Topic: What are you doing?

[Digeroo]

Just been to plot for first time this year

Firstly it was very cold.  Brrrr.     Wind was bitter, but lovely sunshine.    Got some sprouts and parsnips.  Dug a couple of square meters.   Making a raised bed for carrots.    Started on more paths.  Saw first lambs. 

Deer and mole and hedgehog have been busy.  Hedgehog damaged a lot of broad beans and strawberries, those with manure around not looking good, those with soil are fine.  I will not do that again.  Note to self bury the manure.

There is a HUGE pile of manure.   


Make a dash for home.   

Next job sowing broad beans.  The moon goddess in me says wait till Thursday.   

[plotstoeat]

Just been to plot for first time this year

Firstly it was very cold.  Brrrr.     Wind was bitter, but lovely sunshine.    Got some sprouts and parsnips.  Dug a couple of square meters.   Making a raised bed for carrots.    Started on more paths.  Saw first lambs. 

Deer and mole and hedgehog have been busy.  Hedgehog damaged a lot of broad beans and strawberries, those with manure around not looking good, those with soil are fine.  I will not do that again.  Note to self bury the manure.

There is a HUGE pile of manure.   

Weather same here. Best in greenhouse with a cuppa.

You could make a hotbed with manure for early sowings.


Make a dash for home.   

Next job sowing broad beans.  The moon goddess in me says wait till Thursday.

[Silverleaf]

Me, I'm planning my calendar and what I'm going to grow. Soon clearing out the utility room so I can get the propagator in there, and I want to get some grow lights too.

[caroline7758]

Dug up some leeks, last of the parsnips and some Jerusalem artichokes. Something (probably rabbits) had been chewing at the base of my leeks but strangely hadn't chewed the tops of as in previous years. Was glad to see my garlic is doing well. Was tempted to dig up some creeping buttercup but the soil was a bit too wet.

Going to order some seed potatoes now.

[Digeroo]

I made a hotbed last year it did not do very well, but I shall try again.

[BarriedaleNick]

I've been busy on the plot this year.
Still picking parsnips, carrots, sprouts, leeks, last of the mooli and some ropey looking celery.  Mostly I have been sorting out my raised beds and paths and moving large amounts of manure around.  We are quite lucky - we have a local brewery leave us hops and grain which helps to break up our heavy clay, a local chap who runs a rabbit/guinea pig sanctuary who delivers bags of hutch sweepings and a local stables who leaves piles of manure outside.  Everything has to be barrowed down some steps and along a slippery slope to my plot so I have been keeping fit and have some huge piles steaming away ready to fill my beds.
This week I am starting all my chillies, then busy for a few weekends as my sister and niece are over from Egypt.  So Ill be ticking along till March..

All seeds are ordered - just got my spuds so just a bit of planning and trying to sort my mess of a garden out..

[pumkinlover]

Me, I'm planning my calendar and what I'm going to grow. Soon clearing out the utility room so I can get the propagator in there, and I want to get some grow lights too.

Do you know about the hydroponics place on Sheepbridge ? Sells lighting too .

[Silverleaf]

I'm thinking about getting a load of straw bales this year to extend my growing space. It's not physically possible for me to dig more beds in my horrible heavy clay (fibromyalgia is an issue), so I was thinking I'd try straw bale gardening. Sounds pretty easy, and I could try some of the exciting seeds I got in the swap, and when the bales have broken down after I've grown stuff in them they'll improve the soil.

[Silverleaf]

Me, I'm planning my calendar and what I'm going to grow. Soon clearing out the utility room so I can get the propagator in there, and I want to get some grow lights too.

Do you know about the hydroponics place on Sheepbridge ? Sells lighting too .

No I didn't know about that, will have to look it up! Thanks.

[plotstoeat]

I made a hotbed last year it did not do very well, but I shall try again.

This is Adam's version, if its any help

[Digeroo]

Many thanks plotsteat,  My big problem was ventilation on sunny days,  the crops got cooked one warm sunny afternoon, there was a frost overnight and then suddenly a very warm afternoon.   I returned to find my crops fried.

[artichoke]

Silverleaf: I was very disappointed with my straw bale garden in 2010 - 12 bales at £3 each, delivered.

Watered and fertilised it regularly, sprinkled this and that on it as advised, but it never looked like the exciting jungles shown in pictures on straw bale gardening sites. I planted it with summer and winter squashes/courgettes, and I did get crops, but nothing very impressive.

