Gardening anyone?

[derekmac]

Whatever grows in those you'll have to give to someone you don't like!

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[AimlessWanderer]

Ahhh yes, the shoes 



Yes I have sown seeds in there, but not edibles. I've sown some sempervivum (houseleeks)

[AimlessWanderer]

Tonight I fitted the rest of the solar fairy lights around the arch - another 3 x 50 LED strings bringing it to 100 white LEDs and 100 blue LEDs, to compliment the blue and white lights I have fitted along the trellis on top of the wall on the other side of the garden. Along with the other few lights it just gives a nice gentle glow for sitting out with a drink in the evening.

I also transplanted the three little baby corn into the main corn bag, scraped all the crap from the laurel bush off and re sowed it with silver skin onions. I've also moved them over to the left hand side of the garden so it doesn't get full of crap again. I'll need to leave the area at the end of the garden for trees and other large plants which have a healthy covering of mulch I think.

I also consulted my details I've gathered of what plants work together, and sowed a load more carrot seeds in with the peas. I think the problem there is they are in shadow from the strawberry planter and that tiny spot isn't getting sun till after 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I'll keep the couple of little pea plants going and hope for the best, but the carrots should be happy with the partial sun plus the peas also have a positive effect on the soil for carrots apparantly

Aside from that it's just been a little tidying up of the suckers on the tomato plants today, and the obligatory watering and overall progress checks. Quite an easy day really.

[AimlessWanderer]

Tried to get a couple of shots tonight from an upstairs window to show an aerial view and the lighting .... not too easy without a tripod, but you get the idea 





Couldn't quite get a wide enough shot  Enough to give a nice visual effect, and shed enough light to find your drink and smokes, but not too much as to get the neighbours whining about light polution 



These two helpful little chaps also help the overall effect inside the arch too (their eyes are little solar spotlights if you hadn't guessed) ... but I couldn't capture it effectively with the camera 



..... and another thing ..... if anyone sees these growbags and is tempted to get one .... don't!



I did start off with a load of crop in it, but I've been systematically transplanting these over the last week or so into other containers. From the sales pics it did look like the two horizontal straps would stop this splaying out and maintain it's shape for the most part. In reality they are useless and the centre section splays more and more over time as you water, cracking the soil, reducing root depth, and disturbing the roots of the plants within. OK as a box liner (if you could be bothered to knock one up - which I can't), but for me I'm just going to use it as a mixing bag for blending growing media to suit the various crops, and as a "catcher" when I eventually start pulling crops out when they've finished and I'm preparing the container for the next batch 

[AimlessWanderer]

Had to transplant a few bits last night. I had 1x kale, 1x broccoli, 1x Brussels sprouts and some geraniums in each of a couple of troughs. After looking up final plant sizes online I realised just how ridiculous that was. Dunce!



The two broccoli are now sharing a larger trough, the kale and sprouts are all in their own pots, leaving all the geraniums in one trough and the other trough free for planting up with spinach or salad or whatever.

Now that the potting bench has been moved down to the BBQ area, so I can use it for putting stuff on when cooking, I've also brought the rest of the detritus down there and freed up room for pots round the clothes airer. Looking much better. Also looking very full! I think I've just about maxed out on growing space now. If all the seedlings I have in the smaller pots take off, I'm going to have to decide which I'm actually going to keep. The only way they'll fit anywhere is if I can keep them ticking over in smaller pots until some of the larger annual crops elsewhere have run their course

I'm really glad the pumpkin and butternut squash crapped out now. I'm also going to find a corner to stow the chimenea in when it's not being used so I have a better view of my efforts when sat at the patio tables

[AimlessWanderer]

I've cocked up again 

I have come to the conclusion that the three tomato plants I put in the hanging basket on the arch are not trailing type as I had believed I had bought, but normal upright plants like the four already in pots on the ground This means I either have to ...

a) keep going and hope it doesn't get top heavy and flip upside down
b) keep going and hope they topple and hang without breaking the stalks or uprooting themselves
c) evict them and just stick with the four plants in pots
d) transplant them into even more pots and try to find room for them
e) give them away to my brother or father and let them deal with them 

What a learning curve! I think everything I did three months ago or whenever it was when I first started has had to be redone at some point since 

Once I've decided what to do with these, the next dilemma is looking like being the physalis plants on the windowsill. I knew I'd positoned them closer than recommended due to space constraints, but they are looking like they'll get bigger than I expected them to ... a lot bigger 

[AimlessWanderer]

I'll be a lot happier what I figure out what the bloody hell I'm supposed to be doing .... 

