Tag: gardening

August 22, 2008

Putting the pipe together II

Further to my earlier posting on this subject, it seems my complaints to Hozelock didn’t go unnoticed.

A couple of days ago, I received another email from them, and today arrived a complementary water butt pump.

At the moment, with my rearrangement, things aren’t going to bad, so I am not going to use it yet. However, I do feel that it will be healthier to water the garden properly once or twice a day, rather than continuously trickle – one part of my garden has recently started growing fungi.

So I’ll leave it for now, but install it for next year, when I start afresh.

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August 14, 2008

Putting the pipe together

Eating Well – A Diet Blog:
August 14, 2008 5:44 P.M. Weight: 345.0 lbs.

It’s been a little while since I posted about my garden here – part of the reason is that I have been… in the garden.

Last year, the big disappointment I had was working hard on the couple of beds I had planted, then going away for a week, and coming back to find plants drying out everywhere. Neighbours can be helpful with watering, but you still worry about what you are going to come back to.

So this year, I decided I was going to build some kind of irrigation system, starting off with two water butts, taking water off my garage roof.

I bought a HozeLock “Water Butt Border Watering Kit”, which – in my naivety – I thought would be suitable for watering my borders from a water butt. On the packaging, it showed it all connected to a butt, not more than a foot off the ground, and mine were higher than that, so it must work, no?

No chance. It worked in a fashion when the water butt was filled to the brim, but the soaker hose closest to the butt got all the water, and the beds furthest away got none. On inquiring of HoseLock, they explained how I wouldn’t get a consistent water pressure along a long soaker hose. “So why does your kit contain 15 metres of the stuff?” No answer.

So, this week, I took it all apart, and put it back together again. Whereas before, I had a length of standard hose, then some soaker when it reached the planting bed, then some more standard hose, then some more soaker, this time I laid a black semi-rigid pipe around the perimeter of the garden. Then at each planting points I inserted a T junction, connected to a small inline tap, connected to a short length of soaker hose.

Success – steady constant pressure throughout the system. Still not sure there will enough pressure when the butts are only half full, but provided the hose seeps something, I can just leave it on for longer. Longer term, I intend to put another butt by the house, which will be at the opposite end of the system, so that may improve things. If not, I buy a simple little pump to put in one of the butts.

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August 8, 2008

Garden Update

It’s been a while since I wrote about the garden, and things have moved along a bit – some good, some bad.

The brassicas suffered terribly this year from the Cabbage White butterfly. Being a novice gardener, I had no idea the effect their caterpillars could have. I lost a cabbage, all the cauliflowers, and I’m waiting to see if the brocolli will produce anything. On the brighter side, I have three cabbages still growing, which although their outer leaves are in holes, the hearts don’t look too bad.

After the main damage was done, I built a wood netted frame, which promptly fell apartthe first time I tried to move it. Version 2 is a lot better, and should survive the year. Next year, I intend to either group the plants so I can use the plastic cloches my local garden centre has, or I have seen an aluminum and plastic modular system that looks perfect, and is quite reasonable (and reusable).

The peppers, as I predicted, came to nothing. I had two very nice lettuces, but the last two bolted, so I added them to my green bin.

The new raspberry and blackberry plants haven’t produced much, but are establishing themselves nicely for next year.

The herb garden is growing well – all I need to do now is doing some cooking that will use the herbs.

Tomatoes were growing too well – I wasn’t diligent enough about keeping them under control, and they have gone all over the place. Lots of tomatoes, though, and I have cut them back a bit now, so all the plants energy should go into making nice juicy fruit.

The spinach beet has been uninspiring – it has grown ok, but not in great abundance, and I haven’t actually bothered to pick any (perhaps that is why – it is supposed to be a cut and come again crop).

The sugar snap peas – these were the big success of the summer. I have had so many peas off of these plants – as many as I can eat and more. Unfortunately, this week they fell foul to powder mildew. I missed the first signs, and when I realised what it was, the plants were covered in it. The plants probably had only a couple more weeks to go, anyway, so I picked the remaining peas (about 2 pints of peas and pods), and pulled up the plants. I have some onions I can plant in their place there for harvesting early spring.

Finally, the courgettes are in flower, and I am looking forward to seeing what I get from them. I really didn’t give them enough room this year, putting them in with the cabbages, but I will know better next year.

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July 26, 2008

Keeping it all going

Eating Well – A Diet Blog
July 26, 2008 6:42 P.M. Weight: 345.6 lbs.

I spent most of yesterday putting my garden back to rights, and I have just spent another hour out there finishing off.

Socially, I’ve been fairly busy lately, which means things like the garden have been a little neglected. While I have been gallivanting, my cabbages and broccoli have fallen foul of the Cabbage White Butterfly – eggs and caterpillars galore, all the plants have some outer leaf damage, and a couple were beyond saving. Meanwhile, two of my beetroot plants suddenly wilted – I pulled them up to find the beet had been eaten by something.

Anyway, my cabbages and broccoli now have a net cage around them, a piece of engineering that I am proud of. I will try to get a picture of it before it falls apart. I’ve also just planted a whole tray of beet seed, to see if I can get some plants in to replace the eaten ones.

