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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Happy Gardening 2014!
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
Since * live on a hill my garden is not actually under water, but given the current UK weather it's pretty squelchy. * 'm just sitting down with my gardening books and all my favourite garden websites to plan for the coming season - aquatics, anyone?
So what are your garden plans for this year? And has any shippy living in a dryer, brighter, warmer climate (or of course the Southern hemisphere) got any gardening stories to cheer us up in our dark northern winter?
[ 21. September 2014, 08:12: Message edited by: Firenze ]
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
Rowboat harvesting here!
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
Thankfully the long autumn meant that the veg beds were cleared of last year's debris and can be sown/planted as soon as the weather warms up (I was caught on the hop last year and didn't even get my bean haulms pulled out until spring).
However, I am still hoping for a decent spell of winter, with enough freezing weather to give the rhubarb and blackcurrants a proper dormancy so that they fruit well in the summer.
Other than the edibles I won't be doing much gardening this year as I am due for some surgery in a few weeks and will be forbidden anything strenuous. As most of my herbacious beds are infested with practically every kind of noxious perennial weed, and digging or pulling them out of the clay counts as strenuous the only 'gardening' I'll be doing there will be the application of strong herbicides.
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Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I have an excellent gardener. 'Tho she tends to dig and prune rather vigourously.
(She's a 9 month old black lab called Tatze - hehe)
So, for prettiness I shall concentrate on the front garden.
I'm thinking of putting some rubble sacks with veg in out the front too.
Chillies in the porch went well last time, I shall plant them earlier methinks, I kept lots of seeds.
(Added the photo because I am proud of it/them, not to show what chillies are - haha!)
[ 05. January 2014, 11:20: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Rowboat harvesting here!
Ah yes. Are you doing rice again this year, or just going in for water chestnuts?
My seed catalogue arrived this weekend. I'm going to look out for Kestrel as a brand of potato that's a bit more slug resistant - lost nearly half my crop to slugs in the autumn. Also, I'm thinking about growing potatoes in bags of compost this time to discourage pests.
Tomatoes, I'll be looking for Ferline this time as it's described as blight resistant. I had Moneymaker last year which was wonderfully prolific, until the blight got it and it was suddenly all over.
I did manage to get to the allotment one day during the Christmas break when it wasn't raining and start clearing about a third of it, but the way the weather is going it looks like that's about it until Feb as my plot gets waterlogged easily. Digging over has yet to take place... will have to see how things go. The firt year in an allotment or garden is always a bit of a learning curve as you find out what thrives where and what doesn't - and what surprises lurk beneath the soil.
[ 05. January 2014, 13:08: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
- and what surprises lurk beneath the soil.
And just hope it isn't one left by the Luftwaffe in1942.
My garden is uncleared, and tbh I am not sure how much effort I want to put into planting this year. We thought of house hunting come Spring, so I may just let the veg plot revert, and mow it a lot.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Two seed catalogs have arrived. Happy reading through the coldest night (-17 F, before the wind chill made it around -40 F) this year so far.
No tomatoes this year: blight ruined mine 2 years in a row. I tried a new variety last summer -- Supersauce -- supposed to be almost seedless and huge and great for canning. What a disappointment.
Had great luck with Romano beans last year, and plan to plant more as they freeze well and I've only just used up the last of the ones I put by from this year. Same with collards and kale.
Last summer I trellised my squashes, and had great results with those. But critters ate and/or trampled my corn -- didn't get a single ear.
There's a new variety of "container" corn I'm thinking of trying on my patio instead of growing the usual at my community space. Does anybody else have experience with this?
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Rowboat harvesting here!
Ah yes. Are you doing rice again this year, or just going in for water chestnuts?
I was thinking fish, actually! It could be a lot worse - I think Cripley Meadow allotments flood a lot deeper than ours do - though, on the bright side, it might help with their badger problem!
Thankfully almost all of the digging was done, so it'll just get a weed and a titivate in spring (if spring comes). Spuds in containers definitely have less slugs (and are easier to add slug control to!), but they will need plenty of water. I got lots of small tubers this year, obviously still need to throw more at them.
If you can, cover what you can't get dug - it makes life so much easier as you can do it when you get to it, rather than needing to hack and slay. Also, if it's fit to dig without being a swamp (see caveat at end!), just take 2" spits with a fork or spade and turn the soil over - let the frost break it up, then go through it for roots and other such rubbish in the spring, it'll be much faster to get sorted then, rather than starting from scratch. This is, of course, dependent on not being in a swamp!
