The Garden Shed

[Handley_Page]

I am not a great vegitable eater, and the idea of a cabbage having "flavour" is a strange one.
Just make sure I have peas & carrots (and not raw, either), if you please.
And plenty of gravy. . . .

 

[JackLuis]

I am not a great vegitable eater, and the idea of a cabbage having "flavour" is a strange one.
Just make sure I have peas & carrots (and not raw, either), if you please.
And plenty of gravy. . . .

HP, gravy doesn't grow on plants.

Try cabbage braised with pork shoulder, Polish or German recipe, use apple juice for the braising liquid, delicious!

 

[Handley_Page]

HP, gravy doesn't grow on plants.

Try cabbage braised with pork shoulder, Polish or German recipe, use apple juice for the braising liquid, delicious!

Pork? Oh yes please.
Apple sauce, rich gravy, roast spuds & peas & carrots. Thanks
Raspberry trifle to follow ?

 

[NaokoSmith]

Don't get too excited guys ! I am not going to start raising pigs in my garden. One Piglet is enough.

Maybe the lack of flavour in cabbage explains why Piglet likes it.

Great excitement! there are green sprouts coming up from where we planted the potatoes!! One of them looks as if something nibbled it, but one looks quite sturdy and strong. I think they are the King Edwardses. I wanted to plant a spud and a salad potato, but they were doing a 3 for £5 offer in the shop (the bags of seed potatoes were £2.49 each). The guy looked hurt that I wouldn't spend an extra penny on a third bag so we bought something called British Queen because Piglet liked the picture of golden chips on the packet.

I have managed to rake and mow one more bit of the lawn. (Those sunglasses are for hayfever control.)

Now for more marking ...

 

[Handley_Page]

Don't get too excited guys ! I am not going to start raising pigs in my garden. One Piglet is enough.

Maybe the lack of flavour in cabbage explains why Piglet likes it.

Great excitement! there are green sprouts coming up from where we planted the potatoes!! One of them looks as if something nibbled it, but one looks quite sturdy and strong. I think they are the King Edwardses. I wanted to plant a spud and a salad potato, but they were doing a 3 for £5 offer in the shop (the bags of seed potatoes were £2.49 each). The guy looked hurt that I wouldn't spend an extra penny on a third bag so we bought something called British Queen because Piglet liked the picture of golden chips on the packet.

I have managed to rake and mow one more bit of the lawn. (Those sunglasses are for hayfever control.)

Now for more marking ...

Shall I finish my Heffalump story fo you?

 

[NaokoSmith]

Shall I finish my Heffalump story fo you?

Please do! I have a little space just made for editing a Heffalump story.

 

[NaokoSmith]

While I was away in Rome, the sage flowered and the potato plants really shot up! I have been out now and earthed them up. I know I am very late in doing this, but it's all running late this year as we only got into this place a few months ago.

I feared that as AllardChardon warned me, turning over sods of grass would mean the earth was just full of grass roots when I came to dig it up, but they seem to have rotted in. Perhaps this is because the vegetable patch is under a line of oak trees - which brings its own problems of course .

Meanwhile, a wild flower lawn has sprung up at the end of the garden. I didn't mow it at first because I'm only slowly getting to grips with the amount of lawn I have, and have to rake it before I start properly mowing it. Now it's full of these lovely flowers! so I 'm going to leave it till much later in the summer. Butterflies and bees come to it. Anyone know what those orange flowers are called? I could go and take a clearer picture if necessary.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Do encourage the wildflowers, Naoko; diversity is the essence of life. I count more than fifty species in my yard every year - nearly a constant bouquet changing colour and form throughout the growing season.

A Piece of Turf - Albrecht Dürer

 

[NaokoSmith]

I think I will, as there is a considerable diversity in the wild flower lawn. It's not as if it were all just buttercups and daisies. There's purple clover and some sort of tiny yellow flower, and I have transplanted some violets which I nicked from by the path the other side of the park into the lawn too.

