I make no apologies for my use of caps in the title. I have just finished all my preparatory digging! My hands throb, my back aches, I've lost 5 kilos in the process and I've never produced so much sweat in all my life but after.......some weeks....it's done. Big fat spliff and a big icey glass of my 'Greek Moonshine' is in order me thinks.

Then on to the hard bit, producing stuff!

Nice one oi


Not worthy of cracking out one of these then?

what is this, some hadabusa plantation?

batou wrote:
He wished

oioioi wrote:
G'day Oioioi.

Congratulaions mate.

From your description, I think that you've earnt more than one "Big fat spliff".

psketti wrote:
I'll save that for weekend when we have a kid less long weekend in Santorini

psketti wrote:
Not as yet. And if ever not on a scale of hada proportions!!!

oioioi wrote:
Good idea

I AM ALL I AM wrote:
Woah! Don't get me wrong, I meant for right now. More than one of each imbibable will be imbibed before the night is through....before the hour is through truth be known.

Well done fella, and I really do apologise to your back for encouraging your abuse of it. Built up some nice tough skin on them hands of yours too I'll bet.

Time to resurrect the old veg thread

dubmeup wrote:
Cheers.

My back is looking leaner than ever before....but feeling older than ever!

I'd like to thank you for your constant support throughout....except you were 'voluntarily inactive' for the large part of it

Luckily I've not done any massage recently or they'd have been exfoliated too for free with these hands!

Leave the veg thread, Thursday night me n the mrs are off for a long weekend, me old fella arrives the day after we return then a couple of days later we're off to the Peloponnese for August. Nowt but water is touching my plot until September.

Ahem, sue gave you lots of encouragement in chat whilst dub was contemplating
If you're gonna leave the ground for a while, I'd recommend you cover it with anything you can to block out the light. Old carpet is a favourite of mine. This will help restrict any weed regrowth and also keep airborne and bird borne weed seeds from colonizing the ground whilst it's dormant.

dubmeup wrote:
That's easily done, but provides me with a problem regarding watering it! Keep in mind it's not seen rain for probably 4 months now. I've been hosing down at the end of every night to help me out the next day, other than that it's pretty dry!

oioioi wrote:
Why do you want to water it if there's nowt growing in it? Tbh blocking off as much sunlight as you can will help to retain moisture. It'll mean that only a couple of inches down there should still be enough moisture for the worms and stuff to be able to get about their business.
Watering it as you have been makes sense. Watering it now the works been put in doesn't

I haven't spied a single worm. I have noticed the place getting busier generally since I started composting and throwing goat shit around the place though!

plant some beans in it now to put nitrogen in the dirt

batou wrote:
Aye beans, or red clover would be the kiddies for that.
I do recommend a bit of time under cover first though. It really really does help with any surviving bits of weed root.

oioioi wrote:
The worms will no doubt move in and up now you have given them summat to feed on.

Well the night after finishing all the hard digging and carrying I went for a bit of a potter, forking in some manure and peat (I know, mrs oioioi's 'gift' to the patch) and ended up with a bad case of sciatica! It took me over an hour the next morning to get out of bed having waited for the painkillers to kick in. There was no way on earth I was gonna miss out on a weekend without kiddies on a sun kissed beach though so, like the soldier that I am, I spent the weekend with dodgy guts from the painkillers, a walking stick, and lots and lots of mojitos

Anyway, I came back with the start of my first heirloom seeds! Mrs oioioi's bestest friend's family is from the island and have been 'growing their own' for....well as long as they've been there, and they sent me back to Athens with seeds for Santorini tomatoes (the smallest sweetest toms I ever tasted) and some Santorini cucumbers (which I thought were marrows on first sight!).

I eagerly await pics of your small but sweet toms and marrow-like cucumbers.

You big vegetable tease, you.