Havn't updated my gardening adventures for a week because of a few problems. One being my camera died and a gardening blog without pictures would be nonsense.
During the cooler weather I'd decided to crack on with the re-scaping of my herb garden. To recap it went from this in 2018 -
to this in 2019 -
I was really happy with it for a while. I'd used cardboard and woodchips on the path and last year the weeds came up with a vengeance and I thought they also took up valuable growing space. So I invested in some weed barrier and went at it again with new visions.
Using the width of the material I moved the drywall stones bit by bit to widen the beds and hold the stuff down and build the walls a little higher which meant getting more rocks from the other side of the garden. Thank God I got that new wheelbarrow.
The lefthand bed was widened at the bottom end by over a foot. The middle bed is being extended to meet up with the island and when the rocks are all in place I'll take up the wooden bed and re-use that somewhere else.
I'm also building another bed along the bottom wall. Hugelkultur style. Instead of burning the hedge trimmings I made I can stuff them into the bottom of the bed. I'd class this as the poor man's no-dig method of building soil.
In the middle of that pic in the corner is my 'tomato tree'. The seeds were sent to me by @ajerkoff and I'm very excited to see what happens with this. I'm told it'll be an actual tree that gives actual tomatoes. If it does I'll be over the moon. Permaculture tomatoes!!!
I can't help being a bit sceptical as it looks like a normal tomato plant so far to me. We shall see.
Two things have prevented me finishing this epic job. Firstly those roaming strawberries. I'm glad I decided to leave them for now because they are SO happy on the woodchips and I'm gonna have a bumper crop this year by the looks of them -
Still haven't got the hang of this camera pffff
The other thing holding up the job is my back. It's had enough and finally said no more. 3 days of agony so far, trying to rest but cannot ignore the watering in the polytunnel when everything is starting to go crazy in there.
The good things that have happened meanwhile -
A melon seed germinated so am growing melons.
The sweetcorn in the poly came up at last.
I found an elderberry in my garden.
I saw a massive lady deer 2 fields down the road.
Bad things that happened -
My rocket and spinach bolted.
Something chewed on my baby lettuces.
Something also ate a lot of the carrot sprouts.
The beans are not happy in the outside bed.
The sweetcorn did not come up outside.
One of the squash might not be squash but in fact another courgette?
All the bad things have spurred me on to get a load of last ditch sowing done, replanting in same place AND alternative places. I also will be re-using the plastic bottle mini-greenhouse method to protect vulnerable seedlings. It worked so well last year, must not get blaze about these things!!
The sun is out and I have to resist the temptation to go hump more rocks and soil. Patience and a good osteopath is the order of the day. I will update on the polytunnel in another post and demonstrate some vertical growing soon.
Meanwhile those joyful Marguerites -
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The experiences in the garden are very valuable. Thanx for sharing them.
Neither coddling the plants nor neglecting them is an art in balancing the cultivation of a garden, I would say. Between pruning and diversity and feeding and nurturing. Roses tolerate dried horse manure very well, tomatoes probably something else.
One cannot transfer one's own experience per se, as soils can be of very different consistency locally. Just like temperatures, sunlight and so on. Even two gardens right next to each other produce different flowers and harvests, I think it is also man himself who influences differences in quality.
Not to forget, the plant itself. For example, since I assume that every single plant is also different from every other plant (even of the same species). How many insects fly to it, pollinate it, fertilise it, what kind of company is it in on the bed, etc.? How early do you plant the small cuttings in their later bed, did you put them out too early, do they develop less well etc.? All this requires years of experience and with time you get a good feeling for it, right?
Anyway, my husband and I are total novices at gardening, but have taken my brother's front garden under our wing for the second year in a row. We laugh at every mistake we make because we see how little we know.
In any case, I wish you good harvests and continue to enjoy gardening. For us it's the other way round, when we work in the garden, the back pain goes away. LOL
I agree, the work I was doing wasn't strictly gardening it was landscaping. But bending over constantly is one thing my back has never liked.
I do tend to put my seedlings out too early because of a lack of space. I don't have a greenhouse (yet). Last year I covered each baby with a plastic bottle like a mini greenhouse and it worked wonders. I was a bit blaze this year and left them to it. I noticed tho that only certain types of lettuce were attacked so I've learned which ones are the hardiest or which ones the critters prefer. That's a valuable lesson right there. Every mistake is a lesson learned. You'll be masters at it in no time.
True. Making mistakes teaches one to become a good gardener in the course of time. I would not say in "no time" though. Depends on how big the garden is, how many and what kind of vegetables, flowers and herbs you grow and how much stability or instability you have in weather conditions and quality of soil etc.
