Gardening, the simple metaller's simple pleasure

[Bigmac]

Cheers, yeah I ordered a cheapish one for 40 quid. Said it was delivered yesterday, but nothing arrived. Having looked at the reviews for Fastway couriers they seem like absolute cowboys, so I assume that's where the problem lies. If I can't find where it went, or get a replacement, I'll take it as life's way of telling me to just build one.

On the upside, having my own homegrown onion and garlic strings hanging up in the shed has a nice feeling of accomplishment to it.

[Eoin McLove]

^^^ very nice indeed.

Tis the season. Over the past few days I've been back pottering in the garden, cutting grass,  weeding and I got a nice bit of painting done that I'd been thinking about since last summer. I wanted to get in at the back wall before everything grew up in front of it so that's a nice box ticked.
It had been a drab, unpainted wall since we moved in a year and a half ago and with all of the effort I put in planting last year it really let the garden down.  So now it's a nice bright sky blue with white lintel. Everything is beginning to leaf now so in a few weeks it's going to look the business. 

We fucked up our attempt at a veggie patch last year.  First attempt,  so no big panic,  but I'm looking forward to putting a shape on that in the coming weeks.

[Bigmac]

I was only just out planting the first early potatoes now, thinking about this thread.

Being home for the next few weeks will definitely help me keep on top of the gardening. Planted the first earlies now, with the second earlies to follow in a couple of weeks, followed by the maincrop. I've had them chitting in the window the past few weeks.

I sowed some broad beans, and sugar snap peas last month, as well as my sungold tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, tumbling tomatoes, cucumbers, gherkins, chillis, bell peppers, jalapenos, dill, parsley, coriander and basil. Along with a tray containing 3 types of lettuce. All in all a pretty good start.

My poly tunnel took a battering the past couple of storms, so I was out for a couple of hours repairing it today. Had some old mesh lying around which worked a treat for replacing the vents, and I picked up one of those spare cover things for the mini greenhouses in Woodie's, cut parts to size, and taped them from the inside to cover up the larger rips. Pretty pleased with it. It's already registering over 20 degrees inside, when the sun hits it.

What went wrong with your own patch last year? I'll never forget ignoring all the advice about 'starting small' in my first year. Overdoing things by miles, and killing most of what I tried to grow. The 8 tomato plants in the poly tunnel, which I hadn't the faintest idea how to look after, were a particularly sorry, wilted, sight.

Also, it's times like this that really show the benefit of having access to lots of fresh food from the garden.

[kiehozero]

Just stuck down our window boxes and filled up our greenhouse today while I had a spare afternoon. Been putting it off for ages because the weather has been atrocious. We've just got a patio in Dublin so no polys or railway sleepers for us unfortunately, but still more fortunate than many. We've put down tomatoes, spinach, sage, carrots, rocket, broad beans, asparagus, broccoli and cucumber. Last year was also our first year so we didn't realise the importance of cutting and trimming, we ended up with some very tall stalks with about ten tiny tomatoes on, so that will definitely be done this year.

We've also got an orchard and loads of blackberry bushes near us which is great come September . There's a little wood that gets plenty of mushrooms in, not really built up any knowledge to do anything about those though.

[Bigmac]

That's the very same mistake I made with the tomatoes. It seemed so counter intuitive to start lopping bits off, not knowing that it's helpful to direct the energy into tomato production. They got so bushy I couldn't move around the tunnel to water them without snapping bits off, or otherwise damaging them. Think that led to them picking up some sort of disease and that was the end of them.

[Bigmac]

Second early potatoes planted yesterday, trying out planting some nasturtiums with my tomatoes to keep away pests, so they've just germinated. Interested in pickling the seeds too.

Just did my first sowing of radish, and later I'll get the second sowing of lettuce in.

This being at home really is working wonders for the garden. Surprised to see many places like Quick Crop totally shut down due to the volume of orders. Seems many folks are seeing the benefit of growing their own.

[Eoin McLove]

I planted nosturtiums in the veggie bed last year and they completely took over the garden.  They look beautiful and add lots of colour but you'll need to keep on top of them. They grew right up the fence and were going into the neighbour's garden.

[Bigmac]

Ah nice one, cheers for the heads up.

The idea was to plant them in pots beside the tomatoes in the tunnel, so that should keep the from roaming. I was considering popping them in beside the cabbage or broccoli too, as they're a good companion plant for those, but I might leave it off and just go with a bit of enviro-mesh.

Did you eat the nasturtiums? I hear the flowers and leaves are edible. I'm mainly looking to try and make the 'poor man's capers' from the seeds.

[Eoin McLove]

Actually no, we didn't eat them but the entire veggie patch went a bit sideways on us. Going to try to redo it this year. I have never heard of poor man's capers but I love capers so now I'm kicking myself! Pots should be the job for the nosturtiums, alright. They look great so they are worth planting if you can control them.

[Bigmac]

Yeah much of gardening really seems to just be making mistakes and learning from them.

I was just laughing about growing turnips last year, not knowing the difference between turnips and swedes, and wondering why they stayed so small. Live and learn.

Hope it goes well for you this year!

[Trev]

Decided to finally start trying growing a bit of veg. Put down some leeks, beans, lettuce and  bit of garlic in a pot. Next plan is to pull up the griselinea that's been there since we moved in, and I've always hated, and replace it with a couple of apple trees

[kiehozero]

Got plenty of rocket and lettuce shooting up now, being at home means I'm paying attention to how everything is going. You can really lose yourself in moving things around and staring at compost for a while; planting everything a few weeks ago took the bones of two hours but it didn't even feel like 15 minutes.

[Eoin McLove]

At least when the corona virus wipes out humanity we'll have left behind some quality gardens for the deer, badgers and escapee crocodiles to shit in.

[Bigmac]

Yeah being at home really means you can watch everything so closely.

I got one of those little cold frames from Lidl, so I move the seedlings from the windowsill out there if there's a bit of sunshine, and back in if it gets a bit cloudy and cold. Would never be able to give this level of attention normally.

This weekend I'll be direct sowing the peas, and onion sets, along with some summer cabbage in module trays. I'd be fairly sure I 'd lose my mind at the moment, if I didn't have this to occupy me.

[Trev]

Would tomatoes do alright in the house or am I going to need a greenhouse for those sort of things?