Allotments 4 All
Photo Gallery => The Gallery => Topic started by: Garden Manager on December 15, 2003, 23:20:23
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http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=richardfiler&password=49497763
Click on this link to see pictures of my garden.
Any comments are most welcome.
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delicious richard - love the helenium and echinops also the chinese asters. It looks beautifully cared for, thank you for sharing.
cheers, suzy
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Tried the link Richard, and it didn't work for me >:(
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Why did it not work for you Doris? :(
All you have to do is click the link :)
Tried it myself just now - worked fine for me and for campanula. ;)
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Aha! Richard - now I recognise the face. It was you all the time!!
What a lot to pack into such a comparatively small (?) space? Do any of the neighbours do similar?
Tried to see the weeds, but failed! = Tim
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I opened the link OK, but loading was so slow I gave up for the time being, so haven't seen all of it yet - I'm particularly interested in the veg. patch (natch! ;) ) - could you talk us through the various pix, which cvs you planted, etc. Richard?
and ps...so that was Charlie Brown? I thought it was Just William ;D ;D ;D - Lishka
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- just a bit of comfort - no probs viewing. = Tim
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Hello all. Thanks for the comments about the garden.
Tim - depends what youmean by small. ??? Garden is roughly 100ft long by about 30ft wide. Large by local standards.
Alishka - Veg garden cultivars. Only one i can, remember (I dont worry too much about these things) is the Runners which are White Lady. Very prolific, very tasty mmm! :)
Potatoes are a specialy treated type for autumn cropping. Dont know the variety. Not very good shant grow them again. :(
Fruit Garden - Cultivars of raspberries are Glen Clova and Glen Prosen (summer croppers) and the wonderfull Autumn Bliss (autumn croppers). :)
Hope this is enough.
Tim - you probably would see weeds in a close up shot. They are there just small and hidden ;D
Have now given up on charlie brown. Have chosen Garfield instead. Hope it isnt taken! ;)
Richard
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No - that's BIG!! Looked neater & nookier than that.
Sorry about the autumn pots - We always have success with them - Carlingford (and Franceline & Maris Peer). = Tim
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Richard, I goes onto a log on page for me! Will try again later when I have more time ;D
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Richard, how do you know what to try/not try again if you're not making a note of what you're planting, when, etc., I wonder? "Don't know the variety of potatoes" but you shan't bother with them again ???
Put a Gardening Diary on your Christmas Wish-list asap - or any cheapo diary will do - those that come over half-price after Xmas are the best, I find :)
Hugh especially, I remember, is able to give detailed reports of veg. he's had success ( or otherwise) with from years ago and Tim is always producing facts and statistics about his crops, too.
It was only after reading posts on the Beeb lotties board that I decided I really must be writing things down. Somehow, I always think I'll remember? Even so..I'm still not there...last year I grew two types of beetroot - Boltardy and Detroit - one I preferred over the other...now... which one was it, tho.... ;D ;) - Lishka
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And when you pot things up, or on, label EVERY pot - then - not just one in a group - sure as hell you later respace the group and it mixes with another. Every year it happens!!
And when you put 7 trays of potatoes on your windowsill, and decide to re-arrange them - OWWWWWWW!!! - there was only one label between 2 trays. I think I've got it sorted?? = Tim
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what a lovely garden - you lot give me so much to live up to!
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To Alishka and Tim.
Yes i KNOW I ought to keep records of what i plant and when, I just never get around to it. To me it seems too much work and takes a little of the fun out of growing things. I think I'd rather spend the time planting and sowing than sitting wrinting things down. But thats just me I SHOULD do it and it would brobably make life easier if i did i jus t cannot get into that mindset.
I DO though label things properly with the date seed sown or cuting taken at the top, though i wouldnt go as far as to follow tims advice and label every pot. Tim might have all the time to sit there writing labels, I dont!
With different varieties, follow this simple rule and you can get a way with one label per variety:
Front to back, left to right. That is work from the front of the bench to the back and from the left hand side to the right, placing the label in the first pot of each variety as you go. Follow this to the letter and you wont get in a muddle!
