Trowel and Error

[baargain]

Grass and buttercups were my nemesis last year :lol:

No dig with cardboard and compost saves digging up the grass, but you do need to acquire quite a lot of compost if there isn't a heap there already.

[Rosa]

I will pass that on! There seems to be plenty of compost on site, so all good.

[baargain]

https://charlesdowding.co.uk/start-here/

This chap's website and you tube is all about no dig. It's so much easier! I didn't have enough compost to do this on all my beds last year, but should be able to do it this year.

[Rosa]

Thank you!

[Derek Nimmo]

Is it going to be all veg Rosa, or flowers too?

[Rosa]

I'm hoping to stick in some flowers too. Seems daft not to.

[Derek Nimmo]

Your own ready supply of flowers - how lovely!

[absley]

Exciting Rosa! Is it all grass?!? I spent the afternoon weeding three of the 4 raised beds I have, plus the pathways in between - despite the weed membrane! I think the wood chip and fallen leaves must have broken down over the months so there's lovely composty stuff there now, so I'm using it to top up the beds.

The LHS bed has two gooseberry bushes plus rhubarb. Need to work out what the one plant still standing on RHS is (I think it'll be coming out) and there are a few strawberry plants; and then I'll tackle the back bed

I was reading the no dig book this morning!

[Rosa]

The plot has some raised beds (with crops to be identified), so not all grass, but it needs some love. So wonderful that you have all that in your new garden!

[baargain]

That rhs plant doesn't look that edible, but I might be wrong! Plant net is a good plant ID app.

Glad you're not waging war on pure grass, Rosa! That's a relief. One of my neighbours has grass paths, which look nice, but do need strimming. I have a flower bed by my sitting/resting/exhausted area, and around the compost patch. I might also put flowers all down the edges as some kind of border. Mainly stuff that will self seed like foxgloves and poppies etc, and fancier stuff by the seating patch.

For the existing beds, if they're not full of weeds, then you can just dump a few cm of compost on top and then you'll be good to go without cardboard, you only need that to squash the weeds.

[Rosa]

That sounds good! We'll take a better look this week, as today was an open day and we had to make a quick decision on plot choice. I think we got the best of those available. This is the only other photo I took (just the lower section), and I think we can work with this.

[baargain]

Ah that's not too bad at all! A handy brassica/fruit cage too!

[absley]

So exciting, Rosa!

[absley]

Oh, and... I ordered various gardening tools including a hori hori knife (trowel) - I'm in love.

[Cosmopolitan]

I bought a hori hori last year after trying someone else's at a volunteering day and its just brilliant. Badass garden implement

[absley]

I'm glad it's not just me, Cos! :))

[baargain]

I've laid out my beds! Pig poo and compost :))

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I've sown various seeds in the greenhouse at home, I'm trying broccoli, cauli, and sweet peppers for the first time this year.

[absley]

Exciting stuff, Baa. I've ordered all my seeds and my potatoes are chitting. I've planted sweet peas and cerinthe; I think everything else can wait a few weeks.

[baargain]

I have planted out the first early potatoes, the first round of broad beans and giant mange tout, and about a billion onions and shallots. I've also sown things. I am losing track :lol: well, I say that, I made myself an excel spreadsheet so I can see when I sowed seeds, when I planted them out, whether they're here or the allotment, and how much in yield I'll get back

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I also fell for the "get loads of perennials" offer, twice :lol:

[wendy james]

I’ve been busy this weekend too. There’s vegetable seeds potted and in the girls’ bathroom and a load that went straight in the ground. We also filled the herb planters, planted some leftover and sprouting baby potatoes just to see, threw flower seeds all over and moved all the planters with flowering bulbs out where we can see them.

I also erected our new greenhouse thingy. It looks like a rocket. :))