Awful weather - typical Brits talk

-taff

Arb, check out square foot gardening.

LessImpecunious

Arb - re. spacing have you had a look at Charles Dowding on the topic? - https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/kp-lessons/the-how-and-why-of-spacing goes into the topic in quite a lot of detail, including why or when some things are best grown in rows rather than blocks; also what to do if you've got multisown veg (I think you ref'd CD when deciding to multisow your onions).

Edited to add - CD incs. square foot gardening in his discussion...

Farway

ArbitraryRandom said:

Thanks both. I just feel a bit sorry for it as it's only a yearling, so it looks like a stick shoved in the ground. 

-taff, the issue is I need to actually figure out what space things need for the growing season, how much I can actually fit into the space and what I need to be able to reach (and how often) to stop from flowering etc vs what can be more or less left alone once it's in - so I need to have proper rethink/rejig for next year. 

I got thrown completely out of whack by impulse buying those onions and not thinking about the spacing requirements. 

Which is something that I've often wondered about... why is the recommended distance between rows different from the recommended space between plants? The advice is the same for raised beds as it is in the ground, so it's not for a path...

For example google says onions: 2–4in apart, in rows 10–12in apart (or what I did, multi-sown 4 in a clump 6 inches apart with rows ~12 inches apart). My brain would much prefer a grid with all plants ~6 inches apart (which would give the same square 'footage' per plant I think...

Arbs I think you may be overthinking this gardening lark, but everyone is different and the spacing, timings etc are really just suggestions or guidance garnered over years of experience, success & failures

Eventually you'll find what works in your garden for you, and it may not work in another garden.

Impulse buying is something we are all guilty of, if it's onions no problem, Ferraris may cause other problems.

 I'm a bung it innner and freely admit I get it wrong at times

Between row spacing is traditionally to allow a hoe or similar for weed control, but as Taff says, square foot gardening could be a solution, but no need to stick rigidly to it

Ideas and methods change, either because of tastes or time proves what was thought Good is in fact Bad.

An example is roses, once it was all in one bed, with bare earth between them. Pruning was a scientific precision exercise.

Now, roses are in a flower bed or border with other plants, seems mix & match improves the general health, microbes etc. Pruning, chop them down with shears or trimmer.

Exceptions may be if you are a show grower, of course.

greenbee

Didn't the RHS do a trial with pruning vs. hedge trimmer for roses and showed it didn't make a difference?

Honestly, there are no rules - we're learning all the time. Double-digging used to be essential. Now digging is known to disrupt essential micro-organisms in the soil and cause nutrient depletion. So just stick with trial and error. 

ArbitraryRandom

-taff said:

Arb, check out square foot gardening.

I've been reading a lot about it (you recommended a very interesting book IIRC that I've thumbed through several times to reference things) - not sure it might work exactly for me as it requires a lot of attention to the garden throughout (from what I can tell the high density planting means being ready to whip things out to thin as they grow and replace them with other things when there's a gap etc).

Which sounds great and productive, but I have a chronic condition and know my enthusiasm/energy comes in waves, so I need a nice middle ground where I've got useful things to do (devil and idle hands etc) but can also get away with a bit of benevolent neglect if work kicks off or I have a flare up so can't do much for a couple of weeks  

Speaking of not doing much - it's the bank holiday weekend and I've just logged off for the day! I hope everyone has lovely plans and the weather is accommodating to them. I'm going to try to avoid looking at a screen for a couple of days (might sit on my garden chair and ponder the garden layout as I bemoan the lack of rain - and locking my credit card away somewhere out of reach )

Paspatur

Dusty, please accept my condolences. I am so sorry the battle was lost xx

pink_poppy

A bit of a different pic this evening - the sun is setting and I noticed this lovely shadow of my Amaryllis on the wall...

Dustyevsky

Paspatur said:

Dusty, please accept my condolences. I am so sorry the battle was lost xx

Thanks to you, and to all who've offered condolences.

I'll be back later, but rather a lot going on this morning!

Here's the reddest Welsh Poppy I could find yesterday.

YoungBlueEyes

Arb, I agree with Farway, just relax with it a bit   I think I've got the same brain as you (when you said you were researching every source you can before starting something so you can do it right - or similar - I was sat here nodding). The books might say this many inches but probably that many inches is fine. If square foot gardening would be a bit demanding, just do normal planting. The onions won't care. Well the ones that die will but you've too many anyway ha haa! This is why I say about Shawshank so often. I wanted to learn all the different bits and get it all right first time but my *ahem*  'turning against me' brain wouldn't absorb it. So while I'm buying cheapo flowers/trees and reading the labels and trying to do it all properly, I end planting them wherever I've currently got a space. Some stuff dies, some I've moved, some thriving, and then something different dies, but I think a lot of it is down to how much the thing wants to live before I get it itms. Like seeds that don't come up...  So if the onions/cherry stick wants to live, they just will It's hard to flick from Do It All Right to Shawshank but I promise if you persevere it gets easier. Good enough is almost always good enough. Jeez I hope that all comes across right.

Enjoy Beaulieu tomorrow then taff cows and ponies permitting  

It must be wort who's sailed away then, hopefully having a good time and comes back with lots of stories/pics  

Good luck with your woodworm treatment gb. Have you a desperate lit of it or just a bit. Fingers crossed your cats/bats are alright with it too.

We're off to Whitby today, the weather forecast better be more accurate than yesterday. It gave mild and a bit cloudy all day... well it started raining before lunch, gave up around dinner time, and restarted with gusto about 2200. Today's forecast is mild and a bit cloudy all day...

pink_poppy

Ooh, have a lovely time in Whitby, YBE, one of my favourite places. I was looking at Goth weekend photos just the other day.

I heard a cuckoo this morning, first time this year. I know they're not the nicest of birds, but I do like to hear them cuckooing.

I forgot to check my cut Saxon potatoes yesterday and it's been damp overnight, so I'll have to bring them inside to dry out a bit before planting them.

It feels a lot cooler this morning - yesterday was a scorcher - 25 degrees in the car when I was driving to the hospital. I've been given a 'white noise' machine to help with tinnitus and I've been measured for a hearing aid - I feel like I'm too young to have one of those, but needs must