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Garden prep

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Garden prep
3 February 2015, 20:27,
#1
SecretPrepper Offline
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Garden prep
Hello all,

Just a quick post on how are you preparing your gardens for spring?
I have bought seed for spring and am hoping to save a lot of seed for next year.
I have started a few beds and made a start on a chicken run.

For the run I'm using a pollytunnel Skeleton and will wrap it with chicken wire
And have dug out an Area to put 6 inches of straw down that the chicken will turn into compost.

Have you guys started yet?
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3 February 2015, 20:33,
#2
MaryN Offline
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RE: Garden prep
Oh yes! I'd be getting on with it as well if it wasn't for the snow and what appears to be permafrost. It's too cold to prune anything; I can't get a fork into the ground and the leaves from Autumn are still frozen in clumps. It'll be Spring soon.
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3 February 2015, 20:48,
#3
Geordie_Rob Offline
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RE: Garden prep
I've got 5 6ftx4ft raised beds made, the wood cut & ready to screw together for another 4.

Got the area levelled ready for my 24ftx6ft greenhouse to go onto. Then it's a case of lay a big plastic tarp on the floor & cover with 2 tonne of pea gravel. 3 tonne of compost is a phonecall (and a lot of wheelbarrowing) away to fill the raised beds.

Got myself 3 new raspberry plants from £1 shop today as they were the only ones with buds on. All the rest were just bare sticks & previously they've failed to grow.

Got some spuds started sprouting so I've started chitting them. I'd only ever used seed potatoes until last year when I had spare big flower buckets & inedible spuds (going green) so I planted them to see if they'd grow. They all did & the spuds were lovely so I'm not wasting my cash on seed potatoes anymore.

Just waiting on this cold weather to pass & I can crack on. Fingers crossed for the weekend
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3 February 2015, 21:44,
#4
MaryN Offline
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RE: Garden prep
Wow, Rob, a 24ft greenhouse! I'm green with envy.
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3 February 2015, 21:49,
#5
Geordie_Rob Offline
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RE: Garden prep
Well 24ft is really 3 8ftx6ft greenhouses bolted together. But it totals 24ftx6ft. It comes with plastic panels rather than glass but my plan is to buy glass a few bits at a time & eventually have it all glazed properly. It's cheaper than a polytunnel as I bought them discounted at the end of last year.
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4 February 2015, 16:05,
#6
SecretPrepper Offline
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RE: Garden prep
I'm jealous of your greenhouse too. I live in a terraced house so I will be experimenting with vertical growing this year.

I too have been hindered by the snow but around here it melts fairly quickly so it's all about timing

What plants are you all growing this year?
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4 February 2015, 22:57,
#7
Geordie_Rob Offline
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RE: Garden prep
I'm planning lots of spuds, carrots, peas, onions, courgettes, pumpkins for the kids, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, sweetcorn, cucumbers, spring onions, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, rhubarb & if I can find a suitable location, I want 2 apple trees (to pollinate each other) & a cherry tree.

T-oddity from the forum also very kindly donated his old beehive to me so I'm hoping a swarm either moved in, or I can adopt a swarm from a swarm catcher on a different forum. I'm not so much fussed on the honey (though my boy loves it on his toast) or even the wax, I just want a colony of pollinators as close to my plants as possible & I don't mind feeding them (via my plants) if they don't mind feeding me in return (by helping me get a bumper crop year after year). Plus I've always had a fascination with bees, even since I was a kid.

To clarify, this is all for my allotment rather than my garden. My wife would never let me use the garden for something useful. Where would she hang her washing? Smile
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6 February 2015, 14:11,
#8
SecretPrepper Offline
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RE: Garden prep
Nice. I will be doing a lot of those ones too. I will Also be doing some achocha and trying miracle trees again (epic failed last time)
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7 February 2015, 09:37,
#9
T-oddity Offline
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RE: Garden prep
I'm a little behind with my allotment this year, been very busy with work, looking forward to getting stuck in now though, for anyone wishing to grow their own I would highly recommend a no dig system such as recommended by Charles Dowding.
http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/
I've been using a no dig system for 4 years now and its a lot less effort and time for me, my biggest problem is finding ways of storing all my produce.
If you can get your hands on a spring copy of the permaculture magazine there are a couple of cracking articles one by Charles on hot beds and another one on using wood chip mulch in a no dig garden a la Paul Gautschi, he's a bit too much of a bible basher for me. but the system works, I use this system for my soft fruits, I would like do more of it, but I don't have access to much in the way of wood chip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGZ1Wy0WES0
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