The Potting Shed

Marigold

Marigold

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How about we start a gardening thread?

I expect a lot of us, like me, are using our time in isolation to get out of doors in this beautiful weather. Our 2 daughters are both making determined attempts to grow food this summer and have inspired me to do the same. I lay awake last night wondering where I could find room in our flower beds to grow vegetables - but all the beds are full of flowering bee-friendly ground cover that I don't want to dig up, so I didn't get very far. Then I thought of the hen run! Empty, because I didn't want to risk possibly leaving the hens neglected if we both got ill this summer. Covered with plastic corrugated roof for light and to keep the tomato foliage dry and blight-free. Next to a hose extension for watering. Airy, partly shaded and not too hot for salad veg in summer. 13 sq.metres. No digging - use large bags of compost as raised beds. Plus a small greenhouse, (largely full of various chicken equipment.)

Woke up and before breakfast had ordered 10 x 50-litre bags of organic peat-free compost, to be delivered on the 31st and also lots of various veg seeds. Total price similar to buying 4 pullets +enough feed for next few months. Spent the day clearing out the greenhouse (huge spiders very indignant) cleaning windows and sorting through pots and propogation equipment which has hardly been used since I gave up my allotment some years ago. Finished up dirty exhausted and happy, having totally avoided going online and watching any worrying news outlets.

Can't wait to get going! It almost makes up for the lack of chickens - and if I do end up in hospital and the plants all die of drought I shan't feel so bad as if it was my lovely birds.

What have you all been doing? There's no need for us to sit 2 metres apart in our virtual potting shed!
 
Great idea Marigold. I love being out in the garden, I have been busy weeding today and replanted a cistus that I bought last week. I decided it would do better with a little more sunshine than where I originally placed it. Last year we planted potatoes and had a small crop of them. I also planted some onions and sprouts, but the slugs ate those :-( Sounds like you are going to have some mouthwatering salads and veggies in summer and autumn. It's given me another nudge to think about planting some lettuce and beetroots (covering with net this time) ;-)
 
Firstly, I am going to teleport you over here, to help me!

Secondly, I love gardening but am in veg growing mode this year rather than what you might call gardening. We live in a poor area and people grow food, they don't grow ornamentals so there is plenty of seed choice. I have recently sowed seeds of peas, courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes, peppers, french beans, lettuce, rocket, basil and coriander. I am currently harvesting broad beans, potatoes, cabbage, perpetual spinach and mint. I am rubbish compared to my neighbours, but I do try. We have a lot of mature fruit trees, but this year the big fig is dying and I can't work out why, the peaches are dying because of aphid attack (but so are everyone elses) and one grape vine looks like its on the way out. Not good, but I am sanguine because I am old enough to realise life is too short to worry about it all unduly, I am tending towards the 'chop it down and start again' school of thought. I have a few sacks of some bio-wonder enhanced compost, but up until now I have relied on our soil, the sun and the wet. The latter two, we get in abundance, but not usually at the same time, which is a pain during the summers and in fact I can only really grow stuff end of Sept-end of May, its too hot otherwise. Right this minute, the worst thing about coronavirus is that OH is at a loose end and keeps interfering in the garden because he is worried we will starve!

Thirdly, I do think you did the right thing about not getting any hens. I had a similar sounding viral attack to you at the end of last year, and it really knocked me out. My bro has been hospitalised with pneumonia 3 times, and whatever it was, it felt and sounds just like pneumonia.

Perhaps I should say, I am quite a lazy gardener. I like to see edibles in amongst the ornamentals and I let the grasses/weeds/wild flowers go mad. This is probably why my yields are down compared to my neighbours, but I have always tried to get a bio-diverse garden, its really important to me.

PS If I can't sleep I often listen to Gardener's World!
 
