Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

choille

Seaweed is ace. The best.

I grow Russian comfrey that you can make into a foliar feed - which stinks like a decaying corpse, or you can dig it in.

Do you have tarmac to break up? Seems like you have a lot ahead of you & good incentive & drive.

moneyistooshorttomention

Oh yes...I do indeed have tarmac to break up:(

Davesnave

Tarmac doesn't come on its own. There will be a rubble and stone underneath it, which if it's been done properly, will have been compacted with a plate vibrator. Remember too that whatever comes out of a hole also seems to take up twice as much space as it did when in it!

The services, like electricity, water etc should be deep enough not to matter. It's usually possible to predict where stuff like that will be.

Green manure is OK in theory, but my mustard thing, which would spring up here whenever I cleared any soil, was a 'weed' introduced as green manure. It's life cycle was about a month, and the previous occupant let it seed rather than dig it in.

Comfrey is fine stuff, but start with the sterile clone 'Bocking 14' or you will get small plants springing up everywhere from self-seeding. I can send out a bit of root in the winter to anyone who wants one.....and it propagates so easily you only need one!

ferretkeeper

Hi MITSTM

Green manures are a good idea if you have bare ground over the winter, retains nutrients, stops soil washing away and gives you some organic matter to dig in to the soil at the start of next year. Choose carefully as some do better in certain soil types, some best for overwintering and some can interfere with crop rotation but...

Look up permaculture, forest gardening and perennial vegetables...maximum bang for your buck, you plant once and you harvest every year. You don't rotate crops in this system, it's all spread out in beneficial plantings, so legumes help feed the plants around them etc - called companion planting lots more ways to use that in the garden too, including plenty of flowers.

I wouldn't be without annuals though, they do have their place and I can't imagine replacing lettuce with lime tree leaves or such like but as you said before you can concentrate energies on growing the hard to buy, better eaten straight from the garden types...have a read of Sarah Raven or Mark Diacono (who pinched some of Sarah's ideas on growing high value, unbuyable things etc) he's written a great book called Taste of the Unexpected, highly recommend it and a lot of the plants he mentions can be found in permaculture plant/seed catalogues.

Nettle or comfrey teas are great but they go on plants not in the soil, leaves can be dug into the soil or, with comfrey and even fresh seaweed, laid on top like a mulch. Also have a look at compost tea.

But please DON'T feed over winter - plants aren't growing, nitrogen will be leached out of soil by winter rain, pointless! Build soil fertility gradually, and work on getting a good soil structure, the soil will indeed feed the plants. Mulching each year will help a lot, use something plant based so compost, rotted manure, grass clippings, leaf mould.

If you need to bring in soil try and get it as local as poss, bulk it out with organic matter - I got a lorry load of top soil and asked the haulier to get the same amount of community compost from the council tip. I mixed the two and made a large area of raised beds using car tyres I got for nowt from a local MOT place. You might need raised beds if there's not a lot happening under the tarmac, poor thin soil or wet ground both benefit from raised beds.

Low nutrient organic matter is what to add at this time of year, meaning Autumn, feeding is for when the plants are in full growth and/or to encourage flowering and fruiting at the appropriate time.

I have no idea how deep cables etc should be, they are meant to be marked or identifiable...check conveyancing reports for a rough idea on water, although they only show the public sewers.

I have a VERY dodgy thick electric cable just a couple of inches below ground, it's not armoured, with a blue poly pipe water supply RIGHT NEXT TO IT!:eek: running from the house over to outbuildings. Not good.

lostinrates

alfie

I've been thinking.....
Maybe I should put down wood in the areana for a couple of years. I am panicked about rubber. Disposal is a real issue, and I hate it as a surface. The sand fibre mixes I'd prefer are uber pricey, even without the super doozer wax finish (my favorite surface came back as an eye watering £18k). I'm not certain what to go for. If we could get wood chip to buy us some time while we looked into other surfaces it might be a prudent short term stalling measure. I'd prefer just woodchip to just sand, because we'll lose sand without a Fibre binder i think.

Any chance of you sounding out your guy on a BIG delivery or few of wood chip cost? I'll ask locally, but it mainly goes to wood pellet here, apart for
Mother guy who brings me tiny loads.

I think with sand I need something like 720 tonnes....that sounds like a ridiculous amount, maybe its square metres?