The upright "hanging" tomato plant dilemma is still unresolved, but passing the problem onto someone else is looking favourite 

More investigation into growing Physalis has shown that realistically a maximum of three plants (ideally two) need to in the space where I have five, which means taking all the plants out of the troughs, and replanting three at the "correct" spacing, and with increased depth of compost. I took the opportunity to order some smallish houseplants from an online nursery to put in and amongst them to fill the voids at the base of the plants before they start bushing out, plus add some colour and interest for when the plants die back. All sound great so far, right?

However .......  ....

.... the plants I have ordered are (for the benefit of those folks who understand all this stuff better than me) a compact Streptocarpus and Aeschynanthus. These plants will look great and flower for a long time (all year round in the case of the Streptocarpus variety) .... but it appears now that they like a lot of indirect sunlight .... and the troughs are in a south facing window, and so they will probably cook!

ARSE!!!       

Plus of course, I also have the issue of relocating the two remaining Physalis plants. Placed outside (where I'm pretty much out of space, especially for fruiting plants) there is a good chance the fruit will not fully ripen before the weather drops below what the plants need to thrive, as well as the risk of wind damage etc, and the reason why I got five plants in the first place is because these will need to be manually pollinated with being grown inside, so gifting two plants to a family member 12 miles away isn't really practical either ....

Now I know why I avoided this gardening lark for so long  I am enjoying the journey, but it really has been quite tempting to say "smurf the lot" and give up a couple of times 

I did say that this year was more about feeding the mind than the belly though, so I will persevere 




EDIT: Hmmm ....    .... static cling diffuser film on lower part of window (16"/400mm high) to avoid the new stuff cooking, but allow full light for the Physalis .... might work ....

[AimlessWanderer]

Real easy weekend ...

Gifted the upright tomatoes in the hanging basket to my father (which still leaves me with four plants including three that Sparky gave me)

Gifted a couple of curly kale to my brother (still leaves me with three)

Repotted the Physalis (Cape Gooseberry), but still waiting for the accompanying houseplants to arrive.

Sowed basil, baby turnip and salad leaves

Drank beer, visited friends, caught up on sleep, and fitted some solar lights in a neighbours garden

[enki_ck]

Looks like you're having fun with your gardening, Al.

Hope the weather is serving you well. Summer has started here. Full blast. We had 34°C/93°F in the shade today and it's only June. It's only going to go up. Being outside between noon and 5-6pm isn't advisable without proper protection. But I did treat myself to some berries today.

[Sparky415]

         


     

[AimlessWanderer]

Looking good Nikola  No berries for me yet though. Cherry failed to blossom, raspberries still in flower, blueberries just losing their blossom, but the strawberries are starting to form. Also coming along nicely are a couple of bell peppers, but nothing else is particularly close to being ready yet. Another couple or three weeks though and I'll have some baby turnip and salad, possibly even some carrots too. The weather is distinctly uninspiring so progress is slow, and I'm starting to wonder if the corn will ever get along well enough to be productive. Tomato flowers have been around for a while in small quantities, but no signs of any fruiting starting yet

Some stuff has only just germinated such as burdock, purslane, land cress, amaranth, beetroot and chamomile. Also just popping their heads up are the seedlings for artichokes, cardoons, wormwood, yarrow and catnip in smaller pots. I tried starting the Good King Henry off in little pots but nothing has happened, plus they don't like being transplanted apparently, so I'm thinking of ditching those and maybe sowing a few yellow and purple carrots in the last upright planter Nothing on the Evening Primrose or Echinacea and a couple of others, but I had already accepted that these were probably in way too late

I nipped out last night to get some BIG pots for the artichokes and cardoons, and now need to reorganise the space where I had the trees and bushes to make room - they're going to be monsters when they take off, apparently capable of getting 2m high with a 2m wingspan  Again these have been started late, so it might end up being next year before these two yield/get harvested

My biggest disappointment this year has been onions!

