Back to nature

[Ed]

Our neighbour took on an allotment, it was far too big for him so I said I'd help him out. Bit windy for the bike today for my liking so I went and dug about 30m2, it was backbreaking work and full of weeds - but I'm now looking forward to my first ever home-grown first early spuds. 'Foremost' variety. And I was disappointed when I had to go home, I didn't get time to put in the lollo rosso :D

[medwaysv]

i,ll turn my hand to most things but me and gardening dont mix
but good luck to you

[GregK2]

My garden is pretty low maintenance - well it is now that everything is dead... :roll:

Used to have some pots with herbs in, was always nice to eat something you've grown (even of it was just a bit of parsley and mint).

Anyhoo, hope the spuds do ok

[Mr Toad]

Your back will know it tomorrow :shock:

[Cloggsy]

Ed, if you like digging that much, come & sort my back garden out mate :roll:

[philipMac]

This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. The gf and I appear to be buying a gaff now. So, it has a little garden out the back, which is absolutely knackered.
I would love to get out there, and just cover the whole thing with tomatoes, and herbs, spuds of course, and a few flowers here and there. Something that she can go out and pick for the house if the mood takes her sort of thing.

Just a big block, like what Ed is doing there. Thing is, the summers out here are a long way off what I am used to in Ireland. Not sure how the heat and dryness is going to work out... :?

But, sounds very nice Ed. Other than spuds, what else are you going to put down?

[Peter Henry]

My old chap was a very keen gardener and my formative years often involved using the petrol mower and rotavator. Then when I first got married we too had a small garden. never been a great one to ficddle with borders and lawns but a little veg plot was great!

We had rhubarb and all manner of salad veggies along with mint and rosemary. my pride though were our couple of rows of King edwards which were just divine to eat with a little knob........of butter that is! :wink: :P

[jim@55]

gardening is not really my thing ,.il cut the grass(about 30mtr*10mtr ) but thats it .any thing else just doesnt get done .my boy just uses our garden for playing football so its not the beechgrove garden but its tidy :wink:

[Quiff Wichard]

I used to think gardening was for old people.

now I love it !!..I have a nice garden ...!!


hence I am obviously now OLD !!!

[Peter Henry]

Hark at Mr.Wood decking! :wink: :P :P

[Quiff Wichard]

aint got any wood decking!!! :wink:

[northwind]

I used to spend a lot of time in the garden when I was younger. I was quite good at it, really... But I don't have the time for it now. We've got a nice wee patch out the back that's nicely set up for low maintenance- few oldish trees, lots of woody bushes and shrubs, bit of grass, some shrubbery type bits. Few hours each a month keeps it decent enough.

I guarantee I'll do more of it as I get older though... We used to always grow peas and spuds. Nothing like the taste of small peas fresh off the plant. My carrots weren't so good, they were lovely but a tad small. Not much eating on a 2 inch carrot :)

[timwilky]

My old fellow was a fairly keen gardner in his dotage, he had a couple of acres of gardens so whilst most of it was formal gardens he did manage to have about 50m**2 of soft fruit and about 200m**2 of vegatables.

When he first started it was with a spade. After about 2 days he went out and bought a rotovator. That lasted him about 2 years by which time he had got his hands on a little old grey fergy, that with a rotovator/harrow atachments took the back breaking bit out, it was then a matter of weeding every time the sun shone.

His biggest problem were the rabbits. My son was well into the animals of farting wood at the time as refused to talk to me and his grandad when he caught us snipping the little sods.

For me it was new potaotoes and fresh peas/carrots. I could never stand the broad beans he grew. He also installed a couple of glasshouses in which tomatoes flurished and a vine that would not stop producing the sweetest black grapes.

Fresh fruit and veg not even an hour old is delicious, especially with a rabbit stew :lol:

[Jelster]

Jelster & Gardening = [-X

For a start, bendinig over and digging really plays on my back problem, plus anything we plant always dies :cry:

However, we like having birds and butterflies in the garden, so this year we hope to plant some Buddleia bushes and some Sunflowers. That's about it...

.......

[K]

We had a huge garden when I was a kid and it's always been a keen pastime down the male generations in our family - til my generation - then my brother and I swapped placess and he stayed inside and I was out and muddy!

Dad gave me a whole plot of my own, by the time I'd finished I had a whole garden within the garden. My own little picket fence and gate (which Dad helped me make, even though at 7 I was better at woodwork than he was!), a bird table, rockery, borders, pond and weeping willow tree (under which I buried my dearly departed hamster).

When we moved six years later I insisted the willow come with us! :roll: Moving in December with a petulant 13 yr old daughter who is trying to dig a 12' tree out of the frozen ground... :?

Needless to say I got my way. :twisted: I ended up designing and creating the whole back garden of that new house around that tree. I've been back since, and at nearly 30 yrs since I first got it, the tree's still there and massive now.
Trees have a way of making your life seem puny when you do get to see them grow.

The house I rent at the moment has a nice, well established 'woody shrub' garden that requires feck all maintainence - which is just as well as I now prefer to sit on my patio surrounded by Bonsai trees. They take up more time in spring and summer than the whole garden does - front and back!

There is a small veggie patch, mostly Rocket, Lettuce and believe it or not - cultivated Dandilions. The whole lot get eaten by my Tortoise throughout summer. :roll:

[Ed]

Not sure how the heat and dryness is going to work out... :?

But, sounds very nice Ed. Other than spuds, what else are you going to put down?

I would have thought that NYC has high humidity - so, ideal for big big tomatoes and also peppers.

What else am I putting down - nice lettuce - the sort that's too expensive to buy - lollos rosso and radiccio - plus some bog standard leeks, parsnips, beetroot (yum yum, I love it, Anne hates it) and kerrits. Neighbour is growing enough runner beans to feed the tribe of Benjamin, plus there's a HUGE crop of rhubarb coming , and there are some established gooseberry bushes that would have keep the local WI in jam for months to come - I shall beat them to it :D

And Toad you are right. I could hardly stand up this morning :lol:

Oh yeah. Better plant an apple tree to kepp this here horse in clover :wink:

[Quiff Wichard]

mines a woodland theme too with lowish maintenance..but the hedge takes some cutting.......... however its a bit ecclectic with bottles and milk churns and wind chimes etc..

[Fizzy Fish]

growing veggies is ace - really theraputic and it's cool to see what the plants actually look like that deliver the food to your plate.

My favourite are the herbs - little basil plants are only about a centimetre high and they already taste proper basily :D

[Quiff Wichard]

dont u grow potatos first-

dont they do summat good to the soil??

[Ed]

dont u grow potatos first-

dont they do summat good to the soil??

They're nitrogen fixers, ie they put nitrogen into the soil. Dunno how to stop the potato blight, I don't want to spray the buggers.

[Peter Henry]

Aye lad you can't beat a bit of crop rotation! :wink:

[timwilky]

Aye lad you can't beat a bit of crop rotation! :wink:

So thats skunk, followed by not so potent grass then potaotes in the 3 year and start again

[philipMac]

Aye lad you can't beat a bit of crop rotation! :wink:

So thats skunk, followed by not so potent grass then potaotes in the 3 year and start again

:lol: Ah Tim. First laugh of the day. Nice one.