| Page 1 of 2 | 1 | 2 |
|
|
Walk around my plot
Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for
any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm No captions, they are mostly self explanatory. The big cage is a legacy from when shoots were held on the Estate and pheasants were reared just over the wall. I cultivated this plot for 31 years as part of my work, running this 25 acre private garden but now I've retired the new head gardener is scaling down the veg for the Hall so I've 'inherited' one of the three veg plots. There were already 2 old deep beds and I'm converting the rest of the plot so there will be 8 deep beds in all about 47 feet long and 4 feet wide. As you can see my wife and I are fond of veg ;-) and I'm enjoying playing at seeing what the results can be with all the constraints off. To make things more interesting to yer average amateur I'm doing without using any of the available greenhouse facilities.Anything started indoors has been done on the window sill in my workshop and as I said in an earlier post I've been experimenting with hardening off the 'nearly hardy' or early season veg when the seedlings are barely showing in the plugs. Peas are started in short lengths of plastic guttering to avoid mouse damage and to give earlier cropping of the early variety - rows across the bed. Some of the photos show the succession given by making sowings at 2-3 week intervals. Onions are heat treated 'Red Baron'. I've made room for some flowers for cutting, especially border carnations and pinks which I haven't grown much before and sweet peas that I've never had time to grow properly before. |
Walk around my plot
"Rod" wrote in message oups.com... Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm No captions, they are mostly self explanatory. The big cage is a legacy from when shoots were held on the Estate and pheasants were reared just over the wall. That's impressive Rod. Thanks for sharing it with us. I for one would like to see more pics as the season progresses. Mike |
Walk around my plot
"Rod" wrote in message oups.com... Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm No captions, they are mostly self explanatory. The big cage is a legacy from when shoots were held on the Estate and pheasants were reared just over the wall. Man, that's bordering on industry, not gardening. Q. Do you really need all that iron-work and plasic? |
Walk around my plot
On 17 May, 18:44, Rod wrote:
Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm Blimey! You're feeding the hundreds and thousands! Fantastic. Please do send more pictures. But ... where's the flowers?! |
Walk around my plot
On May 17, 6:44 pm, Rod wrote:
Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm Rod what a great veggie garden, where did you buy the white protective covering from? |
Walk around my plot
"Rod" wrote ... Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm No captions, they are mostly self explanatory. The big cage is a legacy from when shoots were held on the Estate and pheasants were reared just over the wall. I cultivated this plot for 31 years as part of my work, running this 25 acre private garden but now I've retired the new head gardener is scaling down the veg for the Hall so I've 'inherited' one of the three veg plots. There were already 2 old deep beds and I'm converting the rest of the plot so there will be 8 deep beds in all about 47 feet long and 4 feet wide. As you can see my wife and I are fond of veg ;-) and I'm enjoying playing at seeing what the results can be with all the constraints off. To make things more interesting to yer average amateur I'm doing without using any of the available greenhouse facilities.Anything started indoors has been done on the window sill in my workshop and as I said in an earlier post I've been experimenting with hardening off the 'nearly hardy' or early season veg when the seedlings are barely showing in the plugs. Peas are started in short lengths of plastic guttering to avoid mouse damage and to give earlier cropping of the early variety - rows across the bed. Some of the photos show the succession given by making sowings at 2-3 week intervals. Onions are heat treated 'Red Baron'. I've made room for some flowers for cutting, especially border carnations and pinks which I haven't grown much before and sweet peas that I've never had time to grow properly before. Very impressive Rod, reminds me of some ironwork I've seen on some French fruit farms near Toulouse. (to keep the hail stones off). Why not use the Greenhouse as it's there? You are making thing more difficult unnecessarily. I have a very small greenhouse attached to my garage that I start all our veg seeds off in, well actually mostly in a heated propagator, then they go onto the garage roof to grow on and harden off. I think we will also have to consider the gutter idea for our peas although covering the seeds with fine wire mesh and covering the edges with soil (they then try and dig through the mesh) seems to have stopped the mouse onslaught such that we might actually get a reduced crop. The Red Baron never grow that large for us and seem a bit more temperamental than the normal onions. The smell from Carnations and Pinks grown "hard" on the plot is wonderful, even the none smelly ones from a florist get their full scent back if you are able to propagate them. Good luck and welcome to retirement. -- Regards Bob H 17mls W. of London.UK |
