The 2013 'Growing' Chat Thread

katholicos

1derwoman wrote: »

You've not waffled on at all coldcazzie! (I'm sure Katholicos had this sort of thing in mind when she started the thread

Spot on! It's exactly why i started this thread. Everyone feel free to natter as much as you want! :beer:

coldcazzie

1derwoman wrote: »

You've not waffled on at all coldcazzie! (I'm sure Katholicos had this sort of thing in mind when she started the thread!)

Gosh...It sound's like you have some amazing plans! And you're parents have bee hives?! that's amazing!

Yeah, they had 4 but one, well we think the queen died, and one of the stronger hives then stole all their honey :rotfl:

The plans are big, and probably expensive I just hope I can be sufficiently thrifty by reusing the wood from the decks. When I said the previous occupants were lazy, basically instead of sorting out the ground, they just covered it with a deck.

katholicos wrote: »

Spot on! It's exactly why i started this thread. Everyone feel free to natter as much as you want! :beer:

Good stuff

sammyroser

1derwoman wrote: »

Hi Sammyroser! I'd love to hear what your "really unusual things" are....that sounds great! (I also struggle with getting lavender going.)

I discovered James Wong's seeds at suttons and bought quite a few packs.

Popcorn Fiesta
Musk Melon
Electric Daisies
Cucamelon
Aspargus Peas
Radish Rats Tails

I mostly have a lot of DIY to do in my garden, which I can't do myself really for many reasons so am going to have to plant things in slightly unusual places.

For example to make room for all these new seeds I will have to move where I plant my courgettes. I have a huge heap of soil piled at the back of the garden where I was planning to build a knee high raised bed, as I am unlikely to get this done before planting out my veg I am going to plant the courgettes straight into the mound of earth! Actually think my courgettes will like it there as I've been dumping all my green and brown waste on top of it for a couple of years (as I still do not have a compost bin) so it should be nice and fertile, will just need to turn over the top layer early spring and get rid of the worst of the weeds.

sammyroser

coldcazzie wrote: »

I think building and filling beds would make sense and I'm thinking weed material and bark chippings between them.

Great plans coldcazzie! The only thing I can give advice on is the path made from wood chippings, it will break down quite quickly if your moving up and down it a lot so will need replacing fairly often, that's not a huge issue as it is so cheap. The bigger issue is slugs will love to live amongst it as it stays damp for a long time!

I've gotten rid of all my wood chippings and am thinking what to replace it with... I've just got some weed membrane down until I can decide what.

coldcazzie

sammyroser wrote: »

Great plans coldcazzie! The only thing I can give advice on is the path made from wood chippings, it will break down quite quickly if your moving up and down it a lot so will need replacing fairly often, that's not a huge issue as it is so cheap. The bigger issue is slugs will love to live amongst it as it stays damp for a long time!

I've gotten rid of all my wood chippings and am thinking what to replace it with... I've just got some weed membrane down until I can decide what.

I thought that as that's what my mum has between her raised beds in her veggie patch and it seems to work quite well, but you might be right. I do have 7 3*2 concrete slabs which I could use instead (freecycle grab! ), but manwife may want to use those elsewhere. I really dislike gravel to walk on, so that's out, and weedproof stuff on it's own would probably rip after a while. Clearly it needs more thought

Oh, I went out this morning and snapped some pictures of the end of the garden. Need to get some more but got called inside for lunch and to drain the central heating system so manwife can take the radiator off in the bathroom while we redecorate.

katholicos

I've got bark down between my raised beds and it really does break down very quickly. I bought it as i couldn't afford any other option at the time. When i can afford i will but slate or pebble around all the raised beds.

There are things to be done in the garden but nothing that can not wait. Most of my garden is turned over to veg growing and fruit. It isn't a large garden but i grow a fair bit. The weather was a bad year for veg growing generally, so with that exception, i would say that things are improving year on year as i gain knowledge and skills, though being disabled means that i do have to wait to be 'up to doing it'. It is very disheartening to be sick when the sun is shining and the weather dry, but i try to remind myself that i am doing as well as possible given the circumstances and that is all that any of us can do, able bodied or not.

Air_Cooled_75

coldcazzie wrote: »

It's ok :rotfl: I read it as it was intended. They couldn't be truly free range unfortunately, foxes and cats... bad idea! I was thinking that strip of land could perhaps be a pen. Been and measured it today: 3*24 feet. It gets sun late afternoon and evening, but not morning.

We have some garden work at the twinkle in our eye stages... but the want to grow things would spur me on. Would just have to convince him its a good idea... and hire a skip! The people who owned our house before us were lazy So-and-sos that's for sure...!

They will be ok from foxes in the day, our chickens will see the cats off!! They aren't afraid of them at all, in fact the cats take a wide berth if anything, the 'boss' will even have a pop at the dog

We've got 7 at the moment but have had 10 in one go. They are great fun but do poo a lot. They have the back half of the garden, they used to have the whole lot but they eat everything in sight. They love nasturtium

They need daylight rather than sun for laying eggs (but they do love basking in the sun and will find the smallest speck) our previous lot were very good layers, even during all that snow in 2010 (unfortunately Mr Fox grabbed a few just before Christmas 2011) and now the days are getting longer they are laying more again, although we have had eggs everyday for as long as I can remember. We have a couple of 'ornamentals' who are never going to lay a lot but they add some variety to the flock. We will probably get a few more in spring, we've never had any problems introducing new ones but we do have a spare coop just in case. There will always be a hierarchy in chicken land and they can be a bit mean at times but I wouldn't be without ours.

katholicos

Snow here, ice here....keep trying to remind myself that a few months from now there will be things visibly growing in the garden!

My beetroot seeds on the windowsill, are up. Haven't sown anything else yet, but am thinking about it...

Miss_Havisham

may I join in please ? Useless at veg, too many slugs and snails and don't use "bait" because of cats, birds, froggies etc.

Love growing pretty things especially shrubs and perennials. My big project this year is to propagate from cuttings, seeds and division of clumps. I've got big gaps in front and back gardens and it would cost a fortune to fill from the garden centres. Also going to persuade family and neighbours to join in.

I've got packs of seeds in the garage which must be at least 5 years old, so I'm going to just take a chance to see if any of them are still viable.

Miss H

katholicos

Miss_Havisham wrote: »

may I join in please ? Useless at veg, too many slugs and snails and don't use "bait" because of cats, birds, froggies etc.

Love growing pretty things especially shrubs and perennials. My big project this year is to propagate from cuttings, seeds and division of clumps. I've got big gaps in front and back gardens and it would cost a fortune to fill from the garden centres. Also going to persuade family and neighbours to join in.

I've got packs of seeds in the garage which must be at least 5 years old, so I'm going to just take a chance to see if any of them are still viable.

Miss H

Great to have you along on our growing journey for 2013 :beer:

About the old seeds...the way i see it is that there is nothing to lose by sowing them, and who knows, you may get some lovely surprises from them. Quite a few seed last for years, so as i said, nothing to lose at all