I'll be interested in reports on blight-free toms as I've given up on the things, the blight gets them every year.
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
quote:
Chillies in the porch went well last time, I shall plant them earlier methinks, I kept lots of seeds.
As someone from the warmer climes as Chamois said, I'll say I love your chillies. I grew a pot of chillies on my balcony table last year. Unfortunately the sulphur crested cockatoos ate them. They also pulled up a pot of hyacinth bulbs and chewed large bits of the bulbs. As these bulbs are poisonous, I hope they got a tummy ache for their actions.
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Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I am trying to work up the mental energy to go out and a) clear up the stuff which was moved to allow scaffolders in when my windows were replaced - they decided my herb patch was ideal for practicing morris dancing; b) empty the kitchen waste containers into the compost bin; c) plant out things which should have been planted out last year but couldn't be because of i) the patio relayers and ii) the scaffolders; d) spread out compost; and e) eat the greens and turnips. I don't know why I planted turnips. Must have been a Baldrickian gesture to Gove.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Spuds in containers definitely have less slugs (and are easier to add slug control to!), but they will need plenty of water. I got lots of small tubers this year, obviously still need to throw more at them.
Damp was a bit of a problem in the bags on a previous allotment, but there was a period of humidity that summer, which didn't help. We got a lot of small potatoes out of the bags, so I'm going to try planting just one spud at a time in the bags as it gives them more space to grow. New potatoes are all very well, but I do like a decent-size baking potato.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
My seed order is now in - once again I've ordered more than I think I've got room for, but I like to have variety so there is a balance of what thrives and what doesn't, which seems to vary each year.
This year I'm not doing tomatoes from seed - last year I had some splendid seedlings from Aldi - boring old money maker and gardener's delight, but I have bags of them in the freezer from the 12 plants I spread about between the garden in tubs and the allotment in the glass lean-to and the open ground (the latter was the most successful last year).
I've not squelched to the plot yet this year - but have sprouts, leeks (ha!), jerusalem artichokes and celeriac waiting to be harvested. I'm glad I've not weeded very seriously - I have a feeling the weeds might be keeping the lovely soil in place. I'll leave weeding until it thaws out.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
My tomatoes, from seed started indoors, and Aldi, and the volunteers from the lasagna bed compost totally failed, in and out of expensive growbags, in and out of plastic grow houses. Barely any flowers. One pathetic green fruit which dropped off and fed slugs from its blight riddled heart. Other years have been good.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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cattyish
Wuss in Boots
# 7829
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Posted
My mud bath is currently a bit bedraggled and neglected. I also have a furry assistant gardener who is an enthusiastic pruner. She tends to chew only those things which I buy. Anything free is left to thrive.
This year I do solemnly swear by my little stainless steel spade which my Dad gave me for my birthday a few years ago that I will get out there and do something nice. I can hardly do less than I did last year; not without invoking the censure of the neighbours. Also, the garden is a good place to be, and deserves attention after all the apples it gave me last year.
Cattyish, needs a kick up the pants often.
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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
A mild bright morning tempted me out today, and I cut most of the top out of a viburnam that has been tangled up in the ancient hawthorn Paul's Scarlet.
That poor hawthorn has been growing lopsided and crowded-out for most of its life by the huge flowering cherry we had to take down a year ago, and we are trying slowly to lop and prune it back to a decent shape. We cut 1/3 back in November 2012, and another 1/3 last November. The remaining third has been left 'til last because it was the part that had the viburnum badly entwined through it - but at least the tree has light and air getting to it now so it can recover during the coming year from the work done so far and hopefully put up with another big prune in the autumn.
Of course, I shouldn't have been pulling the tangled viburnum branches out of it, but have probably done myself less damage now than if I'd tried to do it after my op.
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Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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cattyish
Wuss in Boots
# 7829
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Posted
I'm thinking that the first rule of anything like pruning is don't put your back out,and the second would be don't lose any fingers?
Cattyish, cautious novice.
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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
The first rule of pruning is to try to avoid any war wounds. It might be an idea to invest in some gardening gloves, especially if you intend to prune any roses, gooseberry bushes, etc.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
Do they do armpit-length gardening gloves for gooseberry pruning?
