Operation "Back Breaker"

I have around 18" between my raised beds, and I find that's enough. I can still get a wheelbarrow in between

 

thats what happened to me two weeks ago, but it was only for GC? fb n all others sights loaded ok tho!?!?!

 

You seem to be well qualified NOT to ask for advice or refute it
So just bash on

Jack McH

 

ok, that sounds like a good part of the plan, 1) dig two "spits deep" 2) remove large stones.

two questions about the plan tho...

Q1) what sized stones is it ok to leave?
Q2) How long is a "Spit"? guess I should go google it

Well at least you're here now Zigmiester, what was your nettle recipe for plant food? I take its a good time to cut them now? and is this lquid you make any good for onions

Thanks, JWK, its very good advice I think, thank you, its been rain on and off here, but I dug some more and then got some string n sticks, and marked it out to give me a better idea, pleased to hear your thoughs on what I might get out of my soil.

ok, its a good idea too, Freddy, thanks.

I'm thinking go 18" all over, and dig a couple of small spots deeper to lool for the debth of the clay, if it doe'snt hit at 18 inches.

I've marked out 4 foots beds and two foot paths, and now plan some form of raised beds, so would think I could grow close to the edges, so a two foot path in the winter, n an 12/ 18 inch path with crop leaf hanging over in the summer

Cheers, Jack, its good to know you have some faith in us English:patpat:


I think its worth while drawing a scale plan, so thats what I'll be doing, thanks for all the good advice

Phil.

 

1 spit = the depth of the head of the spade (about a foot).

If you go down the route of digging two spits deep:

1. Probably look up 'double digging'. The concept is simple enough, but its a bit hard to explain, but there'll be loads of illustrated explanations about I expect.

2. Operation "Back Breaker" is going to become Operation "Back, arms, legs, spririt and soul breaker", but you will end up with nice soil at the end of it. I did it in a few patches in my garden, but only because it was so severely done in that it was probably necessary. At one spit depth, I actually found a few coins dated 1902 to 1906. They weren't very corroded, suggesting there'd been no oxygen on them to oxidise them for decades. All this suggested to me that the ground hadn't been disturbed at any depth for probably close to a century.

 

A spit is one spades depth
I'd get rid of as many stones as possible to save the roots of anything you are going to grow from having to battle through them

 

Blimey you're hard work sometimes, I do this for free mind

Sorry to hear about your young one going into hospital again, thats never any fun for a young one, give him my best regards as always.

Now is the best time to pull the nettles as all the growth is in the plants and the roots are weak, they will pull up great.

Cram as many of them as you can into a big bucket, then flood with water. It'll smell great.

Packed with nitrogen so you want to save till the spring, no point in a nitrogen feed over the winter.

 

I think you'll find I'm hard work most times, but correct me if I'm wrong lol

have you ever frozen your liquid feed?, I dont have anything to store it in until next spring, so I'm thinking about just making it real thick in the food mixer, then freezing the pulp in Ice cream tubes? or is that a crazy idea lmao

 

You might be hard work but i still like you.

Not gone so far as to freeze it, but its an idea.

Should be fine if its kept covered outside.

 

So are you, and I too

I cant seem to find a forum search, do you remember "Compost in my Blender"? the thread, I'm thinking the same thing, but with nettles, we have a ton in the woods growing wlid, I recon I could easy carry six bin linners full in one hit, feed into blender with a splash of water to make freezable gloop, in 1 liter blocks, I've got a half emty chest freezer, and its cheaper to run them full, so makes sense, maybe?

 

I've been out with some sticks and string to mark out 4 foot beds and two foot paths and then had a quick check of the level, its got about a 12 inch drop across this length of 4x2 (thats about the middle of the second bed)....




Then took a photo of a radish, my grass, and some gravel I have spare (about two tons) and had I little play in paint, to give me a better idea of what I need to do, the plants are at a one foot pitch (lotta space for a radish lol)


The path on the left infact has about four feet of ground before the hedge, and tbh I think thats a good idea, so I can park a wheel barrow, cut the hedge, and not trip over anything, but the first thing I need to do is have a major tidy up and make it safer to work in.

 

Blimey, you should be in Time Team!

 

I've not had much time in the last week other than to think n tinker, I started pricing up the raised beds on wood, and fell over in shock then thought about about reusing the bricks and rubble I've dug up from around the garden, I could always just render ugly looking walls, but then I thought concretes not that pricey to make.

So I went out and found a could of nice peices of real stone to tinker on...



I gave one of the stones three thin coats of moulding Latex, then waited 24hrs, it came off the stone lovely, but I was gutted to find out the plaster of Paris tub was near empty, just enough to pour on a small test corner....


Sorry the photos not so clever, but I was really pleased about how much/all of the stones detial was cast........


So now I intend to make a few male plaster casts of stone that I can find, then epoxy glue them on a square block of plaster, then cast my concrete pouring moulds from that, its not going to be fast, but it is going to be fun

 

Concrete dye is available to buy. Have a look on eBay there are loads of different couloirs available. I'm interested to see how this turns out, it's a great idea PP.

Rusty