The all new good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2020

Kinga

After spending the first day of the year planning the gardening projects for the year, I realised that we have space for not only one or two but three more raised beds. I just have to figure out how to get rid of the slugs, cause last year they ate everything that was above the ground apart from the tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes. I tried the wool pellets (they weren't too bad, but had to use loads to be effective enough), the copper thingy didn't make any difference and it seems that the slugs in my garden go to drink the beer, and then have a feast on my plants... Does anybody used Strulch before? Maybe that would help...

unrecordings

miss_empty_piggy wrote: »

In our garden we inherited a bramley apple tree. The previous owners had planted a holly tree right next to it and It blocked out the light so the apple tree grew over our neighbours wall. The holly tree has now gone and we have tried to chop the overhanging branches off to try to encourage it to grow within our garden. However this year has seen only a few apples and they were knarled and deformed. We are thinking of cutting it down and starting again. Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks.

I'd give the bramley another season or two and see what happens, though if you're merely pruning, mid winter is the best time to do it

maysmummy

Can I join too?
I'm a fairly new gardener who prefers flowers to fruits but I have purchased milions of seeds and am desperate for them and growing season to arrive

unrecordings

I hate that waiting period too. As mentioned in other threads, Sow too early and you risk ending up with seedlings that are too leggy/weak, or worse you end up with damping off (rotting before they can germinate)

miss_empty_piggy

unrecordings wrote: »

I'd give the bramley another season or two and see what happens, though if you're merely pruning, mid winter is the best time to do it

Many thanks.

getmyacttogether2016

Evening all

I would like to join in for this year.

Need to get the soil/compost for my raised beds and get my greenhouse put up and then fence the area from the chickens. Quite a lot of work for me as have ME but will hopefully manage to get it all done.

GMAT

unrecordings

miss_empty_piggy wrote: »

Many thanks.

No worries, that is what this thread is all about. No question is too stupid, we're all still learning

unrecordings

getmyacttogether2016 wrote: »

Evening all

I would like to join in for this year.

Need to get the soil/compost for my raised beds and get my greenhouse put up and then fence the area from the chickens. Quite a lot of work for me as have ME but will hopefully manage to get it all done.

Good luck. Chemo fatigue here so I bide my time and watch the weather. Still need to fix the workshop dooor to be able to get in there, then it should be easier to get out and do some gardenising, and get a bit of exercise

silverwhistle

I'm still at the stage of preparing my new allotment so today I demolished a pallet and was pleased to get 5 1.8m pallet wood lengths which I'll use as temporary raised bed sides, not fixed together but held in place by stakes.



The split bits, short bracers and blocks are now part of my woodburning supplies, so no waste.



I still haven't quite planned what to put where apart from the ericaeous bed and the squash and zucchini patch. Still wandering what to do with the 18 foot bamboos I scrounged, how high do beans grow I wonder.. Or maybe a couple of hop vines?:-)

unrecordings

silverwhistle wrote: »

Still wandering what to do with the 18 foot bamboos I scrounged, how high do beans grow I wonder.. Or maybe a couple of hop vines?:-)

Malabar (tree) spinach ?
Got mine a little too late last year and though they're in the house they're mainly not that happy. Need to look up their overwintering habits again I think and adjust things a little