I think I will have to mow it eventually though, otherwise next year it might not grow so well?

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Mowing at the end of the season won't hurt it, but it isn't necessary. I usually mow around patches of wildflowers in the lawn so the grass stays short but the flowers stand out. Many of the wild ones are short, like Heal-All and Strawberry (our wild ones will be ready in a couple of weeks), are short, and the mower blade misses them anyway.

Enjoy the bees and the butterflies, but don't add a birdbath: attract the birds and your butterflies are gone.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Enjoy the bees and the butterflies, but don't add a birdbath: attract the birds and your butterflies are gone.

LOL, we have many birds in the trees at the edge of the garden and park - although there are not quite as many now as when we moved in. I am still hoovering up the feathers from the last poor little victim of my pussy . I'm not talking about some chickenshit toy boy - but a lovely goldfinch

Thanks for the advice on mowing! The feathery grass flowers add to the appeal of the wild flower lawn, there are so many flowers that the grass just makes a nice backdrop for them. Our neighbour has wild strawberries growing in her garden! I'm sure I can persuade Piglet to sneak a few and spit the seeds in our patch.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

LOL, we have many birds in the trees at the edge of the garden and park - although there are not quite as many now as when we moved in. I am still hoovering up the feathers from the last poor little victim of my pussy . I'm not talking about some chickenshit toy boy - but a lovely goldfinch

Thanks for the advice on mowing! The feathery grass flowers add to the appeal of the wild flower lawn, there are so many flowers that the grass just makes a nice backdrop for them. Our neighbour has wild strawberries growing in her garden! I'm sure I can persuade Piglet to sneak a few and spit the seeds in our patch.

Just don't let any Swedish cinematographers film it.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Just don't let any Swedish cinematographers film it.

Aww, our little home is a bit of a "wild strawberry patch". The houses look dull and ugly on the outside - especiallly as they are painted some weird grey and have cheap pebble-dash. Inside it's so sunny and pleasant with these big windows looking out on the oak trees by the park. The wind blows in the leaves and makes a lovely rustling sound. When there is a storm, it's quite exciting! but you know you are safe really. Although when we cycled through 40mph winds to school the other week, I made Piglet wear her helmet in case branches fell on us!

I am really inspired by the big garden, and have great hopes of transforming it.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Aww, our little home is a bit of a "wild strawberry patch". The houses look dull and ugly on the outside - especiallly as they are painted some weird grey and have cheap pebble-dash. Inside it's so sunny and pleasant with these big windows looking out on the oak trees by the park. The wind blows in the leaves and makes a lovely rustling sound. When there is a storm, it's quite exciting! but you know you are safe really. Although when we cycled through 40mph winds to school the other week, I made Piglet wear her helmet in case branches fell on us!

I am really inspired by the big garden, and have great hopes of transforming it.

If I can get across the pond in the Fall, you'll have to have me over to see it.

 

[NaokoSmith]

If I can get across the pond in the Fall, you'll have to have me over to see it.

Have you over what, Tio? (<snerk>)

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Have you over what, Tio? (<snerk>)

If you invite, over whatever you have to offer.

 

[JagFarlane]

Ah a bit late to this thread, my apologies. Been busy in the garden as it were.

This year we have about 500sq feet of garden going, Silver Queen corn, pumpkins, kuri squash, pole beans, sugar snap peas, sunflowers, acorn squash, and of course a variety of tomatoes.

Heavy clay soil that we've been amending with a mix of composted manure courtesy of the horses, chickens, and ducks. Makes for a bit of higher nitrogen that the corn just goes nuts for.

 

[Handley_Page]

I have killed a beautiful yellow rose by some obscure means. Probably too strong a feed mixture, I suspect. However, I have purchased a replacement and planted it; it's 'bush' plant and has already managed to bud, or whatever it's called.

Most of the rest of my small plots is either multiple shades of green (or varigated), or my shed.

