Wahey! Garden!

[clarion]

As of this weekend, Butterfly, Our Kid, Superstoker and myself will have a garden.
 

Well, a big back garden and a little front one.  There's a bit of lawn at the back, but there's been a plot beyond it, and it's worth clearing to get summat growing.  Definitely better than weedy soil covered with a membrane and a load of gravel...

South facing garden, but mainly in the shade of two big trees, it's got fertile soil as far as I can tell, so we may be using the odd moment to get stuff going.

Superstoker, who has green fingers, wants apple trees, radishes and some other random stuff.  I've not got green fingers at all, but I want veggies & herbs.  And some flowers, of course...

Should be fun, but we have busy schedules over summer, so we'll need to keep it pretty low maintenance...

[tiermat]

As it's a rental and you may be moving on again in a year/2/3/whatever years, I would say go for container trees, if a fruit tree is a must.

There are many available out there now, IIRC Ballarina is a popular apple tree for growing in pots.

Downside is that fruit trees need LOTS of water, especially when forming fruits so you may need to rig up a constant irrigation system.

Come to think of it most things can be grown in pots, so why not build a collection of nice/unusual pots and use them as your garden?

[clarion]

Thought about that, but i reckon we'll be there for a few years, so no harm in settling down a bit.

I'm thinking about how I can do some raised beds at the bottom of the garden....

[David Martin]

I'm thinking about how I can do some raised beds at the bottom of the garden....

Do them in big pots? Carrots do well in containers.

..d

[tiermat]

Thought about that, but i reckon we'll be there for a few years, so no harm in settling down a bit.

Fairy snuff

I'm thinking about how I can do some raised beds at the bottom of the garden....

Recipe:
Gert thick (but not long) posts
Lots and lots of boards
Tonnes of topsoil

freecycle could be your friend for all three

[clarion]

I'm thinking Freecycle (or Gumtree).

Althuogh I need to unsubscribe from Calderdale Freecycle now I'm here....

Pots would be good for some stuff, it's true.  Apple trees do look good in big pots, and carrots tend to be more resistant to fly if not actually down in the ground (and esp if surrounded by marigolds), so that's a thought.

But yeah - me want raised beds.  I've never really had a chance to grow stuffs at home before...

[Notsototalnewbie]

Don't forget a nice cheap council-subsidised compost bin from the Recycle Now website, mine has finally made its way to me and I find filling it rather satisfying. Even if it does look like a big Dalek (you could get posher ones, but they were more 'spensive).

[clarion]

Ah.  We haz a compost bin already ago!  It will be travelling (but the compost and its resident mouse will be left behind).  There's a kinda dormant compost heap in the garden.

[mike]

raised beds are fantastic, we re-did ours 2 years ago and it makes it all much easier.  You need some scaffold boards...

[fruitcake]

They say you can use worn out car/truck tyres filled with compost to grow things.  Could stack them up for a compost heap. 
Your local garage might be grateful to you.

[clarion]

Well, we got as far as putting the compost from the old flat into the compost bin in the new garden.

And I had a poke at the heap at the end of the garden.  Grass cuttings, but completely dry, so not rotted down at all

Need to put them in the compost bin.   Perhaps I do need a wheelbarrow after all?