Organising myself Gardening Plans - Thing(s) to do a Day
I am consciously aware that I have not really done an awful lot on the gardening front at all yet. Not looked at seeds (I do already have some) and I certainly need to sort the garden out. At one stage on a regular basis the garden used to be fully productive but due to one thing or another we got out of that process. I would like to be able to grow a little bit again but that involves a whole other minefield and in all honesty I am not sure whether I will be able to achieve it but even if it is a little bit of growing it will be some way on from where I am now.
Our garden is long and narrow, needs weeding, needs digging and because we put the shed up near to the house we have lost quite a bit of actual growing space but at the end of the day that is neither here or there. After the shed we had planned on having like a patio area and then there is a depth of garden which I was just going to grow veg in but I think I may be storing up problems for myself as the soil is clay. I know under normal circumstances you are supposed to dig compost and sand in to actually free up the soil a little bit but so that I can get growing, I am considering getting OH to build me some raised beds and have a sort of a Potager kind of garden with the raised beds for the main veggies i.e. root veg, brassicas etc. I had initially just wanted a traditional growing area. However I think the Potager will work best in the long run for here.
The garden is then broken up by two ballerina apple trees and the remnants of my cherry tree, the greenhouse and then the wilderness which does need clearing out. if we can get that section cleared then potentially it is a further veg area or a fruit garden. We will have to see how we go. I know that there is a lot of hard work ahead.
We do have roots to contend with down by the trees so I don't know whether to see if I can get some rhubarb in there or to lay a few slabs that end to provide a hard area for popping some more tubs on. If I can get the greenhouse done I can use that potentially for Tomatoes, cucumber and perhaps a melon (never grown one of those). I also want to start a trench for Runner beans. I think the Landlord's fence builder left the other panels in the garden so I am thinking of using those to actually build the raised beds together with my pots of stuff, hanging baskets for cherry tomatoes, herbs, hanging bags also for herbs and Nasturtiums. I will do my usual herb garden bit and also want to get a couple of more vines. I want the garden to be more productive than it was last year when I got a little bit of stuff but because I ran out of steam not as much as I had hoped for. I am hoping that the gardening will distress me in the long run. I actually love growing stuff from seed and brining it on.
Just ideas really whether it will actually come to anything I do not know.
As I go for weeks and weeks and weeks doing loads of stuff and then I burn out a bit I thought that I would try and do certain things a day towards achieving my goal with a view to organising and planning to do the bigger jobs at the weekend. If the job cannot be achieved that day for one reason or another it will be file-forwarded to the next day until I can systematically work through each item and get them off my check list. If an item is deferred that item will be done and got out the way with before any other item is dealt with. That way each project should link in step by step. Well that's the plan anyway.
I have also been looking at an electric propagator to give plants a head start. I have the three growing houses in which to cold frame the plants once they have grown on until they are big enough to plant.
I have also been consulting my book "Grow something to eat every day" by Jo Whittingham (ISBN No: 978-1-4053-6227-6 published by Dorling Kindersley) whose books I really rate and which has some sensible advice in and gives you relevant sections applicable to that month by month on:
- What is ready to eat
- What to sow
- Cut and come again salads
- What to do
- Preparing a seed bed (not every month)
- Making a raised bed (not every month)
- What to harvest
- Sprouting seeds
- Sowing undercover
- Sowing outdoors
- Potatoes etc.
So I shall be using this to assist me to get me back into the pattern of growing things.
I therefore intend to do a little post each day on Things to do/achieve today during the growing season at least and I may extend this into the preserving and general household things as well. Will see if it works first.
I think organisation is my key thing this year and because I am not good on a mobile phone I have gone back to the Filofax type of diary so that I know where I am on any given day and also to plan engagements (which I forget otherwise) and also to plan when I do things at home. I shall have the diary on the computer working as well so that swears at me on a daily basis and tells me when I am due to do things. I think I am going to have to work this to the Nth degree.
Right that is the theory now down to the planning.
Catch you soon.
Pattypan
x
Tricia
ReplyDeleteJust a thought for you - our garden has really poor soil (and is like yours long and narrow) before we got our allotment, we wanted to grow some runner beans, french beans, salads and new potatoes - after a couple of years of failing miserably with the poor soil -we laid the garden with weed suppressant membrane and gravel and then started growing in the largest pots that I could find - we had far more success growing this way than in the poor soil - -I learnt that it was about making sure that the plants didn't run out of energy, so greedy eaters like runner beans were grown in a mix of half compost and half manure and plenty and plenty of watering - they dry out a lot quicker in pots. But we did well growing this way plus you could place the pots where you wanted them and as daft as it sounds where they looked the best and were the happiest. What you would love to achieve above is an awful lot of work, time and money especially when you already work full time and have loads of other interests.
Now we have the allotment - all our veg growing is done up there and we now have ferns, grasses, hostas, small shrubs and perennials growing in all those pots with a little bit of bedding thrown in for added colour because the ground is still poor here - anyway, just a thought for you oh and if you need to buy seeds , D.T. Brown are the best that I have found - used to buy from Wilkinsons but found germination very hit and miss - also the heated propagators are very good - I've got 3 but always end up sowing too many seeds, which out grow the propagators before its warm enough to put them out. We then have seedlings everywhere - on the dinning room table, in the conservatory, in the downstairs bathroom - it's called the shuffle season in this house cause all I do for a good month is keep shuffling them round and round the house - anyway I've whittered on long enough - sorry - hope it helps xxx
P'S Also worked on the principle that if we moved house - we could take the pots and plants with us and you've said that one day you'll find your forever house so you could take your pots with you xx
ReplyDeleteHi Trudie, some good advice there. I did mostly pots last year but where they are is wanted for a patio area. We also have a problem in that we have lots of wood left over from the old fence and I thought we could use quite a bit of this up by building deep raised beds and then filling with compost and then plants. I think I have room for about 6 medium sized beds for growing veggies in to start with, with Rhubarb bed in front of the trees. I have to reclaim the greenhouse and the bottom part of the garden which once cleared will be growing space and a fruit bed. We never quite know what is round the corner but I need an outline plan and I need to grow some veggies. If I do beds I can get spent compost locally to actually fill the beds with. Take care and thank you for thinking of me. Tricia xx
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