Walk around my plot
On 17/5/07 23:07, in article , "Bob
Hobden" wrote: snip The smell from Carnations and Pinks grown "hard" on the plot is wonderful, even the none smelly ones from a florist get their full scent back if you are able to propagate them. Good luck and welcome to retirement. AHA! That's something we can send you, Bob, if we haven't already! I've lost track. Ray has a plant, bred by someone else whose name I forget - Ray will remind me. It's a pink called Green Lanes, which never went into commercial production because its stems are pretty short. But it has a scent that I think is incomparable. If R has some going spare, I'll send you a couple. I absolutely love pinks, even though they're unfashionable these days. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk (remove weeds from address) Devon County Show 17-19 May http://www.devoncountyshow.co.uk/ |
Walk around my plot
"Russel Sprout" wrote in message
... "Rod" wrote in message oups.com... Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm No captions, they are mostly self explanatory. The big cage is a legacy from when shoots were held on the Estate and pheasants were reared just over the wall. Man, that's bordering on industry, not gardening. Like I said, we like our veg ;-) Q. Do you really need all that iron-work and plasic? The big cage is a legacy from when gardening here was like gardening in a b****y big fowl pen - however it does protect from pigeons. Eventually though I aim to have all of the brassicas under enviromesh to protect against cabbage root fly, aphids and caterpillars. It's also impossible to grow decent carrots here without protection from carrot fly. -- Rod My real address is rodthegardeneratmyisp |
Walk around my plot
"Sacha" wrote after "Bob Hobden" wrote: snip The smell from Carnations and Pinks grown "hard" on the plot is wonderful, even the none smelly ones from a florist get their full scent back if you are able to propagate them. Good luck and welcome to retirement. AHA! That's something we can send you, Bob, if we haven't already! I've lost track. Ray has a plant, bred by someone else whose name I forget - Ray will remind me. It's a pink called Green Lanes, which never went into commercial production because its stems are pretty short. But it has a scent that I think is incomparable. If R has some going spare, I'll send you a couple. I absolutely love pinks, even though they're unfashionable these days. That would be wonderful, thanks. We too love pinks/spray carnations etc provided they still have their "cloves" scent. Short stems are ideal in a garden setting, the long stems ones designed for florists get blown over in a garden/allotment and never look their best. Being in the middle of a total rethink of our small garden I have been looking for the old fashioned short stemmed garden pinks recently without success so your kind offer is perfect timing. :-) Have you our address? -- Regards Bob H |
Walk around my plot
"Rod" wrote after... "Russel Sprout" wrote in reply to "Rod" ... Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm No captions, they are mostly self explanatory. The big cage is a legacy from when shoots were held on the Estate and pheasants were reared just over the wall. Man, that's bordering on industry, not gardening. Like I said, we like our veg ;-) Q. Do you really need all that iron-work and plasic? The big cage is a legacy from when gardening here was like gardening in a b****y big fowl pen - however it does protect from pigeons. Eventually though I aim to have all of the brassicas under enviromesh to protect against cabbage root fly, aphids and caterpillars. It's also impossible to grow decent carrots here without protection from carrot fly. When we tried to grow under environmesh the plants didn't seem to like the reduced light but if it's high on your frame then it will be more like a giant polytunnel.....there's a thought. I think the Carrot Root Fly is everywhere these days but an 18inch high solid barrier seems to help as does planting lots and discarding the damaged ones, a bit like White Rot in onions. With environmesh over them we had a significant germination problem. I've started trying to breed root fly resistance into our Long Red Surrey carrots by choosing perfect untouched ones to replant to flower/seed etc. but it will be a long process which I doubt I will ever achieve 100%. -- Regards Bob H 17mls W. of London.UK |
Walk around my plot
On 18/5/07 17:51, in article , "Bob
