Gardening Plans 2022

[765489]

I've taken an executive decision this morning to have a handy summer. I will not be growing any veg whatsoever as I'm planning to resheet the polytunnel as this requires a nice hot sunny day for the plastic to expand when fitting it.

So apart from resheeting I'm putting my vegetable plot in sunflowers and phacelia to give the ground a bit of a break and enjoy the nature aspect of this.

[490808]

Don't forget the anti hotspot tape, well worth spending the money on as it extends the life of the tunnel.

[765489]

Don't forget the anti hotspot tape, well worth spending the money on as it extends the life of the tunnel.

I've a box of it in the shed. I got recycled rubber matting that a company used for shipping some sort of computer components in and used that. So the hotspot tape stayed mostly in the box. But that stuff is not available anymore.

The plastic is 7 years old. I could get another year out of it but feck it in the humour of doing it this year.

[isha]

We have to resheet 2 polytunnels this year as the winds in the last few months extended the existing mild rips to proper destitution. Its a huge job, tall 40 foot tunnels, have to dig out the channels around them first, also rebuild door frames etc that look less than dignified. Which means digging out the concrete the old frames were embedded in. All to be done by hand as a mini digger would not get in on the rocky sloped ground etc.
Anyways. I might have still ploughed on with seed plans except for the additional circumstance that a fine handsome hare has established his or perhaps more likely her form under a holly tree in the front garden. S/he would probably love all my tender seedlings etc. And dare I scare him or her off - not when someone else who lives here is practically beside himself with joy at our new lodger.
I dunno, quo vadis now, oh erstwhile gardener?

[765489]

That's the black rubber stuff I'm talking about Co. Handy for around the anchors, I'm hoping to reuse it if possible.

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[765489]

We have to resheet 2 polytunnels this year as the winds in the last few months extended the existing mild rips to proper destitution.
I dunno, quo vadis now, oh erstwhile gardener?

You should try and have a roll of polytunnel repair tape handy Isha. Twice a year I examine the polythene and put the tape on any rips or weakened areas, early spring and late autumn. It does extend the life of your tunnel as it stops the rips getting bigger.

[isha]

You should try and have a roll of polytunnel repair tape handy Isha. Twice a year I examine the polythene and put the tape on any rips or weakened areas, early spring and late autumn. It does extend the life of your tunnel as it stops the rips getting bigger.

We go through several rolls a year. The tunnels are more tape than plastic in many places. Have the taping down to a fine art at this stage. Two of us giving out lingo - hold it, no you hold it! Not that way! Etc! - one on the outside, one inside
We live on an exposed very windy hilly cold place. Even with planted trees for shelter its a wonder polytunnels survive at all. Theres many a morning after a crazy storm that I marvel at them still standing. I have 2 rolls of tape on the counter as I write - we are never out of it.
To be honest the plastic this time round has lasted on the tunnels far longer than expected, more than 10 years - it owes us nothing. Its just the fecken work to resheet that has me feeling tired already.

[490808]

Todays plan after a few good dry days is to wrap up warm and get out and cut the grass.

[schmittel]

I've been on google/YouTube for the last few days trying to find ideas to repurpose a sh*t load of pvc water pipes I have cleared out of an old nursery site. In doing so came across hydroponics which I knew little about. Sadly majority of my pipes diameter too small to be of any use for this but my interest has been piqued nonetheless.

Never been much of a gardener but my plan for 2022 is to try and grow some veg using hydroponics. Anybody here got any experience of it?

And if anyone wants some PVC pipes, I've got loads free to take away, concrete blocks from raised beds too!

[isha]

I know nothing about hydroponics unfortunately, Schmittel.

