Does anyone keep a gardening diary on MSE?

LavenderBees

Thanks, Ninja. I appreciate your time to give me your advice.

I've managed to do a little bit of reading today about square foot gardening, and I think there is a smaller marked out bed on my lottie, that might be suitable for a wee trial. It made for very interesting reading. I'd never heard of it before, but it looks easily achievable, and well worth a try to see how it works out.

I'm leaning towards keeping the lottie design as it is already set out. In my head, I think I'm confusing a garden design with an allotment. Obviously, they aren't the same thing, so my yearning for soft, rounded beds that would suit a garden, probably wouldn't suit an allotment. I don't dislike the current set up, but I guess, I'm thinking, it isn't MY setup.

But I agree that it is a tried and tested allotment design that probably works. One thing I may have to change, though, is the grass path up the middle. I don't have any need for a lawn mower so it would be silly to buy one just for a thin grass path. That may have to be changed to gravel or bark at a later date. I'll have a think.

oh, and good point about seed catalogues. I'd never have thought of that. Thank you!

Today's achievements then - decision to leave the design pretty much as it is :T

Today's learning point - Square Foot Gardening Concept, and how to apply something similar to the smaller bed on the allotment next year :T

Friday evenings are choring days for me, so I don't expect to be thinking of the lottie too much. Saturday is D(ig) -Day. Can't wait to actually get stuck in :T. Let's see how I get on .

LB xx

ETA - I think I have a rake...I need to take a look, meant to tonight, but forgot. I got some tools in a sale a couple of years ago, so will see what I've got, and if not, consider buying a rake. Thanks for the tip!

LavenderBees

Yay! I have a rake!! It has sat unused in my shed, along with a hoe, trowel and forkfor a few years....in my naivety, I assumed I'd get an allotment the day after I applied , so bought them in a sale 3 years age. Very glad I did though, as it saves me time and money now. :T

Really excited about getting stuck in tomorrow. My aims for tomorrow are -

1. Visit the stables about half a mile out of the village to see if they have/will allow me to take well-rotted manure. Failing that, there's a stable about a mile and a half away.

The logisitics of getting manure to my plot are defeating me at the moment. I don't have access to a trailer, so the best I can think is strong bags in my car boot (hmmmm...I don't like that idea) OR half a mile isn't so bad to trundle my wheelbarrow, but that's a mile round trip and will take up a lot of time for a barrow load at at time, not to mention an aching back (not keen on that idea). Even if someone will deliver a pile, there's nowhere to dump it, and the trailer would have to be parked a good 100 yds from the allotments...hmmmm....:(

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any organised manure drop for the whole of the allotments, which is a shame...it would save a lot of effort. Each person organises their own (or not, I suspect). Hopefully, there'll be people around tomorrow to chat to and get some idea of what they do.

2. Dig over the small bed...and sprinkle green manure seeds. I'm sure there's a small bed in addition to the 2 larger beds...I ony vaguely remember it now as I've really only seen the allotment once for a few minutes before the midges drove me away

3. Measure all the marked out beds so I can work out what I think I can fit in.

4. Maybe make a start digging out the right hand bed (as looking west) as that is the one I'll use to make a start with some winter planting, even if it's only a garlic bulb.

Oh, almost forgot, today, I intend to speak with my office manager and see if she can save me any large cardboard boxes so I can use them to cover exposed areas. I like the idea of it rotting down, and it's cheap (free)...I just threw some in the recycling bin a few weeks ago

Happy Friday, it's been a loooooooooooong week

LB xx

Davesnave

Another tool you should have ASAP is a hoe. As in everything, you can buy cheap, but if you buy well, you'll only do it once.

After using lots of hoes, I have settled on a very old one that looks like the Paxton hoe in this link. (Bulldog tools are good, as their price suggests.)It works really well as a push pull hoe to whip up annual weeds, or on its side to lift smaller perennials.

http://www.bulldogtools.co.uk/products/gardening/rakes-and-hoes/

Mine didn't cost anything though; I grabbed it as a woman was half way through hurling it into a skip at the local dump! :rotfl:

LavenderBees

A tip, I've just read on a website -

"My peppers were small, yellow, with dark purple on the leaves. I fertilized them, but did not see much improvement.
SOLUTION: Eggshells

My cousin gave me this simple recipe for feeding tomatoes and peppers, and it WORKED WONDERS on my pepper plants! Last year I did this and fertilized all at once so I couldn’t tell which one was the magic. Now I know–it’s the eggs!
Save your eggshells (I saved mine all winter), let them dry out, and crush them up. Add to water (2 dozen eggshells to 2 quarts water) and let sit overnight. Water the peppers (and tomatoes) with the water, and discard the shells. Within 2 weeks my peppers were growing big, flowering, and producing peppers."

