First topic message reminder :

This is just for little old selfish me,no not really,until coming to Bg never done much gardening,so any help when to plant things how to plant and any tips would be great



Mike

Having lost virtually all our Strawberries last year when we had our French Drain installed. (My fault should have lifted them b4 they got buried) I have now once again planted about 64 plants, thanks to our friend who once again split theirs up for me.

Jam here we go.

Home made Jam sounds good to me maybe with some nice scones and fresh cream

oh, how baron the garden looks in winter, sunbeds and umbrellas taken in, the flowerbeds lacking colour and the cruel winter destroying whatever it can and does, but come the spring everything springs to life, everything blooms once again, worth the wait.

Well the grass and weeds have dried out so today I mowed all that was still standing!in the top garden round the vines and our new orchard. ooks the tidiest it's been in a long time. Closed the gallery this year and brought everything home.including all the electrics, plumbing and an office I had built. (Chaos) but reused most of the materials in the Studio/summer house.
Have built a small summer house/studio this year at home and will adding a shower room and toilet next year, it can then be used for guests, plus all the BBQ's we hope to have, as it is completely separate from the house. Dug another bigger pond in the orchard Guessing 10,000 litres.which will help with watering as it is about 30 cms. above ground so I can syphon to where I need water, so hope to use that next year. Meantime I will be using the Studio in the winter which has great garden views, (and a big wood-burner) I have acquired the use of a Rotavator so have done about a 100 square metres with it so far. as some of our veg. beds will be turned into shrub and flower beds. Also we have been weeding our cuttings, Weggelia, Philodelphus, Forsythia, Lavender, Pyracantha etc. and have plans to pot them up next year and sell them along with Sweet Williams,Fox Gloves, Rock rose and others from the garden. We have had a few -5's this last week so Roses and most all the plants have about finished. Clearing leaves also has taken a few hours, but worth it, we put them on any cleared ground along with straw, around the shrubs to stop the weeds growing for the winter, then rake off and compost or dig it in next year. Might get a bit more stonework done on the paths and walls, if the weather holds. Then before you know it, Xmas and waiting for the spring.

My garden although looking a bit bare still has some life in it. All the chysanths are flowering now and adding a bit of colour. The pot plants have all come indoors for the winter and I've been planting bulbs to flower in spring (they were half price in Kaufland). I'm still finding rogue squash growing on the manure heap - All sown from the squash I fed the pigs last year! And after 3 years of keeping livestock in Bulgaria and managing the waste they produce I now have the best, organic compost I've ever seen :)

The strawberry bed needs thinned out so I'll be planting another bed up with the runners from this year.

Hoping to get a few more raised beds made to use next spring, as this years ones worked very well. And I'm also planning to use a hot bed system in early spring to get a few salad crops going. Have a look at this website detailing the hot bed system [url:2hzzsy3b]http:
//www.
holon.
se/garden/howto/hotbed_en.
shtml[/url:2hzzsy3b]

Always something to do Suzee. till the snow stops us

How true Dave, and even when it's snowing there's planning (on paper) of what to grow and where to grow it next season. As the years go by we learn a bit more about what grows best in our garden apart from weeds and are trying to improve the soil quality with plenty of organic compost.

I'll be raking through the seed bags soon to see what I can start off in the house early spring to try and get a head start on the garden. Wish I'd planted some late garlic this year but didn't get round to it, this weather we've been having would have been ideal.

Still there's the hot bed idea to try in a couple of months if I can find/salvage some glass to cover the tops with.

Bubble wrap is Ok and not breakable, and you can double glaze if you put it on both sides of a wood frame

What a great idea, thanks Dave

I know its early but while we are all trying to keep warm I thought I would ask what you might be planting this coming year, I'm only asking so that I might get some ideas

with the weather so sunny just now, my thoughts are to the coming spring. only growing tomatoes, peas and beans. im more into colours from the flowers. so i will be building more flower beds this year.

Strawberries are well established, winter lettuce is doing quite well, will grow Tomatoes, peas and beans if I can find them.

Can anyone tell what should be planted and when? and more to the point how much space is required and what sort of things can be planted close together

I got my friend to post this on the forum who isn't a member here but does seem to know a lot more than I do or for that matter want to

Spring is just around the corner, it’s now mid March and the eager blossoming of Spring has several times been quenched by more seemingly relentless snow. Needless to say our original romantic notions of the snow are quickly waning.

On our weekly visit to the local bazaar this Sunday, we bought six fruit trees to plant in our garden: two apricots, two cherries, one apple and one peach. I am not sure of the exact cultivars, but they come from a local grower who assures me they are beautiful (curse my naïveté!);
at the very least they will be suited to the soil type we have here so should take well. We shall see. To my dismay I could barely understand any of the instructions she was giving me;
learning a language can be very disheartening when this happens, but at least in this instance I have the internet at my disposal to relieve my horticultural ignorance.

