God I love growing our own

[Moobee]

My daughter found that the top half of a plastic bottle taped round a sprayer head was effective on young plants just coming through. Stopped drift of weedkiller. One broken root is two plants instead of one!

With garlic chives, one bulb missed seems to spawn about 30 more

 

[pargyle]

Well not exactly growing....decided it was time that two cherry laurels that were pretty rotten and what was left was shading too much of the garden had to go. Whilst I had the chainsaw out two holly trees that had died at the top where they were mingling with a fir tree got the chop. One leylandii left for the chainsaw but the pile of debris was getting silly so my new toy (fifth hand but still runs) came into its own for some serious work. Couldn't figure out why chipper was brilliant but the leaf shredder was struggling. The bloke I bought it from had put bew blades in it ... actually showed me the invoice fir them. So I took it apart ... brand new shredder blade.... on the spindle back to front so the blunt side was doing the shredding and the nice shiny sharp side was on th trailing edge. Swapped it round... with a bit if effort as he'd also chewed up the bolt holding the blade on the spindle. Now ... wow... sucks the stuff through like a jet engine. Half the pile done but it looks like a busy weekend ahead.

 

[Wilco]

Well not exactly growing....decided it was time that two cherry laurels that were pretty rotten and what was left was shading too much of the garden had to go. Whilst I had the chainsaw out two holly trees that had died at the top where they were mingling with a fir tree got the chop. One leylandii left for the chainsaw but the pile of debris was getting silly so my new toy (fifth hand but still runs) came into its own for some serious work. Couldn't figure out why chipper was brilliant but the leaf shredder was struggling. The bloke I bought it from had put bew blades in it ... actually showed me the invoice fir them. So I took it apart ... brand new shredder blade.... on the spindle back to front so the blunt side was doing the shredding and the nice shiny sharp side was on th trailing edge. Swapped it round... with a bit if effort as he'd also chewed up the bolt holding the blade on the spindle. Now ... wow... sucks the stuff through like a jet engine. Half the pile done but it looks like a busy weekend ahead.

I have a similar job to finish off. Thus far I've 'pruned' most of the sycamores and three of four apple trees. Should have some staves for one of my apiaries, plus plenty of chippings for the hens. Image shows most of the sycamore pile.

 

[Goran]

I am lately watching exotic, since our climate went to hell.. I am planning to buy seeds of Japanese raisin tree and Paw Paw.
Japanese raisin tree - as is written offering lot of nectar to bees, beside that various healthy qualities - like treating hangover and in lightning speed reducing alcochol level in a blood..
It is also written that its wood is starting to replace mahogany in use..
Paw paw - well, they claim its fruits taste like banana alike.. and endure real cold easily..

 

[JamezF]

I have a few sycamores that I want to take down completely. I think I might run out of time this winter though. Depends when the buds start to break. I also have an apple tree (fortunately not very large) that has developed an extreme lean over the last couple of years. I'd like to get it upright again, but I'm not entirely sure how to manage it yet.

Meanwhile, back in the veggie plot, I have started levelling the space for my next major project, which is going to involve joining two greenhouses of completely different designs from two different suppliers to make a single greenhouse with a finished size somewhere around 18'x8'. Because there's no such thing as too many greenhouses, right? Actually, it's a bit of an experiment (and not just in joining greenhouses together). The north-east wall is going to be completely lined with black twenty litre plastic "jugs" filled with water, possibly with a reflective surface behind them, to act as a heat store. Against the outside of the north-west side (one of the 8' wide walls) I'm going to have a couple of compost heaps with snugly-fitting lids and use solar-powered fans to circulate the warm air above the compost into the greenhouse. It will also be permanently lined with horticultural bubble wrap. I was considering trying to incorporate an underground climate battery, but the soil here just isn't really deep enough and I didn't fancy excavating several feet of rock. The ultimate intention is to have a greenhouse that allows a reasonable extension to the normal growing season and where I might perhaps be able to keep plants such as peppers alive through the winter. It may turn out that solar-powered grow lights are also required, but I'll worry about that one later.

I've also started spreading more woodchip on the paths between the beds because it seems the blackbirds have run out of stuff to scatter all over the place.

James

 

[enrico]

I have a few sycamores that I want to take down completely. I think I might run out of time this winter though. Depends when the buds start to break. I also have an apple tree (fortunately not very large) that has developed an extreme lean over the last couple of years. I'd like to get it upright again, but I'm not entirely sure how to manage it yet.

