Garden build thread
Discussion
Thought I would start a thread on my veggie garden build, been busy on the house for the last couple of years and this is pretty much the final big project:
Area in question is top right in this pic and is the site of former farm house which sat alongside the house.
Some sort of plan.
PS, uploading images on this platform has not improved in 24 years.
Area in question is top right in this pic and is the site of former farm house which sat alongside the house.
Some sort of plan.
PS, uploading images on this platform has not improved in 24 years.
ATG said:
That looks excellent. Roughly where are you in the country and at what altitude? Hillsides behind you look like fairly blowy upland pasture.
Edited to add, well, really that looks like a hill farm in mid Wales. 50p says somewhere in Powys
Correct, probably not a million miles from you.Edited to add, well, really that looks like a hill farm in mid Wales. 50p says somewhere in Powys
Edited by ATG on Tuesday 20th August 17:55
akirk said:
Are you putting a wall around it all - or how are you keeping out the wildlife?
Even where we are in Bristol - technically urban - we get whole families of badgers wandering through ours (and killing the plants!) - trouble is the cubs are too cute!
A hedge and a fence in parts. The whole area is fenced off but we do get the occasional Deer wandering about.Even where we are in Bristol - technically urban - we get whole families of badgers wandering through ours (and killing the plants!) - trouble is the cubs are too cute!
tuffer said:
Thought I would start a thread on my veggie garden build, been busy on the house for the last couple of years and this is pretty much the final big project:
Area in question is top right in this pic and is the site of former farm house which sat alongside the house.
Cars parked on front garden : council.Area in question is top right in this pic and is the site of former farm house which sat alongside the house.
tuffer said:
akirk said:
Are you putting a wall around it all - or how are you keeping out the wildlife?
Even where we are in Bristol - technically urban - we get whole families of badgers wandering through ours (and killing the plants!) - trouble is the cubs are too cute!
A hedge and a fence in parts. The whole area is fenced off but we do get the occasional Deer wandering about.Even where we are in Bristol - technically urban - we get whole families of badgers wandering through ours (and killing the plants!) - trouble is the cubs are too cute!
on the other hand, venison is very nice!
akirk said:
maybe something to keep an eye on - they will get through a lot of hedges / over fences unless high - and can strip a kitchen garden...
on the other hand, venison is very nice!
They are very shy around here and I have only seen a couple in 4 years, they have plenty of woods and open moorland to roam on.on the other hand, venison is very nice!
tuffer said:
akirk said:
maybe something to keep an eye on - they will get through a lot of hedges / over fences unless high - and can strip a kitchen garden...
on the other hand, venison is very nice!
They are very shy around here and I have only seen a couple in 4 years, they have plenty of woods and open moorland to roam on.on the other hand, venison is very nice!
ds will strip new shoots if you don't fence them out.A thought on green houses, raised beds and watering. If you don't want to be reliant on watering everything by hand you can of course run drip hoses everywhere, install time switches, try to calibrate the thing, etc, and there's quite a lot to be said for that sort of arrangement, but ... another trick is to put a pond liner in the bottom of a bed, fill it with maybe 20cm of gravel, cover that with a permeable membrane and then put soil on top. You use an overflow pipe to control the depth of the water in the gravel bed and route rain water from a roof into the gravel bed. This keeps the soil permanently moist without any intervention unless you have a really long period of drought, it encourages plants to root into the soil to find moisture, it reduces evaporation, and you're using rainwater rather than mains or treated borehole water which is generally better for the plants as well as avoiding thrashing your borehole pump and filters (or whatever system you've got).
ATG said:
A thought on green houses, raised beds and watering. If you don't want to be reliant on watering everything by hand you can of course run drip hoses everywhere, install time switches, try to calibrate the thing, etc, and there's quite a lot to be said for that sort of arrangement, but ... another trick is to put a pond liner in the bottom of a bed, fill it with maybe 20cm of gravel, cover that with a permeable membrane and then put soil on top. You use an overflow pipe to control the depth of the water in the gravel bed and route rain water from a roof into the gravel bed. This keeps the soil permanently moist without any intervention unless you have a really long period of drought, it encourages plants to root into the soil to find moisture, it reduces evaporation, and you're using rainwater rather than mains or treated borehole water which is generally better for the plants as well as avoiding thrashing your borehole pump and filters (or whatever system you've got).
Sounds like a good plan and we still have time to implement that, was going to install a drip system but it would be a real faff, we get plenty of rain so a gravel bed would work well. We have a stream behind the greenhouse but that the height it enters the property is not sufficient to fill a storage tank. We have our own spring fed well so using the water from that is fine (and free) but we can get short of water in the summer.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff