Sunday, July 22, 2007

Flooding, Greenhouses and Rose Arches

Just been up to the allotment to find that some of the localised thunderstorms we have been having localised themselves directly over the Nesserlaan! Gah!

I took some pictures. First here is the flooding:

Flooding

This area of the garden has consistently flooded. I have two options here as I see it. I can move the sitting area from the other side of the garden down to here and have a squishy sitting area or I can raise the beds by importing a whole lot of sand and soil and improving the drainage. I'm leaning toward the first option purely because it will be simpler to have the chairs and table at the entrance where I can put all my things down as I enter the garden.

Also, I won't be able to leave my mobile phone lying under a pile of branches on the table at the end of the garden and completely forget it, like I did two weeks ago, and only remember that it was lost once it had started raining!

We put up an archway for the thornless blackberries and will be planting a climbing rose, one of the David Austin ones, to keep the blackberries company. My idea was to make a wider path, which sort of stepped sideways into a patio area to cover the flooded area. I could put my potplants in that section too.

Here's the archway:

Archway for the blackberries and the planned new climbing rose.

See the flooding on the pathway too?

I also bought some portable greenhouses that were a special offer at the Lidl. My neighbour spotted them in the Lidl newsletter and called me to take a look. At 25 euros each they are quite sturdy with a metal frame and a plastic cover. They have windows on three sides so you can open the plastic to allow the air to circulate. Inside the plastic is another zipped netting area which forms the window. These are they:

New plastic greenhouses

They are placed at right angles to cover the beds of ailing tomatoes and protect them from the wind and storms that are expected the next few days. When they are used properly they will be placed over beds that are the same dimensions as them so that they can easily be moved from one to another.

I think these will be perfect for next year for my tomatoes, sweet peppers and a melon plant. The plastic should keep any blight away from the plants and the whole structure will keep wind damage to a minimum. I'll be able to use the greenhouses to protect early crops from the birds too, like my peas and early lettuces.

16 comments:

Vertine said...

Ik heb zo'n ding van plexiglas, maar als het behoorlijk waaide, waaide het om :( dit ondanks 4 bakstenen die erop lagen. Ik heb het nu inmiddels uit elkaar gehaald en zal volgend jaar manlief vragen om iets te maken waarbij de staanders minstens 30 cm de grond in gaan. Hoe zijn die dingen van jou verankerd aan de grond?

jansmoestuin said...

Dear Aisleigh,

This looks realy terrible! Well this year is extremely wet. Especialy in the West and North of the Netherlands. The only thing I can think of is making high beds for next year (but that could be very dry).
Strange enough we haven't had much rain (just enough to keep things growing). Sometimes we have very intensive rains in the South, but most of these showers are not above my garden.

I sure hope you will have better wheater in the next months.

Kind regards from Jansmoestuin.

robbeekmans said...

It looks teribble al the water. I'm on a wet part of the ground but still not so wet as it look at your place.

I had the get the potatoes out quick because of the rain...next year I'm gone put the potatoes in another corner of the garden (have to anyway).

Just hope you get better weather, but some years it's just plainly afwull over here...

Good luck with your garden.

Ashleigh said...

Vertine: They come with big tenthooks (haringen?) that fasten them to the ground. We've put some big stones on top of the plastic covers too. I think that they won't stand up to a Dutch winter, but in spring/summer and autumn they will be ok.

Jan: thanks for stopping by and commenting! I think that the high beds are my only choice. Our moestuintje lies on the edge of the polder and the drainage is quite poor.

Rob: you are lucky not to have the water problem we do! I hear from the other gardeners that this is the worst year ever in the 20 years our vereniging has been at this site! Next year will surely be better :)

Anonymous said...

That's too bad about the flooding. I certainly hope next year will be better!

I think if you can't do something about the drainage, building high beds won't help much. If you make them too high, they could be too dry, and if you don't make them high enough the roots will still sit in wet ground when it floods. Also by making one spot higher, you might move the problem someplace else, possibly to your neighbors plot. I think if you try to add a lot of sand, you will just end up with wet sand if it floods.

Somehow, somewhere, you have to find a way to get the water to go into a canal or storm drain. Is there a network of storm drains in the area? Maybe it's worth paying a plumber to install a drain near your plot. Maybe you can get the management to do it for you...

Matron said...

Gosh! Holland must be feeling the force of the floods too, that must be a frequent problem over there, I'm guessing. I am a fan of the garden equipment in Lidl too! The plastic cloches are wonderful, so is the growmore!

Cottage Smallholder said...

The damage is devistating, poor you.

I have tagged you for the seven random gardening facts meme as I think that you are a great gardener. Follow this link
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=391

Anonymous said...

Wow, that looks awful! But I really like the portable greenhouses. They look much better than plastic rows over hoops and 25 euros is so inexpensive!

Anonymous said...

God, my problems seem insignificant next to this. I'm so sorry to see how badly you've been hit. Hope you can get something to eat from your plot this year.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to see the weather has been so cruel.I hope next season is better for you.

jansmoestuin said...

Dear Asleigh,

Did you stop vegetable growing?

Jan

Ashleigh said...

Hoi Jan! Nee hoor, net een beetje druk! Ik heb nu een update gedaan :)

Anonymous said...

This is the way of things nature always reminds us who is in charge, at my allotment it rained for two days solid with no ill effects and I was proud to think that my plants had been properly cared for, that night a cloud burst hit us, the next morning it looked like someone had gone over the allotment with a JCB, that put me in my place.

markali52 said...

Storms cause some bad damage in gardens and allotments the last one we had took down my arbour, flattened my pampas (it took a couple of years to grow0 and damaged the swing hammocks, it took ages to clean up and cost a fair bit to repair the damage that was done.

Anonymous said...

Whenever we think we are in control nature reminds us, we had floods that washed out shops, bars and homes I saw my Ikea garden furniture float away down the street, cars floated away roads collapsed, there have been some bad storms.

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