For the blocks, if you want an option that doesn't take up as much space as raised beds and might be an interesting experiment, look into building keyhole beds. You can feed kitchen compost into them directly which is very handy. I might try build one this year. Last year I tried a few hugelkultur beds and they did well. With keyhole beds I like the idea of gardening at a height that doesn't break your back

[CelticRambler]

We live on an exposed very windy hilly cold place. Even with planted trees for shelter its a wonder polytunnels survive at all. Theres many a morning after a crazy storm that I marvel at them still standing. I have 2 rolls of tape on the counter as I write - we are never out of it.
To be honest the plastic this time round has lasted on the tunnels far longer than expected, more than 10 years - it owes us nothing. Its just the fecken work to resheet that has me feeling tired already.

The formerMrsCR, now resident in the Shetland Islands, has invested in a Polycrub, designed and built by the locals to stand up to their every-second-week fierce Atlantic storms. IIRC it wasn't hugely expensive for what should be a pretty permanent structure.

All being well, my Prodigal Son/house-sitter should have planted my earliest-of-early potatoes by now, in 30l pots. This is part of a planned migration from twice-yearly in-the-ground spuds to four-times-a-year no-dig production. Over the last decade, I've found that the potato patch ties up a lot of the veg bed area for a long time. This was manageable while I was clearing scrubby clay soil and aiming to improve it, but that phase came to an end last year. Now I'm hoping to improve the yield through more careful cultivation, and to spread it more evenly throughout the year.

I'm working away from home at the moment, but left the Prodigal Son with the mission of negotiating with the neighbouring goat farmer for a few trailer loads of goat manure. If he's done that (and spread it where it's supposed to go) then I'd be hoping to get started on my spring plantings when I get home at the start of next month. There's still a lot of conditioning to be done on the terraced beds that I built last year, but all the stemmy and leafy veg planted there did very well.

[CelticRambler]

A week of dry weather - cold in the mornings, and very windy today, but dry and sunny enough to make for pleasant outdoor work - so I have all my onion sets planted (red, white and yellow), as well as a late sowing of garlic. Have also got peppers, Cayenne peppers, jalapeño chilis, tomatoes, lettuce, celery and basil germinating in the incubator.

The Prodigal Son did indeed get the early-early potatoes planted while I was away, and they are (I hope) enjoying the heat and humidity in their big buckets on the path out the front. The son's next job will be to plant peas against a new wide-mesh fence that we'll put up next week (the posts are already in place). This fence is right at the back of my new terraced beds, and with the peas growing against it is meant to act as a windbreak against any cold north winds that might blow through later in the Spring.

He didn't get me the goat manure (yet?) but we'll ... acquire ... a few trailer-loads of good quality top-soil from the far side of the lane in a few days, and that'll fill up the old beds. As the soil in the new bed is still very heavy, I'm going to put all my root veg (except onions and garlic) in the old bed for at least another year or two. Peppers and chilis are going up high in the sun; leafy greens are going lower down, in the shade of a line of relocated blackcurrants; sweetcorn and melons will probably go right down low, where - as intended - the ground is wet to the point of being marshy.

But I don't know where to put my tomatoes. All the available space has had either potatoes or blighty tomatoes in recent years, and I really don't want a repeat of the decimated harvest of last year ...

[490808]

I only just realised that I have some garden news today. My wife had been moaning about supports for rambling roses and needing more spaces to put clematis (the obvious answer why did you buy plants you have nowhere in the garden for wasn't going to cut it) so I've just finished making two support trellis pyramids. Thats two roses covered and 8 potential clematis planting location (4 corners of the pyramids).

I'll stick up a photo when they are finished they still need painting. Basically the geometry is that they have 8 ft long sides that go to a foot square at the top and the pyramid is 3ft wide 6ft from the top. Sounds complicated but the dimensions make them easy to make and they make the maximum use out of the materials I can get at the local timber yard. Currently they need to dry out before painting the timber is all pretreated and additionally soaked soaked all the joints and end grain in Protim 265. Final finish will be 2 or more coats of Garden Shades Exterior Woodcare, Sage

[765489]

Would you not give the tomatoes and spuds a break this year CR ? Just to clear out the blight infestation you seem to have ? I had to do that but in a polytunnel so not sure how effective it would be in the open air if you have fields of spuds nearby.

