How does your garden grow? - The Bear and Badger

poprock

We’ve got Badger gardening chat all over the place. In the house and home thread, in the ask a Badger thread, and sometimes in the food and drink thread. There’s probably a Stardew Valley thread, but I wouldn’t look in that.

Maybe it’s time for an actual gardening thread? Especially now it’s spring in the UK and things are happening outdoors.

We already have Noxy’s houseplants thread, so there’s no need to cross the streams there. This one’s for the great outdoors.

So here we are. Gardens, gardening, plants, outdoor stuff. Capability Brown eat your heart out.

poprock

Grabbing this from t’other thread so I can respond in here.

poprock wrote:

I’m secretly (not secretly) terrified by how much work this place is going to be. I think I might have to spend two grand on a lawnmower this week, for example. Currently desperately trying to find out whether I can hire one a few times a year for less outlay …

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

I’ve kept my council on this issue but now you’ve outed it yourself I’m worried you’re gonna be in for a shock with how much work it takes.

I really applaud anyone embracing their outdoor space - as most just want a square of badly looked after grass - so I’m staying positive here but it’s going to be a part time job I think.

Truthfully, were it mine, I’d concentrate on one bit this year and find my feet ‘cos otherwise I fear you’re gonna get scared off. Even just keeping on top of your paddock is going to be a deal, never mind tending to your kitchen garden plus any ornamental stuff you have. No doubt you’ll get there but you’ll need a fuckton of machinery and tools just to get going.

I’ll give you as much advice as you want as I applaud the way you’ve gone into this outdoor living neck deep from the off.

Good luck man.

Moot_Geeza

Mine doesn't because astroturf. No regrets but it's a shame foxes find it irresistible to shit on.

b0r1s

Built in bum wiper?

poprock

So yeah, Unc’s bang on really. We’ve found ourselves with an incredible amount and variety of outdoor space along with the house we bought. And it’s ace. But it is, undoubtedly, a shit-ton of work.

We’ve been lucky on two counts. Moving in winter meant we didn’t have to deal with it straight away. And it’s all really well established. The previous owner was a pro landscape architect and he established the garden 13/14 years ago. Unfortunately he also moved out two years before selling it so it’s been abandoned for those two years. That means our main job this year is just clearing dead stuff from everywhere so that the healthy plants can grow more happily.

We’re doing that bit by bit. Clearing and cutting back one area at a time means that we can at least see some results each time and not feel like we’re just pissing in the wind.

Luckily (again), Mrs Poprock’s on furlough - so she’s pretty much a full-time gardener right now. There’s no way we’d be getting on top of it otherwise.

poprock

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Mine doesn't because astroturf. No regrets but it's a shame foxes find it irresistible to shit on.

I think foxes shit everywhere. It’s just that your astroturf means you can see it.

Moot_Geeza

Probably. Bramble doesn't even have to work for it when he's truffling.

hylian_elf

Gardening lol I haven’t done that all my life. Just gonna hire someone for our new house.

davyK

I mow the lawn and move heavy things around when directed to by Wifey.

GooberTheHat

We have become so middle class and middle aged.

Genuinely though, get a robot lawnmower. They are great and will save you soooo much work.

Kow

I'm going to plant a bunch of Padron pepper today. I grew some last year but as I didn't think they'd grow I just scattered them around the pot and they grew tangled up in each other. I'm going to put in a few jalapeños too to see how they fare.

acemuzzy

My garden currently has a moat in it. Which is exciting.

Except it's really just a hole. Oh well.

RedDave2

davyK wrote:

I mow the lawn and move heavy things around when directed to by Wifey.

This is how gardening should be. I like the manual work, especially in nice weather, but I hate having to work out what goes where and when. My wife has gotten into it so she just tells me what she wants and I'm happy out. Brain off, just nice menial work. Yesterday I was putting up shelves in the shed and digging holes for drainage on the garden. Earphones on, happy days.

