Seedlings TimeLapse

Audio of what's happening in the kitchen as of today, the 28th Feb 2013.

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Sick of Electric

As I travel through the internet, finding bits and pieces about gardening and so on, I am increasing getting sick to death of Electric. All of these gorgeous gardens are powered by electric. I'm really bothered by this, gardeners claiming to be organic and eco-friendly are running their gardens using a bloody fossil fuel!

Drip irrigation powered by a timer, attached to the mains water supply to grow organic vegetables  Just smack of self-righteous ironic arrogance.

Where is the reuse and recycle mentality that is the basic tenet of all vegetable gardeners? Buggered off when all this fancy shamancy electric crap came in. These people are simply lazy. Spouting on and on about how eco-friendly/green/organic/save the whales they are while using up to 10% MORE non-renewable materials. Just think, what does it take to make these systems? The plastic is made through a high polluting method, usually on the other side of the world so there is the fuel to run the big tankers that ship all these gizmo's half way around the world. Then there is more travel pollution to send them off to the various warehouses and shops.

Of course, there is the public fuel we put in the cars, these people have to travel to buy all of this crap, or they get someone else to deliver it to them.

Then we come back to the beginning of this little rant... how much does it cost to run one of these things? I'm guessing it isn't too expensive but the overall damage to the environment isn't going to be repaired by your well watered tomato plants and lettuce.

The only ray of sunshine I have found during my travels is a drip irrigation system for the very poor farmers, it uses a bucket. No timers, no water mains, no electric!

Heavens sake people... Get a watering can and a water-butt and get off your lazy ass!

Opening up to the Magic

You have to read this, it is amazing, a woman who is completely in tune! - Opening up to the Magic.

The Fridge Top is Getting Full!

Well another day another round of seed starting.

After last year I'm really, really in the mood to start seeds off as early as possible. The tomato and potato crops were devastated by the weather last year, so I'm giving all my plants a head start this year. This does mean that the warmest part of the kitchen (the top of the fridge freezer) is getting pretty darn full of seed pots!

My BF is grudgingly moving about the kitchen with care and is so patient with random pots and tins appearing, and with the seed starting compost covering the work surfaces on an evening.

I love planting at night, there is something really satisfying about being in the kitchen, washing up all done and draining on the side, then grabbing the tin that held the spaghetti  washing it out, punching holes in it with an awl and filling it with compost for a couple of Pumpkin seeds to go in.

I have the square foot garden all ready and waiting for compost, then the transplants and seeds to go out.

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12 Perennials That Butterflies Love

1. Garden phlox (Phlox paniculata)

Photo: © Marie Iannotti, About.com Guide to Gardening

Garden phlox may be old school gardening, but the butterflies don't seem to care. With clusters of fragrant flowers on tall stems, garden phlox offers nectar in summer and fall. Plant Phlox paniculata and expect visits from clouded sulphurs, European cabbage butterflies, silvery checkerspots, and all kinds of swallowtails.

2. Blanket flower (Gaillardia)

Photo: © Marie Iannotti, About.com Guide to Gardening

In my yard, blanket flower is a "plant and ignore" flower. It's drought tolerant and can handle poor soil conditions. Once established it will push out blooms right to frost. Few butterflies will roll up their proboscises and flutter away from this one. Look for sulphurs, whites, and swallowtails once this one flowers.

3. Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Photo: © Debbie Hadley, WILD Jersey

A few plants go by the name butterfly weed, but Asclepias tuberosadeserves the name like no others. Monarchs will be twice as happy when you plant this bright orange flower, since it is both a nectar source and a host plant for their caterpillars. Butterfly weed starts slow, but the flowers are worth the wait. Better get a field guide for this one, because you might see coppers, hairstreaks, fritillaries, swallowtails, spring azures, and of course, monarchs.

4. Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)

Photo: © Marie Iannotti, About.com Guide to Gardening

Goldenrod's gotten a bad rap for years now, simply because its yellow blooms appear at the same time as the sneeze-inducing ragweed. Don't be fooled, though - Solidago canadensis is a worthwhile addition to your butterfly garden. It's fragrant flowers appear in summer and continue through autumn. Butterflies that nectar on goldenrod include checkered skippers, American small coppers, clouded sulphurs, pearl crescents, gray hairstreaks, monarchs, giant swallowtails, and all manner of fritillaries.