I've been getting on with transforming my veg plot into a series of 11 (so far!) raised beds. I'm thinking that it will be easier to manage keeping up with weeding these, than looking at the large expanse of garden space. At the moment, I'm in the process of filling the beds with soil, which is back breaking work, but I'm getting there. Only three more to go! Broadbeans have just poked their heads out of the soil, and onions are starting to show green shoots. I've planted cabbage, lettuce, beetroot, celery and leek seeds indoors. I'll do carrots and parsnips too. And hopefully, the plums and apples will produce a good crop for bottling and drying.

There is a burgeoning interest in growing food here, too. I think people are realising that having our food supplies in the control of the huge global corporations, with enormous, centralised distribution hubs, is really not that great an idea when disaster strikes!
 
Our garden is mainly grass/moss with flowering shrubs round the edges. The hens are in the front and I had some raised beds made for the back but they are still empty of soil. The gardener was going to come back with a digger and fill them but I suppose that won't happen now. What a shame.
 
Growing new potatoes in pots;
This looks a great way to recycle all those plastic bags that now arrive with the online order!
Two videos;
1) how to sow the potatoes
https://youtu.be/IdfQw1CGEnY

and 2) how to harvest.
https://youtu.be/e2lvLGppoKY

I hadn’t thought of doing this but have some seed potatoes on order so shall have a go!
 
This one is interesting too. I didn't know that crushing the foliage when you lift carrots attracts carrot fly which will go straight into the hole you've just left. 31 carrots from a 10 inch pot and he recommends taking them all - I'll have to use smaller diameter deep pots!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pvCwJaKUu8
 
That's brilliant idea to use a wire sowing grid. I love the way he says 'you must 'ave' bit of wire netting somewhere!' I expect most of us on here can find some!
 
I've checked my shed this morning and I have several small (about 5") diameter pots so all I need now are pelleted carrot seeds! I also have some 10 " pots for the potatoes if I can get some seed potatoes.

Or there is this. Plastic carriers are in short supply now we all use our own bags.

https://www.dobies.co.uk/Garden/Garden-Equipment/Supports--Planters/Garden-Planters/33cm-Potato-Pot_597142.htm
 
That's a good idea but pricey. maybe you could use two ordinary pots and cut the holes out of the one you put in the inside?
Today I got out all the filthy pots stacked behind the summer house. Many of them were stuck together and I had to wrestle them apart. However, they’re now hosed down and ready for action. All I need is my seed order to arrive!

799D47B3-CAB8-42CD-B8E7-E9B48F2A7247.jpeg
 
There is an alternative of three pots that take three tubers each, and they do a (fairly expensive pack) of 9 tubers - 3 each of 3 varieties, The triple pots were out of stock, I've just had an email notification that they are back in stock but the website is closed until 8am tomorrow.

The pot was in a Sutton's Seed catalogue I was sent ... I'll probably use bags or try what you've suggested Marigold.

Looks like you're going to be really busy!!!
 
Well though not edible just before the shutdown I bought an Espostoa melanostele, a Peruvian old lady, and a Sanseviera trifasciata, a mother-in-laws tongue. I get daily pleasure from seeing them on my window sill along with other kinds of plants. I’ve always loved house plants because they provide a kind of bridge between the inside world and the outside world.
It is a source of regret to me that when I had this cottage built I did not have a much larger bathroom with a Velux window so I could have a bathtub, a bidet and a riot of foliage plants. Showers are refreshing and no doubt economical but nothing beats luxuriating in a bathtub.
 
Decided to tidy up a large trough which has just got overgrown, has miniature daffodils in it in spring. It has some wire mesh leaning against it. Thought about extra herbs in it.
Went to pull the mesh away and realised in a little pot lying on it's side in the trough was 8 little Robin eggs. Moved away and mum came popping back in through the wire
Oh well next year
 
Sitting here in the warm, browsing around and trying to screw up enough energy to go out in the bitter North wind to do Day 3 on the rathole blocking project, I found this article. Would be interested in comments, from your own armchairs.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/03/garden-short-cuts-no-thanks
 
Marigold said:
Sitting here in the warm, browsing around and trying to screw up enough energy to go out in the bitter North wind to do Day 3 on the rathole blocking project, I found this article. Would be interested in comments, from your own armchairs.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/03/garden-short-cuts-no-thanks
Click to expand...