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I've done the composting, and moved the tubs of climbers back to the fence, with plenty of soil added underneath (there are holes) to allow the roots out into a run. Also restored the trellis up which the climbers (honeysuckle and two jasmines) were, before the scaffolders, climbing. Located all the other various moved things (parsley, angelica), so I know where to start preparing for them to be planted, scattered iron phosphate slug pellets round the greens. Noted that the chives, and the sweet cecily, victims of the boots, are already popping up again. (In January!) Not, however, the floral bulbs. There should at least be some snowdrops.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by daisydaisy:
Do they do armpit-length gardening gloves for gooseberry pruning?
Oh, I'd forgotten about the gooseberries!
I hope we have another dryish day tomorrow, then I can deal with them.
Trouble is, I need to kneel down to cut out the tangled lower branches and that is going to do the sodden ground no good at all.
Luckily I pruned the blackcurrants when I picked the fruit.
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Talk about books -any books- on our rejuvenatedforum http://www.bookgrouponline.com/index.php?
Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
In response to Chamois, here in the antipodes we have a surfeit of tomatoes, the dwarf beans, zucchini and baby eggplant are cropping apace, our kipfler potatoes were delicious at Christmas dinner, and the herb garden is flourishing, with the next kitchen project being the production of a large batch of pesto from our perennial basil.
However, we did lose our crop of carrots to an early heatwave, and our lettuce bolted while we were briefly away from home, so not a completely favourable season
Posts: 375 | From: Hunter Valley NSW | Registered: Sep 2010
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
Oh, I'd forgotten about the gooseberries!
Done!
There's now a deep indentation in the lawn just in front of the goosegogs, but the so-called lawn is pretty lumpy anyway, so it probably won't notice.
[ 09. January 2014, 16:32: Message edited by: Roseofsharon ]
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Talk about books -any books- on our rejuvenatedforum http://www.bookgrouponline.com/index.php?
Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
Inspired by the BBC Great Gardeing revival I'm wondering about turning the quagmire that is my front garden into a herb garden - I'd need to dig a lot of gravel/stones into the soil to let it drain enough for herbs and get rid of something vaguely resembling a hedge, but I think there is potential there.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
quote:
quote:
Originally posted by Roseofsharon:
Oh, I'd forgotten about the gooseberries!
Done!
Whoops! I'd forgotten about the gooseberries, too. Put it on the list.........
I got out for an hour or two this weekend to clear up after the recent storms. Several fence panels are down, or coming down, but fortunately no plants seem to have been damaged.
Thanks for all the posts from warmer climes. I've been sitting here imagining the sun, the warm weather and the tomatoes.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
We've had a few very cold nights here in SC, USA -- which is to say temps dipping to around 20F. I have a lemon tree about 8 feet tall, which I didn't wrap -- forgot about it and couldn't have wrapped it anyway.
Days are now warmer, but all the leaves on the lemon are brown and dry ('Lemon tree, NOT very pretty' to mis-quote the song.)
So, gardening friends, is there anything to do? Other than wait for spring and pray for new growth?
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by daisydaisy:
Inspired by the BBC Great Gardeing revival I'm wondering about turning the quagmire that is my front garden into a herb garden - I'd need to dig a lot of gravel/stones into the soil to let it drain enough for herbs and get rid of something vaguely resembling a hedge, but I think there is potential there.
Two words: raised beds.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Georgiaboy, I hope your lemon tree makes it! (What variety is it? I'm very surprised you have one growing there.)
Hopefully it will throw out new leaves in the Spring. My bit of advice...Do not try to prune or trim it until all danger of frost is over.
Also, the next time you have cold temps predicted, since you can't cover it, I recommend stringing mini Christmas lights all over it. Not LED, you need lights with a little heat. That will often keep trees from damage if the temps aren't too low.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29
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Posted
We had a hard freeze here in north Florida last week--first in 2 years--and I'm waiting to see what permanent damage was done. I don't go in for tropicals, so there is nothing I'm certain is dead. Worst case, I have to replant a cluster of pentas that are borderline hardy in this area.
In about 3 weeks, I'll see where the squirrels have replanted my bulbs.
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Siegfried
Life is just a bowl of cherries!
Posts: 5592 | From: Tallahassee, FL USA | Registered: May 2001
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
JJ -
My landlady, who gave me the tree, SAID it was a Meyer Lemon, but I don't think so; the fruit seems more like standard issue lemon. It's been in the ground through two winters, this year had only two lemons, but the previous year had 14!
