Help MBE grow his dinner 2013.

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

Thanks guys :A

No sun here MBE according to bbc I've got to wait till Monday. Lawn seems very soggy still but the beds are a bit better than a few weeks ago so might get some main crop spuds in this weekend.

Blimey, I won't be putting any spuds in for a couple of weeks at least, I don't think. It's all still a bit cold.

Little_Vics

I did gardening yesterday. My hamstrings hurt today but there is SO MUCH more to do. Gah.

Foxy0810

It's such a lovely day here today and I'm stuck indoors doing my college assignment would much rather be down the allotment digging but there is always tomorrow just hope the weather holds out as I'm going clear the greenhouse and get some peas sown

Little_Vics

Right - I need advice. Here goes:

1. My soil is incredibly clay-y and full of stones. Each year I think I've got them all, and then I find more. What can I fork into the soil to improve it? General compost doesn't really do the trick.

2. Sadly my neighbour died recently. His family have offered us the use of his greenhouse until they decide what to do with the land he owned. What can I grow that I can easily move outside if they sell quickly? Bear in mind I am incapable and live in Yorkshire where we only get 2 days of summer per year.....

3. How on earth do you do that thing where you train trees to grow flat against a wall?

gahhhhhhhhh

xLV

mrbadexample

Little_Vics wrote: »

Right - I need advice. Here goes:

1. My soil is incredibly clay-y and full of stones. Each year I think I've got them all, and then I find more. What can I fork into the soil to improve it? General compost doesn't really do the trick.

2. Sadly my neighbour died recently. His family have offered us the use of his greenhouse until they decide what to do with the land he owned. What can I grow that I can easily move outside if they sell quickly? Bear in mind I am incapable and live in Yorkshire where we only get 2 days of summer per year.....

3. How on earth do you do that thing where you train trees to grow flat against a wall?

gahhhhhhhhh

xLV

Organic matter (i.e. the compost) will help, but you'll likely need a lot. Perhaps some sand (sold in B&Q as "soil improver" IIRC) too?

I'd grow tomatoes in the greenhouse, but under the assumption that I'd lose them if I had to take them out.

Trees can be trained (espalier / fan etc) by careful pruning and tying. You prune the bits that are going in the wrong direction, and tie in place the bits that are. This might help. I was going to train my pear as an espalier, but I bought the wrong one (a cordon) by mistake. I could retrain it but it'd take years and I'd rather have fruit, so I'm going to let it get on with it.

Eyeore

Sorry to hear your news Annie, hope all is ok.

Mr MBE your garden looks fab!

Still too cold to do much here, purchased a new rhubarb last week but ground is too solid to plant just yet. Have all my seeds ready so will wait a week or too before trying to doing anything with, am famous for not being able to grow from seed but am determined to try again this year! If it fails will just by the plugs as usual! Cooking and gardening are my therapy so am not too bothered either way:-)

Badrick

Little_Vics wrote: »

Right - I need advice.

2. Sadly my neighbour died recently. His family have offered us the use of his greenhouse until they decide what to do with the land he owned. What can I grow that I can easily move outside if they sell quickly? Bear in mind I am incapable and live in Yorkshire where we only get 2 days of summer per year.....

3. How on earth do you do that thing where you train trees to grow flat against a wall?

gahhhhhhhhh

xLV

You could start sowing seed in greenhouse for stuff like lettuce, cabbage and most other stuff you'd have to wait till April if you were to sow outdoors.

For growing fruit against a wall, there's an illustrated PDF guide HERE, page 23 onwards should give you some ideas on selecting and training fruit trees.
Once you've got the wires in place, selected and planted your tree, pruned and tied it in, you're done till Winter. :cool:.

Fay

Hi everyone, sorry I've also been AWOL. Work and house jobs have taken over but I finally got peppers and chillies sown yesterday and they're now warming their toes next to the aga. I really hope we get a better year this year.
My spuds look ready for planting but the soil isn't warm enough here yet, so I will hold them back for a week or two.
I've also asked the guy who cuts our hedges and does other jobs for us to come and look at the greenhouse as the wood on the base is rotten but I don't know how it can be fixed other than removing the greenhouse, replacing the wood and putting it all back. At the minute there is ivy growing through in a couple of places!
I have also started bits and bobs in the garden but need to get out and prune the black currant so might do that later.
MBE your garden is looking lovely and neat again :T

mrbadexample

Another productive weekend:

Dug out the border between the rhubarb and the pond, to give my rosemary a new home - it's not doing terribly well in the pot.

Moved the buddleja nearer the rhubarb, and also planted the sage, thyme and a lavender as I think they'll be better off in the ground than in pots. Also added a few snowdrops that I bought last week. Yes, you heard right, I planted flowers! I quite like snowdrops and they'll add a little early colour. They should be ok there, as it's a bit damp and a bit shady. Not sure how well the herbs will fare, but time will tell. I've got nowhere else to put them anyway.



I chucked a couple of barrowloads of compost on the newly-raised bed by the greenhouse and blitzed it up with the Mantis. It was looking a bit clayey so hopefully that should improve it. It looks good, anyway:



I took the layer of straw off the bog garden, as the worst of the cold weather should be behind us I hope. It looks like most things have survived, but a lot of it's still dormant so I won't know for certain for a little while.



Then I hung the straw in an onion bag from the corner of the shed for the birds to use as nesting material. They nicked enough of it last year that I thought they'd appreciate it.


I'll add the photos once I can work out how to resize them all on the new "improved" Photobucket which has kindly made them all massive. :mad:

trying_to_stay_afloat

Hi everyone
Hope you don't mind if I join in. I'm a latecomer to gardening but hope to have some sucess this year as we have just inherited a greenhouse. I have a really nasty problem in the garden and could do with some advice - RATS. We keep chickens and now have HUGE rats coming in the garden and eating the chooks food. I am worried that anything I plant out or put in the greenhouse they will eat it ( they burrow under the greenhouse as its on shingle not slabs) and I don't want all my hard work to go to feeding them!:mad::mad: I've tried humane traps, rat poison and even a catapult - not a good look at my age, with no success.
Please can anyone help with rat proofing the veg.
Many thanks