"The rain always follows the frost." We had a very heavy frost on Friday. The hoses were frozen along with a pile of sand.
I woke up Saturday morning to soft rain and the ice and frost had thawed and gone.
I'm itching to get going in the veg plot. But things are too cold and wet to garden.
We are really pleased with the plastic repurposed oil tanks we made into raised beds. Here's a recent couple of 📸 photos for your perusal:
Old plastic baths drilled with drainage holes and topped up with well rotted soil, fym and homemade compost.
If your garden suffers from poor drainage. Raised beds are the way to go. I was mucking out today and it was pouring down again. This will be the third very wet winter on the trot.
I often write on here you do not need a veg garden or allotment to grow your own vegetables. All you need are repurposed containers to grow them in. Don't be rushing to the garden centre. Go to your recycling centre and see if they have got anything preferably for free that you can recycle.
See you tomorrow.
Raised containers make a huge difference. Gardening is so easy. Loving your leeks. Only rocket hete
ReplyDeleteThey are definitely the way to go in our advancing years Linda. My plastic raised beds cost me nothing. Just my physical effort to carry them, drill drainage holes and Barrow and pike and fill them with well rotted fym. I'm pleased with the results so far.
DeleteWe used all sorts for growing veg in our old garden but we are not allowed anything like that here. Mr Snoopy would soon dob us in!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure P could design some nice aesthetically pleasing raised beds from out of stone, brick or new wood sleepers. I would erect a concrete slab panel fence to stop Mr Snoopy from prying if I was you JayCee.
ReplyDeleteI have decided to go for waist-high raised beds so no bending whatsoever will be required. However I am still waiting for the shipment of fym I ordered from West Cork in order to fill my new beds.
ReplyDeleteBlame Brexit for the fym shipment taking so long YP. Seaweed is also very good along with pellet poultry manure. Garden centres sell it and it's weed free. I would eventually like to have waist high raised beds. I keep topping them when I harvest a crop.
ReplyDeleteIt's a long way to the sea from here. I will need my wheelbarrow.
DeleteI note there is a canal in Sheffield. Do you own a coal barge? Is there any prospect of the Sheffield Ship Canal being constructed? Alternatively an Amazon drone could collect the West Cork fym. At an additional charge of course!
DeleteI will be keeping an eye out for suitable containers. Even though any gardening feels a long while off yet. Proper winter has just arrived here.
ReplyDeleteCouncil waste transfer stations may let you take away old baths or fish boxes or oil tanks Jules. I use Hugelkultur methods to half fill my tanks with shrub cuttings, grass, straw, weeds, plant vegetation and filled them up with fym and topsoil and homemade compost. It's definitely something do when it's too cold to grow anything yet. Any riding stables near you for well rotted fym?
ReplyDeletemy veg garden seems to have skipped summer and and gone straight to autumn this year. Loads of stuff has bolted straight to seed. might be something do with Bro's compost (😒)
ReplyDeletePlease write a blog about what grows in New Zealand and when to sow and harvest TM. I have seen potatoes growing in February in the Algarve. I guess Linda's( Local Alien) seasons are also different? Have you had a period of hot weather or drought? Vegetables often bolt and run to seed when temperatures fluctuate. I am after some mushroom compost but I don't want to buy some.
ReplyDeleteRaised beds work well here, we have heavy clay, I only have one ground level flower bed, which I have started building up. I have been shuffling my packs of seeds, which I do every year, it's just too early to start anything I am growing.
ReplyDeleteRaised beds do improve the drainage Marlene. I try to incorporate bulky organic materials like well rotted strawy fym and well composted bark is said to be very good. I have bought two new packets of seeds so far. I will begin sowing some veg in doors from February onwards. It's very wet and cold here. My leeks seem to like it and so do the winter Japanese onions.
ReplyDeleteMy Japanese onions are growing well, thanks for the tip, as are the leeks, the frost has made my broad beans droop, but they will come back OK.
DeleteWe've grown our Japanese Winter onions 🌰 for over thirty years Marlene. They will be ready to harvest in June. We always pick them before that. The frost gives our vegetables a nicer taste by converting the starches to sugars. Broad beans planted in winter built up a strong resistance to diseases and blackfly. I'm looking forward to spring.
ReplyDeleteI hope 2025 is a better year for all you proper gardeners and smallholding owners. Last year was a washout for so many and it's disappointing when you've put in all the hard work.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jabblog. The weather dictates what grows and what doesn't thrive. I hope you have a great 2025 and much success with your veg and plants.
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