Kitchen Garden Forum

hampsterhead.
Hope you have years of enjoyment ahead of you, just one thought, don't overdo the digging on your first day.

What a good idea for a thread, my contribution is that now I finally built my raised beds and they're up-and-running. Even though the next few years have to bring improvement to my soil and skills, most-definitely, the hardest bit has been done.

My supply of cow-poo isn't contaminated, my bendy-carrots taste lovely and it's really-really nice having herb-fennel to mix in with my salads.

Last and very important, I joined this forum and learnt amongst other things that our other camera actually takes 640 X 480 photos.

Shallot Man wrote:hampsterhead.
Hope you have years of enjoyment ahead of you, just one thought, don't overdo the digging on your first day.

I'm looking foward to it although I've not been able to do any digging yet as the previous owner decided to have a fire and burnt down one of his sheds which contained asbestos so now I'm waiting for the wonderful council to remove it be I can get out the spade. I have been able to clear the greenhouse of its roof high thistles and made the other shed more habitable. Oh, and I've also planted three comfrey plants.

Something-else positive.

I finally managed to halt, or at-least slow down the merciless attack from slugs with those new-type slug pellets.

Look, everything is growing, i'm so excited I could poo my pants. Even my beans are eventually recovering from whatever made them unhappy and the beetroot is finally growing.

Oh WOW Richard - I love those raised beds. My OH has promised me more over the winter

Very positive things:

Local Garden Centre has donated 35 packets of veg seeds to the school including 2 each of: Petit pois, Climbing beans, Broad beans (can't stand them myself but was thinking about BBs for a green manure and these can be sown Oct/Nov so should do the trick nicely I hope), winter squash mix, lettuce mix, cabbage, brussel sprouts, leeks, courgettes and carrots, to name but a few ; and

Another villager has offered a spare composter to the school to replace one of the ones with the front door missing. We were also given one on Sunday by one of the Open Garden participants when they realised that, for some reason both the composters owned by the school have the access doors missing.

See - good things do happen when people realise there is a need

VPM
x

Luck you with the seed, well done.

The raised bed in the last photo has lids so they turn into cold frames, i'm working on an idea for a 12 volt heater powered by solar or a small wind turbine.

In the right hand bay I have straw that was sprinkled with salt to keep the slugs at bay. The right hand bay only has things in pots and trays.

The cold frames gave me a good start this year though a lot of it was undone by lousy weather, high winds and me faffing about getting used to that peat-free compost.

Having been chicken free for 18 months, we have a new run, new chicken house and best of all six lovely new point of lay girls. Five different sorts, so all sorts of egg colours in a few weeks.

The carrots, parsnips and cabbages are growing like crazy and the potatoes are tasting great.

Lovely and heart-warmily positive, I always wanted chickens but my very sensible lady pointed out that lot's of people round here have chickens for eggs and presumably rely on local buyers to help fund feeding and maintaining them.

There is something I can only describe as, "Cathartic" about having hens but I just could-not eat the chicky-girls any more than I could eat my dog and when the fox clears them out i'll go into a period of mourning.

Undoubtably it is possible to create a fox-proof arrangement even in a very foxy area, i'll get her to re-consider once i've got over the cost of creating all the raised beds.

I also fancied geese and ducks, we did discuss goats and alpaca. Sheep came into the conversation a few times but there still isn't enough hours in the day nor days in the week for this retired 'OldGit'.

Maybe we'll successfully grow celery and celeriac this year as they love wet conditions!

My parsnips have appeared.Only sowed the seeds two months ago!!

Shared our first courgette for dinner - all of 3 ins long. Very tasty!

...and planted outside French beans, dwarf and climbing. They didn't need watering in!

My third batch of beans now and everything is looking good and the second batch are fighting back.

I had to leave a space just in case these beans didn't fail and now it appears I might shortly be up to my ears in beans.

Green beans curry.