Plans for planting

[nettle]

Don't worry, you've not peed on anything . I've just this spring started my own gardening business, and with all the start up costs of equipment I'm beyond penniless at the moment. So I can't afford large amounts of anything to mulch it with (unless I can find it for free). I might get some weed control membrane to cover one, or maybe two of the beds with, just to help suppress the weeds and grass until I can get round to them, and concentrate on a small section at a time. I'll be removing as much of the grass and roots as I can from the sections I'm working. It was all very compacted though, only been used for grazing in living memory, so digging it over is really hard work (and time consuming). I'll see if I can find James's posts ☺.

 

[JamezF]

I'll see if I can find James's posts ☺.

This gives you some idea of what I'm doing:

Upping the ante

James

 

[Skinfaxi]

Don't worry, you've not peed on anything . I've just this spring started my own gardening business, and with all the start up costs of equipment I'm beyond penniless at the moment. So I can't afford large amounts of anything to mulch it with (unless I can find it for free). I might get some weed control membrane to cover one, or maybe two of the beds with, just to help suppress the weeds and grass until I can get round to them, and concentrate on a small section at a time. I'll be removing as much of the grass and roots as I can from the sections I'm working. It was all very compacted though, only been used for grazing in living memory, so digging it over is really hard work (and time consuming). I'll see if I can find James's posts ☺.

Cool. well done for starting up. I am a self employed horticulture businessman. Have you gone for electric or petrol tools.. see if you can get as many cardboard boxes as you can.then lay them on the soil then mulch. You can use leaves in october if you can enough. Look into the old tool the broodfork.
black berry lane forge made mine.
Or see if you can get some straw bales wet them well and then cover thick, then mypex or solid black plastic sheeting over it. Leave a few months.Or a cover crop like phacelia tencetifolium.
All the best

 

[nettle]

Have you gone for electric or petrol tools.

Thanks . Well part of the reason why I'm so penniless is that I stupidly jumped in and bought a 4 stroke Makita multi tool with brushcutter and pole hedge trimmer, going only on youtube videos and never having seen (or lifting) it first. Big mistake. An hour with the hedge trimmer and I couldn't lift my arms without shaking for days. I'm selling it, and have replaced it with a Stihl battery trimmer and strimmer. They're a dream to use in comparison, I'm kicking myself for not getting them first.

Anyway, here's the plot after yesterday's efforts. Peas, courgettes, a couple of squashes, beetroot and spinach have gone in.

 

[Moobee]

Hello nice job. I know you have many different ways to prep beds. I know you may want to do it your way. Even if you rotavate the soil the grass will grow back very soon. Especially perenial rye grass. Either cut the grass off or smother it with mulch. Pine sawdust or chips kill grass very quickly. Compost straw etc. Look at James on this forum beds and the meathod he and others use..he has added pictures.
Also get rid of the grass pathways as this will need constant management. Hope i have not peed on your batterie

Happy growing

also if you rotovate and there are any perennial weeds, you’ll just chop them up and spread them around (from experience!).
Cardboard with compost or manure on top is great to suppress weeds and you can plant straight through it.

 

[Skinfaxi]

Thanks . Well part of the reason why I'm so penniless is that I stupidly jumped in and bought a 4 stroke Makita multi tool with brushcutter and pole hedge trimmer, going only on youtube videos and never having seen (or lifting) it first. Big mistake. An hour with the hedge trimmer and I couldn't lift my arms without shaking for days. I'm selling it, and have replaced it with a Stihl battery trimmer and strimmer. They're a dream to use in comparison, I'm kicking myself for not getting them first.

Anyway, here's the plot after yesterday's efforts. Peas, courgettes, a couple of squashes, beetroot and spinach have gone in.

View attachment 32318

Yes who feels it knows it. With power tools only get stihl or husvarna. The vibrations will kill your hands and arms
.get some anti vibration gloves..
I am styaying with petrol for now as i cant buy all electric aswell. The batteries are hellish expensive compared to petrol. And then the storage and charging space increases expenses. They are nice and quiet.
The cost of batterie metals are just going higher. I would need 4 batterie packs for my intense jobs. Thats about £3000. Thats 1700L of petrol. But the lighter batterie hedge trimmer looks like a dream. I would like one of those.
The battery strimmers are also weaker than the 2 stroke.
Just waiting for carbone net 0 to destroy my world.
All the best.

 

[rossbyjove]

Working very well in my veg garden and two allotments.

 

[Moobee]

Working very well in my veg garden and two allotments.

This guy transformed my veg gardening.

 

[JamezF]

It's been a few weeks...

