Today I did something in my Garden

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Tell me about it.

Dig hole - come back 5 mins later - full of toys

The trick is to get them involved in the game and use their lower centre of gravity to your advantage.

Deleted User wrote: »

... but I'll be expecting my garden back in 10 years' time!

:pac: Don't count on it! Generational divide as to what was the appropriate use of an old tractor tyre. I thought it'd make a good raised bed ...

blackbox wrote: »

I transplanted some miniature early daffodils "in the green" today. I know this works for snowdrops but I'm not sure if daffs will survive. Also planted a heap of snowdrops.

I did some yesterday that were technically "in the yellow!", I'm sure the bulbs will survive and recover in a year or two.

I’m just wondering what kind of soil people have used in their ponds for their aquatic plants? It’s virtually impossible to source aquatic compost at the moment. I can only find 2 Irish suppliers and they don’t deliver. Has anyone used normal soil?

blackbox wrote: »

I transplanted some miniature early daffodils "in the green" today. I know this works for snowdrops but I'm not sure if daffs will survive.

They probably will! These guys (with the exception of the dwarf narcissi in the middle) were moved "in the green" several years ago because they popped up in an unexpected and not entirely convenient location:



At the time, they were three small clumps (two or three flowers each, max) As you can see, they've flourished in their new home!

Apologies in advance for spamming this thread with photos - but it's been a good day, and I need to celebrate! :cool:

Two jobs finished (ish) for the price of ... one capsized digger, two trailer breakdowns, two aching shoulders, several worn-out vertebrae, and uncountable hours spent figuring out how, when, where and why!

This was the pleasant scene, about eleven months ago - lines of potatoes and onions doing what they do and making me proud:



And if you love well-managed vegetable gardens, this'll make you cry! :eek: The same view, today, having dug about 40m³ of topsoil out of my future pond:



From a different angle (standard-sized wheelbarrow for scale):



There's a lot more digging to be done there to take it down below the water table (and help keep the adjacent "farmyard" dry [you can see in the background where an experimental trench through the farmyard has become a canal]) but the clay-rich subsoil will be used to build embankments all around; and I won't start that till it's dried out a bit.

So: where did the topsoil go? Well, here: this is what you call a raised bed! :pac:





Again, quite a bit more work to be done "in due course ..." :rolleyes: - particularly building retaining walls or pallisades on all four sides (which, yes, I know, the books say should be built first ... but that could take me several years - I haven't yet finalised how it'll be contoured east and west!) I used the digger to get the terraces to approximately the right height, but the fine-tuning was done the old-fashioned way: with a straight edge, a rake and a lot of physical effort.

Every load of soil that went in there had a layer of hay at the bottom (to help it slide out of the trailer) so there's now quite a bit of organic matter mixed in with the clay; and a huge number of big, fat worms to help break it up. The "terraces" are slightly canted towards the back as a water-management strategy. The high point here is slightly below the level of the gutters on the house, so I'll look into using simple hydraulics to copiously irrigate the terraces during summer thunderstorms.

In the meantime, seeing as the fridge is empty, e-mails have gone unanswered for too long, and the washing machine is on the blink, the landscaping will have to be put on pause for a while. But I'll still try to get some veg (trans)planted up on the hill in the next week.

CelticRambler wrote: »

Correct. If our future summers here follow the same pattern as in recent years, the pond(s) would be almost completely drained by October, so not at all suitable for fish. It'll probably take a few years to figure out the balance between real capacity and consumption, but I'm hoping they support a decent population of amphibians and reptiles, and perhaps a corner of waterlilies or other aquatic plants.

The inner faces of the embankments will be terraced somewhat like the "raised bed" and I'd be thinking of growing some moisture-loving summer veg on the first "flood plain" area to be exposed as the levels drop. I'll do whatever I can to keep it attractive throughout the season, and (hopefully) avoid going into the autumn with nothing more than a manky puddle surrounded by 100m² of gooey mud!

how are you going to keep the water from stagnating?

Aerial photo of my veg garden

beggars_bush wrote: »

how are you going to keep the water from stagnating?

blackbox wrote: »

I get the impression that you're not planning to use a liner.

Unless you have a stream feeding it. Will the surface level not simply go up and down to equal the water table?

No stream, no liner, no recirculation pump! 'Tis the traditional way around here, and even though it should result in a stagnant pool, it doesn't. The local farmers dig a deeper hole natural depressions in the fields to provide watering holes for their cattle.

It has (must have?) something to do with the clay soil, and for the same reason, I should be able to store copious amounts above the water table. To a certain extent, even the term "water table" isn't really appropriate in this context, as the clay forms a nearly impermeable layer anywhere it's compacted.

So it's very common in our ground to have pools of water in wheel ruts and other surface dents, but the soil underneath will be almost bone dry. The plan here is to deliberately create layers of compacted clay at strategic locations (e.g. the "farmyard" and under the terraced bed) so that as much rainfall as possible flows sideways to the lowest point, i.e. into the ponds, from where it can then only percolate very, very slowly through its own compacted clay lining.

Get back to me in a year or two and I'll tell you whether the practice lives up to the theory! :cool:

CelticRambler wrote: »

Is that a chicken run in the bottom right hand corner? Or are you dabbling in snail-farming?

Thats the chicken run. Built it last year. It's fully enclosed to deal with the sideways rain we get here. Built a pen adjacent for them to go outside while avian flu in with us.

Today was the first day that I had ‘proper’ time in the garden. It was such a beautiful evening, the stillness of the air was broken only by the calming melody of the birds. It was one of those days where I think I needed the garden as much as it needed me! There is no better tonic for a hectic, stressful day.

I sauntered around the boarders inspecting signs of new growth. I divided some geranium Rozannes in the autumn. Watching their almost fernlike fronds unfurling was the highlight of the evening!

Outside of that, I started some small odd jobs, weeding, tidying and dividing some perennials.

It’s just got me in the right frame of mind for Monty’s first night back, glass of wine at the ready! Friday nights are finally back, a lovely long season ahead of us!

Just sowed 180 peas,90 beans and 10 squash in modules in the greenhouse.

Spent today doing a bit more clearing and weeding of the veg beds. I don’t know what today’s public enemy number 1 was but it was hotly contested between self seeded fennel with their deep tap roots and stray raspberry canes sprouting everywhere.

Also ordered some nicotina sylvestris and night scented stock. The path to our decking is a well trodden route on late summer evenings so my project for this year is to add a bit of evening scent along the way.

:pac: Ye're all cursing your fennel, and there I was this morning scratching through the dirt trying to find as many plants as possible to lift and save before I get stuck into renovating the herb garden! About half a dozen - the same as the number of single shoots of mint I found - and in great contrast to the many, many clumps of oregano.

After that, I set my mind to cutting some wood (trimming old knotty trunks in preparation for getting them cut into planks) and the next thing I know, it's seven pm and I've broken new ground with a couple of trenches for potatoes, and stripped a narrow border along the pavement out the front back to bare soil - something I've been dying to do for fifteen years!

CelticRambler wrote: »

Parents-in-law can be strange creatures. :pac:

Congratulations on getting it moved; hope it settles in at the new location.

Mine are 3 5 hours by plane and a 4 hour drive away. In laws not the plants.

Took the day off today and planning on putting in some posts tomorrow to make a support for the beans I sowed yesterday.

Painted fencing for 92 hours today.

What's the best way to get rid of weeds? The front garden is just a sea of them.