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.

"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

"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?

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?!

On 17/5/07 20:41, in article ,
"Muddymike" wrote:


"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



I agree. That's a thing of beauty all in itself. The ground is so clean
and the plants so healthy - more later, please!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)
Devon County Show 17-19 May
http://www.devoncountyshow.co.uk/

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?

"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

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/

"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

"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

"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

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/

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.

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.

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.