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Anyone else into organic gardening around here?


dalsingh101

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On 5/25/2020 at 11:47 PM, chatanga1 said:

Gardening has been a bit of a washout for me this year. Having caught the damned corona virus in the months where I would have been doing the garden means that I have missed the proverbial bus. Will just be concentrating on my fruit trees this year. But it will give me an opportunity to clear the soil of weeds etc more thoroughly this year.

I have been informed that giving the garden a rest from planting/growing every few years is also very beneficial for it.

Got a few things going on this year. Lots of palak, some swish chard, various tomatoes, some chillis. Some runner beans. Been busy on the lockdown and even made some raised beds out of salvaged wood removed from an attic that was being refurbished around the corner. Trying French beans and peas again, had no success with these on previous attempts. Also tried cheap as chips washing up liquid (Easy brand from pound shops) - diluted with water in a spray bottle  to try and combat blackfly Aphids, they seem to definitely kill/reduce them, but the Aphids and ants (who harvest them) seem to come back quite quickly afterwards. 

 

Giving that soil a break is the best thing you can do for it!  

 

Going to take photos this year and upload them when garden blooms. 

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Got quite a few things going there Dal. Thanks for the aphids tip. Will try that as they can affect fruit trees. Ants don't seem to be a problem though.

Good work on recycling that wood! 😀 I recently constructed a barbell stand with the wood that from our old porch. It had begun to sink, so we had roof replaced. Had a lot of wood from that so decided to use it for a mini-project. Built myself a 4 rack barbell stand. Have around 120 kgs on it. It is quite solid.

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16 minutes ago, chatanga1 said:

Got quite a few things going there Dal. Thanks for the aphids tip. Will try that as they can affect fruit trees. Ants don't seem to be a problem though.

Good work on recycling that wood! 😀 I recently constructed a barbell stand with the wood that from our old porch. It had begun to sink, so we had roof replaced. Had a lot of wood from that so decided to use it for a mini-project. Built myself a 4 rack barbell stand. Have around 120 kgs on it. It is quite solid.

You should try and stick a pic of the rack up! Got a nephew that turned up to stay, and he brought a few of his weights - would be good to make a tidy for it!

Also, I forgot to mention: did some herbs too - from seed (thankfully  as I can't seem to buy the plants in supermarkets like before). Got methi, dhaniya and two types of basil going on (normal and Thai). 

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23 hours ago, chatanga1 said:

Here you go. Excuse the mess though, our garage was a right mess until recently.

 

Barbell stand 2.jpg

Barbell stand 1.jpg

That's good! Did you saw it by hand or use a machine? 

 

Where did you get the design? Did you make it up yourself?  

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16 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

That's good! Did you saw it by hand or use a machine? 

 

Where did you get the design? Did you make it up yourself?  

 

I used a machine to cut the wood to size - my friend has one which came in very handy. I designed it myself mentally on how i wanted it to look and then sketched it out. It isn't perfect and i spent a lot of time getting the internal screws to align. But in the end it does the job perfectly.

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On 6/5/2020 at 12:26 PM, chatanga1 said:

 

I used a machine to cut the wood to size - my friend has one which came in very handy. I designed it myself mentally on how i wanted it to look and then sketched it out. It isn't perfect and i spent a lot of time getting the internal screws to align. But in the end it does the job perfectly.

That's a good job dude! 

Might try something like that myself. 

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  • 3 months later...

We've talked about it for years. Finally got some pics of crops. I'm going share experiences with growing them here in England too. 

 

Runner beans:

I started them in small pots on the window ledge and then planted them out when they grew. I made this frame with bamboo sticks as they grow MASSIVE (like Jack in the Beanstalk!) and I can wrap them around the frame to contain their growth. I reckon one plant can easily grow to a 4/5 metres.

 

IMG_20200613_213723.thumb.jpg.ea9cf18bb725a01c5dc96f6813f5ed85.jpg

 

Here they are a few weeks ago. Note how I had to extend the frame. 

IMG_20200910_142540.thumb.jpg.520289c5c3704563abb169d228230f36.jpg

These red flowers turn into pods. 

