Building The Burrow!

Pearla*Merle

Have been having a good think about what to do with my little balcony garden. Might have been a bit enthusiastic and drawn myself up a vague little plan....



I've got a free standing mini greenhouse affair and various pots. I'm quite tempted to find some sort of shoerack thing to put near the greenhouse and double/triple the amount of pots I can get in the space.

I'm going to do nasturtiums again (might transfer to bigger pot), possibly borage and sorrel, a number of as-yet-undecided herbs but including chives, then as many salad tubs as I can fit (using spinach and lettuce seeds from last year). I'm tempted to do white poppies (see them here) part experiment for seeds/for decadent flowers.

I'd like to try the Three Sisters technique of planting (click here), I quite fancy doing courgette and some fresh peas, so that might be a fun experiment. This isn't really space-saving but I'd like to do garlic again, simply because it's so easy to do and I love it. There are SO many lovely things on that heritage seed site, I could quite loose my head. I'd like some of the weird looking squash (possibly Summer Crookneck), also very tempted by the Touchstone Gold beetroot and the winter radish looks gorgeous. Since there's not much space I won't get massive crops, that's probably why I'm quite keen to try some odd varieties, at least it'll make things interesting. Will probably pick up some kale for later in the year.

Definitely want to get a blueberry bush, possibly fig as well if the pennies stretch that far! I'd also like to get chinese lantern, I saw it on the beeb's Wartime Farm programme, they used them as Christmas decorations, what fun!

Non-edible flowers will be sweet peas (transfer to bigger tub), cornflowers*, leftover random flower seed mix from last year and I quite fancy some primroses. I could do with a lavender plant as well, and maybe transfer the rosemary to a bigger pot.

(*Actually, you can eat cornflowers, can't you?!)

Things I need to pick up:

• Gravel/rocks for bottom of pots
• Sticks to make plant markers like this or maybe lollipop sticks
• Something cheap/free to help sweet peas climb
• More pots, as many as I can fit!
• Serious amount of compost
• Find/buy a tray for starting seeds
• Shoe rack/knock together some wood-type contraption

I would LOVE to grow this rainbow quinoa, I think an allotment would be called for to take that on though. I put myself on the waiting list for one last year but typically the council made a fuss about how you add yourself to the list then conveniently messed about with their own system so I think I've lost my place on it now, so another job for today might be to go and add myself to the waiting list again just in case we do end up staying here!

FamilyLife

I'm so impressed with your gardening plans! I have no idea where to even start, probably with identifying a patch for growin, or removing the dead Christmas tree from the shed to find out if there are gardening tools hidden in there!

FL xx

Habibiboo

:wave:

Sorry about the job business, disappointing to say the least!

Loving your gardening plans though - especially the detailed technical drawing which is remarkably similar to my own technique for garden planning - my OH moans at me for scribbling down excitedly in colours like this, he thinks I should use graph paper and draw to scale :rotfl:

My argument is that I don't know how big the plants will grow, therefore it can never be a scale drawing!

You know you have my vote for squeezing a blueberry bush in there somewhere - you won't regret it when you can grab a handful of lovely healthy berries to go with your yoghurt / muelsi etc!

XSpender

Sorry to hear you OH job plans didnt work out.

I am considering a couple of tubs with pots and carrotts this year and need to redo my herb garden. Actually I need to redo it and then work out how to help it survive the winter so I dont have to start from scratch again each spring:o

Are bluberry bushes easy to look after and get fruit from? We love them but never buy them as they cost so much.

Crumpets

Great gardening plans P*M, I can't believe it's almost that time of year already, I need to sort my seeds out and see what I have. We have a blueberry bush and it's great, it's a race to see who can get there first between me and the kids:rotfl:

Sorry to hear your dh's plans haven't worked out, hopefully something even better is just around the corner.

C. X

Pearla*Merle

Thanks folks, what a rollercoaster it's been - yesterday Mr M discovered another opportunity up north in the same place so suddenly there's something on the horizon again. My fingers and toes are back to being crossed again. :rotfl: Then woke up this morning to news that there's a possibly interesting role down south as well, so suddenly we're back to having a few possibilities on the table again, hurrah! It just shows you that things pop up all the time so no need to get too despondent...!

In other news, I felt seriously dodgy on Tuesday night and woke up the next day not much better so yesterday ended up being well and truly a pyjama day. Lots of tennis watching, film watching and reading, with some toast eating in there when I could stomach it. Feeling better today, thank heavens, but still a little washed out so will give myself another restful day and plod on with a few bits when I have the energy. Silver lining yesterday was that I read quite a bit of the Frugal in Suffolk and Our Life in the Country blogs and picked up loads of handy tips! ....which I now wish I'd written down, I should really keep a notepad handy when I'm reading this stuff! There's a tip in itself! :rotfl:

I also managed to sort out a few more birthday presents for Mr M when I rallied for a bit in the afternoon, and also sorted out his Valentine's Day present (thank heavens I did as it might take some time to get to me).

£26 Quidco on its way. :j

1Poll's been going well and chipping away at VO as well. I used to do a WH Smith surveys and swagbucks, I need to have a look into those accounts and see where they're at/try and kick them back into action again.

Reading the blogs has really made me realise all the more how much clutter I have and why am I keeping hold of things I don't actually utterly, utterly love or in reality, could easily do without? Can't wait to get back out the house again and dispense with a few things I've now allocated to the charity shop pile.

Pearla*Merle

Xspender - check out Habibiboo's diary, she has some ace tips for blueberry bushes (pine needles below them to help make the soil acidic etc). It sounds like a lot of people do well with them, so I'm super excited about trying them out

I also need to work out how best to make this survive until spring, there's only so much room we've got for taking things inside. I hear fleeces wrapped around pots are great. Luckily I have my little plastic greenhouse thing, and with things being so mild (and we're south facing, so balcony is a sun trap anyway), quite a lot has been ok this winter so far.

:rotfl: Habibiboo, my OH is a graph man too!

FamilyLife, lol, definitely get looking in that shed! There could be untold treasures in there!

misscousinitt

Hope you are feeling better PM.

MCI

Pearla*Merle

Thank you misscousinitt, steadily improving. :j <-- haven't yet actually been doing any of those yet. :rotfl: Though have done a bit of a tidying sweep about the place and got out for a bit of sunlight.

Found a good bunch of dvds to declutter; I punched the barcodes into MusicMagpie, I'd get £2.50 for them but some are quite decent (one is sealed!), so maybe those ones would make better presents/giveaways to friends instead? Shall have a think.

Forgot to say that Mr M found lots of M&S bargains last night, they're selling off their Christmas food stuff, so he came home with a full bag of stuff plus loaves of bread for £3.50, excellent. He's also managed to find some swish toastie maker on sale, and then he has vouchers that covers most of the rest of the cost. He's quite a one for kitchen gadgets so couldn't resist something like that. :rotfl: It should make for lots of cheap toastie teas though. :T

newgirly

Hope you are feeling better now pearla, love the planting plans, I feel a bit inspired to grow more than herbs this year