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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 21, 2006 12:45:36 GMT
It's a really nice day today and OH is entertaining daughter so I had a chance to get in the garden. After surveying the wreck that is my flower garden I decided to concentrate on the vegetables! As usual, I couldn't plant anything until I'd weeded so that took me a while...but now I've got my garlic in and sowed 2 rows of Broad beans. I felt good until I looked in my cold frame - I sowed sweet chestnuts, acorns and beech nuts last week and some little b*****r has been in and carefully extracted all the nuts leaving nice tidy holes in the pots!!!
To get rid of the consequent aggression I attacked my very overgrown Spring border with loppers and decimated a huge Wayfaring tree, tidied up a Purple Smoke Tree and OH chainsawed out the Ash that had sneaked in there - I now have light in my kitchen! And I found all the pots of Tete a tete Narcissus and anonymous blue flowering bulbs (scillas?) from last year underneath the shrubs, so that was good.
I'm a bit weary now but I'm tempted to pull out all the tall Cosmos that are falling about on my patio, except they're still flowering......
Oh and at last I've discovered some flowers on my Cobaea scandens! I planted them to grow over my Runner Bean arch in the veggie garden this year as I put the runners elsewhere and they haven't done anything all summer. Better late than never I suppose.
How's everybody else getting on?
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 21, 2006 16:19:59 GMT
I put mine in last week <smugsmiley> also planted Shensu onions and still have 2KG of them to plant ...OH got carried away at the garden centre ;D may have to sell some off to other plotholders tomorrow. I had to weed like it was an olympic event first though, its been raining a lot and theyve come up with a vengeance.
I also planted some strawberries, experimental, as I havent grown them before personally, any tips would be useful, although I used to pick them for dad, I really am clueless on that subject.
I did build a small cage around them to protect them from the birds as there are small berries on them and I didnt want to see them pulled up. Do I need to protect them with fleece? What else do I need to know?
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 21, 2006 16:30:09 GMT
Fleece might be a good idea when it gets really cold but I don't think you have to worry too much until the fruit starts, then the problems start!!! I grow mine in pots as I had lots of problems with rats (as usual), but I think you should put straw under them to keep the fruit clean and put up something to keep the birds off them.
I've never tried Japanese onions so I look forward to hearing how they've performed. Aren't the weeds TERRIBLE? They're still growing like stonk. I pulled out barrow after barrow of them - found some good leeks though! I hate nettles.......
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2006 16:35:56 GMT
I have had my garlic and onions in for a few weeks now, and they are looking quite comfortable. About 100 garlic, 35 elephant garlic, and 300 japanese onions, to keep me going next year  |
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 21, 2006 21:24:46 GMT
Evening Jlottie, well, if one of your cats has found a baby rat - get your airgun at the ready! There are bound to be lots more. We are overrun with them at the moment but OH has put two batches of poison out so hopefully they'll start to disappear. I hate the thought of poisoning them but there's no other choice. It spoils a lot of my pleasure in the garden though as I'm always on the lookout. Do keep looking as this is the time of year they are looking for winter quarters. I never use waterproof membranes to suppress weeds in the garden anymore as they live underneath. If you've got any living close you might find evidence of a rat run(path) as they tend to use the same routes to and fro all the time. Bleah....
I might have a go at Japanese onions then, I did clear several raised beds today so I have somewhere to put them. Do they need fleecing in really cold weather? Isn't this great? I love this message board - much better than poring over the same old books looking for inspiration!
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 21, 2006 21:30:41 GMT
Im not planning to fleece mine, they do ok without but I have covered them with some netting for now to stop the birds pulling them out, when theyve put some roots down Ill take it off. My plan is to start feeding them in march as I did last year at home.
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 22, 2006 17:08:55 GMT
Yuckety yuck yuck yuck...I went to feed my goats their 5 pm feed and there was a big dead rat laying in the straw....I was very brave and went to get the spade to get rid of it and it MOVED!!! I got out of there like a bullet from a gun and made OH go in and kill it...........O.M.G I HATE rats.
The poison had obviously slowed it down so it was kinder to kill it but I needed a MASSIVE bar of chocolate and a vat of cider before I'd calmed down........brrr!
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Post by piggingardener on Oct 22, 2006 17:19:11 GMT
Oh dear 4P, hope you've calmed down now. Here is a pic I took in Spain last week of 2 cats and a pretty fearless rat!!  The cats are feral but are fed by someone. We were taking an evening stroll along the sea front and wondered what the cats were so interested in. This fearless little blighter actually escaped unscathed from four cats! |
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 22, 2006 17:48:23 GMT
I think YOU'RE quite fearless to stand and take a photo PG! Rats are very very tough - I actually think they are a new form of capybara......they turn my stomach, they really do.
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Post by piggingardener on Oct 23, 2006 8:14:25 GMT
Hiya 4P I have a good zoom on my camera so didn't have to get too close!  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2006 6:31:34 GMT
garlic's going in this weekend. 150 overwintering onions been in for a wee while now, but i can see gaps already  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2006 19:34:49 GMT
couldn't wait ......... Solent Wight and Purple Wight went in tonight.
Solent in a bed on its own, Purple plugged the gaps in the onion bed.
Elephant will wait until the weekend.
;D
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2006 22:47:52 GMT
Onions and broadies in three weeks ago - just starting to show now Garlic only went in this weekend as I was waiting on my supplier (bloke down the pub) getting it but his contact fell through so I used some of my own that I grew last year - 80 odd big cloves so should get a good crop in the summer  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2006 12:02:44 GMT
glad the broadies are showing after three weeks impy |
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