I've tried spring onions (red and white) from seed, silverskins from seed, red onions from seed, plus young red onion plants from the garden centre ... and they've pretty much all fizzled out. I think it's because I've put them all in neat compost instead of a soil base, and the roots have rotted out. Yet another lesson learned for next year.

My neighbour (who also lost a pumpkin and butternut squash I gave her just before mine fizzled out) has lost 15 of her 20 cucumber plants. I'll try a squash plant again next year with some summer squash seeds a friend gave me, but I need to do more reading up first to try and figure out where I (and the neighbour) have been going wrong .... but that's for next year. Still plenty of other challenges and learning to be done this year on other crops 

[AimlessWanderer]

A few progress piccies 
Most are a little boring, but hey - at least they're picies right? 


This end of the garden starting to take shape now, but still needs a bit more organisational work



The large pots and the area I need to smarten up to try and fit them in




... and the youngs shoots destined to go in the two slightly smaller ones (artichoke and cardoon - one per pot)



Other new shoots include burdock ....



.... Purslane and land cress to the right, amaranthus in the centre, and silverskin onions (not actually visible in the pic) just starting to break through to the left. Everything other than the onions will need thining out as soon as their big enough to risk transplanting them



The moss atop these red onions is a sure sign that waterlogging (inadequate drainage) is what is hampering them. I am going to try and run the other onion crops as dry as possible as see if there's a change in development



the young chamomile shoots so far seem quite happy sharing space with the kiwi and raspberries



These French Marigold seedlings are taking an age to get anywhere



Beetroot and red spring onions hatching here



Plenty of foliage on the carrots, but no signs of bulking up the tap root just yet



Baby turnips seem to be bulking up though



Disappointing conversion rate of flowers to fruit on the blueberry 




Not so on the strawberries. I'll be nabbing those soon if the birds don't beat me to it



Raspberries soon too by the looks of it





Peppers doing well



The one solitary fig 



Tomatoes continuing to add new flowers



Corn needs earthing up soon, the media in there has settled rather more than expected but I cant risk taking them out and replanting in deeper soil/compost as they don't like being moved. Just have to hope their roots will adjust to being earthed up. Sunflower doing rather well so far though, and the herbs seem happy too

[enki_ck]

Looks like you'll be enjoying your first harvest soon.

[AimlessWanderer]

Technically the small batch of radish I pulled out a couple of weeks ago was the first, but I take your point  The berries will never make it past the kitchen door, I'll just be grazing on those as they ripen Looking forward to sampling some of the other stuff though, although I have picked the odd salad leaf and a few herbs too. A neighbour wanted to test his new BBQ last night, so I marinated some pork chops in crushed garlic, lemon juice and some fresh rosemary. Very nice!

[AimlessWanderer]

Raining fairly heavily this evening, so all I managed was a quick look round between downpours, but it looks like I have some decisions to make 

This pic from before ...



... showed a bit on an "X Factor" competition for seedlings. Winner/s get a spot in the garden. The reason I did this was that I expected very few of these to start with them being sown so late. Indeed some of them need the temperature changes from the emergence from frost in order to germinate. All three cardoon and all three artichoke have now emerged, but there's only room for one of each, and even that's being ambitious. I'll probably repot each individually and pick the strongest for potting up in the large pots.

On top of that I've also got wormwood (absinthium - yes, what the drink comes from) which only really has a use for processing as an insect repellant. Other items that appears to have started so far are orange scented thyme, lovage, echinacea, catmint, lemon catmint, yarrow, evening primrose, bergamot, holy red basil, and peppermint 

IT WON'T ALL FIT!!!!

Of course there is still the chance that some of these could crap out on me, or indeed NOT be the seeds I sowed, but others that have blown in  ..... or of course the sweet sicely and sea kale could decide to join in the fun and come out to play too ...

 

Decisions, decisions 

[AimlessWanderer]

Well another bout of work initiated insomnia  and a couple of cans of Red Stripe have helped me reach a decision. Stop whining and figure something out. Grow everything!!! Also, figure out a way to incorporate the pak choi, red veined sorrel, bright lights chard, solar yellow carrots and cosmic purple carrots into this year's cycle, which were all waiting for me in seed form on my doormat when I came home this evening ... and if the sea kale and sweet cicely do take off ... grow them too! Time to get creative!