Hobden" wrote: "Sacha" wrote after "Bob Hobden" wrote: snip The smell from Carnations and Pinks grown "hard" on the plot is wonderful, even the none smelly ones from a florist get their full scent back if you are able to propagate them. Good luck and welcome to retirement. AHA! That's something we can send you, Bob, if we haven't already! I've lost track. Ray has a plant, bred by someone else whose name I forget - Ray will remind me. It's a pink called Green Lanes, which never went into commercial production because its stems are pretty short. But it has a scent that I think is incomparable. If R has some going spare, I'll send you a couple. I absolutely love pinks, even though they're unfashionable these days. That would be wonderful, thanks. We too love pinks/spray carnations etc provided they still have their "cloves" scent. Short stems are ideal in a garden setting, the long stems ones designed for florists get blown over in a garden/allotment and never look their best. Being in the middle of a total rethink of our small garden I have been looking for the old fashioned short stemmed garden pinks recently without success so your kind offer is perfect timing. :-) Have you our address? email it to me, please Bob. I keep thinking I've got my address book sorted out both on the computer and in the book, but never seem to get it straight. I'll ask Ray what he's got atm. I know he took a whole lot across to a pinks nursery, so I hope he's got enough to send you a few. It's just wonderful! -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk (remove weeds from address) Devon County Show 17-19 May http://www.devoncountyshow.co.uk/ |
Walk around my plot
On 18 May, 18:02, "Bob Hobden" wrote:
When we tried to grow under environmesh the plants didn't seem to like the reduced light but if it's high on your frame then it will be more like a giant polytunnel.....there's a thought. I think the Carrot Root Fly is everywhere these days but an 18inch high solid barrier seems to help as does planting lots and discarding the damaged ones, a bit like White Rot in onions. With environmesh over them we had a significant germination problem. I've started trying to breed root fly resistance into our Long Red Surrey carrots by choosing perfect untouched ones to replant to flower/seed etc. but it will be a long process which I doubt I will ever achieve 100%. We've had good results the last couple of years with quite low enviromesh protection, but yes light admission is probably a bit better with a higher roof. As for germination, we have had some patchy germination of earlies, though in some cases I'm sure they've germinated and been eaten by slugs before we even noticed they were up. The later sowings are fine - in fact a bit too good, I'll need to thin the maincrop. Long Red Surrey - that brings back memories, buying seeds by weight out of a sack in an old seed shop. Good luck with selection of that strain. Why aren't I using the greenhouse? Occardosity I suppose and also wanted to refresh some of the techniques I used when I had my lottie when I was first working in a bank after I left school. Also, some plant health considerations - I wanted to be sure of clean plants to put under the enviromesh. There's no point in using it if you are going to put in plants already infested with aphids and cabbage root fly - I'm sure that when indifferent results are reported, this is a frequent cause. The Border carnations and Pinks are collections from Allwoods - all alleged to be scented so I'll be interested to see what they're like. Won't get much from the Borders this year of course - just one flower per plant if I'm lucky - That's why 'Puce' couldn't see much of the flowers. If I get any spare cuttings later on I'll let you know. I don't think any of the Pinks will be much more than 12" high and some of them are already making nice little clumps. |
Walk around my plot
On 17 May, 23:03, "
wrote: On May 17, 6:44 pm, Rod wrote: Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been preparing. Photos at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm Rod what a great veggie garden, where did you buy the white protective covering from? It's 'Enviromesh', available in small pieces from most GCs or in big rolls from some growers' sundries firms. IIRC Agralan are the main suppliers of commercial size rolls. Some firms also advertise a making up service for tunnel covers etc. BTW what I didn't say in my original post was about the 'Fort Knox' strawberry cage - we're practically in a wood and squirrels are a nightmare with plastic covered fruit cages - if there's cherries or strawberries the other side they'll get through anything short of strong wire. We've hadloads of enviromesh and plastic netting shredded overnight. |
Walk around my plot
On 17 May, 22:57, Sacha wrote:
On 17/5/07 20:41, in article , That's a thing of beauty all in itself. The ground is so clean and the plants so healthy - more later, please! -- I should have put the macro lens on to show you the weed seedlings since the rain started - won't need the macro lens in a day or two ;~) I wanted to take some photos before anything got picked because that always spoils the looks of the thing. |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 01:43 AM. |
|
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
GardenBanter