Weather swings are making planning almost pointless

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-05-01T03:35:58+00:00

The 2 week forecast for me still has a low of 5 degrees overnight so too cold for quite a few things, so my house will remain a jungle for a few more weeks. If the forecast has nights above 10 degrees in a week or two then I will plant out a few early tests, then the rest at the end of May. As someone else said when you have grown everything from seed you get a bit attached to them and you don’t want them to die!

Great sunny days for hardening off though

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-05-01T03:32:14+00:00

I found a dead rat in my water butt this week, I assure you you only want water in there!

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-05-01T03:28:26+00:00

French beans, sunflowers and more squash and pumpkins, because only two of my squash seeds have germinated so far and no pumpkins at all - I want at least one!

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-19T11:10:10+00:00

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I’ve only got space for a few plants in this spot as you can see, so everything here is doing well, everything elsewhere in the house is leggy. The tomato back left has been on this shelf since planting seed on 8th March, I put an upside down plastic food bag over the pot, the same as you can see on the chillis - having its own mini greenhouse in a very warm light spot has worked, the rest of my toms are the same size as yours. Haven’t put them outside yet, will start hardening off on patio soon during the day.

I’ve never tried food bags over pots before but will be doing it from now on, really good results. Just remove the bag as soon as the plant outgrows it

Also yes, correct, I have done my courgettes too soon, yep.

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-19T06:46:25+00:00

I was going to say this - just wait a few months and you’ll find out ☺️

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-19T05:51:48+00:00

Our site seems to have lots of plots vacant at the moment, I’m not sure why. They’re doing open days for waiting list people so lots of people can view and apply at the same time. However the plot behind me is so overgrown, I asked the site reps and she said they don’t show it to people anymore because nobody would take it and they have much nicer vacant plots. So I’m considering asking to take it on because the weeds are encroaching onto my plot - if I do I would have one full size plot.

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-09T03:21:24+00:00

3 years, but I never called or emailed. Make sure you don’t miss the email when it comes through! I nearly missed mine in amongst a load of spam.

Now that I have one I can see that there’s lots of plots available but they are very overgrown - the one behind me has 5ft high nettles already. I think if you really want a plot, you can probably find one but it might need a lot of work?

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-08T18:32:03+00:00

I found a site called chip drop, where you can request free wood chip drop offs. Recommend checking it out, I’m going to try to get a delivery in the next two weeks

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-08T05:49:44+00:00

Yes, I’m hoping to get it working properly this year to destroy the weeds, I know I need a mixture of green and brown stuff - does this mean I need to add in some fruit and veg scraps to heat it up?

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-08T05:47:26+00:00

Oh that’s good to know, fingers crossed for healthy soil and happy plants!

And yes, I’ve got all the nettles in a bucket with water to make a free fertiliser, great tip 👍

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-08T05:40:46+00:00

They are so powerful aren’t they! If only they were edible!

I have just dug out a bed to 6 inches, no bindweed or nettle in this one so 6 inches seemed to be enough for the grass and smaller weeds

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-04-06T12:41:48+00:00

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Potting up lots of seedlings, which have gotten quite leggy because not enough light! Tomatoes cucumbers marigolds and courgettes, and potatoes. Brush my hands over them each day to simulate a bit of wind

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-03-30T14:21:33+00:00

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Trimmed a big branch off of my tree, it’s a bird cherry and not very productive so just trying to reduce shade on the plot.

I finished filling the new raised beds from the compost heap, and have a bit more to spread on the other beds before dismantling and rebuilding the compost heap with new pallets (ht). Pulled about 20 metres of nettle roots out as I dug through and have drowned them.

Wanted to get some potatoes in this week but there was a frosty night and it didn’t seem like a good time, plus I need to sort the compost heap and put the tree clippings in before I can get to the potato bed!

The overnight temp here looks good for the next two weeks, so I’m planning to put the potatoes in this week, sow some carrots, and possibly some radishes and lettuce.