I'm leaving it strictly alone until signs of life in the spring, when I'll prune judiciously. Thanks!
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Here in Michigan January is basically a time to peruse garden catalogs (what I affectionately refer to as "seed porn"). It's great fun, although my ambition outpaces my ability.
Earlier this year I was all about landscaping the long, sunny side of our front garage, which we've been planting in annuals for the past few years...the more I think about it though, the more I'm thinking I should plant vegetables here, because it's easily the sunniest garden patch we have. The "real" vegetable garden, I'm considering saving for shade-tolerant veg and flowers.
Our patio-side perennials need some love this year...one problem I face is the fact that the roof drips rain heavily in to the beds, washing out plants and creating a trench all the way around. The original owners had this area all planted in white spirea, which was able to take the water...I think that's a little boring. I'm not sure how to fix the problem.
And all this is predicated on my physical ability to garden in a consistent manner, which my health has not allowed me to do in the past year. Feeling a little frustrated.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Gardening season starts here on the Victoria Day Long Weekend, which is the Monday closest to Queen Victoria's birthday, May 24. Except last year, gardening season began in June because we still had snow until then. And ice on the lake. Gardening season ended about Aug 20 when it went to -4 for several days. So instead of our 100 days of summer, we got about 75. Suckage!
I'm feeling rather envious just now. You flower power people you You YOU! Ah, but what's summer anyway, but 3 months of bad skiing (tries to convince self....
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Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
LutheranChik, would there be any possibility of diverting the rain water through guttering or some such? It's hard to imagine anything but grass growing under rain drips like that! I'm impressed you have anything there!
[speelink]
[ 17. January 2014, 12:51: Message edited by: jedijudy ]
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
It's raining, it's pouring... and the hole I enthusiastically started to dig to sink the old water tank into as a watersaving device, until I hit the flint layer, is now full. It usually drains pretty quickly, but it hasn't had a chance since last night. Any idea when I should plant my watercress seeds? They did fairly well not in water a couple of years ago, but didn't come up last year. The hole is nicely near the back door (the puddle it replaced used to overflow as far as the back door - can't imagine why the previous owner did nothing about it) for me to pick it for salads. Better than buying it, as, like cucumber, it always goes off before I eat it all.
I rigged up a few lengths of guttering two years back, in the drought, to direct the water that fell down the side of the house into barrels. I just balanced them on this and that. I intend, at some time, to find a better structure for them. (The flat roof water runs down a central gulley to the end of the block and then to a soakaway.)
[ 17. January 2014, 13:50: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
The BBC weather web page is promising sunshine here tomorrow, so I really WILL get out and prune the gooseberries. Yes. I will.
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Hebdom
Shipmate
# 14685
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Posted
After four days in a row in excess of 41 degrees Celsius, time to reassess the garden. The hydrangeas didn't survive very well, one in particular has had most of its leaves severely burnt. The camellias and luculia have burnt leaf tips, but most of the rest of the garden has survived fairly well. New planting of gardenias, a pandorea and a mandevilla has survived.
I rather miss the early mornings on these blistering summer days, spent watering the garden to soak everything with sufficient water to last the day, but I'm certainly glad the cool change has come. Spent most of yesterday sheet mulching part of the garden that had gone feral.
As for tomatoes, the possums got to them. Beasts!
Posts: 163 | From: Terra australis | Registered: Mar 2009
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
My gardener, Albert, looks like a homeless guy with a haircut instead of a corporate landscaper with a large pickup truck, trailer and four men: he rides a bicycle and parks his strimmer and rake in my garage in between tasks. His fees are about the price of three school lunches for a very complete job! He charges almost nothing to sort out the palm tree on the northern edge of my property: I tried to dig it up when it first appeared but learned to appreciate it when it failed to grow very tall...
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
The result of today's needle match:
Chamois 3, gooseberry bushes 1.
Time to uncork the Rioja!
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Starbug
Shipmate
# 15917
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Posted
My long-term plan is to build an alpine rock garden in a shady corner of our garden, using a pile of old house bricks as the foundation. However, over time, the bricks were covered in ivy, which is threatening to take over the whole garden.