I think a lot depends on why you want a garden and what other hobbies you have.

I get a feeling of achievement picking my own veg (quite a small amount) all grown from seed this year, but I tend to plant perennials and shrubs for flowers. I love having a nice garden but gardening isn't at the top of my hobbies list so things can get neglected. At least the grass is cut regularly as I pay someone to do that but weeding can be neglected and then it takes my mood down. So an easily maintained garden is a necessity for me at the moment.
 
Our garden is mainly rough grass/moss. There are no dug-over plots - hence the polycrub. It is so windy here at times that any flowers taller than 6" are flattened and/or broken, although there is a sheltered area with decking which is in full sun so I have flowers in pots there. I have put in a lot of tulips this year, some for display and some for cutting, some miniature daffs, too, and crocus and iris reticulata. The polycrub will just be for fruit and veg and I hope to have something to harvest all year round. Although gardening is one of my main pastimes I'm not a hardy soul and don't like getting cold so the polycrub is useful there, too. Just now it's not much warmer in there than being outside but that should change soon. I've been sorting through my veg seeds today and hope to get some loose-leaf lettuce in tomorrow. Gardening is certainly not boring - I come from a gardening family and my maternal Grandad grew nearly everything we ate in the fruit and vegetable department (he kept hens at one time, too). My Mum was more interested in flowers but I like to grow both subject to the constraints of our garden and the weather. My cousin has an allotment (the lottery!) and produces prodigious amounts of fruit and veg. I have six raised beds in the polycrub and six outside in its lee. I'm waiting on seed potatoes and they will be grown outside, first earlies, second earlies and maincrop.
 
I love being in the garden. I love seeing the changing seasons and the different flowers it brings, the bulbs and seeds I have planted. Seeing daffodils in Spring is a joy, followed by bluebells when out on a walk. Last year, I grew some plum tomatoes from seed and planted them outside. I got a fair few and they were delicious fried up with a fresh egg and some bacon. I've also grown a few potatoes, last years were a bit maggot eaten though. :-( I never seem to relax in the garden either, I try to enjoy the sun lounger, but I am not one for just lying back and thinking of England, so to speak. Ha ha.There always seems to be something to do.
For me, the biggest downside is I have a serious phobia of worms, slugs and caterpillars. Worms especially, so much so that I cannot even look at one or a look at a picture of one. It hinders my gardening interest somewhat. The garden kept me sane last year,I didn't notice the lock down in all that glorious weather we had and the heat kept the worms away. ;-)
 
Poor do here by comparison. Some grow a few potatoes or a bit of kale. A few gooseberry bushes in sheltered spots and Spring bulbs shivering and looking desperate.
However I can grow a few trees, well to be honest, large bushes up to about 12 feet tall. These are well sheltered and snowdrops thrive under them. Might try some crocuses and Muscari next year. Also planted a honeysuckle to climb amongst them but I’ll have to see how it copes with the winter.
But the upside is the number of rare birds who call by for a visit for a day or two in what is the largest forest on Fetlar!??I really should put up feeders in the migrating season to help them after their long flights over the sea.
Occasionally a few butterflies. Seen painted ladies and the odd red admiral. And assorted bumble bees and hover flies. Worms and slugs thrive here, Tweetiepie, but yet to see a snail. And a small kind or earwig seems abundant. No dahlias for them though!
 
We get plenty of slugs and snails, thank God for the hedgehogs.
Love seeing the bulbs come poking through in the depths of winter, gives me hope that spring isn't too far away.
Snowing here this morning
 
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