Who has green fingers?

I've taken to the Spanish approach. we get up early, I work in the garden until around 10am unless I have any cooking to do then I stop at 8am and cook. anything much past 10am is now not enough to have doors, windows and heat shielding curtains closed. internal doors also seal off the laundry room and sun room (blinds down permanently atm). it stays like this until around 6pm when I've usually lost the battle and the internal temperature is around 30C matching outside. at which point you may as well make use of the fresher air outside and open doors, windows and curtains until 6am the following day. we are going to bed with temps of 28-30C, waking up with +20C. it's due to get hotter soon as summer progresses. we are at the equivalent of end of June in the northern hemisphere seasons. 35C is current daytime temp, though today it is only at 32C but it is only 3pm right now. still time to get warmer but humidity is very high today at 60-70%. thunder is forecast but we can't see it happening. tomorrow is meant to be hotter.

As for water, well one of the major differences here is that we celebrate when it rains! totally private water means we only have what we collect and that is rain water for drinking, dishes and shower plus hand washing. washing machine, toilet and all stand pipes are bore water which is brackish. plus the spare buildings are also on bore water as well.

I rarely water the veg plot. most water is recycled in that I collect it and use it for watering the garden including the veg plot (by hand). so any water going down into the septic tank really is waste water, not just grey water. collected water is hand washing, veg washing, dishes and anything I can when showering. it is carried down to the plants that need it. something gets watered 4 or 5 times a day. I only carry out small quantities at a time (unable to lift) but I keeps plants going until it next rains, mostly.

it works for me and I'm used to it. most people couldn't hack it for long even if they picked up the guts to try in the first place. but if everyone lived rurally there wouldn't be any rural.
You are having our late May temps.
Though one day last week we had your evening temps as high.
 
I've taken to the Spanish approach. we get up early, I work in the garden until around 10am unless I have any cooking to do then I stop at 8am and cook. anything much past 10am is now not enough to have doors, windows and heat shielding curtains closed. internal doors also seal off the laundry room and sun room (blinds down permanently atm). it stays like this until around 6pm when I've usually lost the battle and the internal temperature is around 30C matching outside. at which point you may as well make use of the fresher air outside and open doors, windows and curtains until 6am the following day. we are going to bed with temps of 28-30C, waking up with +20C. it's due to get hotter soon as summer progresses. we are at the equivalent of end of June in the northern hemisphere seasons. 35C is current daytime temp, though today it is only at 32C but it is only 3pm right now. still time to get warmer but humidity is very high today at 60-70%. thunder is forecast but we can't see it happening. tomorrow is meant to be hotter.

As for water, well one of the major differences here is that we celebrate when it rains! totally private water means we only have what we collect and that is rain water for drinking, dishes and shower plus hand washing. washing machine, toilet and all stand pipes are bore water which is brackish. plus the spare buildings are also on bore water as well.

I rarely water the veg plot. most water is recycled in that I collect it and use it for watering the garden including the veg plot (by hand). so any water going down into the septic tank really is waste water, not just grey water. collected water is hand washing, veg washing, dishes and anything I can when showering. it is carried down to the plants that need it. something gets watered 4 or 5 times a day. I only carry out small quantities at a time (unable to lift) but I keeps plants going until it next rains, mostly.

it works for me and I'm used to it. most people couldn't hack it for long even if they picked up the guts to try in the first place. but if everyone lived rurally there wouldn't be any rural.

It would be ideal if we could all use water this way, grow some food etc.. but it all boils down to lack of time, money, space and knowledge. If I was retired then I would love to spend huge amounts of time outside, but I am not and I don't have as much spare time as I would like.
 
I did see that somewhere and wondered if it was anywhere near mine. Granted we had some rain in between and a weird mix of heavy rain and sunshine for a week or two but most days it's scorching.
I am surprise to hear you can't deal with any heat...are you sure about this:wink:?
:laugh: I can take food as hot and spicy as you like - but when the temperature goes beyond 75F (24C) I start to wilt. I literally can't do anything except sit with a fan blowing over me!
 
It would be ideal if we could all use water this way, grow some food etc.. but it all boils down to lack of time, money, space and knowledge. If I was retired then I would love to spend huge amounts of time outside, but I am not and I don't have as much spare time as I would like.

Even working full time, we still did all of that living in the south of England. I was often away from home all week or for very long hours (commuting from Haselmere area of Surrey to North Hatfield daily or to Swindon daily, Aberdeen luckily was weekly, as per my company posted me). it made no difference. we still did it, we still managed 2 acres of land and we're on private water and sewage. grey water was collected, so was rain water. I even had a greenhouse then, something I don't now. I grew much more than now.

