The zombie army COVID-19 Gardening thread.

The zombie army COVID-19 Gardening thread.

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Sway

26,070 posts

193 months

Sunday 8th May 2022
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Ooh, haven't you got dainty small hands?!

rofl

Busy weekend for me, but no pics. 'Work party' at the allotment communal plot yesterday paid dividends - made some new buddies, but also gained a huge amount of stunning compost to properly fill up all my beds.

May also have paid bigger dividends - think I might have wangled either the half plot next to mine in addition, or possibly a pukka full plot that admittedly hasn't been touched in years (old 'gentleman's agreement' coming to an end with the new site co-ordinator) in the absolute perfect spot... Fingers crossed, should find out for sure in a couple of weeks.

Also been digging shrub and bamboo roots out of the final section of front garden we had cleared a couple of weeks ago. My new favourite thing is a 'digging pole' - used in conjunction with a trusty half brick, it's absolutely bloody incredible at getting huge chunks of root out. Where has this thing been all my life?

Comacchio

1,508 posts

180 months

Thursday 12th May 2022
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Something’s growing at least… radishes and set onions. Next year I should have all the landscaping finished so will be able to spend more time planning the raised planters to make the most of the space growing veg between other plants to brighten the place up a little. Have bought 2 cheapy plastic greenhouse affairs to give cucumbers and tomatoes a shot this year, need to buy some 50cm grow bags as the plants are almost ready to go into bags now.




Evoluzione

10,345 posts

242 months

Thursday 12th May 2022
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Comacchio said:
Something’s growing at least… radishes and set onions. Next year I should have all the landscaping finished so will be able to spend more time planning the raised planters to make the most of the space growing veg between other plants to brighten the place up a little. Have bought 2 cheapy plastic greenhouse affairs to give cucumbers and tomatoes a shot this year, need to buy some 50cm grow bags as the plants are almost ready to go into bags now.



Growing radish is like growing weeds biggrin

Envious of your onions though, are they from sets?
You can grow toms in the ground if you like.

Comacchio

1,508 posts

180 months

Friday 13th May 2022
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Evoluzione said:
Growing radish is like growing weeds biggrin

Envious of your onions though, are they from sets?
You can grow toms in the ground if you like.
Yeah that lot are from sets, got 2 pots full of them too - we use a lot of onions. I've got a few seedlings coming on too though.

You can't grow tomatoes without a greenhouse in the west of Scotland... Think its to be 22 celsius down south this weekend versus maybe 12 up here..

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,283 posts

241 months

Friday 13th May 2022
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I have yet to grow any food except for fruit from the fruit trees (came with the house - damson, apples and pears) that all gets eaten by wasps. frown

However, I am a flower person. And so much is in bud and ready to go. Lots more roses and a bunch of alliums coming through, varieties that flower after some earlier ones already flowering. I am well on my plan to have colour on the garden from January to November...

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Friday 13th May 2022
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CharlesdeGaulle said:
Comacchio said:
Good points regarding worms - am I daft in thinking it'd be a good idea to nip to the local angling shop to buy some live worm, dig a trench in both my planters, spread the worms about then loosely cover and let them go to work? Pretty confident there's none in the planters as the soil they were backfilled with was riddled in and I definitely came across none in the process.
That won't work, they're different worms. Heat will kill the normal ones.
Just on the idea of getting worms for composting from fishing shops - they usually sell two sorts, "lobs" and "dendras". Lobs are the big old things that live in burrows in your lawn. Composting conditions will kill them. Dendras (Dendrobaena) on the other hand are composting worms and will happily get stuck into your heap.

Or you can order them;

https://www.wormsdirectuk.co.uk/product/composting...

Or just wait for them to turn up of their own volition, which generally they will.

Comacchio

1,508 posts

180 months

Friday 13th May 2022
quotequote all
Harry Flashman said:
I have yet to grow any food except for fruit from the fruit trees (came with the house - damson, apples and pears) that all gets eaten by wasps. frown

However, I am a flower person. And so much is in bud and ready to go. Lots more roses and a bunch of alliums coming through, varieties that flower after some earlier ones already flowering. I am well on my plan to have colour on the garden from January to November...
Lovely thought! Might ask you for some planting tips next year, have 2 raised beds - one 0.8 x 5m the other 0.8 x 7m I think. Would be nice to have them flowering Jan to Nov mixed in with some veg too. Have 8 or 9 big pots dotted about as well, currently have peony, ranunculus, eucomis, nerine & nasturtium starting to sprout. Once the hardscaping is done I'll look to getting to some long pots to start growing some climbers up the fences for privacy and a bit of colour.

PositronicRay

26,959 posts

182 months

Friday 13th May 2022
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1st proper year for these, I do love kniphofia.