The false starts of Spring had led me to believe several times that the time to plant had passed – late Winter, before the growing season begins, seems to be the best time to do so. In addition there seem to be some trees in the garden that have already started to bloom, which alarmed me when we were once again plummeted into sub zero temperatures. Well, we can’t control the weather… yet.

We are looking ahead to our busy next few years and so want to create an environment in which there are lots of self supporting plants, trees and shrubs, most of which will bear fruit or nuts. This is commonly referred to as the ‘forest garden’ or ‘permaculture’ model. In short it is one which will mimic a forest’s structure in its layers of complementary ecology. It’s not complicated, it just requires a bit of research into what is suited to your particular climate. Here in Bulgaria we suffer from long hot summers with very fertile soil so most things will thrive. There are different layers and methods to this structure, which I will describe below. A preference toward perennial plants is exemplary (also the way to go for the lazy gardener such as myself), because they will appear year after year from persisting rootstock.

Large fruit and nut trees

In our efforts to create a forest garden environment we plan to grow large trees, an apple and a peach, in addition to those already in the garden – the walnut and pear tree (there is a small apple tree but we are thinking of chopping it down or grafting a tastier variety on to it). These will provide some canopy for smaller plants growing underneath and will improve the soil structure by way of their root system… in at least five years’ time, that is.

Small trees and large shrubs

Small trees such as the cherries and dwarf fruit trees are what we are going for at this early stage. As this is a major long term project and in many ways experimental, some aspects of it will only yield benefits for us in terms of food in years to come. In this way, it is not only fruit and nut trees and vegetables that will benefit us: shrubs such as budlea will attract bees and butterflies, which will help to pollinate fruit trees, thus increasing our fruit yield. On another note, I have read that acacias are good shrubs to grow in terms of fixing nitrogen in the soil, which also make great chicken feed. However the bottom of our garden is currently overrun with small aggressively growing acacias and I would rather introduce other trees and shrubs to out-compete them because they are covered in spines and grow ridiculously fast! Unmanageably fast... a complete pain!

Small plants and bushes

Here I am talking about blackberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and raspberries to grow around the borders of our property. Then artichokes (why doesn’t everyone grow these? It’s ridiculously easy) and asparagus, rhubarb, walking stick kale, sea kale and strawberries. All very hardy and sun loving, although I think redcurrants need a bit of protection from the heat of the day. Onions and garlic – garlic is already growing in the garden but I haven’t digged any up yet to see what it’s like. The plants I have mentioned so far are perennial. I do want to grow a few annuals, either because they are impossible to find here, or impossibly expensive (or impossibly poor quality… I could go on), or we are simply curious to learn how to grow them. Broccoli is one of them, which grows well with the onions and garlic interspersed to deter pests;
in fact the broccoli variety I plan to plant is a 'nine star perennial' which is indeed a perennial but the crop diminishes after three years so I guess then I will have to reseed. Sunflowers, sweetcorn and french beans (we should be able to use corn stalks as trains for the beans), chilli peppers, potatoes, parsnips (Tom loves parsnips. I also love parsnips), spinach and fennel.

There is a box hedge growing around the trunk of the pear tree – although these are supposedly grown in a superstitious manner here , it would be great to plant some strawberries or blackberries underneath it… shade is difficult to come by in the summer. Although I suppose if my arm starts to wither away or we suffer a plague of locusts… might have to replant that box hedge.

Ground cover

There are a few things that are really good ground cover in terms of deterring pests (in the way that basil deters pests from destroying tomatoes), or being good competition plants for the things we want to eat (in a way that caterpillars will prefer nasturtiums to cabbage – if cabbage is the crop you want that is). Others provide good mulch, which is basically a layer of cover so that the soil retains moisture and out-competes weeds, or fix nitrogen (beans, clover). Geraniums, lovage and borage are great general insect repellents, so it would be great to intersperse these with all of the crops. I would also like to grow dandelions and dock leaves to feed the rabbits with.

I am compiling a list of germination methods for each seed... it's going to be a lot of work this year but hopefully at least some of the plants will survive. The harsh winter is my main concern, but there is no point in worrying about it! This is an experiment after all, and next year we shall see what has survived.

Brian1 wrote:

I got my friend to post this on the forum who isn't a member here but does seem to know a lot more than I do or for that matter want to

Spring is just around the corner, it’s now mid March and the eager blossoming of Spring has several times been quenched by more seemingly relentless snow. Needless to say our original romantic notions of the snow are quickly waning.

