How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Onoff]

As I'm filling the trench / clearing the ground I'm pulling up this ground ivy. There's masses of it. Usually you grab a bit and a 6' long tendril comes up. However bits of it are breaking off and a good number of bits I'm sure have gone into the trench. I'm worried these will re-seed and grow in my new veg patch. Am I right to worry?

 

[brightspark]

just pull out any ivy growth that comes up out of the ground and then it will clear

 

[Onoff]

just pull out any ivy growth that comes up out of the ground and then it will clear

Ta. I tell you what, I reckon this gardening lark is good for mental health. I read somewhere about doctors prescribing it for such.

Must admit after a day of filling the trench and sorting stones etc I feel quite chipper.

 

[Onoff]

Definitely good for the soul this gardening lark. Bloody hard work hand raking the soil back in that the digger took out!

I've a couple of jumbo bags of flints I've taken out. Nearly there.

The site of the patch is on a bit of a slope and that offends me a bit. I think some of this is about control, or at least controlling what I can in life. A shrink would have a field day As I want to build a box section frame over it I think square and level is best.

Rough plan is to surround the patch in sleepers but have them set level. Not sure if I've enough like the one shown, might have to dismantle the play pit that's made from them. SWMBO I think has this mad idea that one day she'll have grandkids playing in the same sandpit, with the same (now brittle) toys ours did. Some chance, one rarely goes out and I think the other bats for the other side!

I'm thinking the sleeper set a walkway's width from the trench. Not sure whether to set the tubular bean frame in the dirt or place the 6 legs on some sort of padstones? Basically an A frame, one side shown missing the two end verticals.

Will beans grow up "wires" like conduit singles?

Wondering how SWMBO will react if I ask for an expensive hoe for my birthday?

 

[bigegg]

If you have a lot of stones, consider using "gambions"(?) as walls/separators: basically wire mesh cages that you fill with the stones - like a Drystone wall, but without the skill/effort to build)
They are widely used as retaining walls: even on motorway sides or coastal cliffs.
It gets rid of the stones easily, and they can be planted up with strawberries or alpine flowers.


Also: get second hand garden tools.
dirty hoes are best.

 

[Onoff]

If you have a lot of stones, consider using "gambions"(?) as walls/separators: basically wire mesh cages that you fill with the stones.
Gets rid of them, and they can be planted up with strawberries or alpine flowers.


Also: get second hand garden tools.
You want a dirty hoe.

Gabions is the term. Yep, love the idea except for the cost.

If money were no object I'd make some from stainless steel mesh.

 

[bigegg]

Gabions is the term. Yep, love the idea except for the cost.

If money were no object I'd make some from stainless steel mesh.

Make some with chicken wire: you're not supporting Scarborough castle.
By the time the chicken wire rusts out, the roots of the alpines/weeds will hold it together. Especially with a few blobs of mortar added.

 

[Onoff]

Tea break! Loosely assembled the galvanised tubular frame that was my Dad's.

I need to get it square and level otherwise it'll bug me. Each "foot" is capped with a plastic bung:

The soil in the trench is incredibly warm!

 

[Onoff]

Thinking maybe sink these bits of pvc pipe into the ground, set dead level and fill with cement or even the flints I dig out. The frame could sit on them?

& they're red!

 

[Onoff]

Finally a use for these pvc pipe off cuts and the red will match the bean flowers!

A bit of pea shingle in the bottom to set them level (with the post and spirit levels). I put a disc of landscape fabric down each then backfill with flints. Might top off with another bit of fabric and smidge of pea shingle for effect. Hopefully the frame will then sit dead level.

 

[4String.]

Finally a use for these pvc pipe off cuts and the red will match the bean flowers!

A bit of pea shingle in the bottom to set them level (with the post and spirit levels). I put a disc of landscape fabric down each then backfill with flints. Might top off with another bit of fabric and smidge of pea shingle for effect. Hopefully the frame will then sit dead level.

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That frame looks nice sitting on/in those red tubes but for me it needs anchoring down somehow.

Unless it's very sheltered, (and I remember in 1987 when Sevenoaks became Oneoak...), if a good storm passes through just as the beans are flowering the frame could end up on its' side with the beans damaged irreparably. That's why traditional "wigwams" and the like that are used to grow such as beans up use hazel sticks that are pushed firmly in the ground. Just my 2d, but it would be a waste to lose them after all the work you've put in.

And when the beans are ready to eat, pick them, top and tail them and cut into 1" lengths and fry them gently in a splash of olive oil for a couple of minutes with some thin sliced Prosciutto and some roughly torn pieces of Brie. Absolutely delicious with some warm crusty bread.

 

[Onoff]

olive oil for a couple of minutes with some thin sliced Prosciutto and some roughly torn pieces of Brie. Absolutely delicious with some warm crusty bread

By the sounds of that you're born and bred in Sevenoaks or possibly Tonbridge Wells?

I've highlighted the words of foods I've never heard of/eaten.

 

[DanZac]

4String. said:
olive oil for a couple of minutes with some thin sliced Prosciutto and some roughly torn pieces of Brie. Absolutely delicious with some warm crusty bread

By the sounds of that you're born and bred in Sevenoaks or possibly Tonbridge Wells?

I've highlighted the words of foods I've never heard of/eaten.

In that case try it with Lard, Spam and Chedder.

 

[bigegg]

4String. said:
olive oil for a couple of minutes with some thin sliced Prosciutto and some roughly torn pieces of Brie. Absolutely delicious with some warm crusty bread


In that case try it with Lard, Spam and Chedder.

Ugh "cheddar".
What's wrong wi' a nice bit of Wensleydale?

 

[Onoff]

Don't knock it until you've tried it!

 

[Onoff]

The frame is up where it's staying (wind dependent, I will guy rope it). Not quite as square as I'd like looking end on but the ridge is pretty level. Might revisit the squareness.

Covered the trench in some Correx sheets to keep everything warm and moist. Figured it should speed up the grass cuttings etc rotting a bit quicker.

 

[Ross365]

Is anyone hanging up "Insect Hotels", supposed to create easy-access insect-friendly places to lay eggs?

I bought one off ebay some years ago but have never once seen any kind of insect go anywhere near it. I'm just giving a lick of water-based timber treatment and will then hang it up again in a different location.

 

[bigegg]

Is anyone hanging up "Insect Hotels", supposed to create easy-access insect-friendly places to lay eggs?

I bought one off ebay some years ago but have never once seen any kind of insect go anywhere near it. I'm just giving a lick of water-based timber treatment and will then hang it up again in a different location.

I've got a pile of 1-2" tree branches that I've left as an "insect hotel".
It was actually a wood pile to use in a shed wood stove, but I bought a diesel heater instead.

It's full of wood lice and spiders - I'm sure there's other insects in it.

 

[Onoff]

Is anyone hanging up "Insect Hotels", supposed to create easy-access insect-friendly places to lay eggs?

I bought one off ebay some years ago but have never once seen any kind of insect go anywhere near it. I'm just giving a lick of water-based timber treatment and will then hang it up again in a different location.

We had a bench / table in a warm, sheltered spot facing South West. SWMBO bought a load of stacked tube / hotel things which I was supposed to put up but never did. They sat there on the table, all hap hazard and before we knew it, leafcutter and mason bees had filled the tubes up. Fascinating to watch.

I've since moved them to an SE facing wall, high up under the eaves and had very little success.

The circular one I made with a big holesaw. No takers, guessing it was treated wood?

 

[4String.]

By the sounds of that you're born and bred in Sevenoaks or possibly Tonbridge Wells?

Most certainly not!!!




And damned proud of it .