Hel's Garden Diary

[hel]

Thought it was about time that I put something about what we are doing with the rest of our garden, the bit that hasn't got chickens in!

We moved the greenhouse last weekend, so it is no longer in the chicken area, also means it's not under the hedge and an apple tree, so it will get sunlight! In there I'm going to grow tomatoes and the children are growing cucumbers and Chilli peppers (we went to an event at RHS Rosemoor last week and they made newspaper pots that we have planted them in along with Runner beans and peas).

As the garden redesign progresses hubby is going to build me raised beds for veg, but that probably won't be till next year, so this year will be growing in pots and the greenhouse. Managed to pick up a cheepish polythene covered mini greenhouse as well that the seeds are in. Bought one of those posts that supermarkets are selling with seeds and have 16 tomato plants growing, hopefully they won't get blight this year.

[Annie]

It still rewarding though, even when you do container growing, still love picking cut and come again lettuce and I grow that in an odd assortment of container.

[hel]

Hope it's OK to ask questions on this bit of the site.

I have no idea what to do with the stuff in the composter. One's pretty full, mostly of rabbit hutch cleanings (rabbit poo and straw!), about to start on number 2 and number 3 should be arriving sometime soon (our council were offering free ones at an eco fair last week, seemed rude not to take them up on the offer). How do I turn it into stuff that can be used on the garden?

[fishpond]

Hope it's OK to ask questions on this bit of the site.

I have no idea what to do with the stuff in the composter. One's pretty full, mostly of rabbit hutch cleanings (rabbit poo and straw!), about to start on number 2 and number 3 should be arriving sometime soon (our council were offering free ones at an eco fair last week, seemed rude not to take them up on the offer). How do I turn it into stuff that can be used on the garden?

Are the bottom of the composters open to the ground beneath them?

[hel]

They are. This can be changed if necessary though (at least for the empty ones!).

[little brown hen]

We've just turned out compost bins out, the stuff that comes out of them has gone straight on the earth ready for planting. With lots of rabbit poo it should be great stuff. Don't use it to grow carrots though, they dont do well apparently in soil with compost in it.
Have fun!

[hel]

Have managed to get some bits dome in the greenhouse today. I've put the tomatoes and corgettes into troughs and planted some broad bean plants I bought into nice big tubs. Nothing happening on the bean and pea from yet. The greenhouse looks really organised at the moment, don't suppose that will last!

[hel]

I think I have a chilli pepper growing!

[hel]

Things are really starting to grow, The runner beans are coming through and the broad beans are getting big. Lost a courgette though.

We've moved the water butts this morning and attached them to the gutter downpipe, should help with watering. The fruit plants are all doing really well too, lots of very small gooseberries!

[p.penn]

All sounds good!

[hel]

Planted the runner beans out yesterday into a trough filled with compost and made a huge mistake. Didn't net it off from the chickens . They had a lovely time dust bathing in the compost and have stripped quite a few leaves, but I think some can be saved. I've planted a few more seeds just in case, hopefully they will germinate reasonabley quickly. The purple sprouting is also in a trough.

The broad beans are flowering nicely, will need to slug pellet them though, hate using chemicals in the garden. The veg are now completely netted off from the chickens!

Tomatoes are doing well in the greenhouse.

[hel]

Replaced the runner beans after netting off the veg only to go out and water them this morning to find out one wiley girl had found a small gap at the end of the netting. Can't be too cross though as they are lovely in every other way. Going to the farm store to get better stakes for the netting later, as at the moment we're using bamboo canes and they are a bit useless, any suggestions would be welcome.

It's been a bit of a disasterous few days, one of the sets of shelves in the greenhouse fell over on Saturday, so have to get a new pane of glass. Oh well onwards and upwards, I think the beans will recover.