Daydream fund challenge part 4 4 October 2014 at 10:37AM edited 4 October 2014 at 12:24PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 10.4K replies 815.8K views

Davesnave

There are pretty lettuces that would go well in borders. Frilly mizuna looks good anywhere as well. The problem now is finding the seeds, as most of the on-line companies have been overwhelmed, or are offering long delivery times. I sent some cucumber and mizuna seed to our DD1 yesterday. They're finally getting their 120' garden sorted out thanks to the virus regs; much of it has been under ground cover!

Here, it was so bitterly cold yesterday, I wimped-out and only did a couple of hours in the polytunnel + watering outdoors. Yes, I did say watering! The strong winds are drying pots out quickly. I have no worries though, compared with the growers, who'll be binning most of their production by Easter.

RAS

Dave, assume that's a proper bank and hedge? Looks really impressive, a lot of work getting it back in shape. Pity so many are either overgrown or smashed by flail each year. When I'm at relatives, I always think that the hazel could be put to so much use if cut on cycle.

Rummer, have you considered beans and peas? Broad beans have a wonderful scent and climbing runner or French beans can be pretty mixed with a few sweet peas, as can some of the climbing peas and mange tout. Just don't mix with anything poisonous like morning glory. Also try some of the smallest trailing squashes. 
If you have a local Ledl, they may still have a few packets of veg seeds, although the peas and beans have all gone locally.
 If you can get Wilkos 25p mixed pack of six  lettuces, it's a fair mix. 

Also do try www.realseeds.co.uk although they have limited capacity. They are lovely.

Davesnave

RAS said:

Dave, assume that's a proper bank and hedge? Looks really impressive, a lot of work getting it back in shape. Pity so many are either overgrown or smashed by flail each year. When I'm at relatives, I always think that the hazel could be put to so much use if cut on cycle.

Yes, it's a 200m bank that was totally overgrown. The road side has to be flailed, sometimes also by the council, who just do it because the highway isn't the widest, especially for double deckers! At one end the road is about 8' down, and at the other it's only about 3'. It was a lot of work. There's a lot of blackthorn and hawthorn in there, plus dog roses and bramble, but the honeysuckle gets around everything too and makes it hard to remove anything, even when it's been severed. We've added alder buckthorn to the species (brimstone butterflies) field maple and elder. Down by the old toll cottage we've also established rosa rugosa, but it's taken an age.

The two larger laid trunks visible in the photo are oaks, but most of the stuff I lay is hazel or ash. Still no sign of ash die back here. I try to lay the hawthorn too, but they are not very accommodating and they come back well from cut trunks anyway; sometimes too well!

Rummer

I have loads of seeds, every year I order them as my Christmas gift and I added extra due to the allotment. That coupled with some magazine subscriptions that also send seeds means I have more than I need and I have started giving some to neighbours. Previously I have grown flowers and veg in different places in the garden however this year I want to grow as much as I can so had thought about interspersing veg in the flower beds.

Thank you both for the advice, I think I will sow peas and beans along the fence as I have some pea netting they can clamber up and they will look good there. I will have a rake through the seeds I have and see what I can put where. The weather here has been glorious and I keep having to remind myself that it is too early to start planting outside!

ukmaggie45

Remember every part of the nasturtium plant is edible! The flowers look pretty in a salad, and the seeds can be pickled a bit like capers. And the leaves can go in salads too. Good for a sacrificial plant to keep blackfly off beans etc too. Oh, and they make good cut flowers too, though don't last very long, but the more you pick, the more you get! One year I grew them up netting at the caravan, they were gorgeous, but never managed that since - too many cabbage white butterflies!

RAS

ukmaggie45 said:

Remember every part of the nasturtium plant is edible! ......the seeds can be pickled a bit like capers.   

They don't taste like capers but are fine used as an alternative, hot, crunchy and spicy. The important thing is to harvest them young before they develop a hard centre so before they reach full size. 

greenbee

I'm currently trying to sort out the patio which is covered in black spots. One patio has rose blackspot/fungus treatment on it, the other has a nasty bleach-based product on a small patch. I haven't worked out how I'll get the bleach-based stuff off without it killing the surrounding plants. Mop and bucket maybe?

Neighbours are fussing about the amount of weed in my part of the stream. Apparently it's stopping all the gunk from their bit flowing downriver. There's never any current in that bit anyway, as it is artificial and too wide. As the watervoles are now active, technically I'm not supposed to go in and clear any, but I was contemplating doing it when no one was looking - it was fine until a week ago when we had the warm weather). However, now everyone is making a fuss (surely there are more important things to worry about right now?) I'm going to leave it. Even though I don't like it - I have no idea how to get rid of the water parsnip and encourage other stuff to grow instead. I do need to plant some more flags, and hopefully they'll get themselves established before the water voles decide to snack on them. 

I think I've found a greenhouse which comes with installation included, so I just need to be brave and press the 'buy' button!

Ted_Head

It's been very cold here & still very wet. I have done little outside these last few days other than pick up little branches & snap them up for kindling. Too wet to light a bonfire with all the willow I had to take down as I planted too close together.
A bee flew past the window earlier today which is the first I've seen this year. 

Davesnave

Dilute bleach never seemed to harm the plants next to the patio at our old house. I would just hose it off with liberal amounts of water.

In view of my bonfire wind predicted to arrive tomorrow, I did a 'quick' shop today There were more people about, so the queue to get in was longer, while the second queue for the pharmacy inside was horrendous. So much for a quick in-and-out! The announcements kept reminding us to maintain social distance, which the public did well. It was just the staff who weren't so good, especially the pharma people. One guy was walking the line, reading prescriptions, taking orders and relaying these to the people making up the meds. None of them was wearing gloves or a mask and they had no personal space at all . It was all fairly chaotic. My total queuing time exceeded shopping time.

greenbee

Thanks Dave. I'll scrub it in segments, so hopefully they won't get too much of it at once! The stuff I put on yesterday seems to have made a bit of a difference, so I suspect it's going to take some time. 

I still haven't take the plunge and ordered the greenhouse - although I have finally paid the deposit on my kitchen, which hopefully will be in before my 7-year anniversary of moving in and ripping the old one out!