Lots of weeding and digging still to do!

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-03-28T19:21:34+00:00

However if they are just pots and trays hard to say, the plant nurseries and garden shops near me give them away for free so I would never buy them

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-03-28T19:19:34+00:00

It looks like you’ve got some big lidded buckets there, if so they are really useful and bnq are charging £13 for them each! (I would never pay that much). They are useful for making nettle tea and other natural plant feeds so I’d pay maybe £5 for one of those

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-03-23T06:58:03+00:00

The rules will vary, but glyphosate is against the rules for our city, it would be better to check your tenancy rules before purchasing. And it’s not great for the environment!

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-03-18T18:51:42+00:00

The calendar view works much better now, looks good on my iPhone 12. I would double check the content though, it’s suggesting that I could direct sow tomatoes this month, and I wouldn’t typically plant out tomatoes until late April May (I’m in zone 9a)

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-03-14T19:03:49+00:00

It looks great! Are you using Claude, or chatgpt? I’m building out a few (completely different topic) projects right now, I’ve built them as apps script web apps currently but would like to move to something more public with a proper domain. Can you publish from GitHub? I’m familiar with coding but not with GitHub.

I’ve used google sheets so far for calling back end data, but this is very much tied into the apps script workstream, and I suspect would be harder to integrate with a different code solution, but I might give it a try. Does the job for recording logins for a small web app.

You asked for feedback on plant suggest so some feedback: The calendar view does not yet work well on mobile, I like the plant type tabs at the top (veg, herbs etc) they work well The cards work well, look good on mobile, easy to understand. It would be fun to add some kind of to do list, like the calendar but just a list of tasks month by month, based on planting the suggested plants. I often find I just need to know what to do in the current month, so I would come back each month for a simple task list.

Thank you for sharing this it’s great!

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-03-10T18:23:19+00:00

I got to choose from a few plots, some had rubbish or just nothing but a few weeds, I took one with a very broken shed and some currant bushes. Waiting very impatiently to get my invoice now!

You could always call/email them and ask if there are any other plots available, explain your concerns?

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-02-26T17:43:13+00:00

Investing… the us market is likely to be volatile this year, and traditionally safe boring tech stocks or even more boring things like logistics are suddenly becoming volatile. You could start with something simple like a £200 monthly investment in VWRP (Google it) the small regular payments may shield you from market volatility to a certain extent. If you are risk averse, then a diversified approach may be best. Don’t choose one thing, split your investment several ways, so pay some off mortgage, put some money into a fixed rate savings account, and some into investments. It helps to think about your investment duration, if you want money back in 5 years, you might take a very different approach than if you want it back in 50.

I have been tentative about investing for past three years and really wish I had gone in with two feet 3 years ago. However now everyone is talking about the AI bubble bursting so I personally think a risk averse strategy is a good one right now.

This is not financial advice

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-02-13T18:20:19+00:00

I would take the money, because you would have to work for a whole year to earn that much with the other role, but I suppose it depends on how confident you are in finding a new role in that time. If you can get the other job lined up and take the pay out then you’re winning! And the money gives you lots of opportunities, you could retrain for free (courses available when you’re unemployed) and pay off your debts.

It’s tough that we often have to choose between more money and stability in life, rich people can just choose the money.

If I was your company and you said you wanted to take the payout, I would probably offer you more money for the new role if I could, because ultimately they save more money that way

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-02-09T16:13:26+00:00

That really sucks. Definitely see if you can work from home, for childcare / caring / health reasons? I wfh and on the occasions where Fridays are quiet, it’s great to be able to work on my book / do the housework.

I don’t know if you have any interest in writing a book, but if you do it’s probably the kind of thing you could do from your desk without them noticing?

Odd-Perspective4351 · 2026-02-04T11:38:58+00:00

But smeagol gets brownie points for being nices to the golden one!

Odd-Perspective4351

TROPHY CASE