Best wellyboot forward. Pips frugal edible garden adventures.

Pippilongstocking

starnac wrote: »

I know but I was getting concerned after the picture TRG put on FB! :eek::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

That job sounds ideal for you. Well done for not accepting anything pay wise though. And yay to being paid weekly! Sometimes that really helps.

Thanks lovely it does help this weekly pay lark. I could do with c£125 a week, so we'll see, she's promised me 14 hours a week.......I'm available for more if needed so I'll see how that pans out.

As for the boxes. LOL!!

So I got two recycled tattie boxes approx 7ft by 5ft I'm thinking of using them cut down as planters in the garden and maybe another for a log store on its side. They cost £10 each and seemingly the man is happy to sell them most of the year round, I've yet to be brave and ask about broken ones for firewood, but slowly slowly, don't want to scare off the local tame farmer just yet.

So Starnac don't worry, I'm not going to let him bury me in one, he's really not thought this through has he, I'd fit in a much smaller box requiring a much smaller hole.....Just saying. :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: :rotfl: at you fitting in a smaller hole :rotfl: :rotfl:

Great on being paid weekly, and on time! :j :j Excellent work

Ooh, is it sweet pea time?? :j Can't remember if I said but a lovely pal is letting me have his garden to grow stuff in so I now have oodles of space and a polytunnel :j :j :j

Of course, I also have no idea what to do with it all :rotfl:

Have cleared all the crap out of the polytunnel and tried to make a path round a central bed with side beds, but that's it. It's not been used for a couple of years and the soil is just like dust in there

Outside beds have GREAT soil though :j Planted garlic in one, and dug over another two the other day (it's already laid into beds so I'm just sticking with existing structure). Want to plant some GIANT squash plants :j :j

Karmacat

Pippi, hello :kisses3:

What a lot's gone on! I haven't been able to get everywhere I normally do on the threads, I've had rather a lot of fuss with flies and laptops and washing machines going on, but wonderful news about the job, and the potato boxes, come to that :rotfl:

Did you say a few days back that you ended up reformatting? I think I may need to do that, as well as working on things ...

Cheery, you've planted garlic outside or in the polytunnel? I've been saving the insides of toilet rolls for starting off indoors ...

So lovely to have you back, Pippi

Cheery_Daff

I bunged it straight in the ground in a break between snowfalls KC :rotfl: Went up on Monday and I clearly hadn't planted it deep enough as some of it grown rather sturdy roots and actually pushed itself out of the ground :rotfl: Shoved it back in a bit deeper and hoped for the best

Karmacat

:rotfl::rotfl: I just described you as a ninja on your thread, Cheery, obviously your garlic takes after you. Wow! Okay, thats good, that means I don't have to faff about with toilet rolls then, I can just bung it in the ground. Excellent job for tomorrow, as long as they haven't dried out from being in the kitchen while I've been ill... Will still bung them in the ground tho

Cheery_Daff

Gosh KC, don't take gardening advice from me!! :eek: :eek: :rotfl: I did manage a decent crop of (tiny) garlic last year but my record overall is dreadful! :eek: :rotfl: I'd stick to your original plan unless someone like Pippi advises otherwise

troglodyte

Afternoon! It suddenly got busy here again!


Pippi the job sounds absolutely perfect, fun and interesting/challenging, and glad you got a decent rate of pay. It sounds lovely I must say, I want to visit! Has it got a website?


Great news on the tattie boxes too. And you're making me feel like I'm behind already with the planting!


Today I popped in to a couple of pet supplies places. The first didn't have what I needed and that was that. The second didn't either but they offered to order it in, so oyster shell and calcium carbonate now ordered. One way or another I hope to get usable eggs again. In January more than half of the eggs laid either had soft membranous shells or had normal shells but so thin they got broken in the nesting tray. Will keep you posted.


Cheery and KC, I normally plant garlic in the ground in winter and it does very well, growing a bit each time the temperature rises a few degrees above freezing. Someone told me to plant on the shortest day and harvest on the longest, and that has worked really well for several years. This time though I planted in December and almost nothing has happened so far so I'm not sure if this batch is just slow or whether something (perhaps chicken-related?) has happened to it!

Karmacat

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Okay, I'll hang fire until Pippi comes on, but if thats what Trog has done, thats a good sign. Elantan told me the same thing, about planting at Christmas.

Oyster shells - when my Egyptology lectures are at Worthing, I go sit on the beach, and pick up broken oyster shells to my heart's content - its a pity I don't have any chickens but they're lovely for the soil too. At Littlehampton, the haul is even better - there used to be oyster farmers round there, and there's a funny little pool right at the mouth of the river called Oyster Pool, where they washed them, I think.

Pippilongstocking

Get it in the ground KC my lovely girl!! Trogs right it needs lots of cold to help the bulb flourish so its traditional to do shortest day/boxing day for planting. I've still not got mine - whoops!!!!!

and as cheery has discovered its a vigorous little booger so put it in a bit deeper than you think.

Trog well done, good on the girls for laying though eh? I wonder at this time of year if the lack of light/green stuff/bugs also has something to do with it.

I'm feeding mine a lettuce a day too, they hoover it up like its chocolate, little scoffers.

Aren't they looking grand?




Trog link to the garden here.

The silly thing is that aside knowing what they look like, I know very little about snowdrops and winter/early spring stuff. So its a steep learning curve!

And, shh dont' tell a soul, but I don't have ONE snowdrop in my garden. And only a hint of the odd daffodil poking through, nothing much to report on the winter garden side of things.......shocking huh.

I've really got to get some, eh?

And planting update, nothing aside sweetpeas and wild garlic sown yet. So don't feel behind I must start my tomatoes this next week or so. I usually start them in the airing cupboard in a tupperware box with wet tissue/kitchen roll, but with no airing cupboard, I'm not sure where to start them!!!!

Mr A have very lovely fruit trees at 3.99 and bush fruits at £2.49 for three great varieties too. A bargain.

They've just got their roses in too and decent sized herbs in pots for £2.99? Might have got that price wrong but they've all sorts of lovely herbs looking really healthy.

B&M have sets of onions/etc and also potatoes for three for £5 and they're generous with their quantities.

They also have fruit trees/bushes but Mr A is better value per plant I think.

Both have their seeds in. Great value.

B&Q have their herbs in pots I think for just under £3 and plenty of reductions in my store on flowering shrubs.

End of garden bulletin.



Off out for a bit to potter and chop logs, teas on (spag bog) lunch was scoffed (omlette and spinach), all good.

Three eggs today.

Pippilongstocking

Started to chit first early ''Rocket'' tattie on egg box in conservatory. I'll grow these in pots so I can just knock them out.

Planted Shallot 'Golden Gourmet' into seed trays, 11 to a tray for starting off before planting.

Neighbour has given me a bucket of assorted snowdrops from a bit of garden they are redoing, so I've spent an hour de=weeding them and putting 25 into a pot. Looks like I've snagged 200 free snowdrops, double (G. flore pleno)

End of garden update.

Oh and I accidentally bought a tayberry from Mr A yesterday, was £4 I think forgot to say. Quite excited about that as I've never even eaten one never mind grown one.