Evoluzione

10,345 posts

242 months

Friday 13th May 2022
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Comacchio said:
Evoluzione said:
Growing radish is like growing weeds biggrin

Envious of your onions though, are they from sets?
You can grow toms in the ground if you like.
Yeah that lot are from sets, got 2 pots full of them too - we use a lot of onions. I've got a few seedlings coming on too though.

You can't grow tomatoes without a greenhouse in the west of Scotland... Think its to be 22 celsius down south this weekend versus maybe 12 up here..
I've tried a few different onion seeds, only two germinated. I don't know why, but I think i'll buy sets next time.
I mean you can put your Toms in the ground in the greenhouse. I dig a hole the size of a football and line with compost and put it in that. Make sure it's a bit lower than the ground around it and make a soil ring around it. This will ensure all the water and any liquid fertilizer goes to the roots and not all over the place. They only form a small root ball, so work well like that

You can then put other plants in around them, lettuce do well as they're happy in dappled light. If you're lucky enough to get the sun all day and can get your greenhouse side facing South then you can put other things in front of the toms too, like French beans and Strawberries.
It's a more efficient and Eco friendly way of utilising the space.

It's cold and windy here too, any greenhouse or polytunnel has earned it's keep in the last two months as we've not done bad for sun. Any veg outside has just stopped growing and done nothing, bar try to keep itself upright.

How do you keep your greenhouse in one piece or from blowing away? I brought one with me when we moved here, but daren't put it up. The storms would have blown all the glass out for sure. Put a Polytunnel up instead.

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Friday 13th May 2022
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Was up at my house last week, and managed to clear out the veggie plot. Pulled up all the old weed fabric and then double-dug it and broke up the clods by hand to extract as much of the ground elder root as possible. Took ages, but quite satisfying to get the nasty stuff out. I'm under no illusion that it's gone, but should have knocked it back a bit. Then recovered with new fabric and planted.











Got back down south to find that despite having treated with nematodes the slugs and snails had massacred the veggies I had planted out. Destroyed most of the courgettes and squashes, all of the climbing French beans, most of the pak choi and chard, all of the lettuce, half of the broad beans, chewed up the runner beans a bit. I don't like using slug pellets, even the iron phosphate based ones, but I can't take those losses when I put out the reserve plants I held back, so little blue pellets it is.



Edited by otolith on Friday 13th May 11:08

j3gme

883 posts

193 months

Saturday 14th May 2022
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I have one Olive !

Sway

26,070 posts

193 months

Saturday 14th May 2022
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Morning at the allotment. 800l of compost riddled and spread over the 'bulk' beds, back tomorrow to do the same again (at least!)...

Runner beans in, garlic fertilised, and potatoes given an immense soaking to try and get them to start growing in earnest!

Can I 'fill up' the garlic bed whilst rhe garlic is growing?


Ready for sweetcorn:


Runners in.


Flowers in the front garden, to move a bit away from the 'industrial' side of growing!


Half a dozen neighbours have asked what our ceanothus is, as they want one!

Digging pole earning it's keep - one big lump of bloody bamboo roots!

pmanson

13,374 posts

252 months

Saturday 14th May 2022
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Marathon lawn mower session today









Fitted a new gate and realised how much like the leaning tower of Pisa one of the posts is so that will need to be sorted



New (old) fencing going in to keep the dogs off the drive

Sway

26,070 posts

193 months

Sunday 15th May 2022
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Looking awesome pmanson!

Back to the allotment today for a bloody hard, wet days shifting soil and planting.

Most of the removed soil/compost from this huge heap has been done by me in the last two days!


Still a lot to do, I think it'll be about another 5-600 litres, but that'll need riddling through so likely about 900l to dig out and shift.



And finally, sweetcorn planted. Yes, I can't plant in straight lines!



Question - thinking of setting up an asparagus bed, but not sure if it's worth it. Would a 1m x 1m bed be 'worthwhile', it's 'free space', and I know it'll take a couple of years to even begin to get any output - but would like at least enough once up to speed for a couple of meals!

CharlesdeGaulle

26,099 posts

179 months

Sunday 15th May 2022
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I'd recommend a spargel bed if you can, the bigger the better. It's a brilliant investment.

One of the sorest elements of getting divorced and having to sell the house was losing my lovely garden and its as-then unharvested first crop of asparagus. It still hurts today!

Sway

26,070 posts

193 months

Sunday 15th May 2022
quotequote all
CharlesdeGaulle said:
I'd recommend a spargel bed if you can, the bigger the better. It's a brilliant investment.

One of the sorest elements of getting divorced and having to sell the house was losing my lovely garden and its as-then unharvested first crop of asparagus. It still hurts today!
On the current plot, the only available space I have is about 1m x 1m. So I think that translates to about 6 crowns.

I don't think that'll be enough.