I think with every skill one tries to learn it's a matter of years until there is a certain form of intuition - working without thinking but just doing the right things in the right times.
HaHa, yes. Bending and moving heavy things is also not beneficial for my back, either. Kneeling down on the ground is not something I can do for a very long time.
Yesterday I was listening to a professional dancer. She talked about her experiences in the first academy years and expressed how tired all of the students were, not being used to use their bodies to such a high degree. She said it takes years before the body gets used to that performance. And I think, this can be applied to many things in life.
Greetings to you :)
There's the rub, yes I know I am very unfit. I need to lose weight and work on my fitness for sure.
Me too, me too.
Since I turned 50 the kilos came to me just so. I ate what I wanted before that time. I never was so hungry before. I can eat now all day if you let me. Very strange. Menopause and lockdowns did their share also, I would say.
It's a lot of work, this gardening stuff, isn't it?
We have just started but so has winter here.
Something I've been meaning to ask you:
Any idea why Ireland and NZ are both so bad in cancer stats?
You might find some of this of interest:
https://www.frot.co.nz/design/sift/home/neutralise-the-spikes/
Did you watch the documentary I posted a few weeks ago about NZ being the biggest exporter of dairy? Ireland is also massive into dairy. Might have something to do with it, not just the consumption but also the pollution.
As for the spike protein piece yeh I've seen that somewhere else. It's nonsense of course. There are no 'spike proteins' and dandelions are full of nutrients so of course they can help with healing. Not sure what we're all healing from tho. I'm leaning towards radiation from the bloody 5G.
As winter kicks in all the imune compromised people are getting sick. They blame it on covid of course!
My theory on diary is that A2 raw milk is a health food but all the other crap is not.
And i suspect there is something else going on in NZ, along the lines of 245T
Winter is a time for the body to rest and DETOX. I feel people are getting disease and detoxing mixed up as I tried to explain in my article 'from a dead nurse'.
Raw 'milk' from a cow is a food for a baby cow. Humans cannot digest milk after they're weaned especially not from another species. I have heard tho that human milk can be a 'superfood' for grown ups LOL. China never had dairy in their diet until recently (the west selling their crap to them) and now the rates of cancer are going up there. Coincidence?
This is not an easy subject...some traditional societies with near zero cancer rates used diary as their main source of protein, often in the form of yoghurts and cheeses.
Yes low fat A1 non organic milk is a carcinogen, but that doesnt mean all milk is.
All mass produced animal products are gonna be bad. I find it funny that people will take small dietary notions from the likes of the Massai yet reject all their other lifestyle differences. I heard that the milk and blood they claimed to eat for the camera's was just that. For the camera's. The China study was the largest dietary study ever undertaken and it concluded dairy was, in all it's forms, bad for human health.
PS Hamilton doesnt really have much winter so your sister may not notice, but Wellington can be worse than just the temperatures might sound, because even 8 deg with 100k wind and heavy rain can get nasty
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Looks like some great progress. It is the same for me sometimes I go into the garden and I see the progress other times I just get frustrated with the setbacks.
Onwards and upwards eh. One bit at a time.
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"I can't help being a bit sceptical as it looks like a normal tomato plant so far to me. We shall see." #Metoo, there, you made me join a victim society lol.
All my cannabis plants died last week, I over did the food part in their diet, can not win em all t/gal. Hope these tomatoes do grow to the size the people on ebay claim, I imported 2 lots from Italy and somewhere I forget now, we shall see, time will tell.
Happy growing.
Oh dear. My lonely naughty plant you sent me is doing grand. On it's 3rd repotting and didn't give it any food until this last repot. I don't believe in molly-coddling plants. Especially ones that are called 'weed'. ;-)
They all need some love and nutrition, as do we, I just fucked up with over doing it for them by not reading the bottle of alleged nutrients, your comment re woes gave me a chuckle, got none, got no perfect life, no perfect wife, no perfect child, but hey, reality bites, got no woes though, I can adapt to any situation, either that or die, I prefer adapt rather than complain, but anyone can pick any sentence apart for their own aims, not worth it though, it is a very destructive path.
I try to give my plants some love yes. They can pick up on negative thoughts it's true. The only 'food' I give mine extra is some fermented nettles. Cheap and easy but a bit smelly.
It smells like cow dung lol, I do the same.
well it basically is cow dung but without the cow who sucks out all the goodness hahaha
Cows are ace for cutting grass, when you have a lot of grass, and great for manure.
They don't 'cut' the grass tho, they eat it, therefore not putting the nutrients back. I am a veganic gardener so I don't use manure at all. I had to on my organic course and lost plants because of it. Also when they are 'cutting' the grass they are also compacting the soil which is not good for plant growth either. Only good for path areas then.
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