My Garden Project

Discussion in 'General Gardening Discussion' started by Greecko, Jul 31, 2011.

  1. Greecko

    Greecko Gardener

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    Being the first ever Garden I've ever had a chance to get involved with and the scale of the project I have to say my interest in gardening grows everyday, so here goes my start into my own Garden

    Basically in its day it was a vegetable Garden, great great grandparents owned it but never let anyone else into it, pride an joy, thats maybe 60 years ago, over the years animals were kept in it but nothing since at least the 70s, so overgrown is one way to describe it.

    Any plan is to get it up and running again and grow my own vegetables in it along with flowers and hopefully a few trees

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    The approach to the garden, still had remains of old raspberries on the left with a wall on the right in the photo

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    This is the view just as coming in, dwelling house right ahead with old byres on the left all in good condition structurally

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    view of the original garden and what I have cleared so far, wish id taken a pciture before just to show the difference, I couldnt even get into the garden it was so overgrown

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    roughly gives an idea of the size, id say its 6x6metres cleared so far and behind my girlfriend is the rest of garden yet to be cleared, tho that goes back a good 8-10 metres, unable to even see the pther end or walk through it

    [​IMG]

    Another smaller field that wsnt part of the original garden but is free for me to use aswell, I reckon for the likes of potatoes etc it would suit, its been levelled out from before as the whole house and garden is at the bottom of a very big "hill" thats quite steep, so thankful this bits quite flat

    [​IMG]

    Hoping to renovate this old byre and make it suitable to house old breeds of pigs and keep chickens, something I was obsessed with when younger, silkies and light sussex my favourites

    So thats what its looking like t the moment, next couple of months I hope to get back into shape ready for planting in the new year! Any ideas for what you would do or how you would use the space would be very much appreciatd!

    As for the garden it is south facing (going by google maps) and also the fact the house and hill blocks any light from most other directions, the whole garden is very well sheltered from any wind from surrounding area and its location.

    Thannks for looking hope to update as it progresses :)
     
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    • Greecko

      Greecko Gardener

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      darn not sure whats happened with the images but they still work! just need to click them
       
    • floydie-pink

      floydie-pink Gardener

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      Try photo bucket for uploading your photos :).
       
    • Greecko

      Greecko Gardener

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      thanks and sorry, Im not a big technology person tbh, mobile and rough laptop use is as far as I bother really :P whats the bets way to upload or ebed photos to see without needing to link them anyway? I was just using the code but mustve used the wrong link on the other site i used
       
    • Greecko

      Greecko Gardener

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      EUREKA ive finally got it working, pictures a little big but its a start finally able to see what im working with and how it looks, so far weve cleared all the vegetation right back to the original borders, which you can see behind the pics of my gf, 4 men and a good evening, right bit of fuel and a chainsaw can do quite a bit of work :)

      more pics to come!
       
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      • Sheal

        Sheal Total Gardener

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        You've certainly got a lot of work there. Because it's been laying 'static' for so many years the soil will be in good condition for when it comes to planting.

        Good luck and keep us updated. :dbgrtmb:
         
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        • davygfuchsia

          davygfuchsia Gardener

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          Well done so far .. Looking forward to see how you progress .'Jungle Busting' as would call it, is hard work but very rewarding when you look back at the end of the day

          Dave
           
        • Greecko

          Greecko Gardener

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          Little update between last night and today ive now cleared all of the trees and plants and weeds, all to ground level, borders need defined and trimmed up and any remaining weeds killed, weve got stuff used for the farm that kills everything above ground and will disappear, so planting wil be safe, plsu itll not be used until next year

          thank goodness for the good weather i can now work until its dark :) thursday I plan on getting a good 13 hours of work in im hoping :)

          Just curious but ive dug down to the soil, and to be honest its texture is very very fine, its like the seedling compost i bought its so fine, left a little leaf litter on top to rotivate into the soil and let rot till spring

          again any tips would be appreciated!
           
        • floydie-pink

          floydie-pink Gardener

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          My you have been busy :), you are so lucky to have the out buildings i would love a garden like that were i could keep animals :D.
          Just out of interest have you cut japanese knot weed down?? just looking at one of your photos.
           
        • Greecko

          Greecko Gardener

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          Is that the giant bamboo like stalks growing? supposedly they are extremely hard to kill and will come back, so operation burn and dig will be needed I believe

          If it is ay tips yourself for killing it would be appreciated!

          Ill be using the larger field for pigs I believe and maybe add my hen arks there I think, outbuildings would be better for keeping them indoors during colder months really, they were originally pig houses anyway

          thanks for reading and posting everyone!
           
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          • Greecko

            Greecko Gardener

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            Just googled that japanese knotweed and well yes we have it and yes its been cut down, and all of it burnt thankfully but its a little scary to see just how fast and widespread it grows, seems this will be quite a task and could cause major problems for the future of the garden now :(
             
          • floydie-pink

            floydie-pink Gardener

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            I feel bad for asking now :(.
            Next door to us has it too the best way is to get someone in to kill it, it will take several times to kill it but it will get weeker each time. Is it all over the garden or just in one area?
             
          • Greecko

            Greecko Gardener

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            in on area of the far part, maybe a dozen main root stalks, all very easy to pull out but yeh the roots are very long on some where they came up with them

            cant imagine itd be easily dont and doubt wed bother really, seems super strong weed killer an dig up what we can and burn it is the method to try

            anyone know any good weedkillers? glysophate(sp?) and roundup 2,4d or whatever it is sounds like the job, nuke em really

            we can get pretty strong weed killers being farmers, some we might try to knok em dead a bit

            realistically could we just dig and keep at them and then plant around? digging up whats possible?

            also are they poisonous to animals/ may be pigs would clear them up a bit?
             
          • Phil A

            Phil A Guest

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            Humans can eat Japanese Knotweed.
             
          • Tropical_Gaz

            Tropical_Gaz Gardener

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            Keep on top of the knotweed. If its not a big clump then roundup will weaken it. The trick is to inject it into the stems (they are hollow) so it gets a good dose, but you will need to do this a lot.

            It will die back in winter, so make sure you give it a good dose of roundup in the autumn, it pulls back water and nutrients from the stems to the underground roots so you want to give it a nice treat of weedkiller as its doing that.

            Any small bits you leave in the ground will re-grow, so dont let them get any height in future, keep spraying and cut and burn.

            Is it on your neighbours land, you will need them to be dealing with it too.

            Hopefully you dont have too much of it or you will really need to consider getting the professionals in.

            Doing it yourself you should be able to kill it over maybe 3 years or so (again assuiming its not too big a clump).

            We had it growing in a shared side alley where I used to live - probably from someone dumping garden rubbish - so it was only a small clump and not well established - It too about 2 -3 years to kill it using round up - but it did die off in the end.

            Good luck!
             
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