The Cottage Smallholder
stumbling self sufficiency in a small space
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
8:53 pm
Senior Class
Wed 4-Nov-09
Offline
Broad beans.
The best variety is Aquadluce Cladia. By planting them this late I hope that the tops will just poke though and not get blasted by any hard frosts we get. Thats the plan anyway!! We will see what happens.
With the weather men giving a mild winter. I think they need all the help they can get s we all know how reliable they are.
AJ
3:03 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
Offline
Good luck with that. I've stopped believing in weather forecasts, they can't get it right day on day so how can they expect to get long range right?
I'll try that again!
3:13 pm
Sat 12-Aug-06
Offline
The best variety is Aquadluce Cladia
That's what I've planted for the first time too - delighted that they are good. Usually we plant in November and the plants survive the winter frosts and snow well.
This year I put them under homemade cloches - hoping for an earlier harvest.
12:28 pm
Senior Class
Mon 14-Sep-09
Offline
Garlic, got the broad beans in but forgot to put n the garlic, mine wasn't great this year8 But I planted it earlier, so Im hoping that by forgetting to plant it a few weeks ago it will be better planted later!!
Found a great Companion Planting Guide here, am going to try to follow this this year, see if it makes a difference
12:39 pm
Sat 12-Aug-06
Offline
Hi Raenbow
That companion planting guide is great! Thanks.
I've still got a head of garlic to plant and some shallots. Also I'm sowing more salad leaves and stir fry leaves under cloches.
5:40 pm
Sat 12-Aug-06
Offline
Today I planted out twelve strawberry plants in my new strawberry bed. They are called Albion and will fruit on an off all summer.
I also planted some comfrey in the old kitchen garden - to make liquid fertiliser next summer.
Still got to find some space for my final head of garlic - with all our winter veg space is a bit tight but some of the kale has not flourished so I'm planning to plant the garlic in the empty gaps. Apparently garlic and onions get on well with Brassicas.
We have 6 centimeter pea plants under one of the big homemade cloches and I 've used the pruned twigs off the fruit bushes as pea sticks.
What are you doing in your garden?
6:55 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
Offline
Personally, I'm waiting for my friend to come and re-design the small patch of earth that I call garden. I've been unable to work in it this year so it has gone to seed. Andres is going to put in raised beds for me so that I'll be able to do some things.
I'll try that again!
7:56 pm
Sat 12-Aug-06
Offline
Raised beds look so pretty and they are much easier to tend. Hope that it's ready for the Spring.
My first garden was just 10' x 10'. And that's where I fell in love with gardening. It was like gardening in a vast pot but I loved it. It even had a little lawn.
3:48 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
Offline
I'm hopeful that my friend will start work soon, I need to get some vegetable seeds on order. It's been horrid, not being able to do anything out there this year. As you say raised beds should make it easier for me.
I'll try that again!
11:36 am
Senior Class
Mon 14-Sep-09
Offline
I loves my raised beds.
When we arrived here ther was no veg patch, but I found some old wooden vine posts which i dragged from a forgotten corner of the garden. OH came home to find me very hot and tired sitting proudly on the edge of one of the 3 I'd made one afternoon. They are great, and things grow brilliantly in them as the soil never gets compacted
( they also have the advantage of not having everything trampled by an over-zealous 4 year old 'helper'!!
)
My only problem is that sometimes the mice eat things from the bottom up, and last year my carrots all had the bottoms bitten off when I pulled them up as the mouse was able to dig up so easily!!
11:29 pm
Knowledegable
Mon 21-Sep-09
Offline
boxing day my chilli seeds will be going in. Shower cap on top and left in the back bedroom window sill that is south facing. I havent a clue why I think boxing day is the day to do this. But I have been doing this for years and it seems to give a good crop.
10:34 am
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
Offline
My daughter always sows her chilli seeds on New Years Day, no particular reason but I think it has become one of her Christmas traditions.
I'll try that again!
8:04 pm
Supreme Being
Mon 21-Sep-09
Offline
I think I shall retrieve the seeds out of the fridge and plant them up, apples, peaches and plums.
12:46 pm
Councillor
Thu 7-Jan-10
Offline
I'm hoping to revive this slightly forgotten thread, but also subvert it slightly for my own devious ends (mwhahahaha and other such maniacal noises).
One of my plans for this year is to finally grow something in the garden that I've had for nearly three years and mostly ignored. It's north facing, about 10 metres long and all lawn and patio at the moment, and my hope is to make a veg patch at the north end, by the shed. This end is furthest away from the house and gets the most sunlight. At the moment I have two compost bins standing on it, which have been fed since last spring with grass cuttings, veg peelings, egg shells and tea bags. The plan is to demolish these bins which are made of unsightly old drawer units, dig all the compst contained therein into the new patch and acquitre a slightly better looking plastis dustbin type thing to replace them.
Now that the moving frenzy has mostly quietened down, and I'll actually be spending most of my free time at home I'm thinking this weekend would be a good time to create the veg patch. I don;t really know what the soil is like yet, as I've really never done anything with it before. I'm guessing I may have to invest in some top soil or other nutritional additives to gee it up a bit.
Does anyone have any advice, for the creation of the patch, things to plant, anything at all really. You may start from the assumption that I know absolutely nothing.
Intolerance will not be tolerated.
1:41 pm
Councillor
Tue 22-Sep-09
Offline
Get some squared paper, draw a plan of your patch.
Make list of things you really wan to to grow either as they are delicious or hard to find or a silly price in the shops. Look them up online and note how much space they need and what sort of conditions, using your squared paper plan it out...the plan won't last the year as you will end up sticking all soprts of stuff in that you can't resist, but it's good to start with a framework- for instance where will you put more permanent things like soft fruit, if you are going to grow it etc.
All the nice juices made by your compost as it rotted will have soaked into the ground underneath the heaps, so that's good. I'm a great beleiver in well rotted manure and plenty of it...
Kateuk makes things at http://www.etsy.com/shop/finkstuff and sometimes she does this too http://www54paintings.blogspot.com/ and also this http://finkstuff.weebly.com/
Most Users Ever Online: 767
Currently Online:
24 Guest(s)
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
brightspark: 10532
danast: 10232
Aly: 9516
Sooliz: 8084
Hattie: 6920
Ambersparkle: 6699
JoannaS: 4800
Terrier: 4518
eileen54: 4424
Hannah: 4231
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 10
Members: 16141
Moderators: 2
Admins: 2
Forum Stats:
Groups: 6
Forums: 25
Topics: 2271
Posts: 123052
Newest Members:
EulaMoris, lynnmarie, Yelsy, Janice, xxtabsxx, NicianModerators: Toffeeapple: 16337, AdminTA: 10
Administrators: fn: 333, Danny: 5516
Copyright © 2006-2012 Cottage Smallholder Our Privacy Policy Advertise on Cottage Smallholder