5. New England aster (Aster novae-angiae)

Photo: © Marie Iannotti, About.com Guide to Gardening

Asters are the flowers you drew as a child, many-petaled blossoms with a button-like disk in the center. Any variety of aster will do, really, when it comes to attracting butterflies. I like New England asters for their prolific flowers late in the year, which coincide nicely with the monarch migration. Plant asters to see buckeyes, skippers, monarchs, painted ladies, pearl crescents, sleepy oranges, and spring azures.

6. Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium purpureum)

Photo: © Marie Iannotti, About.com Guide to Gardening

Joe-pye weed is great for the back of your garden beds, where at nearly 6 feet in height, it will tower over lesser perennials. While my gardening books list it Eupatorium as a shade-loving plant of wetland areas, I've had success planting it just about anywhere, including in my full sun butterfly garden. Another late season bloomer, Joe-pye weed is an all-purpose backyard habitat plant, attracting all kinds of butterflies, as well as bees and hummingbirds.

7. Blazing star (Liatris spicata)

Photo: © Debbie Hadley, WILD Jersey

Liatris spicata goes by many names: blazing star, gayfeather, liatris, and button snakeroot. Butterflies (and bees) love it no matter what the name. With showy purple spikes of flowers and leaves that appear like clumps of grass, blazing star is an interesting addition to any perennial garden. I added a few white varieties (Liatris spicata 'alba') to my butterfly bed for more contrast. Buckeyes are frequent visitors to this perennial.

8. Tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata)

Photo: © Debbie Hadley, WILD Jersey

Coreopsis is one of the easiest perennials to grow, and with little effort you'll get a reliable show of summer flowers. The variety shown here is threadleaf coreopsis, but really any coreopsis will do. Their yellow flowers call smaller butterflies, like skippers and whites.

9. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Photo: © dog madic/Stock.xchng

If you want low maintenance gardening, purple coneflower is another great choice. Echinacea purpurea is a native prairie flower of the U.S., and a well-known medicinal plant. Large purple flowers with drooping petals make excellent landing pads for larger nectar seekers, likemonarchs and swallowtails.

10. Stonecrop 'Autumn Joy' (Sedum 'Herbstfreude')

Photo: © Marie Iannotti, About.com Guide to Gardening

When I first saw sedum on a list of butterfly plants, I had doubts. It's not the showy, colorful perennial you picture when thinking of butterfly gardens. Still, I decided to plant some and wouldn't you know it - you can't keep the butterflies off the sedum. With succulent stems, sedum almost looks like a desert plan before it blooms late in the season. Sedums attract a variety of butterflies: American painted ladies, buckeyes, gray hairstreaks, monarchs, painted ladies, pearl crescents, pepper and salt skippers, silver-spotted skippers, and fritillaries.

11. Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)

Photo: © Debbie Hadley, WILD Jersey

Another North American native, black-eyed susans bloom from summer to frost. Rudbeckia is a prolific bloomer, which is why it's such a popular perennial and an excellent nectar source for butterflies. Look for larger butterflies like swallowtails and monarchs on these yellow flowers.

12. Bee Balm (Monarda)

Photo: © Flickr users Carly & Art, CC Share-Alike license

It might be obvious that a plant named bee balm would attract bees, but it's just as good at attracting butterflies. Monarda spp. produces tufts of red, pink, or purple flowers on the tops of tall stems. Be careful where you plant it, as this member of the mint family will spread. Checkered whites, fritillaries, melissa blues, and swallowtails all visit bee balm.

via 12 Perennials That Butterflies Love.

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Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap – Part III

So my cat had to come and watch all the hard work!

I filled the wheelbarrow twice with my home-made compost and if I hadn't of had two Aldi raised bed frames, it would have been plenty.

My back was pretty knackered by the second barrow load, and it wasn't very fast work to be fair. The shovel I was using was a ladies border shovel I borrowed off my mum years ago, and while it is good for digging holes, it's pretty poor at moving a lot of dirt. I need to get to a car-boot and buy a bigger one!

 

I also used perlite instead of vermiculite which is a bit of an experiment, but I had perlite on hand so in it went!

