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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 28, 2018 21:57:42 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on May 6, 2018 11:09:33 GMT
I am creating a veg bed where there was a lawn. Hard going because of a fair amount of rubble in it but I shall get there. Broad beans, chard, spring onions sown so far. Already have potatoes, onions, shallots and carrots up,
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Post by mickthecactus on May 6, 2018 11:53:13 GMT
And beetroot and leeks. Tomato plants , courgettes and cucumbers in greenhouse. They will be planted out in a couple of weeks.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 6, 2018 15:26:20 GMT
Wow -- that's impressive, Mick! Digging up turf is never any fun and the hidden rubble must have made it worse. How big will your vegetable plot be? Your greenhouse must be really crowded right now.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 6, 2018 15:56:06 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on May 6, 2018 19:06:27 GMT
If you want to save yourself some work, you can cover any lawn or weed area earmarked for garden with roofing felt. The weight of this product combined with how hot it gets in the sun will kill off any foliage, bugs, and roots beneath it, and a good amount of weed seeds and plant plagues besides. If you live where there is construction going on, cruise the junk piles for scraps of this stuff to keep from having to buy, store, & lift an entire roll of it.
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Post by mossie on May 7, 2018 10:24:09 GMT
I was told that a crop of potatoes was the best thing to get a new plot going.
Sympathise with you Mick, one house I had, when starting to cultivate the garden I discovered a previous owner had ripped out some old fireplaces and buried them in the garden. Many trips to the dump before things improved.
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Post by bjd on May 7, 2018 11:52:00 GMT
Junk under the surface of gardens seems to be an international problem then. When I widened the flowerbeds in our garden here in Toulouse, I found all kinds of bits of brick, tiles, etc. Same at the coast when we had the hedge ripped out. When we started digging in order to pull out roots and weeds, we found loads of stones, bricks, pieces of glass...
I have also heard that about potatoes being a good crop to start a garden with but don't know what it is supposed to do.
My vegetable gardening this year will be limited to two cherry tomato plants. And I have a rhubarb plant whose leaves were eaten by slugs when I saw it recently. So much rain this spring brought them out -- I hadn't seen many slugs or snails previously in that garden.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 11, 2018 9:39:32 GMT
This is the sort of rubble I have. nearly cleared now though - should finish it this weekend -
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Post by kerouac2 on May 12, 2018 5:45:07 GMT
I like the cannabis plants at the back.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 12, 2018 7:15:25 GMT
Philistine. Those are lilies....
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Post by kerouac2 on May 12, 2018 11:12:43 GMT
If they question me, that's what I'll say.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 13, 2018 11:19:03 GMT
Finished digging the main area, fertilized it and planted red onion sets and sowed lettuce seed. Getting there.
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Post by whatagain on May 15, 2018 10:40:51 GMT
My wife decided to grow vegetable on our new garden. So she bought planks and poles and argile beads and ... She chose the spot and I sawed the planks dug the poles screwed the planks. 3 meters by 1.2 meters. Of course I also found some bricks when I started digging and the ground having a small slope I had to to dig the planks to have something horizontal. Nearly finished after 5 hours ... another 2-3 hours of work and we can start filling it with earth so that we will grow our vegetables about 40 cm above ground. Hope it will save my back later. That us our idea of gardening : she buys stuff. I do the hard work. She plants and finalizes. Well she also mowed the grass with the machine half broken so she had to push and pull the damn thing instead of it moving by its own. And she trimmed some trees. Sometimes I dream of living in an apartment.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 15, 2018 15:44:12 GMT
Think of all the money you'll save. Or course I am talking about the price to the petrol to drive to the supermarket and not at all the fact that you could buy your vegetables for half the cost there and with no effort.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 15, 2018 16:05:21 GMT
Indeed. But I enjoy the effort and I know that much of the time the veg that is prepared will be less than an hour old.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 15, 2018 17:27:18 GMT
Well I applaud your efforts Mick I only grow veg in pots. This year it's just potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers (4 varieties..we love cucumber) and courgettes.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 19, 2018 9:47:25 GMT
Finally finished the digging as the ligament in my right foot knows.
Beetroot and chard have germinated and second sowing of carrots.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 5, 2018 15:10:26 GMT
Here's a bit of an update:- First beets today Lettuce - Some of my Tomatoes - Cucumbers - One of my Swiss Chard plants -
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 5, 2018 15:12:59 GMT
Incidentally, the broad beans mentioned above never germinated at all.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 6, 2018 3:48:50 GMT
Nevertheless, with the weather we have been having, it looks like you'll have a bumper crop of everything else.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 6, 2018 8:12:21 GMT
Nevertheless, with the weather we have been having, it looks like you'll have a bumper crop of everything else. Th constant watering is a bit of a pain.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 7, 2018 6:22:10 GMT
All of your vegetable plants are so robust, Mick! Wonderful to see that everything bearing, too. ... you could buy your vegetables for half the cost [in the supermarket] and with no effort. I enjoy the effort and I know that much of the time the veg that is prepared will be less than an hour old. That perfectly sums up the joy of home food gardening. Even buying produce at a farmer's market, which logically is not picked at-the-moment, usually means taking home more than you need for one meal, so that you are never enjoying anything like the freshness available from your own back yard.
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Post by lagatta on Jul 7, 2018 12:42:24 GMT
Yes, even though I have one of the best markets north of the Rio Bravo a short walk away, I always have the problem of even the smallest baskets of produce (the least economical) being too large for a single meal. And Livia is not a herbivore, except for nibbling on grasses and some greenery. Mick's vegetables are beautiful - too bad about the broad beans; I love those when they are really fresh and tender.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 7, 2018 20:55:59 GMT
Harvested our first pot of Charlotte salad potatoes this morning very tasty
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 11, 2018 11:53:45 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 11, 2018 17:31:56 GMT
You should open a soup kitchen!
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 19, 2018 6:20:50 GMT
Picked the first cucumber and tomatoes. Much more to come.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 20, 2018 5:28:45 GMT
The joy of retirement!
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Post by whatagain on Jul 20, 2018 18:25:03 GMT
I just watered our vegetable garden. Notice we have 'citrouilles' as big as the coach to be used by Cinderella. Pumpkin ?
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