Anyone heard or tried this...?

ETA - I've been worrying on my way to work that I've broken umpteen plagiarism, copyright & MSE laws by quoting verbatim from someone else's website. Apologies if this is the case. I'll amend as soon as possible to provide a link and a credit...

http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/problems-solutions-update/

Phew - redeemed myself I hope...

LavenderBees

Davesnave wrote: »

Another tool you should have ASAP is a hoe. As in everything, you can buy cheap, but if you buy well, you'll only do it once.

After using lots of hoes, I have settled on a very old one that looks like the Paxton hoe in this link. (Bulldog tools are good, as their price suggests.)It works really well as a push pull hoe to whip up annual weeds, or on its side to lift smaller perennials.

http://www.bulldogtools.co.uk/products/gardening/rakes-and-hoes/

Mine didn't cost anything though; I grabbed it as a woman was half way through hurling it into a skip at the local dump! :rotfl:

I bet the woman got a shock :rotfl: Do you lurk at the tip often?? :rotfl:

Fancy throwing a good tool out!

Whey hey! I have one!...also bought 3 years ago in the sale :T

Davesnave

LavenderBees wrote: »

I bet the woman got a shock :rotfl: Do you lurk at the tip often?? :rotfl:

Fancy throwing a good tool out!

Whey hey! I have one!...also bought 3 years ago in the sale :T

Good!

Yes I used to live near the tip in a posh city, so if I wanted anything.....:D My best find was two matching, hand-made terracotta planters about 35 cm square, although probably not frost proof.

I once saw about 40 pairs of shoes, all almost new, but not my size. Life, eh?

I will look up egg shells as fertilizer. Not sure if I'd add more calcium in a hard water area.

LavenderBees

Davesnave wrote: »

Good!

Yes I used to live near the tip in a posh city, so if I wanted anything.....:D My best find was two matching, hand-made terracotta planters about 35 cm square, although probably not frost proof.

I once saw about 40 pairs of shoes, all almost new, but not my size. Life, eh?

I will look up egg shells as fertilizer. Not sure if I'd add more calcium in a hard water area.

Oh, there's another factor I hadn't thought of...water....I have no idea what type of water my area has...:o

I just thought, if the egg shells can be used, then it's a cheap & cheerful tip to try next year. Simplistic, that's me :rotfl:

LavenderBees

It's blowing an hoolie here today, but I've achieved todays' wee aim of getting permission to raid the office's cardboard recyle bins whenever I need to :T So, I now have a car filled with large flattened boxes (I nearly took off in a gust of wind!), and also some smaller bits to cover the compost bin and also to break up to put in the compost bin.

I hadn't really thought about compost, as have had absolutely no success in the past, but there is a homemade wooden compost bin on the allotment, which I'm assuming noone is going to dismantle to take away, so I'm planning to use it.

I've also found a website that seems to spell out very clearly what can and can't go in the compost bin, so I'll start to collect kitchen stuff etc. I may stop short at providing the urine....then again....it's free and plenty of it!TMI? :rotfl:

http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/buy_a_bin/index.html

I've also investigated a bit more about how to sow green manure as I've never used it before - this link is useful...words of one syllable


http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/soil_growgreenmanure1.shtml

Well, I hope I can keep up this level of productivity once I actually hit the allotment ....:rotfl:

LavenderBees

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/mini-greenhouses+propagation/wilko-walk-in-greenhouse-with-staging+pe-cover/invt/0273090/?htxt=%2FUvRjc0xAaKk26JwgsxcsV6E2gjpK53ITJCPcypNRrR6jhjYX3SDlEUFWaOdTpLU0xVcTayKYYOc%0Aw4t9gBa9qg%3D%3D

Thanks to Kara7758 for the info on another thread - food for thought

Davesnave

LavenderBees wrote: »

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/mini-greenhouses+propagation/wilko-walk-in-greenhouse-with-staging+pe-cover/invt/0273090/?htxt=%2FUvRjc0xAaKk26JwgsxcsV6E2gjpK53ITJCPcypNRrR6jhjYX3SDlEUFWaOdTpLU0xVcTayKYYOc%0Aw4t9gBa9qg%3D%3D

Thanks to Kara7758 for the info on another thread - food for thought

Have you got a pilot's licence for that? :rotfl:

Your water is hard if you get scum around the bath & limescale in the kettle. I don't have hard water now and my soil is on the acid side.