On our weekly visit to the local bazaar this Sunday, we bought six fruit trees to plant in our garden: two apricots, two cherries, one apple and one peach. I am not sure of the exact cultivars, but they come from a local grower who assures me they are beautiful (curse my naïveté!);
at the very least they will be suited to the soil type we have here so should take well. We shall see. To my dismay I could barely understand any of the instructions she was giving me;
learning a language can be very disheartening when this happens, but at least in this instance I have the internet at my disposal to relieve my horticultural ignorance.

The false starts of Spring had led me to believe several times that the time to plant had passed – late Winter, before the growing season begins, seems to be the best time to do so. In addition there seem to be some trees in the garden that have already started to bloom, which alarmed me when we were once again plummeted into sub zero temperatures. Well, we can’t control the weather… yet.

We are looking ahead to our busy next few years and so want to create an environment in which there are lots of self supporting plants, trees and shrubs, most of which will bear fruit or nuts. This is commonly referred to as the ‘forest garden’ or ‘permaculture’ model. In short it is one which will mimic a forest’s structure in its layers of complementary ecology. It’s not complicated, it just requires a bit of research into what is suited to your particular climate. Here in Bulgaria we suffer from long hot summers with very fertile soil so most things will thrive. There are different layers and methods to this structure, which I will describe below. A preference toward perennial plants is exemplary (also the way to go for the lazy gardener such as myself), because they will appear year after year from persisting rootstock.

Large fruit and nut trees

In our efforts to create a forest garden environment we plan to grow large trees, an apple and a peach, in addition to those already in the garden – the walnut and pear tree (there is a small apple tree but we are thinking of chopping it down or grafting a tastier variety on to it). These will provide some canopy for smaller plants growing underneath and will improve the soil structure by way of their root system… in at least five years’ time, that is.

Small trees and large shrubs

Small trees such as the cherries and dwarf fruit trees are what we are going for at this early stage. As this is a major long term project and in many ways experimental, some aspects of it will only yield benefits for us in terms of food in years to come. In this way, it is not only fruit and nut trees and vegetables that will benefit us: shrubs such as budlea will attract bees and butterflies, which will help to pollinate fruit trees, thus increasing our fruit yield. On another note, I have read that acacias are good shrubs to grow in terms of fixing nitrogen in the soil, which also make great chicken feed. However the bottom of our garden is currently overrun with small aggressively growing acacias and I would rather introduce other trees and shrubs to out-compete them because they are covered in spines and grow ridiculously fast! Unmanageably fast... a complete pain!

Small plants and bushes

Here I am talking about blackberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and raspberries to grow around the borders of our property. Then artichokes (why doesn’t everyone grow these? It’s ridiculously easy) and asparagus, rhubarb, walking stick kale, sea kale and strawberries. All very hardy and sun loving, although I think redcurrants need a bit of protection from the heat of the day. Onions and garlic – garlic is already growing in the garden but I haven’t digged any up yet to see what it’s like. The plants I have mentioned so far are perennial. I do want to grow a few annuals, either because they are impossible to find here, or impossibly expensive (or impossibly poor quality… I could go on), or we are simply curious to learn how to grow them. Broccoli is one of them, which grows well with the onions and garlic interspersed to deter pests;
in fact the broccoli variety I plan to plant is a 'nine star perennial' which is indeed a perennial but the crop diminishes after three years so I guess then I will have to reseed. Sunflowers, sweetcorn and french beans (we should be able to use corn stalks as trains for the beans), chilli peppers, potatoes, parsnips (Tom loves parsnips. I also love parsnips), spinach and fennel.

There is a box hedge growing around the trunk of the pear tree – although these are supposedly grown in a superstitious manner here , it would be great to plant some strawberries or blackberries underneath it… shade is difficult to come by in the summer. Although I suppose if my arm starts to wither away or we suffer a plague of locusts… might have to replant that box hedge.

Ground cover

There are a few things that are really good ground cover in terms of deterring pests (in the way that basil deters pests from destroying tomatoes), or being good competition plants for the things we want to eat (in a way that caterpillars will prefer nasturtiums to cabbage – if cabbage is the crop you want that is). Others provide good mulch, which is basically a layer of cover so that the soil retains moisture and out-competes weeds, or fix nitrogen (beans, clover). Geraniums, lovage and borage are great general insect repellents, so it would be great to intersperse these with all of the crops. I would also like to grow dandelions and dock leaves to feed the rabbits with.

I am compiling a list of germination methods for each seed... it's going to be a lot of work this year but hopefully at least some of the plants will survive. The harsh winter is my main concern, but there is no point in worrying about it! This is an experiment after all, and next year we shall see what has survived.

Good post

We've bought loads of trees and shrubs in the markets over the past seven years or so and find all of them thrive. We have only, for whatever reason, had problems with trees or shrubs that have been given to us. That is strange because they obviously came from near us, so similar weather conditions and soil, but there you go