..... and stop buying seeds you nutter! 

[Sazabi]

My uncle has been instrumental in our gardening this year; he brought by two butterfly bushes tonight, too. 

[AimlessWanderer]

I had to Google "butterfly bush"  I've only ever heard them callled buddleas  My neighbour has a few in his flower beds and they do add another dimension (upwards  ) to his borders. They do look quite good 

Do you have much space there Rex?

[Sazabi]

Our yard isn't that large; the placements chosen by my uncle and mum have been... interesting, to say the least.  Dad and I like a lot of the choices, but we definitely disagree with some placements - including a railing that cannot be seen in cars that I've nearly ran into a couple times. 

I'll take some pictures after the rock path is finished (also being done by my uncle from an old rock wall he, my dad, and I dismantled from an abandoned, overgrown farm).

[AimlessWanderer]

Pics are always good mate 

In fact I think we're overdue some from other folks too 

Come to think of it, Mr Whippy started this thread, and we haven't heard much from him since the OP 

[AimlessWanderer]

I'll be a lot happier what I figure out what the bloody hell I'm supposed to be doing .... 

<snip>

More investigation into growing Physalis has shown that realistically a maximum of three plants (ideally two) need to in the space where I have five, which means taking all the plants out of the troughs, and replanting three at the "correct" spacing, and with increased depth of compost. I took the opportunity to order some smallish houseplants from an online nursery to put in and amongst them to fill the voids at the base of the plants before they start bushing out, plus add some colour and interest for when the plants die back. All sound great so far, right?

However .......  ....

.... the plants I have ordered are (for the benefit of those folks who understand all this stuff better than me) a compact Streptocarpus and Aeschynanthus. These plants will look great and flower for a long time (all year round in the case of the Streptocarpus variety) .... but it appears now that they like a lot of indirect sunlight .... and the troughs are in a south facing window, and so they will probably cook!

<snip>

I'd already repotted the physalis a few days back and put two in the front bedroom window, leaving three in the lounge window, so it was just a matter of waiting for the plug plants to arrive. Then Royal Mail struck again

 

I had to run a few errands earlier, so I took an early lunch break and rescued the plug plants (Streptocarpus and Aechynanthus) from the delivery office after they had dropped me a "come and fetch it" card through, even though the package had clear instructions to leave it in a specific place if I wasn't home  They had actually tried to deliver it Wednesday, but I couldn't get out yesterday so I had seven plug plants trapped and drying out in a cardboard box. What a set of puddings!

I whipped them straight home (only a couple of mins from the collection office) and got them straight in the planters and gave them a water. I'm now thinking I might be able to get away with not putting film on the windows, as there is a fair amount of shade from the Physalis leaves anyway. This could work out quite well (hopefully ... for once). If not the static cling diffusion film is quite cheap, and £6 will sort both windows if necessary

As an aside, Physalis is also known as Cape Gooseberry ..... even though it isn't a gooseberry, and the Streptocarpus is also known as Cape Primrose .... even though it isn't a primrose  The Aeschynanthus is also known as Lipstick Plant due to the shape of the flowers, but I've started referring to it (to friends) as the dogs smurf plant .... though less socially acceptable, I think my description might be more accurate 

It'll end up looking something like this ...

[derekmac]

Here are some pics from what we have.  They've been a work in progress, but still need a bunch of love!











Plus tree


Pear tree


Rhubarb


Grapes






Apple tree



Grapes

[AimlessWanderer]

Very nice Derek.  Some good stuff happening there 

What's the first tree?

[derekmac]

Thanks!  Ha, that was supposed to say Plum tree, not plus tree.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[AimlessWanderer]

  

Picked up another 240 litres of multi-purpose compost today, plus 100 litres of topsoil, 25 litres of seed compost, and some 50mm polystyrene sheet to break up for drainage (and keep the weight of the pots down a bit). I have earthed up the taller corn a little, but have had to bank it up so as to not smother the smaller ones. I'll need to go back when the wee ones have progressed a bit to fully top it off.