By the way i know not to grow the Autumn potatoes again, because the firm I bought them, only does one variety in this way, so if I know not to get them from there again. The crop was OK but the spuds were very firm and could only be used for boiled.
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But some spuds ARE only for boiling? Marshalls do give a choice. Don't give up!
And time on my hands? Yes - more than most - but how long does it take to write 20 labels - 1 1/2 minutes?? = Tim
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Oh well then!
If thats all you have to do Tim, Go ahead!
I was just thinking how long it would take if you grew absolutely loads of your own plants from seed (as some people do) then your system would take some time to do.
Richard
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Depends, Tim..remember the two old ladies on a weeks' holiday in Scarborough and the postcards?
Monday - they arrived, unpacked & rested after their journey
Tuesday - had a nice walk round and then, after tea they wrote their postcard lists
Wednesday - they browsed the shops and bought the cards - this took all day & they only just made it back to the hotel before the 'gong' went for dinner. Rested after their walking before turning in for an early night.
Thursday - hired deckchairs on the beach and wrote the cards - slight delay because of showers & having to abandon their attempts a couple of times
Friday - they queued at the post office for stamps for ages, it being Widow's Benefit day and Scarborough having more than its fair share of widows. All that time on their feet had made their ankles swell alarmingly, so a good sit down with their feet up was imperative before dinner and then bed.
Saturday - another exhausting day! Saturday market, which they thoroughly enjoyed but was as draining on their strength as their purses. In the evening, tho, after dinner, they put the stamps on the cards and arranged them in tidy piles
Sunday - well, they were too busy packing to find a post box, then
Oops! Suddenly it was Monday and time to go home again.
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Hey Lish.............you been following me on me hols??!! ;D
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I agree with Richard, some of us are labellers, catorgorisers (bad spellers!) and should probably work in a library (sorry Ten, this means you too!! ;D ) and some of us just love to grow stuff.
Just out of interest, how many of you get upset if a plant turns up uninvited, probably brought by the birds, and you can't identify it, and how many just enjoy the plant for what it is? And how many of you would pull it up?
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Well, I could hazard a guess, Mystic.......and categorise
........................but far too diplomatic to publicise!
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Richard - I admit that I now buy in a few things as back-up but, having been involved in commercial growing (father) from 1934 - 1962, I learnt that it is better, as an example, not to try hothouse plants outside in the Cotswolds, and that it is therefore important for me to label carefully
I admit that I now only grow some 4-500 plants from seed, as compared with the several thousand that we used to handle, but add this to all the other things like 150 pots, 600 onions, 100 garlic, 50 shallots, carrots Jun-Dec, 90 or so brassica, lettuce Jun- Dec, beet, corn, 8 varieties of beans, chard, chinese greens - to name a few - you'll see that, at my age, I can't compete with such growers as yourself. = Tim
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blimey tim!
Turkey -yep, great fish restaurants all along the Bosphorous bridges. I haven't been there since 1988 tho'.
sheepheel biting - that's my dog, lila, tim, not me......and she is a bit of a wimp too.
oh yes, you are always on my mind.
cheers, suzy
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I was, I really really was going to do it this year. Bought stacks of labels, cut up yoghurt pots, purchased a selection of pens all with the intention of labeling everything, and I do label ever single seed tray, and I do label all the oddities I grow, but when I pot all my delphiniums for example, one label in the first pot, maybe another in the next, and after that I figure, so long as I bunch them all together, next spring as they emerge, I should (note I said should) be able to tell what is what. This method fails me constantly! I will will will label at the allotment, I will! I will! :o
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I reckon (in my considered opinion ;D) that you shouldnt worry about what you should have done, or what you should be doing, but enjoy what it is you do naturally - if you dont naturally label stuff, dont sweat it, I'm sure nature care's not one jot if it's plants are defined, as long as they grow happily and are loved.