But it IS nice to sit on a Summer afternoon and listen to the bees.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Ah a bit late to this thread, my apologies. Been busy in the garden as it were.

This year we have about 500sq feet of garden going, Silver Queen corn, pumpkins, kuri squash, pole beans, sugar snap peas, sunflowers, acorn squash, and of course a variety of tomatoes.

Heavy clay soil that we've been amending with a mix of composted manure courtesy of the horses, chickens, and ducks. Makes for a bit of higher nitrogen that the corn just goes nuts for.

Is manure good for clay soil? My soil is quite clay-ey; I had thought mixing some special sort of sand in it is the answer.

Pictures? (Of the garden! LOL.)

I have killed a beautiful yellow rose by some obscure means. Probably too strong a feed mixture, I suspect. However, I have purchased a replacement and planted it; it's 'bush' plant and has already managed to bud, or whatever it's called.

Most of the rest of my small plots is either multiple shades of green (or varigated), or my shed.

But it IS nice to sit on a Summer afternoon and listen to the bees.

Oh dear! that's a shame.

We have two rose bushes here. I'm waiting for them to fully flower, then I'll try to identify them. Well, we have three rose bushes. A wild 'dog' rose is growing through the pink rose - it looks very charming. I'll take pictures.


Sorry I have been neglecting the Shed. I have been busy in the garden! I'm slowly cutting down and raking through bits of the lawn. I've got two parts under control and am fighting with a third bit. It takes a long time to rake through, as it's under a stand of oak trees by the park and so it's full of twigs. Passing men walking their dogs advise me to run my mower straight over it all but I feel I should rake the twigs out first otherwise I might not have a mower for very long.


Meanwhile, a picture of my pussy and grass. (I said GRass.)

 

[SamScribble]

Is manure good for clay soil? My soil is quite clay-ey; I had thought mixing some special sort of sand in it is the answer.

In my experience, one of the best things for clay soil is compost - lots of compost. And even more compost.

 

[Handley_Page]

In my experience, one of the best things for clay soil is compost - lots of compost. And even more compost.

A little sand mixed in can work wonders, or so I am told.

But, I had this commended to me; dig a hole, or a trench,
get some horse muck and mix it with the soil/clay stuff.
Leave it a while.

But let's face it. A weed is only a tenacious flower in the wrong place.

 

[NaokoSmith]

In my experience, one of the best things for clay soil is compost - lots of compost. And even more compost.

I had this commended to me; dig a hole, or a trench,
get some horse muck and mix it with the soil/clay stuff.
Leave it a while.

But let's face it. A weed is only a tenacious flower in the wrong place.

As I still don't have any flowerbeds, there are very few weeds here . All those nice things growing in my lawn are just wild flowers. I think I have five or six different types of grass there, the different feathery heads are really pretty although I find I'm not skilled enough to photograph them. The other day they were all silvery with rain.

I must get a composting bin. I have been promised a car, which means I could go and get a bin from the council depot where they give subsidised cheap ones to encourage eco MILFs. And then I can transport bags of horse poo too.

 

[SamScribble]

Hello, Honey. If you are new to composting, a couple of tips. 1) chop household scraps into small pieces; and 2) go easy on the grass clippings - too much will make the compost sour.

Oh, and let the horse poo 'age' a bit before you use it.

Of course, if you are not new to composting, you already know all of this.

 

[TxRad]

Hello, Honey. If you are new to composting, a couple of tips. 1) chop household scraps into small pieces; and 2) go easy on the grass clippings - too much will make the compost sour.

Oh, and let the horse poo 'age' a bit before you use it.

Of course, if you are not new to composting, you already know all of this.

All manure should be aged and dried at least once or it is really too strong for most tame flowers.

 

[Handley_Page]

let the horse poo 'age' a bit before you use it.

Of course, if you are not new to composting, you already know all of this.

How very true.
Or you could mix it up with soil and so on.
Raw horse-muck generates a very high temperature; too high for most plants in too-close proximity.