Too windy to do much else out there today, next big job is getting two planters ready for the artichoke and cardoon, and I don't fancy spending all my time chasing bits of polystyrene about  plus after being at work again this morning (looks like being 12 days straight at least  ) I've no enthusiasm for shifting stuff around to make the room for them anyway

[Metropolicity]

I do a lot of heavy lifting and trimming around the yard, Lady Metro takes care of the pretty stuff. Here's my tool kit as of late. This all came about one weekend when I needed to cut down a whole tree and process it for recycling. So I made a holster for myself and later refined it.





A DIY Hori Hori knife for diggin up weeds and roots, it'll never break as it was ground from a breacher bar.



It slips behind the mt pouch, Ive washed it for the photo but I usually just wipe it on the grass before re-sheathing it.

[AimlessWanderer]

Last night I got drunk and did something a bit stupid ....

I ordered more plants 

 

Tonight's job has been taking down the whirlygig clothes airer (I am now condemed to drying all the laundry inside on airers for the rest of the year), covering the hole/socket so it doesn't get full of crap, and trying to figure out how the bloody hell I am going to make it all work. So now on top of all the young seedlings that are all going to become rather large plants, I need to figure out how to incorporate space for a pineapple mint (no, I'd never heard of it either) a horseradish, a trough full of feverfew, three samphire plants (which need watering with a saline solution) and a frame with bird netting to hold 5 dwarf bush pea plants .... and all the stuff I've already put in is really starting to pad out now

What the smurf have I started? 

[enki_ck]

...

What the smurf have I started? 

Soon you'll be selling your wares at the farmers' market.

[AimlessWanderer]

The crazy thing is that it doesn't even work out to be that much food  Well, there's lots of variety but in small amounts and staggered harvesting over a very long period  That bit I do seem to have got right ... so far anyway. 

This is just guesswork off the top of my head

Berries:
Strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry - a modest amount of each for just grazing on occasionally while gardening
Physalis - unknown quantities but could be substantial, however fruit stores well and can be made to jam if overrun with them

Other Fruit:
Apple, cherry and kiwi - none - maybe something next year 
Slim chance of any figs
Tomato 4 plants 3-4 trusses per plant
Sweet peppers maybe 5 or 6 peppers total?

Roots:
Maybe 10-15 beetroot,
Two harvest of baby turnip (golf ball size) maybe 8-10 at a time,
Carrots 20-25 per batch harvested small(ish) for better flavour
Parsnips 15-20 when winter hits
Radishes second batch of about 12 on the go
Burdock 12 plants total, harvested over a 2 year span (young roots raw, older roots cooked)

Alliums:
I think there's about 10 red onions still surviving, but some of those are really quite unhappy 
Silverskin onions - maybe enough for 2-3 jars for pickling ... assuming they make it
Red spring onions - also unhappy - maybe yield 15-20 

Brassicas
3 kale, harvested seperately
4 brocolli (two different varieties/harvesting times)
2 brussels sprouts (staggered harvest)

Legumes
2 mangetout (for grazing on)
5 dwarf pea bushes (no idea how many pods that is, but seems it'll be staggered cropping like tomatoes)

Edible leaves and flowers:
Purslane (two varieties) and land cress - one trough in total (staggered harvest)
Steady flow of baby salad
Chard (not yet sown)
Samphire (staggered harvest)
Lovage (ages away yet)
Evening Primrose (also ages away)
Nasturtium
8-10 (?) Artichokes over spring/summer next year

Stems
Two Pak choi (not yet sown)
One cardoon (winter/spring dependent on growth rate)

Seeds/Grains
Maybe 1/2 kilo (?) of Amaranthus seed
30-40 sweetcorn (?) but many of them harvested as babycorn
One head of sunflower (hopefully)

The rest is companion planting and herbs (multipurpose)

What I'm really looking forward to being able to come home from work and just making my way around the garden, grazing. A couple tomatoes, a bit of salad, a few exotic leaves, couple of flowers, a baby carrot or two, maybe a couple of radishes, a bit of fruit .... watch it be pissing down with rain when they come ready 

[derekmac]

Last night I got drunk and did something a bit stupid ....

I ordered more plants