I feel like Jerry from parks and rec - this makes sense to me.

cosmicjellybean

I would mow mine and my late neighbours garden every other week, that’s it really. It’s not a very big garden so was easy to mostly ignore, we did pay a lot for new grass though a couple years ago.

New house they did the garden really nicely so I think again it’s mainly just mowing and cutting things back when it’s too big (usually when it’s long overdue).

My wife talks about loving gardening but will do it once a year and then completely forget it existed the rest of the time. We just don’t really have time for it, I am becoming a fan of the astro turf idea really.

Moot_Geeza

acemuzzy wrote:

My garden currently has a moat in it. Which is exciting.

Have you tried offering it chicken?

acemuzzy

That's kinda a moat point

The Daddy

This time last year I picked up a robot mower in B&Q for a relative bargain. This time this year he’s not working

GooberTheHat

Mine's a she, and she's still going strong 3 years later.

RedDave2

The Daddy wrote:

This time last year I picked up a robot mower in B&Q for a relative bargain. This time this year he’s not working

Nobody expected the rise of sky net to begin with a disgruntled robot mower....

GooberTheHat

She's called Larisa BTW.

davyK

acemuzzy wrote:

My garden currently has a moat in it. Which is exciting. Except it's really just a hole. Oh well.

Think I mentioned this before. Lady 3 doors down from us used to have ducks in her garden and had a pond for them. They lived far longer than she anticipated and when they were old became very grumpy.

Used to hear them in the morning rowing amongst themselves.

davyK

Our lawn isn't very big. It's smaller than it used to be since we got landscaping done. 20mins or so does the job and I have a petrol mower to prevent fannying about with cables.

I quite like doing it. It used to take nearly an hour and my old rusty mower had a broken throttle that meant I had to stick a nail in the works to keep the motor running which was fucking stupid. Had a close brush with the blade one day taking the nail out which prompted me to get a new mower.

Little Franklin

Quite enjoy mowing the lawn. Haven't done it yet this year though. Was thinking I'd start now but apparently it's going to be freezing Monday night.

My garden is mostly just a curated collection of weeds. Ivy has started spreading over the fences recently which I quite like. Just need to keep it off the plants.

Wookienopants

I've spent a fair bit in the garden this spring already.
Aerated the lawn, marked out the whole thing in square metres and then used a combination of grass seed, fertilizer and 35g of moss/weed killer per square. Watered it every night and now the grass is growing nicely, the moss is going black and dying and in a week's time I'll give it a damn good raking to get all the dead stuff up.

We got some old logs from a local forest, cut them down a bit and have used them as stands for some potted plants.

I've got some lovely new rattan garden furniture out now as well.

Tomorrow I plan to paint the fences and then in the week I'm going to hang string fairy lights across the back panels to make a lovely little seating area for our rattan outdoor sofa and firepit.

Loving my garden

n0face

I'm digging a base for a green house. For me the only point of gardening is to get fresh tomatoes so hopefully the green house ups the game this year. There will also be chillies and heritage potatoes.

mk64

I mowed on Wednesday. Glad I did. Sat out right now by myself soaking up the sun on the chair. Quiet. Just the sounds of the birds and bees

MattyJ

My garden needs some tlc at the moment, but due to all the work on the house itself, it's going to have to wait another few weeks

poprock

Here’s some compost heap pics for @Nina.

This is the smallest of our heaps, and the one I’m putting food waste into now. So when our kitchen food waste bin is full, I lift some of the dry matter off the top here, empty the food bin into it, then fork it all through a bit before covering it back over.

Then because of the Scottish weather, I put a tarp over the top.

The good stuff with the worms should be happening lower down in the depths of there already. I’m just topping it up.

Lord_Griff

Need to take down some decking in our garden, the previous occupants used it to cover a multitude of sins. Mainly lumps of concrete and brick but also some bikes and what appears to be a solid iron bath tub. Sooo, do I get a grabber lorry or shift it myself with a skip?

The Daddy

Fire!

poprock

I don’t think a solid iron bathtub will burn …

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