Ziggys' West Bay,Dorset Veg Plot

[hr]
Well, dug it out & saved the soil.
[hr]
Filled it full of fresh horse poo, this stuff was steaming hot.
[hr]
Covered with 6" of soil.

Planted the veg seeds on top


And then put the double glazed, argon filled low e glass panels on top.

 

RE: Ziggys' First Hot Bed

Is that a BBC Dig In pkt of carrots in the last pic?

I was project surveyor on an office re-furb many years ago that included removal of 100s of secondary aluminium framed glazing panels, but at the time never thought of re-use as coldframe lights. They were all skipped. Wonder what even the scap value would be now.

 

RE: Ziggys' First Hot Bed

Good project Ziggy
My kitchen garden is in large raised beds like that and it works a treat for me.

 

RE: Ziggys' First Hot Bed

Yep, very greatfull to the BBC for the seeds.

Got 2 hotbeds on the go now, the soil in them is warm to the touch. Got stump rooted carrots, beetroot, lettuce & dwarf french beans on the go. Will have to extend the cloche protection if they get too big, but the frosts stop earlier down here on the south coast so hopefully things will go ok for an early crop.

Got strawberries setting & rocket, brocolli & spring onions in the unheated frames.

 

RE: Ziggys' First Hot Bed

Nice one Zig...is this your back garden or alottment?

Steve...

 

RE: Ziggys' First Hot Bed

Looks great Ziggy. Know its lots of hard work.

 

Hi Redstar,

Not really hard work, just didn't like shovelling horse poo in the rain :D

Worth it for the heat & when thats finished, the by product is well rotted manure

For those of you without cold frames, just stack a pile of fresh manure, make a simple wooden frame to sit on top & fill that with soil to plant into.

After a good suggestion from Steve R, i'm grouping the pics & reports from each plot into one thread to keep continuity, hence the change of thread name.

I'll keep a link to the thread in my signature, so it should build into a diary over the season. Well done Steve

 

Will try not to dissapoint Marley. I would like to add,at this stage, that I did not do the brick work on the coldframes.

If I get the chance though, I will make new frames for the glass panes, would be nice to have them all hinged.

My mate Simon, who started the plot off before splitting with my Sister, brought his Sister round last week. She took one look at the plot & said "Blimey, this looks more organised than last time I was down!" Simon muttered under his breath, "Yeah, Ziggys doing it now"

Bless him

 

No John, they are heavy enough, they didn't move in last weeks gales

 

You're not late Marley :D Only just cranking up the engine on this one, early days yet, only mid feb.

All the beetroot has germinated in the hot beds & peas are showing their roots. Planted a few of Choppers lettuce in there too, the soil is very warm.

Had to put some organically approved slug pellets in there, slugs had a few of the pricked out seedlings away. Catterpillars and ants have all woken up with the heat so its a bit like being zoo manager at the moment.

Bit busy to take pics during the day but I did manage this one,



Cross referencing with the other thread on forraged food, some Sea Beet grown from seed. I know the sea is only a mile away but when you are cooking sometimes you don't have time to get down there.

Also picked some Sea Kale seeds yesterday, will try to plant them at the weekend, treat like Cabbage seedlings.

 

Dug the last of the Parsnips today & replaced with 2 rows of Aran Pilot 1st early spuds.
[hr]


Haven't got enough frost protection for all of them, so covered the rest with a good layer of horse poo.


One of the hot beds. The big Lettuces are from Chopper, doing well There are some seedlings coming on next to them. Pic doesn't pick them out but there are 2 rows of beetroot at seed leaf stage & a few mangetout peas showing their heads.




Caught these 2 sunning themselves


The Welsh onions are coming on well, these will be ready after the White Lisbon Spring Onions are finished, still got about 30 of those on the go.

Dug up 30 odd "lost" Garlic plants & put them in next to the Elephant Garlic. Got a good row of Bananana Shallots in. Dug up & split one of the Rhubarb plants, blimey that was a size.

Next door have given me their pile of half rotted grass clippings so i've been breaking that up & layering it with the half rotted stuff from the 2 dumpy bags, making a mega heap which hopefully will go Nuclear as the weather warms up.

Also split the Chives up & started making up trays of stuff to go to market.



Bit knackered now so sitting in a heap with a bottle of wine.

 

Had a minor brain fart there read welsh onion and thought leeks wot a dumba***. Wish i had your weather up here in ipswich been raining on and off so can't get into the garden to turn over the green manure and prepare the new beds i hate this bloody weather. Also any idea where i could get some glass or perspex barn cloches friends uses them and swears by them. Got a funny feeling i'm going to be getting late or stunted veg this year.
Also anybody tried growing the tree onion?