I feel that the garden and my diet are connected, not in a mystical way, but practically – when I don’t have time for the garden, I’m probably not finding time to eat well, either. Also the exercise is useful.

This week I came across an interesting little book called The Half-hour Allotment – which describes how to tend and keep an allotment in just 30 minutes a day. Of course, my garden is a fraction of the size of an allotment, so it’s got to be worth a go.

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June 25, 2008

My First Homegrown Salad

Eating Well – A Diet Blog

June 25, 2008 2:42 P.M. Weight: 349.2 lbs.

…well almost. My perpetual spinach was coming up thick and fast, and I need to thin the plants out. Then I thought ‘why let these sprouts go to waste?’.

So I trimmed and washed them, cut a couple of outer leaves from one of the lettuces, and I had my first homegrown salad. Just an assortment of leaves, really, as my tomatoes are nowhere near ready. But it tasted extra special.

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June 24, 2008

My Garden

Eating Well – A Diet Blog

June 24, 2008 3:50 P.M. Weight: 347.6 lbs.

As I’ve mentioned my gardening so much lately, I thought I would share some pictures of the garden. Those of you who have heard me go on about it will be amazed at the postage-stamp sized I am working in!

I did say I would post a picture of my espaliered pear tree sometime. Well here it is, not as neat as a professionally shaped tree, but it does what it’s supposed to do.

Cabbages, brocolli and lettuce, with my two new raspberry canes behind. The weedy looking plants on the left side of the raised bed are peppers, which don’t seem to be doing so well as the rest of the plants.

Early days for the sugar snap peas, but they look healthy enough. Since taking this picture, I’ve put a net behind them to climb against. In the front, perpetual spinach and beetroot are beginning to sprout.

Tomatoes and my herb garden; and my strawberry pot.

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May 1, 2008

Gardening II

Eating Well – A Diet Blog

April 30, 2008 5:05 P.M. Weight: 357.5 lbs.

I think some people enjoy gardening itself. They like the activity of digging and planting, they find it relaxing and rewarding in itself. I have a neighbor like that: when I first moved here, she asked (knowing that I worked and wasn’t fond of gardening) if I would like her to take care of my small front garden when she did her own.

Now, tinged with guilt on seeing her mow the lawn while I am sitting reading a book, I have since asked her if I should take back the care of that garden, only to be told ‘If you really want to, but I so enjoy doing it!’.

I don’t get that kind of pleasure out of gardening. When I am out in my rear garden, I curse and swear at every shovel of earth I move, at every blade of grass I cut, at every job I know needs doing that I haven’t got time for.

On the other hand, I do like making plans and I do quite like seeing the finished article, and knowing it is my work. As such, I would say that I like gardening as much as I like decorating – which is not a lot, until it is all done.

Then of course, there is the exercise involved – which I do appreciate, but cannot say I enjoy.

Flowers and shrubs do absolutely nothing for me, but as I love cooking, the idea of growing my own fruit and vegetables does interest me. So by switching my garden’s aim to that purpose, it gives me more incentive to do something.

(And yes, I know sunflowers *are* flowers, but it’s a bit of a “guy” thing to see how tall you can grow them, no? And you can always harvest the seeds for sunflower bread!)

On the subject of training the pear tree, the technique is called espalier, which I think is more common with apples than pears, but works well with many fruits. The picture below is one I found on the internet to illustrate this. When I have a moment, I will replace it with a picture of my own tree.

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April 28, 2008

Gardening

Eating Well – A Diet Blog

April 28, 2008 10:54 A.M. Weight: 356.5 lbs.

Another cause for celebration – I managed to get some gardening in yesterday, giving the lawn the first cut of the year (yes, I know it’s late!).

I am not a natural gardener, and cannot honestly say I enjoy digging and planting. This house is the first home I have owned with a garden, and for the first few years, I just mowed the lawn, and used it as a place to sit.

However, last year, I decided to make an effort, and created two beds for planting. One was planted with tomatoes, the other with wild flowers; I also tried growing strawberries in a pot.

The flowers flowered and then died, and I can’t say I got any great pleasure from them. But cultivating the strawberries and tomatoes (and a row of giant sunflowers, planted on a whim) did give me a buzz, and food for the kitchen.

It also made a major effect on my general fitness, which was really the whole point of the exercise (no pun intended). This year I intend to plant even more tomatoes and maybe peppers and courgettes (zucchini) too. Over half of my strawberry plants survived the winter, and should crop even better this year. Having learned a bit about strawberries last year, I’ve transferred the plants to a strawberry planter, with lots of holes for developing the runners they send out into new plants.

The garden also has a pear tree, which was terribly overgrown and blighted when I moved here – it was supposed to be growing along a wall, but had been allowed to branch out across the garden path. The year before last, I cut it back to the trunk on a kill or cure tactic. Last year, I carefully trained 3 branches on each side of the tree, and cut back everything else. These branches are now looking very healthy, and though I don’t expect a crop of pears this early, it will be nice to see even some fruit develop.

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