It is the preparation that takes time. something we would just set a weekend aside for. seeing seeds or planting potatoes out is easy and hardly time consuming. the odd bit of weeding with a hoe and you are sorted. harvesting can take a touch more time depending on the crop but it's worth it imo. this taste so much better. the rest you just learn to build time into your day. instead of dating I'm too tired at the end of the day, we would both do 30 minutes in the garden rather than watch TV. it was that simple even with both of us working full time back then. now the veg plot here sees very little of my time other than a few minutes to train a squash up a trellis or grab some caterpillars for the chickens (saving my cauliflowers in the process, 5 minutes every 3 days if that). putting water over a plant takes maybe a minute a couple of, or so, times a day. right now my shower water is cooling and at 6am will get poured over a courgette at the laundry room door whilst I'm brushing my teeth in the morning. I don't do anything to that plant except water it and remove courgettes from it with a sharp knife. a minute a day if that.
 
Even working full time, we still did all of that living in the south of England. I was often away from home all week or for very long hours (commuting from Haselmere area of Surrey to North Hatfield daily or to Swindon daily, Aberdeen luckily was weekly, as per my company posted me). it made no difference. we still did it, we still managed 2 acres of land and we're on private water and sewage. grey water was collected, so was rain water. I even had a greenhouse then, something I don't now. I grew much more than now.

It is the preparation that takes time. something we would just set a weekend aside for. seeing seeds or planting potatoes out is easy and hardly time consuming. the odd bit of weeding with a hoe and you are sorted. harvesting can take a touch more time depending on the crop but it's worth it imo. this taste so much better. the rest you just learn to build time into your day. instead of dating I'm too tired at the end of the day, we would both do 30 minutes in the garden rather than watch TV. it was that simple even with both of us working full time back then. now the veg plot here sees very little of my time other than a few minutes to train a squash up a trellis or grab some caterpillars for the chickens (saving my cauliflowers in the process, 5 minutes every 3 days if that). putting water over a plant takes maybe a minute a couple of, or so, times a day. right now my shower water is cooling and at 6am will get poured over a courgette at the laundry room door whilst I'm brushing my teeth in the morning. I don't do anything to that plant except water it and remove courgettes from it with a sharp knife. a minute a day if that.

As much as I love gardening I don't want to devote too much time to it.
 
As much as I love gardening I don't want to devote too much time to it.
I spend less time in the veg plot than I do cooking or on house work! and the rewards are far greater than with house work. if course if you want to be a live in cleaner here, I'll do the gardening and you can try keeping up with the house work for me :whistling:
 
I spend less time in the veg plot than I do cooking or on house work! and the rewards are far greater than with house work. if course if you want to be a live in cleaner here, I'll do the gardening and you can try keeping up with the house work for me :whistling:
I hardly clean at all and really don't see why I should as there are two other people here who don't go to work. I do spend a lot of time cooking though! If I did all the housework too I certainly wouldn't have any spare time at all!
 
I certainly wouldn't have any spare time at all
Why do you think I'm so busy? ad on the garden, here and my blog, plus the occasional visit to the veg plot, looking after the chooks and chicks and trying to straighten this place of generally with repairs in the house and garden... and I'm constantly on the go. plus there is more house work here with Australia being so very dusty.
 
Why do you think I'm so busy? ad on the garden, here and my blog, plus the occasional visit to the veg plot, looking after the chooks and chicks and trying to straighten this place of generally with repairs in the house and garden... and I'm constantly on the go. plus there is more house work here with Australia being so very dusty.
Just putting my feet up.... :D
 
Its only in the last few years that I've got into gardening - but even though we both work full time, we still find the time to get (most of) it done. We even took on an allotment last year :eek: It actually doesn't take all that long really - with the allotment the main time is taken in the preparation but that's a one time only kind of thing (we use raised beds so we won't need to do a serious amount of digging once they're established). Sowing and harvesting just need around half a day at a time - but I really enjoy that and find it quite relaxing (though it can be hard work) - I think because I spend all day at a computer its nice to have a change and get outside and do something productive.

We have overwinter cabbages, onions, garlic and broad beans growing in the allotment right now, but I need to start planning this years growing season soon. Potatoes, red kidney beans, cauliflower, celeriac, shallots, brussel sprouts, strawberries and rhubarb are all on the list for this year I think. Maybe horseradish too - but I need to get hold of a dustbin to grow that in - no way am I putting that in the ground!

In the garden we always grow herbs, salad, cucumbers, sweetcorn, carrots and peas, plus tomatoes and chillies in the greenhouse. Think we might try cucamelon this year too. I'm also hoping we might get a crop from our pear tree this year (it didn't blossom last year - think it was too young). We're on a water meter but we have two water butts in the garden which mostly cover our watering needs. Might try and get hold of a 3rd one if someone is giving one away (the builders of our estate give each house a water butt as part of the eco thing, but as new build gardens are so small plenty of people don't want them) and we could probably squeeze another one in.
 
Back
Top Bottom