However, I am still very hopeful I'll be getting a plot 3x the size and a complete blank canvas - so guess I'll wait and see if I get that, then I can dedicate some proper space to it.

I've also heard that they're very salt tolerant, whereas weeds aren't - I've a marine fish tank, so diluting the water change water from that would both suppress weeds, and provide a tonne of nitrate and phosphate...

CharlesdeGaulle

26,099 posts

179 months

Sunday 15th May 2022
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My rose and lavender cuttings from a friend's garden in Portugal are coming along pretty well.



Interesting that some of the cuttings (from last year) are in bud. I'm hopeful I'll get half a dozen roses from this; the parent plant was beautiful.

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,283 posts

241 months

Sunday 15th May 2022
quotequote all
Comacchio said:
Harry Flashman said:
I have yet to grow any food except for fruit from the fruit trees (came with the house - damson, apples and pears) that all gets eaten by wasps. frown

However, I am a flower person. And so much is in bud and ready to go. Lots more roses and a bunch of alliums coming through, varieties that flower after some earlier ones already flowering. I am well on my plan to have colour on the garden from January to November...
Lovely thought! Might ask you for some planting tips next year, have 2 raised beds - one 0.8 x 5m the other 0.8 x 7m I think. Would be nice to have them flowering Jan to Nov mixed in with some veg too. Have 8 or 9 big pots dotted about as well, currently have peony, ranunculus, eucomis, nerine & nasturtium starting to sprout. Once the hardscaping is done I'll look to getting to some long pots to start growing some climbers up the fences for privacy and a bit of colour.
Hi! I'm a bit too new to this to be offering advice (I started the thread as I started the hobby) - and I don't grow any veg, and how to mix those in with flowering plants, as digging root veg up/harvesting leaf veg will affect whatever else is in the bed.

Are the raised beds shallow beds (i.e. depth is the depth of the bed), or just raised above earth (so bigger shrubs can root deep)? This will make a big difference to what you can plant!



Comacchio

1,508 posts

180 months

Monday 16th May 2022
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Harry Flashman said:
Comacchio said:
Harry Flashman said:
I have yet to grow any food except for fruit from the fruit trees (came with the house - damson, apples and pears) that all gets eaten by wasps. frown

However, I am a flower person. And so much is in bud and ready to go. Lots more roses and a bunch of alliums coming through, varieties that flower after some earlier ones already flowering. I am well on my plan to have colour on the garden from January to November...
Lovely thought! Might ask you for some planting tips next year, have 2 raised beds - one 0.8 x 5m the other 0.8 x 7m I think. Would be nice to have them flowering Jan to Nov mixed in with some veg too. Have 8 or 9 big pots dotted about as well, currently have peony, ranunculus, eucomis, nerine & nasturtium starting to sprout. Once the hardscaping is done I'll look to getting to some long pots to start growing some climbers up the fences for privacy and a bit of colour.
Hi! I'm a bit too new to this to be offering advice (I started the thread as I started the hobby) - and I don't grow any veg, and how to mix those in with flowering plants, as digging root veg up/harvesting leaf veg will affect whatever else is in the bed.

Are the raised beds shallow beds (i.e. depth is the depth of the bed), or just raised above earth (so bigger shrubs can root deep)? This will make a big difference to what you can plant!
No worries!

The beds are 80cm front to back, 70cm deep with a further 20cm of gravel underneath for drainage, sitting on compacted MOT type 1 above a french drain, then 5m and 7m long respectively.

Harry Flashman

Original Poster:

19,283 posts

241 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
If they are near the house, I'd go for visual impact.

A couple of flowering shrubs that can be pruned. I love Cotinus candyfloss for insane autumn interest from the leaves and the beautiful flowers in summer. These are small trees though really so will need to be kept in check. Fabulous, though.

A few grasses for texture. Stipa tenuissima is lovely and quite low.

Then herbaceous perennials that also give winter interest. And tower over/through the grasses, planted in three plant drifts. Bee balm, coloured yarrow, globe thistle, salvia give some different textures, and some winter interest from dried flowers. Autumn sedum gives late, beautiful flowers and interesting leaves to extend your season of colour and interest. Also the leaves of all of these are not too overbearing for a smallish bed, unlike say another favourite of mine, the statuesque Jerusalem Sage. You chop these all right back in late winter/early spring.

amongst this, in autumn, plant early spring bulbs to give winter colour to the bare, chopped back bed - dwarf daffs, Pickwick crocus, etc. In November plant tulip bulbss for more colour next year as the daffs etc fade but before the perennials grow to make the bulb leaves and flower - think perennial tulips in drifts. Also plant summer bulbs to wave amongst the grasses and perennials - drumstick allium is excellent as it is tall, has excellent flowers, but slender leaves that will blend nicely.

Sorry, no idea on veg!



Edited by Harry Flashman on Monday 16th May 13:26