Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello,

If you had 3 wishes for the garden - what would they be and why...

Mine would

1. a slug repellent that makes them go away for good. I would enjoy my midnight walks in the garden so much more without seing those bl**dy things having a party on my salads
2. an anti blight device so that we can grow all sorts of tomatoes without fear of seeing your precious crops just filtering away
3. stones to stop growing like weed in my raised beds! Not the end of the world, but where do these stones come from? I bought at great expense the most beautiful fine soil, compost and manure at the beginning of the year and now it is filled with them!

I could go on...

My three wishes for the garden:

1. No weeds ! if that's unrealistic, the extinction of Alkanet and Oxalis which become more rampant every year despite my valiant efforts at hand digging out the damned plants and never putting them in my compost heap

2. Good growing weather with a nice mixture of sunshine and rain which really benefits the crops. No nasty damaging surprises !

3. Am torn between the abolition of slugs and blight but think i would have to choose the abolition of blight. We rely a lot on my tomato crop and having nurtured the plants from seedlings it is devastating to lose your entire crop just as they're about to ripen and are ready to pick.

If I could have a bonus wish, it would be a husband who enjoyed gardening! I cut down our diseased grape vine last week and despite parking his car in front of the now empty space where the leaves smothered the fence, he hasn't noticed its disappearance yet !

Oscar, we have the same problems with stones. When we first moved to our current new build house with its stoney soil I spent every darned weekend collecting buckets and crates of stones to take to the tip. I would look with satisfaction at finely raked borders but the moment it rained a whole new set of stones would work their way to the surface again. Apart from having deep raised beds like Pa Snips with tonnes of imported soil and manure I suspect one just has to live with what you inherit. A side benefit is that you can generally reckon on winning a prize for rude root vegetables in the local fruit and vegetable show!

ooo 3 wishes...

1 - no weeds, or at least not nettles, I'm allergic to the things but for some reason they are attracted to my garden I'm the only garden on the street with a massive nettle problem
2 - Permanently fertile soil. Yes I like spreading the compost, but I'd love soil that was just naturally fertile without extra work
3 - No green/white fly... I just hate the things

My 3 wishes:

1) No blight, easy one that as such a horrific thing that serves no purpose & is totally devastating.
2) Slugs, snails & other wee blighters having their own zone, they serve a purpose in the ecology of the planet but need their own space away from my crops.
3) The council don't move us & I can keep my 2nd plot to benefit from the hard fruit & vines I have planted on Lottie 2.

I'll live with the weeds, like the satisfaction of making compost, sometimes like the challenges of the weather - well on reflection maybe, have the stone problem too but doesn't affect all the crops & can manipulate an environment for those that don't like it.

Westi

My 3 wishes are:

1). An instantly extendable boundary, enabling me to have more room for my hens.

2) An orchard - with electric fencing all around - so I could keep pigs.

3). A cure for honey fungus.

Interesting thread. Can I have a "lucky dip" extra wish ?

Having this morning spread five bags of composted manure on my vegetable growing areas and borders which needed to be spread very sparsely to go round, an endless supply of free well composted manure would be wonderful.

I always look at those gardening recommendations to "cover the soil with a 6" mulch of well rotted manure" and think "In your dreams!". Where do people get it all from? Maybe I should turn our household vegetarian and install a composting toilet

Primrose wrote:.... gardening recommendations to "cover the soil with a 6" mulch of well rotted manure" and think "In your dreams!". Where do people get it all from? ....

In my case a horsey lady six miles away, who has a machinery operating partner, a large Land Rover Defender, a JCB and an electrically operated one tonne tipping trailer.

Delivered £40 a load equates to about forty builders barrow loads.

One of my wishes came to fruition this week.My new shed arrived last Monday and my son-in-law and I put it up this weekend.