There endeth the lesson (I am such a hippy :D)
Peas
XX
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We are fortunate that the great gardeners of the past DID find the time to label, experiment, and record their results (as some of us still do). Without those efforts there would be far less information available to the gardeners of today, no gardening books, no RHS Encyclopedias, and (lovely thought) nothing for the TV gardening Idols to have written up on their indispensable cue boards.
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Ah, tis true, without scientific labelling types much current knowledge would not exist.....tis a shame that much knowledge has been lost down the ages, if it had been written down and even better, published, then we would probably know more now than we do.
Not knocking people for being labellers, just think everyone has their own way with gardening.
You are a scholar Mr Hugh, any pointers on where I can find out more about less modern gardening techniques - am v interested in old techniques, especially tools...
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I've got a stoop MM, no no, not a back complaint a tool given to me by my 80 plus friend ;D I thought it was a scythe but was corrected rapidly!! Going to see him tomorrow, apparently he has made me a small tool that will help with my stoop, for a Christmas present :)!! (A walking stick perhaps?!)
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Ah, back to the raised beds questions then ;D
Was toying with getting a scythe to clear my many many many brambles but they're v expensive, Mr Grim Reaper must be pretty flush
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I have one of those friends too Dottie ;D......but mine is only 70 plus!....aren't they wonderful storytellers?
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you need a stoop MM, it is what I am using to clear mine! Must be cheaper as it is half the size ;D (I have no idea what they are called elsewhere, it s probably an old sussex name)
Di, he is marvellous, still lays hedges, and speaks his mind!! He used to pick hops, and scythe acres of fields in his youth :o Trouble is whenver we go over, he insists we drink his home brew in various forms...........how we drive home......................hic!
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Mine owned and actually worked a banana plantation in Northern Queensland for 30 years, then came back to Yorkshire, when he lost the whole lot in severe storm!
He's amazing, soooo many tales to tell about life in Aus, tho' still has some Aussie bad habits!! e.g he will have a bet on anything that moves!!! and of course his jokes are even more rude than Hugh's!! :o
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MM - you saw my 'old techniques' slot??
Labelling? Please don't think that I am unhappy - couldn't live without growing - just kick myself now and again! = Tim
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MM - you saw my 'old techniques' slot??
couldn't live without growing - just kick myself now and again! = Tim
and regularly concuss yourself on ceiling beams?
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- but that's involuntary! And if I had hair on top, it would help stop the scarring.
You ought to have seen the damage to my 'bone-dome' when flying Shackleton aircraft, and having to go back and forth to the loo, or galley to cook. = Tim
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Well, I got it wrong it is called a swap! (or swop?) and my gift was a hooker!! (no comments please! ;D) We had a glass,under insistence, of Damson liqueur, hic hic! It was 10.30am!!! :P
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Richard - I admit that I now buy in a few things as back-up but, having been involved in commercial growing (father) from 1934 - 1962, I learnt that it is better, as an example, not to try hothouse plants outside in the Cotswolds, and that it is therefore important for me to label carefully
I admit that I now only grow some 4-500 plants from seed, as compared with the several thousand that we used to handle, but add this to all the other things like 150 pots, 600 onions, 100 garlic, 50 shallots, carrots Jun-Dec, 90 or so brassica, lettuce Jun- Dec, beet, corn, 8 varieties of beans, chard, chinese greens - to name a few - you'll see that, at my age, I can't compete with such growers as yourself. = Tim
Wow! Tim I hadnt bargained on this reply when i made my last posting.
No I dont 'mass produce' plants at home as i might have hinted at earlier. I dont have the facilities!
I love propagating plants, but dont always have the space to grow them on let alone plant them out. Went a bit mad this year with seed grown stuff, some annuals but mostly perennials (herbaceous). As i couldnt bear to throw seedlings away, i ended up with far more plants than i really needed. Had young plants coming out of my ears almost, the area I was growing them in was simply heaving with growth!
