coldframe construction question

[nick the grief]

Geoff Hamilton built one in his cotage garden seriies thats like a locker (5x3x3)
the top had a flap that came down and made a potting bench ans all the tools & post went it there. Just the job for you andre if you have room and you could always disguise it with some pots of something

[eskymo]

I've got friends in Cupar who just built a shed in their back garden to house their teenage son...lol...I went up to help them assemble it - it's great, like a mini house and their son is actually going to live in it!

[nick the grief]

Greay Idea Eskymo, I'll show my two some picture of sheds and ask them whick ones they want

[eskymo]

I was going to post a picture of it, but can't find them on my pc. They must still be on my camera - will download them later if I've got time and post you a pic.

[andrewo]

As my garden is a front garden, I have avoided putting any lock up or shed in it for security reasons. We had solar lighting and someone knicked it. Last year I had beans on canes next to the front fence and someone knicked the canes, just to break them up. This year, however I have put hops there and they will get a very nasty surprise.

[nick the grief]

Friend of mine had a lovely Berberis hedge in his front garden for the same reason. Didn't realise ALL your garden was out front Andrew

[eskymo]

people are strange!

[Nicos]

Our last plot was in the countryside, surrounded by fields, and we had vandals there too- gypsy ones!!!
They parked up their caravans in the next field and raided our plots for free veg, played football with the cabbages,smashed the cold frames, nicked anything worth selling on, sh*t an the walkways and even stole some of the chickens.The taps were left running, so some of the plots were flooded and rubbish (including broken glass) was dumped on the site. 3 years running put us off big style even though we had put in hours of back breaking work to improve the solid clay over many years. We were sad to leave our last site because of this (and our neighbours), but it just goes to show that wherever you are you are still exposed to the bad-will of others.
After pruning one of our gooseberry bushes last weekend- I would suggest making a hedge out of a row of them!!! One inch spikes ought to be enough to put most people off!

[nick the grief]

perhaps they came from a broken home Nicos, I think a broken neck is the best cure !!

[andrewo]

Yes, all my garden is a front, strange houses around here, the back faces on to the road and private path runs across the front but idiots use it as a cut through. I don't think it's bad will, I think it is a perverse jealousy, because they can't be bothered to do it they want you to end up being apathetic. I wouldn't get wound up by them, they all eat at McDonalds - so their shelf life is pretty thin.

[andrewo]

Alledgedly.

[andrewo]

After pruning one of our gooseberry bushes last weekend- I would suggest making a hedge out of a row of them!!! One inch spikes ought to be enough to put most people off!

They work, berberis is nasty stuff to prune but gooseberries will have them crying for the open highway but hops, oh it do leave a nasty rash and the irony is, you don't know it's happening to later on in the day. A bit like the devastating effects of parsnip tops but without the scarring.

[sewer rat]

Best thing to do to pikey's is tear the roof off their caravans with a tractor and flat eight grab - they don't like it much. I have only two "ism's" in my life - cats and pikeys. Cats make me shortof breath and come out in a rash round my neck, pikeys just make my blood boil.
Rat

[Nicos]

Parsnip tops????

[andrewo]

Parsnip tops????

If you ever inherit an old allotment with parsnips on, if they are old, heck even if they are new and have the green foliage of the parsnip above ground - DO NOT SNAP THEM. Parsnips, along with a few other varieties in that family, contain an enzyme that feels a bit like sugary sap, it easily sprays across the skin and even if its an overcast day, the sun will react with it and your skin will burn, leaving terrible scars. I only know this because a few years ago, we had to rush a friend in to A&E who had been clearing an allotment, we thought the ground may have been saturated with chemicals and his skin had reacted to them - its only much later we discovered the parsnips, that was six years ago and his hands and forearms are still heavily scarred and his face is blotchy on one side. So be warned, wear gloves and wash immediately afterwards.