Meanwhile, back in the veggie plot, I have started levelling the space for my next major project, which is going to involve joining two greenhouses of completely different designs from two different suppliers to make a single greenhouse with a finished size somewhere around 18'x8'. Because there's no such thing as too many greenhouses, right? Actually, it's a bit of an experiment (and not just in joining greenhouses together). The north-east wall is going to be completely lined with black twenty litre plastic "jugs" filled with water, possibly with a reflective surface behind them, to act as a heat store. Against the outside of the north-west side (one of the 8' wide walls) I'm going to have a couple of compost heaps with snugly-fitting lids and use solar-powered fans to circulate the warm air above the compost into the greenhouse. It will also be permanently lined with horticultural bubble wrap. I was considering trying to incorporate an underground climate battery, but the soil here just isn't really deep enough and I didn't fancy excavating several feet of rock. The ultimate intention is to have a greenhouse that allows a reasonable extension to the normal growing season and where I might perhaps be able to keep plants such as peppers alive through the winter. It may turn out that solar-powered grow lights are also required, but I'll worry about that one later.

I've also started spreading more woodchip on the paths between the beds because it seems the blackbirds have run out of stuff to scatter all over the place.

James

I could do with the wood!!!! Sold my eight foot trailer last year as I bought an electric car. God I miss it!

 

[pargyle]

I have a few sycamores that I want to take down completely. I think I might run out of time this winter though. Depends when the buds start to break. I also have an apple tree (fortunately not very large) that has developed an extreme lean over the last couple of years. I'd like to get it upright again, but I'm not entirely sure how to manage it yet.

At our last house, after the Ocober 87 storm, an ornamental cherry tree was partially uprooted in our garden, fortunately it fell against a fence which stopped it going completely down. I hammered a scaffolding putlug into the ground about 10 feet away and put some padding around the trunk and with a really ratchet strap attached to the tree and the putlug gradually winched it back uprighht. It took a couple of weeks of steady adjustment a few inches more every time but it gradually returned to the vertical and it survived. Once it was back up I spragged it with a baulk of timber and more padding until it was well set - it took about a year for the roots to really grab hold again.

I suppose it depends on the thickness of your apple trea but there's a WIkihow that might give you some ideas. My effort was before the internet had an answer for everything so I was making it up as I went along (as you often had to in those days !).

https://www.wikihow.com/Straighten-a-Tree

 

[rossbyjove]

My daughter found that the top half of a plastic bottle taped round a sprayer head was effective on young plants just coming through. Stopped drift of weedkiller. One broken root is two plants instead of one!

One broken root is several new ones.
It's an incredible plant and pulling off the top bit is what it wants you to do.
I find weed killer does not do the job , got to get that brown root.

 

[JamezF]

One broken root is several new ones.
It's an incredible plant and pulling off the top bit is what it wants you to do.
I find weed killer does not do the job , got to get that brown root.

A glyphosate-based weedkiller will do the job, but I'm not at all keen on glyphosate. However, cutting off green shoots below the ground will eventually work. The thick roots are an energy store as much as anything and putting up those shoots uses that energy up. The only place to get more is by photosynthesis and if you're getting rid of the bits it uses for that it will just run out of energy and die at some point. It took a year or so in my polytunnel, but it was the only method available with plants growing in it all year round.

James

 

[JamezF]

I have three spare recycled railway sleepers that will be used as a base for my next greenhouse, but that's not enough. Fortunately when the electricity transformer at the end of our drive was upgraded a few years back Western Power left me the pole that the old one was fixed to. It's dated 1978 and hasn't started to show any signs of rot, so I reckon it should be good for a few years yet. At 10.5m long and over 20cm diameter though, I wasn't going to be moving it about by myself. I decided to chainsaw it into lengths of around 2.5m. Even then it was a struggle to lift the pieces. I reckon they must weigh close to 80kg each and they weren't exactly easy to get hold of. I fought them onto the trailer and moved them to where the greenhouse is going to go. Just need to get them levelled up and I can start assembling the frame. Possibly not tomorrow however, as I have seeds to be sowing -- chiles & peppers, aubergines, radish, onions and parsley I think. Some of which will actually be going in this greenhouse...