However, as they rotted down over the winter and the next year, I laid down cardboard and newspaper over quite a good area (3 yards by 6? Very bad at estimating size) and raked the straw over them. Over that year I added horse manure.....used the area as a rubbish dump for a bonfire....raked the ash over it......tipped compost from the bins over it.

Ever since, it has been my most productive bed out of three plots. I was surprised that the usual couch grass and bindweed, so prevalent everywhere else, seldom surfaced through all this covering, though creeping buttercup absolutely loved to invade from outside. I hammered planks into the ground all round it to discourage invaders.

Until last year I never dug it, just planted into it. But eventually docks and dandelion seeds arrived, I took my eye off the ball, and in the end just had to dig them out. Interested to find how soft the soil was, and how little cardboard and newspaper remained intact. This had been unimproved grassland, quite heavy clay, absolutely full of creeping thistle, couch and bindweed. At the moment I am looking forward to kale, purple sprouting, cabbages, broad beans, perpetual spinach, and Tayberries growing like mad around a corner bamboo fence.

Who else has tried straw bale gardening? Did they work better than mine?

[plotstoeat]

Silverleaf: I was very disappointed with my straw bale garden in 2010 - 12 bales at £3 each, delivered.

Watered and fertilised it regularly, sprinkled this and that on it as advised, but it never looked like the exciting jungles shown in pictures on straw bale gardening sites. I planted it with summer and winter squashes/courgettes, and I did get crops, but nothing very impressive.

However, as they rotted down over the winter and the next year, I laid down cardboard and newspaper over quite a good area (3 yards by 6? Very bad at estimating size) and raked the straw over them. Over that year I added horse manure.....used the area as a rubbish dump for a bonfire....raked the ash over it......tipped compost from the bins over it.

Ever since, it has been my most productive bed out of three plots. I was surprised that the usual couch grass and bindweed, so prevalent everywhere else, seldom surfaced through all this covering, though creeping buttercup absolutely loved to invade from outside. I hammered planks into the ground all round it to discourage invaders.

Until last year I never dug it, just planted into it. But eventually docks and dandelion seeds arrived, I took my eye off the ball, and in the end just had to dig them out. Interested to find how soft the soil was, and how little cardboard and newspaper remained intact. This had been unimproved grassland, quite heavy clay, absolutely full of creeping thistle, couch and bindweed. At the moment I am looking forward to kale, purple sprouting, cabbages, broad beans, perpetual spinach, and Tayberries growing like mad around a corner bamboo fence.

Who else has tried straw bale gardening? Did they work better than mine?

Sounds like a good result in the end. Did you put edging round it? Any pics?

[Silverleaf]

Thanks for that artichoke!

I'm figuring even a poor crop this year will be better than nothing. I'm not in any fit state to dig another bed, and I feel it's unfair to ask my boyfriend to do such a heavy job when there's so much else to do around the house and garden and he's not interested in gardening and feels we don't need any more than my two existing beds anyway.

I guess straw will give me almost instant beds with just some feeding and watering. Might not be brilliant, but it's a start, and it'll give me a few years to construct something more permanent.

Can anyone tell me how big a straw bale actually is?

[artichoke]

 "Did you put edging round it? Any pics?"

Sorry, can't do pics. As I said, I hammered old planks on edge into the ground with stout pegs from the nearby hedge supporting them from the outside, the soil on the inside holding them upright (or another peg). These are reasonably effective at discouraging weeds (couch, buttercup) creeping in from the field, but I do have to watch for invasions and take a knife or spade to them.

In case you are interested, I also discourage grass etc by laying more old planks flat on the ground just outside the upright planks. Every now and then I remove them all, scythe down the long grass (the smothered area means I can scythe close to the planks without snagging the scythe in the upright planks) then replace the flat planks. This might sound a nuisance, but this plot is in a rough field with large areas of tall grass, docks, nettles etc, and over the years this has been the best way of isolating my plot from their attacks.

I could, of course, buy yet more woven weed covering and staple it to the ground all the way round as in other areas of my plot.....but I haven't.

Bales have been useful in other ways: a friend had some rotting hay bales, so I leaned an old window against one or two, sloping to face the sun, and sheltered it down the sides with a couple more. Inside was a well protected space for early lettuce etc. They were again useful to spread around once they had rotted away.