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Garden prep
3 February 2015, 20:27,
#1
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?
It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here

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3 February 2015, 20:33,
#2
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.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
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3 February 2015, 20:48,
#3
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
RE: Garden prep
Wow, Rob, a 24ft greenhouse! I'm green with envy.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
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3 February 2015, 21:49,
#5
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
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?
It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here

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4 February 2015, 22:57,
#7
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
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)
It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here

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7 February 2015, 09:37,
#9
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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