Advice for a hopeless gardener

[Arzosah]

Jenny, I'm bouncing with joy for you, it sounds so great to get all this set up and worked through. Good for you

[jennyjj01]

Jenny, I'm bouncing with joy for you, it sounds so great to get all this set up and worked through. Good for you

LOL. Like a bull at a fence. I'm full of enthusiasm at the moment. But knowing my own personality defects, a butterfly might distract me and it'll be onto the next project.

Still, subject to amazon prime, we might have something by next weekend.
Already trying to decide between a frame based on triangles and rectangles (wood?)

[jennyjj01]

or something simpler with round bent pipes like this.

http://www.polythenefilm.net/product/mi ... ework.html

But obviously...... More rough and ready. I guess wind resistance is #01 obstacle, closely followed by complexity and cost.
There'd better be some darned good crops coming from this, as I've been spending money like it's going out of fashion

Pinching Ideas...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXhf2GvcxjI

[jansman]

Your enthusiasm is boundless! okra I have never eaten,let alone grown. Aubergine I have grown in a poly tunnel,but they took way too much faffing about.

Anyhow, this week I have some precious time at home. The compost is warmed in the poly tunnel,and I shall start tomatoes,chillies,lettuce,radish and some more Welsh onions. We can compare germination rates!

There is only one place within 15 miles that sells okra and it's £5 per kilo. I can't have an Indian curry without bhindi bhaji. Popping the pods on the roof of your mouth. No food experience like it. And I've never found anyone else that agrees
The okra and aubergines were probably too ambitious for this climate and my garden.
When you say poly tunnel.... What scale are we talking? I need to know what I'm competing with

I'm thinking of ways to adapt my planters to be cloches of some sort they're 1200 x 800 by 450 deep. Tempted to improvise some sort of polythene tent over them, to supplement my polythene mini greenhouse.

I have actually scaled my poly tunnel down these last two years.It was 15’ x 6’.It is now half of that ,so the size of a standard greenhouse really. It’s mainly a seed starting house ,and I’ll force a few spuds,grow probably four each of chilli and tomatoes,then salad over Winter. There’s only the two of us now.

[jennyjj01]

I'm thinking of ways to adapt my planters to be cloches of some sort they're 1200 x 800 by 450 deep. Tempted to improvise some sort of polythene tent over them, to supplement my polythene mini greenhouse.

The cloche construction has commenced. I've opted for simple hoops of 3m x 20mm plastic conduit with an inspired but untested, money saving design feature*. Photo's to follow when the polythene arrives. The pipes were only £2 per length and even with a few eye screws and polythene, these should cost very little. Bending the conduit is proving a problem needing careful application of heat. So far, one length ruined when it kinked.

Meanwhile, in 'the Works' bookshop, I picked up a copy of "Grow Food For Free" It's quite readable and fits perfectly with the 'No Dig' and raised bed or container planting ethos that I'm picking up in this thread.

That's another ten pounds invested!!!!

*Expenditure on these planters and cloches is getting stupid. The decking used for each 1200x800 planter cost just over £100 each. Each cloche tent will probably cost another £20 and soil and compost about another £20. I can't help thinking how much veggie food I could buy with that investment Money hasn't really been at issue, but for some, it could be.

So, 'produce' will not be my payback for this exercise! I guess I'd better treat it as 'essential training' and 'hobby'. I really REALLY need to consider some lower cost growing options: Sacks, blagged buckets, pallets, packing cases. Maybe a bit of skip diving? Or the bartering discussed in that 'Grow Food For Free' book?
Compost/Soil is proving a big expense. I suppose I need to explore and even approach some strangers at the nearby allotments or stables. Now that actually scares me.



Kerching..... And after i wrote that, I realised that amongst my Facebook friends, one has a horse and another has a smallholding. Easier to approach them to talk 5h1t with, than it will be to approach strangers on the allotments! I have home made wine and beer to trade in the first instance. I might even be due a favour or two.
Game on!

[Kiwififer]

I’m not sure how good this advice will be but I’ve been successful in growing bits and bobs around my very small ‘Wimpy’ garden.

