Re: What have you done in the garden today?

by Dandelion 3rd May 2010, 9:29 pm

Compostwoman wrote:
Dandelion wrote:Busy day at the Dandelion Field too - cleared the bark chippings out of the chicken run and put to compost, then replaced. Potted up tomatoes, sowed annuals, weeded, watched weather forecast and rushed out after tea to cover things with fleece!

Do you want to come and sort out some tomatoes/peppers/squashes etc, Dandelion?

I would hate to sell the ones you might have wanted....

Yes,that would be great - we could swap some at the Ledbury Green fair if not before.

by Sparhawk 4th May 2010, 12:13 am

Dandelion wrote:
sparhawk wrote:
Dandelion wrote:
sparhawk wrote:

Oh & I cursed at the fact that this weekend I learnt how to turn bindweed into a useful fertilizer & make it compostable 2 days after I used my first weedkiller for a couple of years...

Would this be by drowning it in a bucket of water until it smells, then composting (my method) or have you got another cunning method we should all know about??

It was indeed your method, it appeared in a couple of magazines this month...

I meant this was the method I used - I didn't invent it (I don't want to be chased by anyone from Garden Organic...)

No, I realised that, unfortunately it was one of those secrets that I have just found out about too late & I'm just replying now to make the cascade effect even better drunk2

by Compostwoman 4th May 2010, 12:17 am

Weedkiller....... What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 369179

hmmm

by Sparhawk 4th May 2010, 1:13 am

Compostwoman wrote:Weedkiller....... hmmm

I know I may dissapoint at times ma'am, but I am still only learning...

What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Smiley-signs139

I will take myself to the bottom of the garden & inhale 10 times the vapours from my first batch of 3 week old nettle tea in pennance

What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Smiley-signs113

by Wilhelm Von Rhomboid 4th May 2010, 7:20 am

Compostwoman wrote:

Billy, if I WERE to come and see you soonish, would you want some plants?

Plants always welcome here, CW

by Chilli-head 4th May 2010, 11:03 am

sparhawk wrote:
Compostwoman wrote:Weedkiller....... hmmm

I know I may dissapoint at times ma'am, but I am still only learning...

I would not feel too guilty. If there's one time in your life you use an agrochemical, make it glyphosate to clear a plot before you start. It is not as enviromentally catastrophic as some (though not as benign as the manufacturers would have you believe). It kills bindweed easily. It is almost standard organic farming practice to clear the land with glyhosate before embarking on conversion. I would do it if I I had a perennial weed problem and were planning to put in permanent planting like asparagus or fruit, making subsequent digging impossible.

I'll retreat for cover now ...

by Compostwoman 4th May 2010, 12:38 pm

Sorry Chilli-head, but just because a lot of farmers might do it, just before they start "in conversion" ...doesn't make it acceptable IMO

also the carrier for it has been implicated in damage to pond life especially frogs.....

another reason not to use it I think

but...it is just that, my opinion. What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Icon_smile

.

and I apologise, Spar for any offense I may have caused with my use of that particular emoticon over your use of weedkiller....
but in my defense, you DID seem to be eversoslightly ashamed of using it? ( small print etc....).

You garden how you feel you need to...I don't know your reasons or your time pressures etc....so leave the nettle tea alone.... What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Icon_wink

by Wilhelm Von Rhomboid 4th May 2010, 1:03 pm

Just had a nice morning at the element, as Bea calls it.
Cleared more ground, set up more posts and wires and planted on 20 more raspberries that I dug out of random parts of the garden yesterday. All the raspberry canes I planted on the weekend before last have benefitted from the rains and seem to be thriving, ditto the jostaberries.
Allotment 2 is just going to be for soft fruit we have decided, which will make things easier.
Also planted in all the pea and sweetcorn seedlings that had been coming on in the polytunnel, and harvested 2 bags of dandelion heads for wine.

by Compostwoman 4th May 2010, 1:51 pm

"element"

What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Lol

by Guest 4th May 2010, 2:03 pm

Just had 2 weeks in the "gardens".
Planted out hundreds of plants after final prep of beds....about one day out from where I should be but the weather it "difficult" now; tonight could be very cold in the valley.

Back to seeding now for the final push.....

People never understand why I don't want visitors this time of year!
garden

by Chilli-head 4th May 2010, 3:23 pm

Compostwoman wrote:Sorry Chilli-head, but just because a lot of farmers might do it, just before they start "in conversion" ...doesn't make it acceptable IMO

Peace, CW

I did not mean to criticise your stance. What is acceptable is pretty much a matter of opinion. It is fairly common practice to "spray off" cereal crops with glyphosate prior to harvest to speed up senescence for example, which I find harder to accept ...

also the carrier for it has been implicated in damage to pond life especially frogs.....

The manufacturers will tell you Glyphosate breaks down quickly in soil. However, it does not break down so easily if it contaminates water directly, or is sprayed onto hard surfaces and washed into waterways. Since it is widely used on pavements etc, this is a significant problem. So no, I would not go swilling it around willy-nilly, and I do prefer not to use it, but neither would I be filled with remorse over a one off application.

by Wilhelm Von Rhomboid 4th May 2010, 3:30 pm

Compostwoman wrote:"element"

We were there this morning, me tying in raspberry canes, G von R planting seedlings, Maxwellslumbering peacefully, the sun beaming down on us, a gentle breeze, Bea sitting in her Laura Ashley flower print dress and big floppy flower hat, picking dandelion heads, and she looked up at me and said "Daddy, we are in our element."
And I thought, yes, we really are.

by Sparhawk 4th May 2010, 7:23 pm

[quote="Compostwoman"]I apologise, Spar for any offense I may have caused with my use of that particular emoticon over your use of weedkiller... but in my defense, you DID seem to be eversoslightly ashamed of using it? ( small print etc....).