I also bought some Blood, Fish and Bone from Aldi when I got the raised bed frames. I also mixed a bit in as well, I'm guessing you can't have too much natural fertiliser. I figure that it's going to be a pretty intensive farming bed so the plants will need a bit of goodness.



It feels as if I have put too much in, but to be honest, I still need some bagged compost to fill it up the rest of the way, so all in all the good stuff will be at the bottom, where the roots need it the most.

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The Common Frog

My first frog to visit the garden last year, the pond had only been in about 2 weeks, and after adding the plants and things from Freegle this little beauty was so lovely!

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Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap - Part II

Yesterday BF & I got out into the garden to get some work done, there were two shrubs that had seeded themselves exactly where they shouldn't do good old BF got out the axe and went to town, it was a bit of a palaver but he got there in the end!

Good Ole Aldi - Raised Bed Kits are Cool!

I didn't know if I was going to use the two Aldi raised beds or just the one, but after building it up and putting the cardboard on the bottom it was pretty obvious that it needed to be taller, especially as I want to grow parsnips in it! The bed on its own with the cardboard added, probably only had about 3" of root space. I'm pretty chuffed that I bought a spare kit. If I had got a kit from anywhere else or if they had cost more than £6.99 then I would've only got one.



If you haven't already seen the beginning post, then check it out.







I just hope that when the soil mix is placed in then they will still hold together... Only time will tell. Although my plan for if they start to shift - lots of bricks!



My back is trashed so my plan for shopping and schlepping compost mixes is out of the window at the moment, though, I might go down a bit later. Still, I need to get last year's compost into the wheelbarrow and get that in the bed first.

A Trial Method

I have read many 'how-to's' and blogs about square foot gardening but I like to mix things up a little differently.

First things First

As you can see from the top picture, I have put a layer of bark mulch over the cardboard. I reckon this will help draw the roots down as they look for moisture, making stronger plants that can withstand the wind and rain far better than the shallower rooted ones. (Also, by making the water lower, I hope to get longer Parsnips and Carrots!)

Dirt Mix Baby

I'm going to try and stay pretty much on the line with the dirt mix. Mel Bartholomew the founder of square foot gardening has his own recipe for the soil:

• 1/3 Peat Moss


• 1/3 Compost (from mixed sources)


• 1/3 Vermiculite

This is an expensive mix to me. Vermiculite is pretty expensive - about £10 per bag. Decent compost with a variety of ingredient, also about £10 per bag, and Peat Moss, well, that's not as expensive but the production and harvesting of peat moss is so bloody damaging to the local wildlife and eco system it is harvested from, I don't think I can use it. The more sustainable option is coconut coir, so I might try to grab a bag of that instead.

What ever will I do?

To be honest, I think a few grow bags, a bag of coconut coir and vermiculite off the internet will do for now. The overarching message for the soil mix is that it has to be fertile - I have my compost, made from scraps which is bloody rich in minerals and whatnot, so If I mix that into the soil, it will be greatly beneficial.





[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="170"] Real Compost (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]



Mel also recommends that when you remove a plant, you add back a handful of new compost. To be honest, being frugal only works so far, I will most likely end up buying a decent bag of compost for that.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures into gardening after the break.

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Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush...

This is the view that greeted me after dropping BF off at work, the round light is the sun coming through the really intense fog. It was so beautiful!

Newspaper Pots & Sunflower Seeds

I like plastic pots, they are cheap (free) and do what they're supposed to do for a really long time... however they do need you to remove the plants so you can plant them, this isn't desirable for a few plants and some plants, such as sweet peas do not like their roots disturbed.

You can go and buy expensive peat pots or you can make your own biodegradable pots out of newspaper.

Have a look here for the instructions, although you could probably figure it out from the pic above...

The Decline of the Common House Sparrow

The common House sparrow, I have quite a few where I live and they are always in the garden, gobbling up the leftover chicken feed and scattering about in the plants for odd crumbs and so forth.  There is also a nest they visit every year, it is an old ventilation flue in the wall and they always raise at least three to five babies.

You can imagine my surprise to find out that these little birds are on the Concerned list, which is pretty much one step away from endangered!

