The Gardening Bed

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The Axman
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The Gardening Bed

Post by The Axman » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:08 pm

By popular demand… The Gardening Thread Bed. (Thank you Mr Megson).

This is where you can express your vegetable related angst, where the serial killers amongst us can swap tips on how best to recycle our victims for stunning summer bed displays, where questions about Hostas can be posed and answered.

And to kick us off, this conundrum: Is Grass really anything other than a Weed? :mrgreen:

thebish
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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:13 pm

I'm gonna try this this year...

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/pr ... g/195.html

except - I am not gonna plant them out - just use the baby leaves... pick and use!

you can buy rocket and mixed lettuce seeds for next to nothing...

(I should add - before anyone asks... no - NOT the house-guttering!)
Last edited by thebish on Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by Gooner Girl » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:14 pm

thebish wrote:I'm gonna try this this year...

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/pr ... g/195.html
and take it down to devon with you?!

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:15 pm

Gooner Girl wrote:
thebish wrote:I'm gonna try this this year...

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/pr ... g/195.html
and take it down to devon with you?!
am gonna START in devon! :roll:

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by The Axman » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:17 pm

best place for it - Derbyshire-by-the-sea. As close to tropical paradise as the UK can afford.

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by Bruce Rioja » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:20 pm

Our Kid gave me some spuds on the weekend from his small holding. Potatoes that taste of potato? Incredible! :D
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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:27 pm

Bruce Rioja wrote:Our Kid gave me some spuds on the weekend from his small holding. Potatoes that taste of potato? Incredible! :D
you could grow them easily bruce - in a bag... I do it every year - glorious!

you stick three or four seed potatoes at the bottom of a sack (or a proper potato bag) - and just keep covering the shoots with more compost when they appear... keep watering - then when you get near the top of the bag leave them til the tops droop/start to die off - and you have a bag full of new potatoes...

http://www.unwins.co.uk/growing-potatoe ... gid53.html

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by The Axman » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:30 pm

This spring/summer is going to be my first season as a vegie grower. I've done 'gardening' before, but mainly the English landscape gardening type of thing. Never got into the allotment grow your own stuff. But then the missus saw a raised bed and we've had four big 'uns constructed against a long stone wall at the back, made out of railway sleepers up to waist high. And although they were for my missus, I've already claimed one as my plot.

I'm going to start out with lettuce, spring onions, strawberries, nasturtiums, pumpkin and spuds.

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:32 pm

The Axman wrote:This spring/summer is going to be my first season as a vegie grower. I've done 'gardening' before, but mainly the English landscape gardening type of thing. Never got into the allotment grow your own stuff. But then the missus saw a raised bed and we've had four big 'uns constructed against a long stone wall at the back, made out of railway sleepers up to waist high. And although they were for my missus, I've already claimed one as my plot.

I'm going to start out with lettuce, spring onions, strawberries, nasturtiums, pumpkin and spuds.
nasturtiums are lovely - but mine always get massively infested with blackfly!

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by The Axman » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:40 pm

Yeh. I pull them off by hand, squish 'em down to blackfly sludge then feed them to the frogs - they love them.

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:49 pm

The Axman wrote:Yeh. I pull them off by hand, squish 'em down to blackfly sludge then feed them to the frogs - they love them.
the frogs eat from your hand? are you Dr Dolittle?

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by Bruce Rioja » Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:54 pm

thebish wrote:
Bruce Rioja wrote:Our Kid gave me some spuds on the weekend from his small holding. Potatoes that taste of potato? Incredible! :D
you could grow them easily bruce - in a bag... I do it every year - glorious!

you stick three or four seed potatoes at the bottom of a sack (or a proper potato bag) - and just keep covering the shoots with more compost when they appear... keep watering - then when you get near the top of the bag leave them til the tops droop/start to die off - and you have a bag full of new potatoes...

http://www.unwins.co.uk/growing-potatoe ... gid53.html
That looks ace - so I could actually grow spuds in my garage? :?
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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by The Axman » Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:02 pm

thebish wrote:
The Axman wrote:Yeh. I pull them off by hand, squish 'em down to blackfly sludge then feed them to the frogs - they love them.
the frogs eat from your hand? are you Dr Dolittle?
Yeah I've got a push-me-pull-me.
No, actually the fish will eat from my hand, they'll actually swim over and gape for food, but the frogs (and newts) tolerate me enough that they stay where they are and wait for me to retreat a little before feasting.
I drop the blackfly squish in little balls on top of the waterlily leaves and the frogs lap them up.

A couple of mates have tried similar but with widely different results; one, his koi eat the blackfly balls while the other nothing happens - his frogs and fish leave them alone!

