Post by roofgardener on Oct 27, 2014 12:32:52 GMT
A warm welcome to all at Garden Friends, and my complements to the admins/mods for creating such a nice site. I picked it out of Google simply because the description blurb looked so much more welcoming than the others.
Of course, I also picked it because it dealt with gardening. I've been dabbling with growing veggies and 'erbs for around four years now. My "Garden" is actually a small roof-terrace type thingy, so everything is in plantpots and troughs n' tha'.
It started off harmlessly enough.... I saw one of these 'starter' kits in B+Q ... you know the sort of thing.. three tiny Terracota pots with herbs pre-planted in it. You just stick it on the windowsill and water them from time to time. (I seem to recall it was Basil, Chives and... ummm... can't remember. Californian Redwood or something).
Then it was the gift of a half-grown chilli plant from my Sister. After a while, it didn't fit on the windowsill. So it was either move out of the house or....
I bought a little greenhouse-shelf thing. You know... a couple or three shelves with a plastic tent-style cover, and a zip-up door at the front. And I planted some mixed salad stuff on a whim.
It grew, untill it didn't fit any more. And the chilli's where complaining about overcrowding.
So I bought one of those cheap tent-style walk-in greenhouses. It was great; it had two shelves on either side, and you could JUST about sit down in it on a cheap plastic chair. There was even space for a little cabinet to hold important tools, seeds etc. Or in my case, a bottle of wine. Suddenly, I found myself wearing a flat cap and smoking a pipe. Which is wierd, because I don't possess either item.
"You can't have a cheap plastic/PVC tent greenhouse on a roof teerrace" people told me. "It will blow away in the wind".
I ignored them, and grew tomatoes, and sat on my cheap plastic chair sipping wine and smoking my imaginary pipe.
.. and then a spring storm blew the greenhouse down.
So I bought another one... this was octagonal, and much larger. I could store TWO bottles of wine, AND my copy of Racing Pigeons Weekly. I nervously added a courgette plant to my repertoire.
In Autumn, a storm produced a mini-cyclone on the terrace, and literally sucked the PVC tent part vertically off the frame, leaving just a skeletal metal framework and some alarmed tomato plants behind. Still, there was a silver lining. One of the tomato plants immediately ripened out of sheer suprise ! Untill this point, I had only ever been able to produce Green Tomatoes.
So I got ANOTHER walk in greenhouse; slightly smaller, and stood it on a load of bakers trays. I used string to bind all of the joints of the greenhouse together, and through down into the bakers trays. NOTHING would blow this one away. But it was a bit small... so I scanaged all the bits of framework from the previous greenhouses, and turned them into impromptue "standing" units around the periphery of the terrage where I could put all of the courgettes, tomatoes, potatoes, Rosemary, Mint, Bay, Runner beans....leaving the shed as a sort of "mother ship", and also for the Chilli's.
Suffice to say, I was addicted.
There is a certain smug delight in thinking ".. this stew needs some Thyme... I'll just go and pluck some". Or the sheer decadence of thinking "I could do with some runner beans with this meal...", and just sticking my hand (blindly) out of the front door, and plucking them from the vine running up my water pipe, without even having to leave the house.
But I'm not very scientific. My idea of gardening is to plonk a load of compost into a pot, stick a seed in, water it, and then beat it with a stick untill it grows. I could REALLY do with help and advice in a lot of areas.
In addition... I've only ever really been interested in edible stuff. I've got SOME decorative plants to act as bee-attractors, but I really don't know much about decorative plants. And here's the problem. My sister has persuaded me to help her sort her garden out... and that means LOTS of "suitable" bedding plants.
My suggestion of Courgettes was met with a frosty expression. So now I need to learn about decorative plants.
So.... I look forwards to "chatting" with you all, sharing experiences, and perhaps occasionally picking your brains ?
Warm regards,
RoofGardener.
Of course, I also picked it because it dealt with gardening. I've been dabbling with growing veggies and 'erbs for around four years now. My "Garden" is actually a small roof-terrace type thingy, so everything is in plantpots and troughs n' tha'.
It started off harmlessly enough.... I saw one of these 'starter' kits in B+Q ... you know the sort of thing.. three tiny Terracota pots with herbs pre-planted in it. You just stick it on the windowsill and water them from time to time. (I seem to recall it was Basil, Chives and... ummm... can't remember. Californian Redwood or something).
Then it was the gift of a half-grown chilli plant from my Sister. After a while, it didn't fit on the windowsill. So it was either move out of the house or....
I bought a little greenhouse-shelf thing. You know... a couple or three shelves with a plastic tent-style cover, and a zip-up door at the front. And I planted some mixed salad stuff on a whim.
It grew, untill it didn't fit any more. And the chilli's where complaining about overcrowding.
So I bought one of those cheap tent-style walk-in greenhouses. It was great; it had two shelves on either side, and you could JUST about sit down in it on a cheap plastic chair. There was even space for a little cabinet to hold important tools, seeds etc. Or in my case, a bottle of wine. Suddenly, I found myself wearing a flat cap and smoking a pipe. Which is wierd, because I don't possess either item.
"You can't have a cheap plastic/PVC tent greenhouse on a roof teerrace" people told me. "It will blow away in the wind".
I ignored them, and grew tomatoes, and sat on my cheap plastic chair sipping wine and smoking my imaginary pipe.
.. and then a spring storm blew the greenhouse down.
So I bought another one... this was octagonal, and much larger. I could store TWO bottles of wine, AND my copy of Racing Pigeons Weekly. I nervously added a courgette plant to my repertoire.
In Autumn, a storm produced a mini-cyclone on the terrace, and literally sucked the PVC tent part vertically off the frame, leaving just a skeletal metal framework and some alarmed tomato plants behind. Still, there was a silver lining. One of the tomato plants immediately ripened out of sheer suprise ! Untill this point, I had only ever been able to produce Green Tomatoes.
So I got ANOTHER walk in greenhouse; slightly smaller, and stood it on a load of bakers trays. I used string to bind all of the joints of the greenhouse together, and through down into the bakers trays. NOTHING would blow this one away. But it was a bit small... so I scanaged all the bits of framework from the previous greenhouses, and turned them into impromptue "standing" units around the periphery of the terrage where I could put all of the courgettes, tomatoes, potatoes, Rosemary, Mint, Bay, Runner beans....leaving the shed as a sort of "mother ship", and also for the Chilli's.
Suffice to say, I was addicted.
There is a certain smug delight in thinking ".. this stew needs some Thyme... I'll just go and pluck some". Or the sheer decadence of thinking "I could do with some runner beans with this meal...", and just sticking my hand (blindly) out of the front door, and plucking them from the vine running up my water pipe, without even having to leave the house.
But I'm not very scientific. My idea of gardening is to plonk a load of compost into a pot, stick a seed in, water it, and then beat it with a stick untill it grows. I could REALLY do with help and advice in a lot of areas.
In addition... I've only ever really been interested in edible stuff. I've got SOME decorative plants to act as bee-attractors, but I really don't know much about decorative plants. And here's the problem. My sister has persuaded me to help her sort her garden out... and that means LOTS of "suitable" bedding plants.
My suggestion of Courgettes was met with a frosty expression. So now I need to learn about decorative plants.
So.... I look forwards to "chatting" with you all, sharing experiences, and perhaps occasionally picking your brains ?
Warm regards,
RoofGardener.
thanks for the compliments and welcome to the forums 
You certainly have a suitable sense of humour for the site, 
