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Clearing an neglected garden
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Lovely. Agree with Dave - a bench for the view!
Note where the water pools. You could do worse than improve the drainage there while there's little to grow, either by putting in some drains or, and it would probably be enough, just loosening the soil to a good depth.
If there is standing water, bark chippings will tend to hold it rather....
Thanks. Drainage has been tried in the past and not been successful. Come the spring I'll have the ground all turned over and levelled.
Bark chippings seems to be the way to go for the raised beds. It's both exciting and challenging for this non-gardener.
And yes, a locally made bench is already on 'order'. The local landowner makes them from his own trees. Chunky things rather than delicate but we're on the west coast here, delicate would get blown away very soon.0 -
Then, bog garden it is there! There are some spiffing sundews and butterwort. Keep the midges at bay!
For a self-professed non-gardener...... You do rather well:rotfl:0 -
Then, bog garden it is there! There are some spiffing sundews and butterwort. Keep the midges at bay!
For a self-professed non-gardener...... You do rather well:rotfl:
Oh, boggy plants, thanks.
I really am a non-gardener. Moving here in 2014 brought me face to face with my own garden since being a primary aged child. After that we have always lived in flats. I can see what needs doing but have no ideas about plants / caring for them or choosing the correct ones.
This patch once was highly cultivated and cared for. As far as I can make out it’ll have been at least ten or more years ago. My back garden is north facing and this one is south facing - perfect for sitting out in. Raised beds will be for a friend to grow veggies etc mostly.0 -
Never quite got an answer as to whether the poster owns this land0
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Never quite got an answer as to whether the poster owns this land
Is that important?
Just catching up on this thread, and love the “summer in Argyll” pictures!
That land will never drain, so I would go for raised beds for next year’s veg plots. They probably don’t need to be too high, just enough to raise the plants off the wetter layers - possibly a simple frame of 6x1 timber would be sufficient. Dig over the soil, lay the frame down, then fill to the top with compost. For your first year you might have to get creative to source the compost, but after next year you should be making enough of your own to refresh the beds.
To get the timber for the frame, see if there is a local estate sawmill that will let you have some wide boards. You will get decent local timber that will last much longer than anything you can get from B&Q at a lower cost. While there, sound them out about bark for your mulched areas.0 -
Is that important?
Just catching up on this thread, and love the “summer in Argyll” pictures!
That land will never drain, so I would go for raised beds for next year’s veg plots. They probably don’t need to be too high, just enough to raise the plants off the wetter layers - possibly a simple frame of 6x1 timber would be sufficient. Dig over the soil, lay the frame down, then fill to the top with compost. For your first year you might have to get creative to source the compost, but after next year you should be making enough of your own to refresh the beds.
To get the timber for the frame, see if there is a local estate sawmill that will let you have some wide boards. You will get decent local timber that will last much longer than anything you can get from B&Q at a lower cost. While there, sound them out about bark for your mulched areas.
Pictures are not much different from 'autumn in Argyll'! Even wetter today after ex-Ophelia has rampaged through overnight.
I've got a local source of wood all around. There's no estate sawmill but an estate owner with a whacking great slab maker who has made his wife lovely raised beds last year. He'll also make a bench and table for it, nothing too delicate, he's more able to make substantial than delicate!
Bark will be more difficult to source though I can't imagine any real problems. Just I'll have to buy that from a commercial retail source rather than give a local a few quid. Same with compost, there is no usable soil here so it'll have to be bought in. Matters not in the scheme of things as I'm not going to producing too much which needs rotation.
Thanks for the encouragement.
:j0 -
I'm not a fan of small sawmills. We gave ours the custom when we first arrived here in Devon 8 years ago, because that's where the locals went, but I wasn't overly impressed with the product. Now I know I was right, because many of their fencing posts are failing, never having had adequate treatment.
Fortunately, that's only the internal chicken run & orchard. By the time we got onto the perimeter fencing I'd sourced some better, 'big company' posts with a 15 year guarantee against rot. Not one of those has broken or shows any sign of decay.
I'd guess slabs will have an even longer life. I'm still using some that were made back in the 1970s by a concrete fetishist who owned our previous house. I don't know if he had a vibrating table or just the moulds, but they are wonderfully strong.0 -
Or the field into which they've been throwing their garden waste :undecided
Why the apparently bitter negativity? Local gardeners throw their waste onto my farmland. Some even rent their homes, shock horror! All have asked, and I welcome their organic matter.
Gets... we demand to know-
Marital status
Height
Hair colour
Car engine size
Last holiday destination
All relevant, dear boy/girl*
*delete as appropriate
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Never quite got an answer as to whether the poster owns this landOr the field into which they've been throwing their garden waste :undecided
If this was my thread, I wouldn't feel the need to answer irrelevant questions, or comment on presumptions about my behaviour.
However...
As a small scale landowner I've helped friends and neighbours when they have cleared gardens and removed trees etc. We can have bonfires aplenty here without upsetting anyone and I've a chain saw to retrieve any logs worth having.
Happily, I've also enjoyed similar facilities from larger land-owners for 'losing' many, many tonnes of concrete rubble, bricks and broken blocks, created during four years of house renovation/rebuilding. With skips currently at £300 a throw, this has saved me thousands of pounds, which is very MSE.
As my dear old (Scottish) Mum would have said, "Put that in yer pipe and smoke it!"
EDIT: Dafty, you are always so much nicer than me!:A:rotfl:0
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