Yesterday, after all the building, moving and organising -(I now have 7 crates, 5 tubs and 5 troughs in my brassica tent and room for a bit more if I need) I actually got to sew a few seeds in there!!!!!
I wanted to try brussel sprouts this year -my fave veggie -
Now I know (thankyou mum) that brussels need to be in really packed down compost otherwise you won't get properly formed firm brussels, they will be all loose! I didn't want to waste a whole crate, but didn't want to plant around them in case I disturbed them when picking the other crops -so I have got some big pop bottles as you can se, cut the bottoms off and then left the lids on whilst I packed them tight with compost, taken the lid off and sunk them into the crates- -once the brussels are about 3" tall I will pop a cane down in to the bottle and secure with wire to the arch and they should stay nice and secure..
Oh and you can keep the bottoms of the bottles and pop back on over night like cloches whilst you wait for the seed to germinate !!!!
So I have 6 brussels set -they are "clodius" which are shorter than a lot of brussels -a max of 4ft -or so Im told
Also in there yesterday I set :-
- spinach
- grun khol
- chard
- broccoli raab
- early purple sprouting broccoli -that will be for early next year when a lot of other crops are done.
I have only set one half of a crate for each and once they are through and a couple of inches tall I will set some more in the other side and by the time that is up and useable we should have eaten the first side and can set some more -well that is the theory
3 comments:
Hi
You're certainly busy - clap hands! Reet - must remember you're my role model here and get going on this myself now. I've had my PatioGro put up now - so I'm all good to go and have got no excuse now. Must get on with it and start planting those seeds.
I noticed your point earlier about maybe putting copper legs or summat on a PatioGro (if you had bought one) - so I'm thinking "that could be an idea" and wondering how best to tackle it. How does buying some of those furniture castor cup thingies sound and trying to glue some copper tape I have to them? What do you think?
Another query I wonder if you could answer for me purlease - I've got a readymade square foot gardening bed (one of those plastic thingies - with a liner made of some sort of loosewoven plastic). I'm wondering whether to use the liner or no - as this "bed" has to go straight down on concrete (rather than earth) and obviously needs to drain okay. So - I'm wondering about whether I should put in the liner, then add a layer of gravel, then do the compost on top of that. On the other hand - perhaps I should forget about the liner and just put the gravel straight down on the concrete and then put the compost on top of that. What do you think about that purlease? (tis the smallish type of gravel I bought - but think it would stay okay within the confines of that "bed").
love
ceridwen
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Hi there Ceridwen
I have just been and had a look on line at the patiogro, and it looks like the legs aren't tubular like I expected -so no slipping copper tubes on them...
My other idea would be to stand each leg on a brick -and run the copper tape around the brick.. Im just thinking about how close to the floor the bottom tray is-so if anything grows over the edge it will be near the floor and the slugs will use it like a bridge -sneaky little blighters lol
So the bricks would lift them that bit higher and the tape will be nice and easy to run around them..plus you could tie strings around the bottom struts and around the bricks to help keep it weighted down.
With the square foot bed -I would leave the liner in -one more thing for the slugs to try and get through ;-)... then put a bit of gravel in the bottom for drainage and top with compost(if its waterproof you could always punch a few holes in just in case) -but thats only what I would do lol
I can't wait to see how everything goes... when we move back to the Uk Im going to be starting from scratch as our garden is totally different to here and not particularly big -so I will be following your blog with interest ..
By the way did you see that programme the other day called "no grounds for gardening" or something similar? there were some great ideas for making the most of space.. one was almost like a bookcase but with more sections -filled with compost, covered in membrane, they then cut slits in it and planted through it before standing it up against a wall. So they ended up with a living wall of herbs and salad leaves -Im definitely going to be giving that a go when we move home ...
Hi
Bricks - now that could be a thought for the Patiogro - I'll ponder that one.
Your comment re the liner and punching holes in it - hmmm....I hadnt thought in terms of the liner being an extra slug barrier - but that is a point - and I was wondering whether to punch holes through the liner...
I've just watched that programme re vertical gardening and thought "Gardeners World is a lot more interesting than I remember" and I was definitely lusting after that balcony with the umbrella and pond - that looked very good to me. Very constructive use of space.
I've been wondering a bit about those living walls - and that introduced a bit more food for thought - re a bit of wallspace I have....mustnt try and run before I can walk (or - to be more accurate - crawl...!) - but it could be a thought somewhere in the future.
regards
ceridwen
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