IMG_20200910_142551.thumb.jpg.f3ba54671650f826df57ee5864c966a5.jpg

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Chillis:

I've a wider variety in the past bust these days I'm just sticking to Cayenne and Jalapeno. These are really easy to grow from seed. I start them in small pots (on the window cill) and put them into bigger wider pots when they have grown and then acclimatise them to the outside weather. 

IMG_20200910_142012.thumb.jpg.dc817aa8e1e45032ce40ebff1b52d156.jpgIMG_20200910_142041.thumb.jpg.e647c437f3b4bfa9da8b226b85222722.jpgIMG_20200910_142050.thumb.jpg.32c00c9c453d5e66b72dd747caee5708.jpg

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8 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Spinach:

I now grow a variety of spinach types. I've found real spinach real hard to grow (because they don't seem to be able to tolerate temperature changes), and have been mainly relying on perpetual spinach and Swiss Chard (which are hardy and can be grow well into  teh coldest weather). This is how they start (I plant the seeds straight into the ground, you need to leave a lot of space between perpetual varieties as they can grow BIG):

IMG_20200910_142412.thumb.jpg.bd52ad713b1fd37cc4be537782f17270.jpgIMG_20200910_142349.thumb.jpg.fe4d56d6fb1541a7ad0c255cfa54e76e.jpgIMG_20200910_142621.thumb.jpg.944989c52aa479d38f4bd588862c449c.jpg

IMG_20200910_142603.thumb.jpg.9225a62131fdec45fa0adefb09926e6f.jpg

 

Recently someone gave me some desi palak seeds and these are coming up nicely. I used salvaged India stone bricks from a wall I demolished to create these temporary raised beds. They seem to grow better this way. I put the wire netting on top to thwart the local foxes who love digging holes in the soil):

IMG_20200910_142113.thumb.jpg.05acee69dbe61ec792dda6249b8218c3.jpg

 

 

 

 

Very nice effort veer ji and post.

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Oh yeah, and one of these is really handy to get rid of any mice/rats that might feed on your crops. The cats not mine, but likes to hang around the garden, she's managed to catch and eat 4 mice/rats in the last few months alone. Badass! 

 

IMG_20200521_171024.thumb.jpg.32c542b168cd16d473c767d5a97ad472.jpgIMG_20200521_171041.thumb.jpg.7c0887b7154f01a639c3a2d3d39ff608.jpgIMG_20200709_203334.thumb.jpg.13149747d833aa06c51f9706fae0e460.jpgIMG_20200729_182628.thumb.jpg.e8c48eea7091a030a2f938404969c94f.jpg

 

 

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Kale:

Purple and green varieties. Not really a fan of this stuff, but heard they are nutritional powerhouses. You can see another type of raised bed here too. 

 

IMG_20200910_142310.thumb.jpg.6a2b49151cc7cdd0ad5f2d463d8b736d.jpg

IMG_20200910_142325.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
1 minute ago, Premi said:

@dalsingh101Have you found foxes to be a problem ? They like to 'pat' stuff from the ground. 

We try grow things naturally as possible, and grow/have grown tomatoes, chillies, mint, mithai (for parathe and rotiyan!). Have grown spinach in the past. 

If tomatoes not ripe before October, bring them inside and they 'pak' if put them by the window for greenhouse effect. 

Yeah foxes are an issue. But when I plant now, I use chicken wire on the ground to thwart them. A family of them live under a shed in my neighbours garden. They are strange creatures. Earlier this year there were 5 fox cubs (really cute, and blue coloured) but then the older fox[es] (mom?) killed two of her own cubs and left the bodies in the neighbours garden. Nature can be tough.  

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Anyone doing anything interesting in this department this year? 

 

New thing for me: I'm trying spring onions. Basically I soaked some cut off ends in water for a bit (surprising how quickly the green leaves shoot up). I've now potted them in soil.  

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On 4/25/2023 at 7:18 PM, dalsingh101 said:

Anyone ever try something like this? 

 

 

PS - Tried some rice water on tomato saplings, seems to do them no harm at the least. 

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