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:02 pm

Bruce Rioja wrote:
thebish wrote:
Bruce Rioja wrote:Our Kid gave me some spuds on the weekend from his small holding. Potatoes that taste of potato? Incredible! :D
you could grow them easily bruce - in a bag... I do it every year - glorious!

you stick three or four seed potatoes at the bottom of a sack (or a proper potato bag) - and just keep covering the shoots with more compost when they appear... keep watering - then when you get near the top of the bag leave them til the tops droop/start to die off - and you have a bag full of new potatoes...

http://www.unwins.co.uk/growing-potatoe ... gid53.html
That looks ace - so I could actually grow spuds in my garage? :?
best off outside on the patio, really - but very little space required - and no digging at all!

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by Worthy4England » Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:08 pm

Gardening should be banned.

That is all.

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by Burnden Paddock » Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:40 pm

thebish wrote:
Bruce Rioja wrote:Our Kid gave me some spuds on the weekend from his small holding. Potatoes that taste of potato? Incredible! :D
you could grow them easily bruce - in a bag... I do it every year - glorious!

you stick three or four seed potatoes at the bottom of a sack (or a proper potato bag) - and just keep covering the shoots with more compost when they appear... keep watering - then when you get near the top of the bag leave them til the tops droop/start to die off - and you have a bag full of new potatoes...

http://www.unwins.co.uk/growing-potatoe ... gid53.html
I was looking at these in Wilkinsons in Bolton today. They have bags for potatoes, tomatoes and onions possibly others too. £3-£4 for 2 grow bags. I'm going to give them a go this year. I've grown tomatoes and cucumbers in a mini-greenhouse previously with mixed results. I tried to grow lettuce in the ground, but the bastard slugs ate the first sign of shoots despite my best efforts.

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by The Axman » Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:20 am

Burnden Paddock wrote:
thebish wrote:
Bruce Rioja wrote:Our Kid gave me some spuds on the weekend from his small holding. Potatoes that taste of potato? Incredible! :D
you could grow them easily bruce - in a bag... I do it every year - glorious!

you stick three or four seed potatoes at the bottom of a sack (or a proper potato bag) - and just keep covering the shoots with more compost when they appear... keep watering - then when you get near the top of the bag leave them til the tops droop/start to die off - and you have a bag full of new potatoes...

http://www.unwins.co.uk/growing-potatoe ... gid53.html
I was looking at these in Wilkinsons in Bolton today. They have bags for potatoes, tomatoes and onions possibly others too. £3-£4 for 2 grow bags. I'm going to give them a go this year. I've grown tomatoes and cucumbers in a mini-greenhouse previously with mixed results. I tried to grow lettuce in the ground, but the bastard slugs ate the first sign of shoots despite my best efforts.
There's a simple organic way to deter slugs and snails - eggshells, crushed eggshells (crushed so they are no longer egg shaped but not so crushed that they are in hundreds of separate pieces. They need to hang together by the inner membrane but with plenty of sharp edges in evidence). Trouble is they need to be used as a physical barrier and so you need a lot of eggshells. I ask friends to collect them for me.

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:42 am

The Axman wrote:
Burnden Paddock wrote:
thebish wrote:
Bruce Rioja wrote:Our Kid gave me some spuds on the weekend from his small holding. Potatoes that taste of potato? Incredible! :D
you could grow them easily bruce - in a bag... I do it every year - glorious!

you stick three or four seed potatoes at the bottom of a sack (or a proper potato bag) - and just keep covering the shoots with more compost when they appear... keep watering - then when you get near the top of the bag leave them til the tops droop/start to die off - and you have a bag full of new potatoes...

http://www.unwins.co.uk/growing-potatoe ... gid53.html
I was looking at these in Wilkinsons in Bolton today. They have bags for potatoes, tomatoes and onions possibly others too. £3-£4 for 2 grow bags. I'm going to give them a go this year. I've grown tomatoes and cucumbers in a mini-greenhouse previously with mixed results. I tried to grow lettuce in the ground, but the bastard slugs ate the first sign of shoots despite my best efforts.
There's a simple organic way to deter slugs and snails - eggshells, crushed eggshells (crushed so they are no longer egg shaped but not so crushed that they are in hundreds of separate pieces. They need to hang together by the inner membrane but with plenty of sharp edges in evidence). Trouble is they need to be used as a physical barrier and so you need a lot of eggshells. I ask friends to collect them for me.
I've heard this... but - slugs spend most of their time underground don't they? that's when they eat holes into your potatoes!

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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by Wandering Willy » Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:16 am

thebish wrote:
I've heard this... but - slugs spend most of their time underground don't they? that's when they eat holes into your potatoes!
You shouldn't let slugs near your sack. :)
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Re: The Gardening Bed

Post by thebish » Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:17 am

Wandering Willy wrote:
thebish wrote:
I've heard this... but - slugs spend most of their time underground don't they? that's when they eat holes into your potatoes!
You shouldn't let slugs near your sack. :)
I sprayed my potato sacks with WD40 to stop them crawling up! :wink:

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