I know it will rot quickly, but better than than a surface that's not right or cannot be made right.....I think?

alfie_1

lostinrates wrote: »

alfie

I've been thinking.....
Maybe I should put down wood in the areana for a couple of years. I am panicked about rubber. Disposal is a real issue, and I hate it as a surface. The sand fibre mixes I'd prefer are uber pricey, even without the super doozer wax finish (my favorite surface came back as an eye watering £18k). I'm not certain what to go for. If we could get wood chip to buy us some time while we looked into other surfaces it might be a prudent short term stalling measure. I'd prefer just woodchip to just sand, because we'll lose sand without a Fibre binder i think.

Any chance of you sounding out your guy on a BIG delivery or few of wood chip cost? I'll ask locally, but it mainly goes to wood pellet here, apart for
Mother guy who brings me tiny loads.

I think with sand I need something like 720 tonnes....that sounds like a ridiculous amount, maybe its square metres?

I know it will rot quickly, but better than than a surface that's not right or cannot be made right.....I think?

I WILL LOOK INTO IT

well ive done something a bit norty.....:o

i got so uncomfortable with this bl**dy plaster cast [well fibreglass] last night...it was rubbing my wrist and knuckles... having destroyed my first one...:rotfl: i sat and destroyed my 2nd one too...:eek:
it was more painfull than my thumb...
i used my secatuers to cut it off...:o
FREEDOM...:D

i will add that ive bought just a thumb brace thing thats removable and so now im not writhing around trying to eleviate the rubbing.and will get some sleep...:D
will tell em i took it off a few days before next appointment..;)

so sorry to hear your DS has injured himself rozee .

moneyistooshorttomention

Thanks ferretkeeper

Have recently been doing all sorts of research on permaculture/forest gardening and the like. Hence the list of perennial plants I have made up for myself that I fancy...

Will certainly bear in mind Dave's kind offer to us of Bocking 14 if it comes to it...as I certainly want some of that somewhere in the vicinity.

I struck lucky when talking to a local garden centre in area I am moving to and had a very helpful conversation about sources of supply of topsoil there that I shall be bearing in mind. Drew a bit of a blank on looking up municipal "soil".

At least I've got a very good idea where the water pipes etc go. Its mainly the electric I am wondering about.

I did see something on some American website about some gadget or other that would help to work out where stuff like electric/phone etc stuff would be underneath the soil and am wondering whether there is something equivalent I can get here in Britain. Otherwise, I could just be out there in the garden attempting a bit of home-grown dowsing with metal coathangers and hoping I've got the "knack" to figure it out. That should endear me to the neighbours to start with:rotfl:....as they wonder just who on earth it is that has just moved in next door...:rotfl:

lostinrates

If we ever see that teal paint again it will be to soon. About four days I suppose of its dry on Saturday, Rofl!

Still, yesterday I didn't think the sun would drive me in this stage today. So quite pleased. I'm going to try and up my game and stay on my feet enough to get the front drive swept this week. I've even been thinking about winter pots. Bit worried I might make it look a bit too twee so not sure. And of course, everything has to be horse safe, not sure where that leaves me off the top of my head with winter colour, so will have to have a think.

The American pillar rose, lost against breeze block sings against teal, as does borage. I don't want to live somewhere twee, but its fun seeing rubbish go and it looking a bit less stig of the dump in one small corner. . Still, if I get pots and cannot take care of them it will all look worse so......;) maybe not.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

ROZEE.. omg.. hope everything will be ok, keep us all informed..

Davesnave... that would be fab, the piggies will more or less eat anything.

what are aiming for next year is to grow, veg etc, that love giving in abundance, with little fuss:D, so we will have more than enough for us, the freezer, and the piggies..even though we are back buying the waste fruit and veg, the few month we stopped, due to the huge price hike, made us realise we really should be growing more of our own.

Havent long got back from the ranch, so just about to have a nice soak in the bath...

Managed to start clearing around the huge holly tree ( loads of little hollies around it, which had layered over the years) and managed to get to the old TY BACH..... ( outside lavy).. which will prob be used to store wood for this winter.







Will just clear it out, and leave it with the shabby chic, flaking paint look door:D

Rummer

Dave - I would love some if there is a plant going spare as we were going to set up a patch of it this year

Choille I meant to thank you again for the plants you sent me, the buddleias flowered this year and the brush (??) is doing well too.

I feel a bit guilty as people on here have sent me some lovely things over the last couple of years but I don't have any plants/things that any of you would find useful . If however I ever mention a plant that you would like a cutting from please let me know