Gardening

[sapphire]

Based on a comment from Kirbstone, I thought I'd start a gardening thread. I don't know how many of you garden but I'd love to see your stories. Even if you only grow one tomato plant or one herb plant or stick a bucket of flowers by your door, you are gardening.

I won't say that I am particularly competent, but I do enjoy seeing the flowers and the veggies and herbs, and of course using the veggies and herbs in my cooking. We also like to graze in the garden, esp with cherry tomatoes and, if they grow, cucumbers. Last year I added chickens and enjoy eating and sharing the multicolored eggs that they give. This year I'll try some meat birds to see how that works.

As Carl mentioned in another thread, the veggie/herb garden has been almost whipped into shape and just needs to be rototilled. I can't wait to get my fingers into it. I'm also trying a pallet bed for the first time. It is a wooden shipping pallet over a mound of soil. I'll plant greens and parsley in that and see how it works for weed control and also as a raised bed.

So what do you grow? And do you do your garden chores, esp weeding while skirted? I won't wear a skirt while I'm weeding because with my back and other problems, I sit down in the dirt. Talk about getting into your hobby!

[Uncle Al]

Might I suggest planting an herb, Rosemary, near your patio or deck.
If you want variety, place the potted herb anywhere around the area.
It doesn't have to be planted in a fixed location(flowerbed), any ol' pot
will do. Then you can place the herb to your best advantage.
The leaves smell great around the patio, or stripped and chopped for
seasoning steak, chicken or fish. A great side benefit is the reason
for planting near a patio or deck - Mosquitoes. I know from experience
this concept WORKS Rosemary is a natural Mosquito repellent

OK - That's my gardening "Tip-of-the-day"

Uncle Al

[Taj]

Good info! Definitely planting rosemary around the deck this spring. My wife and I have transformed over half of the back yard into flowers. She's the brains and I'm the brawn. We spend most of our non-winter evenings out there. Yes, I garden in my Utilikilt. It's far more comfortable than shorts.

[crfriend]

She's the brains and I'm the brawn.

That's the boat I'm in -- definitely the brawn (although I try to use brains so I don't injure myself). I'll handle the coarse work (Shall it be "scorched earth" dear, or something a bit less extreme?) and she handles the fine bits.

Generally speaking, however, I do not garden or do heavy manual labour in my skirts; they're just too nice for that sort of treatment, not to mention too long, and too expensive to ruin (I am a bit of a cheap bastard).

That's a positively stellar tip about rosemary -- thanks Al! Usually we're inside just about when the sun goes down because it seems that it's Mosquito Central here....

[Kirbstone]

The garden is where I do most of my 'skirting' if the truth be known. However we're currently in a cold showery spell and as my preferred gardening apparel ends above the knee it's just a bit parky for that just yet, so for the mo. I'm well covered up.
Policy decisions are never mine and like others I merely carry out allotted tasks. Alas I seem to kill any living thing I touch, so I confine my activities to the inanimate things, of which there are many....archways, pergolas, gazebo, seats, bridge, fences, steps, fountains &c, which keeps me out of mischief.

Living things I may touch come along later in the Season...nettles, thistles, robin run-the-hedge &c &c. I'm the EXTERMINATOR! Even in the boating lake I've had to don chest waders and uproot scores of interconnecting bullrushes, float them across to a low convenient place on the bank, fork them out and barrow them off to a place of execution, as they are an obstruction to navigation!!

Tom K.

[crfriend]

Policy decisions are never mine and like others I merely carry out allotted tasks.

Ah, yes, the "hired gun". I know the role well. I need to procure an old-school bladed device that I can dispatch weeds and small blackberry bushes here (which qualify as weeds, mind) whilst standing upright. I don't know whether this will resemble a golf-club handle with a horizontal blade on it or an outright scythe. (If it's the latter, there will be photographic fun.)

Alas I seem to kill any living thing I touch, so I confine my activities to the inanimate things [...]

How about your patients?

[Kirbstone]

It's called a strimmer, Carl. Four stroke (Honda) engine + little tank at the back end, cow-horn handles & throttle in the middle, long shaft and a part cowl at the bottom business end with a fast-rotating whip chords or three bladed chopper for really getting at those unwanted brambles &c. while you can stay upright.

With our rate of wild grass growth I wouldn't be without one.

To do this 'exterminator' thing I need to be wearing my gardening hat, which hangs on a hook in the hall at home & is nowhere near my Dental Office!

T.

[sapphire]

Those stupid wild blackberries have been a plague since day one. While they are greatly dimminished now, they keep threatening to take over. They even produce well. I'm near the point of getting a pig to get rid of them. Only thing holding me back is the cost of fencing.