@CO would be great to get a photo up of that trellis as it's something I need to do for two rambling roses I have in a bad location that don't seem to be rambling.

[CelticRambler]

Would you not give the tomatoes and spuds a break this year CR ? Just to clear out the blight infestation you seem to have ? I had to do that but in a polytunnel so not sure how effective it would be in the open air if you have fields of spuds nearby.

The weird thing is that the spuds don't seem to be affected. I usually have four varieties, and get a full year's supply out of them (last harvest was mid-January - that'll see me through to the first "new" potatoes in a few months time.

I really want to be similarly self-sufficient in tomatoes, as they'd be the veg (fruit? ) I next most use - especially when I have non-carnivorous visitors! Maybe this year, I'll see if I can rig up some kind of tunnel system for them on previously uncultivated soil. We'll see; I have a couple of months yet.

[765489]

I've taken an executive decision this morning to have a handy summer. I will not be growing any veg whatsoever as I'm planning to resheet the polytunnel as this requires a nice hot sunny day for the plastic to expand when fitting it.

So apart from resheeting I'm putting my vegetable plot in sunflowers and phacelia to give the ground a bit of a break and enjoy the nature aspect of this.

My gardening plans have changed.

Still not growing any veg this year but I have decided to move the poly tunnel. I will use it to grow some flowers which will be out of it by end of May / early June so I'm going to take the polythene off it and dismantle it. I'm hoping I can take up the hoop legs and knock the concrete off them and relocate the whole thing. The steel if very good in it so I'm hoping it's the same condition underground. I probably won't get around to resheeting it till the following year. I'll throw up some photos of my progress for anyone interested at a later date.

Will also be putting in a pear espalier. I've got eight new trees late last year. All I need to do is put down three strainers and run some lengths of high tensile steel wire. I'm really excited about this little project. Ground is a bit saturated at the moment so will wait a couple of weeks for the water table to drop. Strainers are 10 foot so will need to go down a little over 3 foot. I've a couple of bags of old concrete that's lumpy I'll be throwing in as a dry mix just to get rid of it. It doesn't really matter if it binds or not as I will be using the old fashioned method of tamping down around the strainers.

I've plans to get about 8 plum trees next year so will be preparing an area for them. Apart from that have loads of flower seeds and got some Dahlia tubers there recently. I had dahlias before but not sure what happened them.

[isha]

Yeah we have decided not to resheet this year. Got all the plastic off the largest tunnel, dismantled doors, and will just leave it to let the wind blow through for a year. The plastic had been truly shredded by the storms that proceeded the latest round. Otherwise it would be relentless work to get all prepped for the fine warm day needed to put on new plastic, and there are other things to be done, like making a living! It's okay too I think to let the ecosystem breathe - it must be lonely for the tunnel plants not feeling rain and wind ever.

I am going to concentrate on flowers too, try and coddle various perenennials I have been trying for years. The climate where I am is just that bit too much on the harsh side for many plants that do well elsewhere. The ground here has swallowed up so many of my hopes and plants over the years, leaving me to depend on bulbs, columbines, the hardy geraniums, spurges, yarrows, jacobs ladder, lupins etc, etc the kind of things that are as stubborn as myself. But I would love some stands of taller things echinecea, delphiniums, and more poppies. More delicate things even if they won't last more than one year. So flowers it is ..... hopefully.

[765489]

Cut the grass for the first time this year yesterday. I've clumps of daffodils and snow drops around the lawns so was a bit of an obstacle course.

It's a lovely morning outside so going to get going sowing flower seeds in trays and cells in the polytunnel.

[CelticRambler]

I took the strimmer for a walk around the edges of the grassed areas last week and SonNo.1 ran the mower over the rest a couple of days ago, at its highest setting. Despite on-going landscaping, the place suddenly looked a lot cleaner and tidier! A second, lower cut is planned for Saturday.