Offense, me you'll have to try harder than that, Laughing

& was more anoyed when I had bitten the bullett & done something I didn't want to do, & then found out there was a better way of doing it...

As for the nettle tea...

What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 22

What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Smiley-shocked030

by Sparhawk 4th May 2010, 7:25 pm

Wilhelm Von Rhomboid wrote:
Compostwoman wrote:"element"

We were there this morning, me tying in raspberry canes, G von R planting seedlings, Maxwellslumbering peacefully, the sun beaming down on us, a gentle breeze, Bea sitting in her Laura Ashley flower print dress and big floppy flower hat, picking dandelion heads, and she looked up at me and said "Daddy, we are in our element."
And I thought, yes, we really are.

Its really special when they come out with things like that isn't it...

by Guest 4th May 2010, 8:16 pm

Kids do need to see things grow, the seasons etc as it is what life is about! But Billy that sounds so soul refreshing!

by Compostwoman 4th May 2010, 9:15 pm

Ah...that made me cry... What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Icon_smile

Lovely word picture, Billy....it is so good to be part of that kind of moment with children....

by AngelinaJellyBeana 9th May 2010, 4:34 pm

Ohhh errr, forum's gorn all different

anyway, I've been pottering around in the garden and greenhouse. Have cut the grass, weeded and dug over a small patch next to the trellis and have planted in a hop bine that a very kind person sent to me in the post. Have also sown some runner bean seeds, sweet peas to see if they will grow up the trellis and also some calendula seeds. In my salad bed at the front I've sown more rocket, spinach and mixed lettuce seeds. Also sown more runner beans in the toilet roll tubes I've been collecting, then I sat in the sun and had a cup of tea and a slice of banana cake

by polgara 15th May 2010, 6:17 pm

Bit of a clear up & lots of seeds planted. Admired my dustbin full of potato plants!!

by Guest 20th May 2010, 6:44 pm

All the tomatoes, courgettes, pumpkins, cumcumbers and gerkins are planted out! Well over 100 plants. Next is melons as the nights warm up. Then just hope for the best!
Its hot here now and very very dry.

by Compostwoman 20th May 2010, 7:24 pm

Spent afternoon gardening with children at school. Very hot and dusty already, had to use lots of the water in the butt to give everything a good soak.

Am a bit baked feeling, now!

by Chilli-head 21st May 2010, 11:12 am

All this talk I've seen and read about gardening by organic principles being about working in harmony with nature - at the moment it feels like all out war !

I have fencing to keep out Muntjack and rabbits. I have netting to keep of the pidgeons and pheasant. I have environmesh to keep butterflies and whitefly off the cabbages. Ultrasonic gizmos to keep off the cats.

Still I find the ants are eating through the base of the stems of my cabbages, and a mole has tunnelled under the netting (to keep the pidgeons off) and dug up two rows of beetroot What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Icon_evil

Nice weather at least though. I'll be sowing a new row of beets this evening, I guess ...

by Compostwoman 21st May 2010, 1:28 pm

I agree.

I have very cross hens because they are now "confined" in the megahenpen and paddock....

I have enviromesh over the raised bed spuds to keep off the crows and pheasants, enviromesh over the carrot/parsnip raised bed. Enviromesh tunnels over the other carrot bed, fleece over the salads outside ( it seems to deter the rabbits? and birds?)

The whole veg patch is fenced off to keep out the hens, still and I am having to start trapping the bloody squirrels AGAIN, soon...as the numbers have obviously built up again..

And I am grumpy with lack of sleep, due to Nightingales all night and then Cuckoos and the rest all day...grrr

Idyllic? hmmmmm

What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Icon_lol

by Chilli-head 21st May 2010, 1:45 pm

Ahh squirrels. Forgot them. They have an irritating habit of taking my apricots, stripping off all the flesh and strewing it around everywhere, just to crack open the stone and eat the kernel. It is most frustrating that they ruin the apricot just to get at the bit I'd discard anyway. I'd try coming to an arrangement with them if they's listen What have you done in the garden today? - Page 8 Icon_wink

It has occurred to me that given the deer, pheasant, pidgeon, rabbits, squirrels ..., I could eat better if I quit growing veg and got a gun.

by Compostwoman 21st May 2010, 2:14 pm

by Guest 23rd May 2010, 5:45 pm

Chilli-head wrote:It has occurred to me that given the deer, pheasant, pidgeon, rabbits, squirrels ..., I could eat better if I quit growing veg and got a gun.

You are not the first to think this Chilli-head. Bob Flowerdew has resorted to this measure...but not quit the veg I'm glad to say!

I do have all the same creatures as mentioned (plus boar) but they seem to prefer natural food to my flimsly human food. It definately helps having a large natural area for them and their preditors. I have no atrifical barriers at all. The only thing I do is I follow the example of someone (?) who once said "you must plant enough for all".

by AngelinaJellyBeana 23rd May 2010, 6:44 pm

Well me and Kath got up the polytunnel in just over an hour. Admittedly we put the cover on inside out at first but it's up and 4 growbags in situ waiting for me to go back down with plants to put in them. It was far too hot to do much more so we came home, sat in the garden and had a cuppa.

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