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Morning Light: The Fetchland Gardening Wire

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Old Mum Feb 2022 10:45am, 16 Feb 2022 94 posts	Quote Pin Old Mum Looking for advice please. In my old house I had four raised beds put in (2 8x4ft, 2 3x3ft), so I could plant loads of stuff. The new house though is very limited on space, with one overgrown patch of about 4ft square. There's loads of gravel and some concrete, so I can use my many pots on those areas and my seed tatties will go in to special bags that I've used in the past with great success. The question is: what can I put in that 4x4 patch? I'd quite like to grow squash but other than that I'm open to suggestions.
sallykate Feb 2022 11:43am, 16 Feb 2022 8,973 posts	Quote Pin sallykate Have you looked at the square foot gardening approach? With that, you'd divide the space into 16 squares and plant each according to how big the plant is gardenerspath.com Squash are pretty hungry beasts but if you fed it and chose one you could grow up some kind of support structure (so smallish - uchiki kuri for example) you'd be able to get a couple in I think.
Hanneke Feb 2022 1:02pm, 16 Feb 2022 85,790 posts	Quote Pin Hanneke I was gping to say grow the squashes up. I also grow beans and courgettes going up. Jack be little pumpkins are ace! And tromboncino, butternut and uchiki kuri all grow up in my garden. I have paths between my bed and I have rebar in two beds along the long side, straddling the path between the beds, like a tunnel. Works really well, takes up very little space. I interplant with sunflowers which I tie in too...
Old Mum Feb 2022 1:23pm, 16 Feb 2022 95 posts	Quote Pin Old Mum Thanks ladies. In the past I was able to grow squash in their own little patch against a trellis but not in the new place. I must remember to take my cane with me for runner beans (squash and beans are probably my favourite veg).
Columba Feb 2022 5:22pm, 16 Feb 2022 21,590 posts	Quote Pin Columba larkimAgreed, if you have children you need lawn. Mine afre all grown up now and left home, but we had a big lawn when they were little and they made full use of it. Also of the trees and bushes that edged the lawn, and which were ideal for dens. Old Mum: I'd have said beans, too. Broad beans, runner beans, climbing French beans, whatever.
Columba Feb 2022 5:25pm, 16 Feb 2022 21,591 posts	Quote Pin Columba I stopped feeling friendly toward badgers when one of them killed our ducks. We'd have assumed it was a fox, but Middle Son actually saw the badger making off with one of the ducks. All the animals that Beatrix Potter wrote books about, she seems to have liked; except the badger, whom she clearly didn't.
Hanneke Feb 2022 5:46pm, 16 Feb 2022 85,798 posts	Quote Pin Hanneke I never knew badgers would kill ducks! Wow! Nasty...
Eynsham Red Feb 2022 11:21am, 21 Feb 2022 8,517 posts	Quote Pin Eynsham Red We’ve got frogspawn in our little pond. I thought it seemed a little early, but Google tells me February/March, although I don’t recall seeing any this early before.
Hanneke Feb 2022 11:32am, 21 Feb 2022 86,043 posts	Quote Pin Hanneke Me neither ER! Mine was later last year, it's first full year in existence. I had frogs, toads and newts co-existing in a small pond!
Hanneke Feb 2022 11:32am, 21 Feb 2022 86,044 posts	Quote Pin Hanneke Daffs are out, tulips and alliums showing far too much foliage for this time of year: should be msy/june 😱😱😱