fun part to get it into a jar.

Checking - so you'd use a food processor, rather than a Vitamix then? As I have the choice of which to use - errrm...has to admit to not having ever used my food processor yet...ahem:o

Do you have the link to that infographic?