This morning I spent a happy morning in the greenhouse sowing over a dozen trays of seeds, mostly the next batch of salad crops, but also kale and swedes for the coming winter. Hopefully they won't need planting out too soon, because the veg plot is now full:

Fortunately we are making a bit more space as I've just removed the last of the peas for shoots and we've started on the Charlotte potatoes and had a few meals' worth of broad beans.

James

 

[Nannysbees]

also if you rotovate and there are any perennial weeds, you’ll just chop them up and spread them around (from experience!).
Cardboard with compost or manure on top is great to suppress weeds and you can plant straight through it.

Did this last year, very successful will do it again in the autumn

 

[Goran]

Our banana plant will have flower for first time soon. For now is somewhat bigger than corn cob and not yet opened. I wonder if bees will attend it..

 

[Goran]

 

[JamezF]

Temperatures this morning had returned to something approximating normal (whatever normal is, these days), so I decided it was really time to lift the red onions as their leaves "fell over" a week or so ago. That explains why it's been trying to rain all day in west Somerset. So here they are...

"Looks like we're going to need a bigger drying rack", as someone once said in a film.

I also took the opportunity to lift the remaining Charlotte potatoes. We've been harvesting them plant by plant as we needed them for a month or so, but I really don't want them getting any bigger and in fact the leaves were starting to die back a bit. I also need the space for planting more salad leaves and suchlike. It's actually been quite a positive year for us on the potato front as it's very rare not to have any blight by this point. I suspect most of that is down to the weather, but it may have been helped by my being quite careful over removing all "volunteer" plants that sprang up from tubers I'd missed in previous years. We've got the occasional green bit which I think is down to the blackbirds digging about in the compost that I used to earth them up. Every time I go into the plot they seem to be hunting about in the forest of potato plants. I assume it must be that it's a good place to search for food, the rest of the ground being rock hard due to lack of rain.

James

 

[JamezF]

Come to think of it, the onions have been pretty successful, too. There must be several hundred onions there and I've only had about a dozen that have tried to flower and therefore won't keep.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Crikey James. That’s a brilliant onion crop. There are only two of us and I reckon we grow about 40.
As fir spuds they stsy in their sacs and in the winter we move them into the tunnel. We got our own potatoes into March that way

 

[JamezF]

Crikey James. That’s a brilliant onion crop. There are only two of us and I reckon we grow about 40.

We eat a lot of them It's quite possible that we don't struggle to get most of the way through a dozen red onions a week. It's a bit hard to judge at the moment as now my son is at university we obviously don't need as much and our eating habits have also changed. My in-laws will hopefully have some too, though it does seem to have become more tricky over the last couple of years. My wife's mum in particular appears to have decided that she really doesn't like vegetables that have any sign of soil on them.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have just ploughed through kilos of blackberries. I’ve made jam for the kids and a reservoir of juice is in the freezer ready to make “Ribena”
I’m now eying up what I can shift in the beekeeping freezer

 

[JamezF]

A little late, but this morning has been garlic-lifting morning. The cloves I grew outside (on the left) performed very poorly. They suffered from rust very badly, which is odd given that there was no sign of it last year. I kept trimming off the affected leaves, but that didn't seem to help control the rust much and probably contributed to the bulbs not getting very big. On the other hand, the cloves I grew in the polytunnel (right) did very well. That's not even the biggest one...

Not sure if I shall risk planting outside this year, or just try to find more space in the polytunnel. Perhaps I might put a small number of cloves outdoors and try to keep most of the rest inside. Harvesting has come just in time. I think we had about fifty bulbs last year and we're now down to our last four.

James

 

[enrico]

A little late, but this morning has been garlic-lifting morning. The cloves I grew outside (on the left) performed very poorly. They suffered from rust very badly, which is odd given that there was no sign of it last year. I kept trimming off the affected leaves, but that didn't seem to help control the rust much and probably contributed to the bulbs not getting very big. On the other hand, the cloves I grew in the polytunnel (right) did very well. That's not even the biggest one...

Not sure if I shall risk planting outside this year, or just try to find more space in the polytunnel. Perhaps I might put a small number of cloves outdoors and try to keep most of the rest inside. Harvesting has come just in time. I think we had about fifty bulbs last year and we're now down to our last four.

James

It was a horrendous year for garlic rust this year. Ours did the same as yours with smaller but still useable bulbs, In contrast the giant garlic is super giant and healthy! possible because they are the leek family rather than the garlic family.
Just dug my red spuds. Lots of small ones but in the dry ground I am not surprised. Plenty for us though. good bean and pea year. all the freezers stacked with veg and fruit. Cherry plums given to local shop as we had so many!

 

[JamezF]

It was a horrendous year for garlic rust this year. Ours did the same as yours with smaller but still useable bulbs

It's kind of reassuring to know that it's not just me then.

James