From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Sun_Addict - howdy! Oh, I greatly admire you doing dual catering - I'm lucky that DH has never liked meat, so didn't eat alot and was more than happy to drop it. He will eat - for example, fish fingers, if I cook them, but he's always been far less keen on fish than me, and I'm not particularly bothered about fish - although recognise I should be more bothered about sardines, mackerel etc. LG was given opportunities to try meat and they didn't like it - especially after it made them ill 🫤

Tinned Tomatoes - isn't she the Scottish lass 🤔I have used recipes from there in the past - but haven't visited in a while, thanks for the reminder 👍

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good evening MFW'rs

Phew, more "gardening" done today. It's hard work. You know how all these professional gardeners - usually talking about allotments or neglected veg patches, implore you to 'double dig' to break up the 'pan' well have they ever been filmed 'doing' it, or do they just tell you, you must……… asking for a friend 🤔

We have sufficient clay, in sufficient quantities, not too far from the surface in our garden to either open up us own brickyard, or incorporate Clayton into our surname……

At least LG helped with a few little tasks when they came home from school, so it does at least feel like a family endeavour 🥰

Tea was lentil bolognese and pasta. Spirali for DH and I, and spaghetti for LG. I used a red pepper that came in a MrL box a week or so ago. It was slightly soft, but it had kept quite well. It made a nice addition to the bolognese. Yoghurt and banana for pud.

I'm bushed. Away to my bed. Ta for popping in.

Greying X

Watty1

heavy clay soil is the worst to try and reshape. I think those TV Gardeners that tell you about the double digging have a whole team of people that pop in and do it overnight so by morning there they are all fresh and neatly dressed showing off the hard work. Either that or a magic wand. I've been looking for a magic wand for a while now myself 😀

greenbee

if you find the magic wand, can you check whether my crystal ball is with it? It’s been in for repair for ages and work are getting difficult about my inability to predict the future accurately…

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Watty - glad it's not just me that curses clay! And you're spot on, I am trying to 're-shape' not just have friable soil, 2 spits down, to grow gold-medal winning super-long parsnips*………

No landscape gardener would take on this task without a digger of some description, but there's really no way to get a digger in. The only (remotely) possible way would be to come through a neighbours garden, and with the best will in the world, and taking fences down, nobody could absolutely say that no damage would occur. Our one neighbour may have helped us, difficult to tell. It's would be a big ask, and I appreciate that sometimes folk surprise you with their generosity, but we didn't want to inconvenience them. It's not fair to ask our other neighbour as the house is rented, and there's just too much potential for damage that may impact their tenancy arrangement, even if permission was gained from the landlord.

Greying X

*and yes Dear Reader, I know the professional show giant vegetable growers use oil drums and 'splitable' piping, the sweet, sweet ground has long since been dispensed with 😁

kayannie

Have you thought about hiring a rotovator, with or without an operator? I have no idea of the cost, but it would make short work of turning the ground over. Once that was done, it would be a case of digging it over, but the hardest of the work would have been done.

Clay gets rock hard especially at this time of year. It is very fertile though! We had clay in our previous garden, we now have sandy soil which isn't so nutritious. It's much easier to dig, as the local moles have discovered! If anyone knows how to discourage them, I'd like to know. I don't want to kill them, just make them move on somewhere else!

KA x

in_need_of_direction

this may be an urban myth but I’ve heard that planting potatoes does a lot to help soil

Greying_Pilgrim

Thank you kayannie and inod

kayannie - we had thought of a rotovator, but I'm sure it wouldn't have worked. The levels are all over the place, and the ground so tough, it would just bounce (plus the operator) around. If we went to the trouble (not gonna happen) of skimming off the grass, and digging. The rotovator then might be useful to break up clods, and make a finer tilth - but the hard work would still need to be done by hand. And the trouble with rotovators that are 'muscly' in the face of tough soils, is that they are usually quiet long/bulky, and we would quickly run out of 'turning circle' in any direction. But you can bet i wish there was a mechanical solution.

inod - I believe that to be true too, although in all honesty, what we really need are a couple of piggly wigglys on loan for a few months. They really would have made short work of levelling and turning over the ground.

My method is working, but I've not even finished stage one yet, so I need to gird my loins and press on. I found another coin/coin like object today. It seem to have 'rusted' in the soil though, so I'm not sure what type of coin it is. I found a 1p yesterday. A 'vintage' coin in itself, minted in 1970 😱 I also found a couple of bits of pottery today that will enthuse LG, as they love a bit of a pottery find. I suspect this is someones 'everday tea cup' from the last century, but it'll peak their interest 😁I also found something that looked like pottery, but I suspect it's either a very flat shard of rock, or it's a tile. As it seemed to have a 'core' (think of how flint is grey on the inside, surrounded by white).

Soup for tea. Better conjure up what I can make it out of.

Greying X

Watty1

I hesitate to mention this - but as I know you have been reading my thread - a pig would make very short work of all that…….

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995623#Comment_81995623

And I've no horses to spook…….. 😁 Could be a goer………. 😉

Although I suspect the Resident's Association (One self-appointed sticky beak) would have objections…….

Greying X