This excess was not a problem with the annuals, what couldnt be planted found their way into large flowerpots to fill gaps in the borders, left by early perennials
As for the perennials I'd grown, well i didnt get the time to plant out what I wanted, so I am having to over winter them,to be plated out, given away or sold in spring. Needless to say i think i will be cutting down a bit next year!
Couldnt tell you exactly how many I grew, but i dont think it could have been more than what you grow each year tim.
Richard
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your first msg to Tim, f, did set me wondering...how many veggie growers buy in plants?
I tend to go to a specialist grower, browse, & try out new cvs if the fancy takes me..last year it was one plant of 'Amateur' and one of 'Red Alert' (both tomatoes, Richard)..don't recall buying anything else. Both did so well, and the taste was good, that this year I've invested in a packet of seeds of each. Otherwise, no! of course they're all grown from seed - and lots of them there are, too. But with such a mix of cvs of different types of stuff, without v. carefully labelling...
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Alishka,
One good way to avoid mixing up tomato cultivars, is to only grow one variety of each type of tomato.
For example this year I grew one type of bush (sub arctic plenty) one cordon cherry (gardeners delight), one 'ordinary' sized cordon (shirley) and one cordon for indoors (moneymaker). That way i could tell either by the growth habit , fruit or location, which variety a plant was without labeling every single plant. I was though carefull at the seedling stage to label/classify the different types, since at that stage they all look the same!
Of course i dont grow that many plants, since we dont need tons of fruit, but I suppose this system might get a little tricky if you grow lots of plants.
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No argument, Richard - just interested.
I think it was the seedling stage that I was going on about?
As to 'all the same' - with the exception of the potato-leafed varieties?
Growth? Ochradel, this year, remained stunted, whereas it would normally be up with Santa and the other cherry-type earlies. It could almost have been a bush.
Oh, and recognition - I even have trouble if I mix up courgette and cucumber seedlings.
Keeps you on your toes? = Tim
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What a beautiful garden you have!
;)I loved everything but my favourite is the vegetable patch. You must be a very accomplished gardener!
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your first msg to Tim, f, did set me wondering...how many veggie growers buy in plants?
Sometimes you have to buy in, though it is much better to do it yourself.
For instance i grow corgettes, but don need that many plants (2 max) so it is not worthwhile growing from seed (just as cheap to buy a couple of small plants from a nursery). On the other hand i bought in a few tomato plants last season to augment my seed grown plants. Guess which produced the better crop? Thats right the homegrown ones.
So really it depends on the crop and how much you want of it.
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But some spuds ARE only for boiling? Marshalls do give a choice. Don't give up!
Just an update on the Autumn Potatoes. Just for Tim and Alishka.
The autumn potato crop has not been a sucess. Not through lack of quantity, more down to eatablity. I was hoping they would be as good as our early and maincrop potatoes (Foremost and Sante respectively), and we would be lucky to have some left by Christmas (this was the aim to have our own pots for Christmas lunch).
Unfortunately they have proved to be very firm and only any good for boiled, not any good as mash or roasted.
As a result supplies have lasted longer than expected. As of yesterday I have only lifted barely half the crop, and then only because I thought it ought to come in to be stored before it is frosted or rots.
At this rate there will still be some left by the time I come to plant next years crop!!! (Whether any of them will be any good to eat by then is another matter).
As i said before I dont think I will be growing them again!!
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Silly answer to first posting here perhaps, particularly as I am not really churchy person, but church fetes and local fetes are a good place to sell on excess seedlings. Everyone who does not have the resource of a greenhouse or potting shed, love to buy home grown seedlings! Just a thought!
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No Muddy Boots. Not silly at all. ::)Quite constructive actualy :D.
In fact it is something i have been thinking about doing. Not fetes perhaps, but car boot sales definetly.
Thing is i am not the worlds greatest salesman, and am the sort of person who treats their plants like offspring. So there is a difficulty there from the start. However i cannot plant them all, and rehoming them is better than no home at all :) ;). Dont you think?
PS. I even got as far as asking advice on the BBC board some months back on selling plants. The result was mixed and inconclusive to say the least.