A catalogue of trial, error and advice

ArbitraryRandom

Thanks but I've been around  

Perversely, this time of year at work (when it's quiet for everyone else) gets really busy for me - mostly because everyone else goes on holiday and I'm either treading water to keep things going until they get back or making things up dealing with things that they normally would. 

But I do appreciate being able to take time off when there's fewer kids about and/or when the days are shorter so I actually get to see the sun. 

Plus, with the actual garden, there's not really much I can do until the end of the season. I can't get anyone around to quote for any of the 'building' work; the fruit trees etc I want to plant are best done when dormant; and I'm just pottering around picking the odd strawberry and fretting about my squash (which I'm thinking won't give me any fruit this year, but has been a good experience so I know what to expect next year). 

Good news is I've got probably the equivalent of a punnet of strawberries currently in my freezer - certainly more than you could hold easily in cupped hands, and there's still a lot left to come unless something goes very wrong. I've only eaten one (that first one) and kept the rest with a plan to make a small jar of jam or some kind of 'pudding' to enjoy in the middle of winter (maybe even that miserable first week of Jan!) 

ampersand

AR -
Do you have a walnut growing yet?

ArbitraryRandom

Not yet (and I might take the advice and plant my honeyberry there instead... or maybe a quince/chaemoneles... or grape - other suggestions still welcome ). 

Situation is the pyracantha is gone, and in the middle of it was a very dilapidated (probably 30 year old) wire fence on very rotten wooden posts - the neighbour would like this (and the remaining bit of privet) to be replaced with a solid wood fence. 

The delay is that the neighbour is a council (or housing association?) tenant, so they've contacted their landlord. That means I'm waiting on someone from the council to turn up and 1. decide if that side is their responsibility or if it's shared/mine; 2. agree to pay/halves/that a fence can be put in at all/to do the work and let me give them money. 

It's only been about 2 weeks ish since the spiky bush of death (aka the pyracantha) was chopped down, and it's the summer, so I reckon we've got a while to go yet. 

twopenny

Ditto to trying to get someone round to do something.
I collect walnuts from roadside trees here and store in a bowl. They last all winter and English walnuts have more goodness than the foreign ones in the shops. Unfortunately this heat they don't like so haven't produced for the last 2yrs.

ArbitraryRandom

Someone else also suggested dog rose or juneberry as 'wildlife friendly edibles' - both of which I'll need to do a little more investigation (which I guess looking on the bright side at least I have time for...) 

Farway

twopenny said:

Ditto to trying to get someone round to do something.
I collect walnuts from roadside trees here and store in a bowl. They last all winter and English walnuts have more goodness than the foreign ones in the shops. Unfortunately this heat they don't like so haven't produced for the last 2yrs.

Aren't the trees supposed to respond to a good beating according to an old proverb

"A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they be"

Vision of 2P bashing the walnut trees in Basil Fawlty car beating style

Ducks and runs away

ArbitraryRandom

Farway said:

twopenny said:

Ditto to trying to get someone round to do something.
I collect walnuts from roadside trees here and store in a bowl. They last all winter and English walnuts have more goodness than the foreign ones in the shops. Unfortunately this heat they don't like so haven't produced for the last 2yrs.

Aren't the trees supposed to respond to a good beating according to an old proverb

"A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they be"

Vision of 2P bashing the walnut trees in Basil Fawlty car beating style

Ducks and runs away

I'd not heard that before. Fascinating... 

Whatever may have been people's opinion of how well a woman, !!!!!! or dog respond to punishment, the belief that this was beneficial in the case of walnut trees persisted. One encyclopaedia of superstitions reports that in country districts 'it was a common persuasion that whipping a walnut tree tended to increase the produce and improve the quality of the fruit’ and that this took place in early spring. Another explanation is that 'the old custom of beating a walnut-tree was carried out firstly to fetch down the fruit and secondly to break the long shoots and so encourage the production of short fruiting spurs.’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walnut_Tree

YoungBlueEyes

There's something in the back of my head about storing walnuts... Prolly Keith Floyd, but poss Gennaro wosname off of Jamie Oliver. Always store walnuts in their shells in a bucket of wet sand because it keeps them cool and dark. 

ArbitraryRandom

Isn't that also supposed to be how you overwinter carrots?

ArbitraryRandom

Hmm... following the discussion on a different thread about raised beds (and cost). I wonder if two of these might do the trick?

https://www.vidaxl.co.uk/e/vidaxl-garden-raised-bed-galvanised-steel-320x80x77-cm-grey/8718475708971.html

https://www.vidaxl.co.uk/e/vidaxl-garden-raised-bed-galvanised-steel-480x80x77-cm-grey/8719883757100.html

Main disadvantage compared to my breeze block idea is not being able to sit on the edge, but I'm sure I can pick up a bench to go between the two planters. 

Anyone have any experience with galvanised steel in a garden?