What grows up, grows down.

I was speaking a few years back to the gardeners in the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh and moaning my head off at how I can’t get an allotment for love or money (5 year wait and that’s if you can get on the list) and they suggested a few things. Peas and beans can grow from hanging baskets, they curl up the chain and then they will drop down so that you can get peas to pick at chest height. I also managed to grow a lot of tatties in my ‘blue glass recycling bin’ so much that I now have eight of them. Not enough to be self sufficient by a long stretch but an enjoyable diversion and learning experience if you get my drift. I’ve managed leeks, spring onions and garlic in the same way, not massive ones like my old grandad grew but as I said, I think of it more as a learning experience than anything else. I’ve also planted a couple of cherry and a cooking apple tree at the back of where we live, one of the cherry trees should be producing fruit in about 4 years time provided the birds don’t get them! The joy of growing my own food came late in life to me, strange as my Grandad had his entire back garden almost like a mini production line. Probably not enough to feed him throughout the year but certainly enough to keep him going for huge chunks.
How I miss Granny’s pickled onions…

Edited to say apologies if this has already been covered in the thread.

[jennyjj01]

I’m not sure how good this advice will be but I’ve been successful in growing bits and bobs around my very small ‘Wimpy’ garden.

What grows up, grows down.
...
Edited to say apologies if this has already been covered in the thread.

Cheers Kiwififer,

No apologies necessary from you. If anything it should be me apologising for pouring my thinking out loud dumb questions here. So far, I'm in my second year of seriously trying to grow something and i'm just bursting with enthusiasm and hoping to hit the ground running. Last year, i started growing stuff WAY too late, but I had enough success to embolden me.

My posts in this thread are to, hopefully, get and share answers to questions that other newbies would be too embarrassed to ask (I have no shame). I believe there are no stupid questions except those that go unasked.

I'm learning lots of theory from other members, and sharing my newbie errors to save others the trouble. E.g. I planted too soon, sited my compost bin wrong, suffered blighted tomatoes, Had seedlings and pots blown away in a gale and damned need drowned my tomato seedlings

The idea of growing down is sound. My garden gets little sun, so if i can get tomatoes or strawberries to grow in a hanging basket, they may just do better than growing upwards in semi shade..

[GillyBee]

This may be an nteresting for upside down tomatoes. https://blog.gardeningknowhow.com/garde ... -tomatoes/

[jennyjj01]

I'm thinking of ways to adapt my planters to be cloches of some sort they're 1200 x 800 by 450 deep. Tempted to improvise some sort of polythene tent over them, to supplement my polythene mini greenhouse.

The cloche construction has commenced. I've opted for simple hoops of 3m x 20mm plastic conduit with an inspired but untested, money saving design feature*. Photo's to follow when the polythene arrives.

Yayyyy. New planter converted to a cloche/poly tunnel. I'm so chuffed. Just have to share Mr J's handywork.
Here are some pictures, including my inspired design feature.

Box comprised
5 lengths of 2400 x 150 decking
2 lengths of 2400 x40x40 sawn timber
Box of 70mm screws
8 x 40mm eye screws
Some pallet and decking offcuts for the base.
That lot was just over £100

Cover hoops
3 x 3m lengths of 20mm plastic conduit (Screwfix £2 per length)
1 x 1200 length of 40mm waste pipe.

Cover polythene
2500 x 4000 Really thick Clear polythene ( £20 of amazon for 5000 x 4000 piece)

Cover mounting posts
6 x 150mm pieces of 15mm copper pipe. Drilled into the corner posts and held by a screw. Centre ones just 2 screws each.

Ball of string to tie down the cover and some gorilla tape to make reinforced tie points. Short bits of string to tie off the ends.

Bending the hoops was a beggar. Eventually found easiest to do while heating over an electric convector heater. Warm till you feel it soften and then bend CAREFULLY and in sections.

[jennyjj01]

Sorry about the image duplication in the above post. Image handling on the forum is a bit broken for me and i cannot fix the post.