James

 

[enrico]

I have three spare recycled railway sleepers that will be used as a base for my next greenhouse, but that's not enough. Fortunately when the electricity transformer at the end of our drive was upgraded a few years back Western Power left me the pole that the old one was fixed to. It's dated 1978 and hasn't started to show any signs of rot, so I reckon it should be good for a few years yet. At 10.5m long and over 20cm diameter though, I wasn't going to be moving it about by myself. I decided to chainsaw it into lengths of around 2.5m. Even then it was a struggle to lift the pieces. I reckon they must weigh close to 80kg each and they weren't exactly easy to get hold of. I fought them onto the trailer and moved them to where the greenhouse is going to go. Just need to get them levelled up and I can start assembling the frame. Possibly not tomorrow however, as I have seeds to be sowing -- chiles & peppers, aubergines, radish, onions and parsley I think. Some of which will actually be going in this greenhouse...

James

I used them once but when I put it on its side and when it got hot it leaked creosote. Decided not to use it near plants I eat!

 

[JamezF]

I used them once but when I put it on its side and when it got hot it leaked creosote. Decided not to use it near plants I eat!

Mine seem to be fine. The ones I have are left over from setting up the previous greenhouse where I've also used them as a base.

James

 

[enrico]

Picked the last of our Brussel sprouts today. Been small but tasty

 

[JamezF]

Picked the last of our Brussel sprouts today. Been small but tasty

Ours have been the same. We've got one last pick left over the next week or so I reckon.

Got some of the base for the new greenhouse sorted today. The next step is to smother the ground with cardboard and get some compost on top, but before I do that I needed to get the bed closest to it (with my asparagus and perennial kale in) covered with compost so I can also lay cardboard between them and make another new bed, though I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet.

Yesterday I spent most of the day sowing seeds that I meant to get done last weekend: various different types of chile and sweet pepper, aubergines, parsley and many hundreds of onions. I think I sowed around 500 onion seeds last year and I'm honestly not sure that they're going to last us until the next harvest. We're certainly well over half way through them now. The beetroot and peas for shoots that I sowed the weekend before last are sprouting already, as are the broad and field beans I sowed about three weeks ago. I was starting to get a little concerned about the beans. but it looks like I needn't have worried.

I have lots of sowing to do this coming weekend too; mostly lettuces to replace the ones that we're currently harvesting from the polytunnel I think, but also salad onions, peas (for pods this time) and sugar snap peas. I think getting shallots in the ground might be in the plan too.

James

 

[enrico]

We are well into our sowing. We are trying to be strict about doing less a couple of weeks apart to get more of a succession. I don't know why really cos they always seem to catch each other up!

 

[JamezF]

We are well into our sowing. We are trying to be strict about doing less a couple of weeks apart to get more of a succession. I don't know why really cos they always seem to catch each other up!

It does seem to be very much dependent on the behaviour of the plant in question. I know some are driven to mature by day length, so as long as they're reasonably developed at the point the days become long enough they start to mature regardless of their age. Others are (I think) considered to mature based on a degree-day figure (see Growing degree-day - Wikipedia) meaning that early plantings don't actually get that much of an advantage because it's not often that days early in the season contribute to the degree-day value. It would be useful if it were possible to find this information out. I'd guess it's fairly well-known for at least some of the seeds from larger suppliers because they're often exactly the same ones as are used commercially.

I tend to do successional sowings of beetroot, radishes, salad onions and herbs such as coriander. Sometimes edible flowers, too. Lettuces I mostly sow four or five times each year and we generally harvest just by picking the outer leaves off the plants a la Charles Dowding, though there are some cases where we just want an entire lettuce. Otherwise I don't because I want some plants out of the ground in time for a second crop in the same place, so peas for instance might be cleared by the middle of summer and replaced pretty much immediately by winter brassicas. Early potatoes are much the same.

James

 

[Goran]

Our bananas these days.. When spring comes the bananas will grow and take the top nylon up, then we remove the cover..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Our bananas these days.. When spring comes the bananas will grow and take the top nylon up, then we remove the cover..View attachment 35343

How clever

 

[Moobee]

New greenhouse finally up! Replaced two smaller ones so more efficient use of space plus this one has proper height. The back faces north so wondered if it’s worthwhile adding bubble wrap or reflective insulation to the walls to help trap heat in and/or reflect the sun. Anyone tried that?
Will get some power added for heat mats but it’s mostly going to be unheated.

 

[pargyle]

New greenhouse finally up! Replaced two smaller ones so more efficient use of space plus this one has proper height. The back faces north so wondered if it’s worthwhile adding bubble wrap or reflective insulation to the walls to help trap heat in and/or reflect the sun. Anyone tried that?
Will get some power added for heat mats but it’s mostly going to be unheated.

Lovely when they are bright and new and there's nothing stacked under the benches and there's no moss down the sides of the frames and spiders the size of mice waiting to leap out at you from behind the pots of bedding compost ... definite case of greenhouse envy here !