|
Post by Elkay on Jan 24, 2013 15:52:18 GMT 1
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2013 18:12:32 GMT 1
Quite so, Elkay, I was disturbed too.... A virgin grower of non-tough goatmeat, who also likes to forage for mushrooms, in Brittany, is very kooky....
Anyway, I maintain that it's better not to water, but rather to hang on to what's already fallen. Which means we have to take steps now, in January, when it's relatively quiet, so that we don't have to do anything in June, and July and....
I'm doing stuff now. I haven't watered in 20 years. So it's possible, and preferable, for all sorts of reasons...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2013 9:56:32 GMT 1
.....move the potager. Radical. You've got time between now and March.....
When I bought in Calvados the potager was in full sun from 10 a.m. to sunset. Trees and hedges ran on 2 sides. I didn't grow anything on it, but kept the weeds hoed off. Sure enough, the soil was bone dry by June.... Not surprising that the previous owner had installed a tap, 100 metres from the house, to keep it watered.....
I wonder how many of you inherited a potager when you bought in France? Is it really the best place for it? I am doubting.....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2013 13:43:45 GMT 1
....if you buy into the idea that the Season is a huge wave about to crash down on us, before rolling on, then it might add to the sense of urgency to stay with a nautical theme:
All hands on deck!... Reef the Mainsail!... Faster, you dogs! Bos'n, flog that man! Point up into her, we don't want to be hit broadside! Man overboard! Our Father, who art in heaven.....
It works for me....
|
|
|
Post by troll on Jan 25, 2013 13:57:39 GMT 1
Nope don't agree!!! I'm just calmly waiting outback for the perfect wave, I'll catch it and ride it , cutting back to keep right on the face and ride triumphant right to the shore..............
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2013 17:39:18 GMT 1
....so troll is also a Siren, luring the unsuspecting onto the Rocks of Failure....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2013 21:45:09 GMT 1
Unrequited love compels me to post again in this thread....
We're in March and the soil is full by now. Slowly draining, evaporating and being robbed by unwanted growth.
I try not to waste a full soil. Areas to be planted later I don't dig now (don't usually dig at all) cos it speeds the drying and promotes weed seed germination.... The rain we can expect won't match the rain we've had....
Doing the whole plot 'whilst the rotovator's out' might leave a tidy impression, but, IMO, does more harm than good....
The French 'grattoir' hoe is all you need to go over the plot as soon as the Spring weed flush kicks in. Leaving the surface otherwise alone keeps a cap on it and stops it drying out....
I tell you this out of love.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2013 8:05:23 GMT 1
.... Those of you who've dressed the soil with good manure/compost - at the rate of a barrowful/m2 - must feel very pleased with yourselves....
Even if you haven't, there are still ways of avoiding watering later...
A 'weak' soil is not capable of producing as much as a strong soil. So put fewer plants in it! Forget what it says on seed packets about spacing distances between plants. They are guidelines only, and assume a strong soil.
Cramming in as many plants as possible is the surest way of needing to water them regularly later. And weeding becomes a back-breaking chore cos you can't get the hoe in amongst them...
You'd be right to keep the weeds away. Because of the water they rob from the soil. Water which you'd have to keep adding if you didn't keep the weeds away...
Not so long ago children were sent out into the fields to do the weeding. Their lives were blighted by it forever. Blight not your life with hand-weeding! Space so that you can get the hoe in. It's a pleasure to hoe, a chore to hand-pull....
And don't bother watering...
|
|
|
Post by mirabelle on Apr 29, 2013 13:03:06 GMT 1
I wonder how many of you inherited a potager when you bought in France? Is it really the best place for it? I am doubting..... We have a potager here that we inherited. It was neck-deep in Golden Rods (those things that grow everywhere) , creeping buttercups & nettles with a few pretty things popping up at random. The intention was to clear it and grow veggies but frankly my back is not up to hard digging and constant weeding, so I have started to tame the jungle after a radical cut-back and will encourage grass to grow so I have a nice sunny spot to sit in on a good day. (Oh & daughter moaned that she wanted a place in full sun to sunbathe in without getting attacked by chickens after her crisps!) Thus it was that the potager is now a sunny nook for just that. I have found a few lovelies in there that I have preserved such as all the Michaelmas Daisies and a few lupins with some lillies, I've planted a beautiful clematis along the south facing wall and a few other things. Plus two apple saplings that I've grown from seeds taken from the trees my grandad planted in the house my parents live in over in UK now live happily there undisturbed. The only things I water are the newly planted ones which need the headstart, aside from that I operate a Non-watering Policy. Besides which its boggy enough here already!!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2013 18:16:49 GMT 1
That looks nice Mirabelle
|
|