Visited the Arche Noah plant market at the botanical garden today. It was absolutely crowded, and I spent about an hour just standing in line, first to get into the botanical garden, and then to pay for my purchases (sage, basil and a white alpine strawberry) - luckily I'd brought a book! Nothing particularly interesting, but I'm planning to go to the big market in Schiltern on May 1st.
Ran into two Town Gardens employees I knew from my apprenticeship there, and my roommate from my brief time at university. That was weird - I hadn't seen her in over six years, and I really didn't expect to meet anyone from that time again - feels like a different life! Weird, but better than last year, when I met one of my most unpleasant customers there. She paid just before I did, and - as she usually does - complained about how expensive everything was. When she was gone, I mumbled to the cashier, "Don't worry, she's always like that." And she is, she's always trying to get stuff for cheap or for free. There's nothing wrong with that as such, we do sometimes give stuff away at a lower price or even for free if it's not so great-looking any more - but she'd have a lot more success if she were a little nicer about it. If she's going to be unpleasant and rude, I'm not going to give her a discount (unless the boss tells me to).

Cool! (The blog on the first page that is.)

Yay - I finally have my pot-tower. Not as pretty as the one on Instructables, because I don't have any terracotta pots left, so I had to use plastic ones, but I hope that with plants trailing down that won't be so visible - I'm planning to plant my oca there.

I've taken pictures, and I'll post them as soon as I've got time - or rather, I'll post them on my blog, and link to it - I should write something there occasionally, and not just brag about it making the first page on Google! ;)

Ooh, that's awesome! I'll definitely consider building one of those! But first my greenhouse. I've just calculated that even in materials it will be at least 500 Euros. Ouch. Guess I'll have to try and find some old windows or something instead...

Now pondering whether to get an actual greenhouse (rather large and expensive) or to just build a windscreen.

Blegh, the choice is so tough. A small greenhouse that is very expensive, a big greenhouse that is too big, or building something myself which will be both expensive, a lot of work, and the wood will be hard to find.

Not only are they expensive, they're hard to get my hands on too.

And filling the too big greenhouse is not the option. :) It's mostly the neighbors we're worrying about. It's 1,6m (width) x 1,9m (depth) x 2,1m (height).

I've had a look this afternoon if we couldn't make it smaller, but that would still be an aweful lot of work. So not really an option.

Right now I'm looking at getting two big windows to make a wind shelter. Still not sure, though.

The thing is, I really want a small greenhouse (75x120x130 cm). And while they exist, they're very expensive if you want a sturdy one. And no, I haven't been able to find one second hand.
Mostly for tomatoes you get those plastic foil covers. But those will get blown to shreds in no time.

But I really should make a decision soon, as a greenhouse has a delivery time too... Aarg!

I realized today that I now grow vegetables quite differently than when I was a kid gardening in my parents' yard. Then, I sowed and planted whatever seemed easy to grow, with not much thought to whether we would need it. Several rows of radishes, every year. Who cared if we ended up with millions of huge radishes that we could never possibly eat? That was what the compost heap was for! Now, I'm much more careful to choose plants that will do well, or at least OK, and plant no more than I need (although that's not always successful - right now, I have far too many salad greens.)

So far my 'garden' is so small I can't grow more than I can eat. But I hope to try preserving veggies this year.

MISPOST whoopsie

Last edited by Ad1tu (2012-05-18 11:05:45)

Maybe I should try saving my strawberry plant.