My earliest pot-sown potatoes are starting to come up now, and I've placed an order for another 25 pots (30l) as I can't see myself getting any ground ready for proper drills in the next couple of months. On the worktop in front of me right now, though, are dozens of seed packets, of which a good number will be sown directly into the ground by the end of next week - mostly "leafy greens" and root-veg.

[765489]

Started cutting the grass yesterday. It's a long process, have 3 acres but look after about half of it and the rest is just left grow wild and will be planted with trees. t's on all different levels and sloped and about as far from the neat square lawn as is possible. Have resisted the urge to get a ride on so far but it's not quick.

To cut down on your grass cutting Mountain you could also leave square blocks / areas to grow into meadows. Put a few pathways through it with the lawnmower. Great for wildlife. Then around late September / October give it a quick skim of the strimmer. When my niece is up she gets great fun and interest out of looking at all the strange insects, butterflies and moths that have now established themselves in the meadows I grow on.

[CelticRambler]

Ah here - squares are boring! When I was still at that "too much" stage, I used to cut wavy pathways through the grass which gave the "neglected" area a different kind of interest. It also meant that the sunlight would hit different areas in different ways over the course of the day, increasing the variety of plants and insects for the same square footage.

Might have posted this here before - it's a shot of my "unmown meadow" from a few years ago. You can't see it, but there are three pathways cut through that field of flowers - the exact width of the ride-on mower, done deliberately to give the mower access to other parts of the garden.

[CelticRambler]

Right, that'll do for today: carrots, beetroot, three types of onion (seed, the sets are already "in the green"), celery, red cabbage, another 20 pots of potatoes, second batch of tomatoes, chilis, peppers and Cayenne peppers; and an early trial of gherkins and artichokes. Plus some coriander and sage.

An unexpected bonus was finding that a Jerusalem artichoke, received as a gift at the beginning of last year, and which was very "meh" (barely managed 50cm of stem and leaf) has been busy propagating itself all winter nevertheless and now has about ten times more tuber volume than I planted! S'pose I'm going to have to learn to cook and eat it now ...

[765489]

Spent the day putting in the posts for the espellier. Small posts will be removed shortly and wire put on. Nearly fecking killed me.

My daily limit is usually 2 of these type of posts when doing them by hand. I done three in total.

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[CelticRambler]

Spent the day putting in the posts for the espellier. Small posts will be removed shortly and wire put on. Nearly fecking killed me.

My daily limit is usually 2 of these type of posts when doing them by hand. I done three in total.

Is the ground that hard? Would have thought it'd be pretty soft right now, making the job a bit easier than usual ... ?

[765489]

Is the ground that hard? Would have thought it'd be pretty soft right now, making the job a bit easier than usual ... ?

I was digging the holes with a 6 foot crowbar and using one of them post hole digger things for taking out the loose clay. But you hit the marl fairly quickly after you pass the 2 foot mark. I went down about 4ft.

You wouldn't lift the posts physically but can drag them.

So when they are in the hole the slow process of a layer of broken concrete blocks, tamp the fck out of them with the head of the sledge, followed by dry concrete, followed by a layer of marl, tamped again and repeat the whole process another two times.

Takes about two hours in total. A man I used to work with showed me how to do it. Taking your time and ensuring each layer is tamped down properly is the key. The are basically immovable after that.

I only use this technique for strainers and gatepost, which are usually old telephone poles. Normal post I usually use a post rammer or the bucket of a digger.

I do find it enjoyable but I'm a bit stiff this time of the year.

I've got a load of these to do in the summer for my neighbouring livestock farmer, he gets me to do all the gate posts. I'd do one every so often.

Anyway, I better shut up now. There's a couple of gate posts I done in my youth under the supervision of the man I used to work with that are still standing and still have gates on them.

I really should start a thread about digging holes. You could say it's not really a job but a satisfying hobby that will mean I'll sleep like a baby tonight