Comments on: Pause for the cos

By: The StopWatch Gardener

The StopWatch Gardener — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:51:47 +0000

For me the maths problem was the same one I had at school – pure carelessness. I just assumed the bed was a foot deep but it wasn’t! What fruit trees do you grow in pots? I came so close to buying a quince but the very dwarfing rootstocks weren’t availabe. I have often thought of doing container blueberries and keeping them right under my window where I can scare off the birds, because I’d refuse to net…just too ugly. I’d (almost) rather sacrifice the berries!

By: Elise Stewart

Elise Stewart — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:19:51 +0000

I am rubbish at any type of maths too – not just the garden type. When I wanted to add to some raised beds I let the nice lady at British Soil work it all out for me. Just as well as I had measured in feet, my husband converted it to cubic meters and the soil was sold in cubic yards! Unfortunately the soil has settled over the year but as I need some more I will be buying extra to do some topping up. All my fruit trees are in pots – a long story – so I hope they will be ok. Still waiting for my first pear.

By: tom hughes

tom hughes — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:53:36 +0000

Hi again,

Hmm, we didnt design the bed to have gaps, we designed it to have strong corners that won’t deteriorate, hence the raised lip.
BUT, we find that the soil sits quite happily, and doesn’t escape from the small gap. (Unless you put pretty female bits of soil outside, and then it positively dives through the gap..)

By: The StopWatch Gardener

The StopWatch Gardener — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:23:04 +0000

Hi Martyn – Aha! It’s not just me, then. I was going to say that the decreasing popularity of chemical sprays kind of solves your problem, but it doesn’t really, as you still need to do the maths to dilute your nematodes and such. In my publishing business I promised myself years ago that I would stop “glazing over” when I saw spreadsheets and other financials from my accountant; I have forced myself to get interested in the numbers over the years, and make sense of them, but I just can’t love them. I’m all about the words and the plants. I think I lack the maths gene. God help my kids when their homework goes beyond the 2+2 stage.

By: Martyn Cox

Martyn Cox — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:32:10 +0000

Garden maths has never been strong point either. Many years ago I had to take a pesticide spraying certificate. I didn’t understand how to calculate how much neat chemical to add to the sprayer to cover the area that needed to be sprayed. I’ve no idea how I managed to pass, but I did

By: Lia Leendertz

Lia Leendertz — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:23:54 +0000

Aw, the chair tree in that link is so great! I want one. I suppose you could nick and bind, but I bet it would work eventually if you were too scared and just bound them. Probably quicker with the nick. I havent actually got any maidens to do it with (yet). Dare you.

By: The StopWatch Gardener

The StopWatch Gardener — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:43:08 +0000

Ooh that sounds advanced — I had missed the point you made originally about fusing. I’m assuming that means nicking down to the cambium layer as well as binding them? Sounds like tree shaping (which I knew nothing about but just googled).

You first — I’m afraid of losing my maidens!

By: Lia Leendertz

Lia Leendertz — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:37:22 +0000

You’re right, they have been pruned and trained into v-shapes, obviously makes the plant ‘go’ futher, but should still be able to do it with the minarettes, I reckon. And dont forget to bind them together where they meet, so that they fuse. Am quite jealous. Might do this myself!

By: The StopWatch Gardener

The StopWatch Gardener — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:23:43 +0000

Lia,

Those diamond shapes are stunning – I’m so glad you showed me that before I got these minarettes into the ground. I’ll probably place them to cross each other; but in the photo it looks like they’ve got two branches coming off one apple; I think my minarettes will have a single leader only and nothing else that’s train at a different angle? Thanks for the info about judging the picking time. I won’t get to practice that for a few years anyway!

By: The StopWatch Gardener

The StopWatch Gardener — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:46:56 +0000

Thanks Tom! I actually should’ve clarified in the post — it was my mistake that I’d assumed it was a 1 foot deep bed. But then when I realized it was six inches and I needed a deeper depth (so to speak) I wanted guidance about tiering; I wasn’t sure whether there would be a gap between the two tiers and the soil would come out. I can now see there is a gap — but is that going to be a problem? I’m thinking of using plastic lawn edging to line around the outside before I fill it up, to keep the soil in. But maybe you designed it for some reason to have a gap?