Al, thanks for the tip about rosemary. Is it perennial down your way? It's an annual up here. Unfortunately, I found out that I have an allergy to it. When used in culinary pursuits, it is OK, but when I used some body lotion containing rosemary I was treated to a case of hives.

[mugman]

Mini skirting in the garden is almost routine here, but as already observed earlier, the weather in the UK at present is grim. Most of us are in a 'drought' situation, yet the rain in the south west lately has been persistent, making up for the last long dry run we had. My parents were both keen gardeners and my dad also won prizes for his Sweetpeas, so I guess the interest rubbed off on me. He spent hours layering them to get the longest stems possible for flower show purposes. But I think his real trick was in the use of the chicken manure he relied on for their perfection. We had 200 Rhode Island Reds at the time, arriving as fluffy day old chicks, and ending up as savages if any of them showed signs of bleeding from an unfriendly rival's peck. Long, long ago now though.
My garden, as most must be aware by this time, is mainly taken over by a 16mm to 1foot scale model railway, but it does leave pockets of growth here and there. The aubretia is now splendid, and the 'Snow in Summer' just about to flower. That stuff gets everywhere if you let it, and I have to grab handfuls at a time and wrench it out, otherwise the railway track would quickly disappear.
Whilst I have a large number of planted tubs out back, which are easier to slip into the overall 'railway platform' styling of the whole mad image, my front garden is the main place for more normal use of my plot. A well trimmed lawn, bedding plants, bird table, shrubs, a nice clump of Lily Of The Valley just coming into flower now, Lavender, Pansies, French Marigolds, Geraniums, Foxgloves, Lupins, Fuschias, a Rhododendron, Hydrangeas, Roses, a Strawberry container, and the most recent addition, a Cherry (eating variety - if I can get to them before the birds do). A veritable cottage garden which I enjoy looking at in the summer evenings with a pint of beverage. I have my garden table and chairs set out the front rather than the back, and if I'm reasonably still the bird table is just a few feet distant, and the little visitors don't mind me being there too much.

Pete

[Milfmog]

Garden? What is this garden thing of which you speak?

Oh, I remember. It's the bit of land around the outside of the house that I never have time to make use of Anyway, I "employ" a wife to look after that

Have fun,


Ian.

[john62]

Hi Mugman,
Any photos of your large train set?

John

[skirtyscot]

Gardening the Skirtyscot way:

1 Locate teenage son.
2 Get him to mow the lawn. Pay him if necessary. ("Lawn" is being kind to it. Our grass plays host to dandelions, daisies, clover, and plenty of other weeds I cannot identify.)
3 When the weeds growing between the hydrangeas in the border get too long, get teenage son to mow them next time he is doing the lawn.
4 Declare war on the Japanese knotweed, uproot its little shoots frequently and dispose of them somewhere they cannot re-grow.
5 Occasionally hack back brambles, ivy, nettles and other undesirable plants encroaching from outside the garden.
6 Learn to love other WAIFs (well-adapted indigenous flora) which happen to seed themselves in the flower beds.
7 Occasionally mention to wife that we really must weed the gaps between the paving slabs some time soon.

Anything more is too tedious and too much like hard work! My parents were avid gardeners but their enthusiasm didn't rub off on me (or my siblings).

[mugman]

Hi John62, whenever people ask about my railway I usually just provide a couple of youtube links which shows the state of affairs best. I do have a lot of stills but it always takes ages finding them.
Here are the two videos -

http://youtu.be/bF6EpcQMJH0

http://youtu.be/06KioHAVU_E

Pete

[Uncle Al]

Hi Sapphire

Where I live, Rosemary is a Perennial. If one is not careful it will get to big.
Besides, the pruning of the plant gives you the spices for your cabinet.

Do you get an allergic reaction to the smell of Rosemary If not, just don't
rub it on your skin. When pruning it, wear gardening gloves.

In early spring, Rosemary will 'bloom' with tiny fragrant lavender blossoms.
Quite nice in the garden filled with green(weeds too ).

Uncle Al

[Big and Bashful]

It's called a strimmer, Carl. Four stroke (Honda) engine + little tank at the back end, cow-horn handles & throttle in the middle, long shaft and a part cowl at the bottom business end with a fast-rotating whip chords or three bladed chopper for really getting at those unwanted brambles &c. while you can stay upright.

With our rate of wild grass growth I wouldn't be without one.

To do this 'exterminator' thing I need to be wearing my gardening hat, which hangs on a hook in the hall at home & is nowhere near my Dental Office!

T.

I like to think of them as an engine on a stick!