So far, I've cleared the ivy off the bricks and saved most of the old cement, which has been softened by the rain and has crumbled back into sand. This took about six hours and proved how unfit I am! When (if!) the weather gets warmer and less rainy, I hope to dry out the sand and sift out all the rubbish from it; the sand will then form part of the foundations, together with the bricks.
We had a tree cut down last October and the stump is still in the ground, so I'm planning to use this stump as a focal point of the rock garden and extend the bricks out from it.
In other news, I also hope to grow my own potatoes and mushrooms. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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“Oh the pointing again. They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?” ― The Day of the Doctor
Posts: 1189 | From: West of the New Forest | Registered: Sep 2010
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
If you're using old mortar (=sand and ???), better do a soil test to be sure you aren't dealing with so much lime nothing you like will grow there.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
My seed catalogs arrived this week, and it served as a nice reminder that it won't be below freezing forever. I'm planning on adding three more 4x4 raised beds, made from free heat treated pallets sourced from Craigslist, in the next month or two. I'm hoping to get some peas and greens in the bed I built last year by early April, and have one of the new ones ready for salad greens. The other new ones are going in front, for winter and summer squash and melons. My real goal is to be able to fill the beds for free or close to it, by finding free dirt, manure, and other compostables. (You wouldn't guess it from looking at me, but there is a dirty hippie screaming to break out of this clean-cut attorney shell.)
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I'm not sure what you mean by "heat treated pallets" from craigslist. If it's baked to kill bugs that's fine. If it's wood that has been pressure treated to prevent rot, you need to be careful that it's not the older stuff that uses an arsenic compound to protect the wood. That is thoroughly nasty stuff if you cut or burn it or let pets munch on it and not wonderful to put next to plants you want to eat. The newer treated woods use a copper compound which is probably much less toxic.
The raised beds sound great. One handy free source for a compost amendment here is that places like Starbucks will often give you bags of coffee grounds.
[ 08. February 2014, 22:13: Message edited by: Palimpsest ]
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
Yes, heat treated as opposed to pressure treated. Everything I have read on the internet has made me very aware of the issues behind pressure treated pallets.
I'd heard about the Starbucks connection, and plan of hitting up my local location on a future Saturday.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
After 2 hours of removing dead leaves and general wind-blown debris, I found a garden under there! Still a little way to go before I find the rest of it though.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
Last night we had our first few inches of snow for the winter. The garden is buried and the seed catalogs are handy for dreaming.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
I went out today and bought a bag of compost for sowing seeds. In southern England it's still incredibly mild (we've only had a couple of frosts here all winter) and INCREDIBLY WET.
Can't plant any seeds yet - they would rot - but it's nice to be prepared.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
The first of the pallet garden beds came together yesterday. The hardest part was pulling the pallets apart- nasty nails in there that are supposed to hold up to a lot of shipping-associated rattling. (That and working around the dog, who kept plopping down in my lap- not exactly conducive to using the electric jigsaw.) Now to fill it up- I have a good lead on free soil from a local master gardener, and I have a lot of leaves in my gutters that need to be cleaned out, which are pretty much leaf mold by this point. Then on to the second and third beds, which are going to be for squash and melons this year, so don't need to be in place until after the last frost.
Five or six weeks until the peas go in.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
I really want to (or I kind of really want to) get over my feeling of crippling awkwardness about gardening. All of mine is more or less in public, because I'm on the corner and live in flats, so there are people *everywhere*. I had a neighbour who has moved away since, who used to make sarcastic remarks whenever I tried to do anything. Coming from a family of gardeners doesn't help, since they are also of the gardening as an exercise in controlling nature school.
Bit of a cry from the heart really, and a statement of intent. Whether anything happens this year is yet to be seen......
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Kyzyl
Ship's dog
# 374
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Posted
Gazing out my window at the two feet of snow in my yard. Spring seems so far away, planting even further. Sigh. Another "polar vortex" later this week with our "high" Thursday expected to be below zero F. At least I have my house plants.
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I need a quote.
Posts: 668 | From: Wapasha's Prairie | Registered: Jun 2001
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
You seem to be getting our winter, Kyzyl. We've had an extended, wet autumn since about October.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
Originally posted by FooloftheShip:
quote:
I had a neighbour who has moved away since, who used to make sarcastic remarks whenever I tried to do anything.
Good riddance! (hope I'm allowed to say that here in Heaven in the circumstances)
It's your garden, you can do what you like with it.
Go on, have some fun and don't pay any attention to the nay-sayers.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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