To give them a helping hand, I have fixed up another nest box for them to use if they see fit.

Birdhouse: £3.00 from Morrisons | Wood Pole: £free - it's form an old bed that broke | Wire: Scavenged

I have always put food out for the birds all year, this photo was taken on the 18th Jan 2013 and shows the Sparrows quite well I think!

Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap!

So after work yesterday (boy was I knackered!) I went down to the local Aldi's and bought myself two of these raised bed kits. I am planning on starting a 'Square foot Garden' this year to try and cut down on our food bills.

How much on Food?!

Last year we spent £2,700 on food; that is £225 a month! That's a lot of money when you consider we stretch our meals out and re-use leftovers religiously. Like I have mentioned in a previous post, although my and my BF are both working, we don't really have money to waste and so, looking at the bills and things each month, I try to scrimp and save where ever I can and one of the biggest outlays we have is the food we buy.



We won't become tight arses but we do want to be able to spend on the things we want and to save a it for the future and with out current spending, this isn't going to happen any time soon. We have both agreed to set aside a bit of money (£50) each month to invest in things that will save us money in the future. This is where the raised beds come in.

I am a pretty frugal person by nature, I re-purpose, up-cycle and bargain like a demon, so obviously I want to do this on the cheap.

Aldi to the Rescue.

I love Aldi, they generally have plenty of gardening stuff in at this time of year, a lot of it is awful or aimed at the novice (plastic pots filled with flowers for the patio ect ect...) but there are a few gems to be had.

I found these raised border/planters yesterday for only £6.99 each and they are perfect for a quick/instant veggie Square foot Garden. I already have the ingredients necessary to make the soil mix, (click here to see the ingredients) so that has already been paid for. I won't be buying weed-proof barrier cloth, I'll be putting the garden on top of slabs, so a thick layer of newspaper will suffice.

What Happens Next?

As I haven't even started building this all up, I think I'll keep this project an on going update thing so you can see what I do and how it progresses over time.

You have already seen the post about the seeds on the windowsill/ I'll be planting those into this bed once they are ready to go out.

I am really looking forward to this taking shape and I hope it inspires you to get out there and get gardening, just don't buy a shitload of expensive stuff, hell you could even make one of these beds if you nip down the lumber yard!

Purple Clematis

Last Summer

I bought the chicken shed after the old one was looking bloody awful and worn (they also had the run of the garden and devastated it completely!). It took a while to save up for this but I love it. It fits in so well with my plans for the garden I cannot begin to tell you!

For most of the summer and Autumn, the three girls were kept inside until one day they managed to get out, I think it was the beginning of November... anyway to cut a long story short, I left it open and they had the run of the gardenfor the whole of winter, I was feeling guilty for locking them up when they were used to having a whole garden to scratch about it.
Lesson learned though, the garden is pretty much trashed again, all of that lovely green grass you see there... gone... so they are once again confined to quarters.

Bubblewrap for Seedlings

Bubblewrap is a free (or at least cheap) way to protect your seedlings from a cold tile windowsill.

The pond.

I put in the pond during October last year (2012) and within a month it was populated with all manner of frogs and toads and of course the dreaded Mosquito. I added a couple of small fish to it so they would eat the mosquito larve and they did a fine job.

I don't think they survived the winter. I haven't seen them since the pond thawed.

I have a lot more planting to do around the pond but already the water speedwell is growing and I can see that the water forget-me-nots are starting to get bigger.

I also have some tete-a-tete daffs to go around it as well... Only 50p per pot (about 5 plants in each) from Morrisons at the moment so I grabbed 6 pots! I am a very frugal gardener really, we aren't on the highest of wages so I really have to watch what I'm spending on un-necessities like the garden flowers.

I do however but and raise seeds. Look for the next post on the plants I'm growing from seed this year!

The garden - Mid February 2013

So I begin my blog, I am normally awful at writing for others, but I'm very proud of my garden.
I know it looks a mess at the moment but it will get a lot better. I know the photo is a bit crap too but it was taken on a blackberry so there you go. If I ever get an Iphone then I'll be laughing!

As I'm using my phone to do this blog, I should be able to keep up with it, the PC is so cumbersome and I like the handheld nature of the phone so Hopefully I have finally found a good avenue.