How Does Your Garden Grow?

[God mode restorations]

Hope you went on the Health and Safety course to put those baskets up.

Chatteris in Bloom outraged by hanging basket rule

Green-fingered residents who make award-winning displays complain about new health and safety rules.

www.bbc.co.uk

I deal with health and safety every day being in the construction industry. And they can shove it . Its ridiculous

 

[gaz1]

wait until you get the bees and wasps tracking into your house from the baskets

it may look nice in them but those bees and wasps get realy anoying fast

 

[DAPPH]

Potted my beans in a bag of unopened compost bought from Lidl last year. Got tiny little green plants growing that aren't beans!

Could be from the manky water I used I guess:

https://flic.kr/p/2pQwQep

No not the water it's the manky stuff in the so called quality compost which is commercial & local tip waste from shops , factories and wood mills as well as racehorse stable muck which is stuffed full of weed seeds . Horses digestive system do not kill off weed seeds like ruminants and pigs or poultry digestive systems do.

It is also worth adding mycorrhizal symbionts.

Only after the mix is cold and of course a lot of plants don't benefit from it . I put a pinch in each planting hole for those that benefit from it .

 

[DAPPH]

I deal with health and safety every day being in the construction industry. And they can shove it . Its ridiculous

We had an almost identical problem at a Men's Shed I used to attend When you see some of the stupid things locals do when putting up the hanging baskets you might change your mind . Few did a risk assessment for the route involved most appeared to not know what one was .
Many have no idea of traffic dangers for a start. often dashing across a road with a 12 foot ladder on their blind side and no one in overall charge of setting them or safety concerns .

Also a lot were using a non sterile growth medium & nutrient mix in the baskets .
Wayne & Wanetta types were letting their sit in the prams under the bacterial rich drain off thinking it was funny that their kids were getting wet or getting wet feet from walking barefoot in it .
Then of course we have to be aware of dangerous plants in such baskets & displays , especially if they or the seeds can be accesses by the public .

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

Only after the mix is cold and of course a lot of plants don't benefit from it . I put a pinch in each planting hole for those that benefit from it .

There are dozens of types of mycorrhizae, I buy an optimized mixture of 5 strains for flowers and vegetables. It is useless for cabbage and its botanical order, if I remember correctly. There are also ones for different tree species.

 

[Onoff]

No not the water it's the manky stuff in the so called quality compost which is commercial & local tip waste from shops , factories and wood mills as well as racehorse stable muck which is stuffed full of weed seeds . Horses digestive system do not kill off weed seeds like ruminants and pigs or poultry digestive systems do.

Good/sad to know!

These little green plants seem to not be thriving now. Half wondering if they're algae. The water came from an old plastic bath I'd had sat there for a wheeled planter project that's yet to happen. I don't tbh recall algae in it but...

Sort of getting somewhere with enlarging the veg patch. Sensitively scything the undergrowth low to let any critters vacate. Then digging the soil (with one of those "old man 4 pronged fork" things) and turning the clods to dry. Pulling any weeds I can, I bang the soil off the clouds when dry and pile up the grass clumps/ weeds for disposal later. Compost it? Pics later.

My back is telling me I've done it so that's progress of sorts.

 

[Greeves246]

One of the gardening programs discovered that lawns, bowling greens etc were treated with “Weed and Feed” and the resulting clippings contained weed killer that was still present after being composted at the council tip. I bought some bags of compost from a local garden centre and suffered a loss of begonias from a vine weevil infestation. Worth tipping out onto a plastic sheet and let the birds have a rummage .

 

[Onoff]

One of the gardening programs discovered that lawns, bowling greens etc were treated with “Weed and Feed” and the resulting clippings contained weed killer that was still present after being composted at the council tip. I bought some bags of compost from a local garden centre and suffered a loss of begonias from a vine weevil infestation. Worth tipping out onto a plastic sheet and let the birds have a rummage .

There were actually some small earthworms in this new, unopened bag...from last year. I can only assume it's been punctured in storage or could they have been present all that time?

 

[Onoff]

Wickes are selling 50L Farmyard Manure at £5 a bag.

Where there's muck there's brass etc.

 

[8ob]

Wickes are selling 50L Farmyard Manure at £5 a bag.

Where there's muck there's brass etc.

Probably costs most of that to bag,man handle and transport it.Rather a lot of it here if anyone wants to help themselves.

Bob

 

[DAPPH]

Wickes are selling 50L Farmyard Manure at £5 a bag.

Where there's muck there's brass etc.

Most of these commercially bagged enhancers are made from waste products and are the barest minimum value to a gardener to be called a soil enhancer or composted material.

Check to see what it is consisting of , anything recycled is suspect especially if it's from a waste management facility as there'll be all sorts of residual weed killers & bug eggs in it . If it mentions stable much give it a wide berth. Anything with products of the forest usually means steamed wood , bark & leaves denuded of turpentine & wood oils ...... pulped and added to absorb a liquid manure made from stable muck . Such products of the forest can take seven years to get past taking out valuable nitrogen as it slowly decomposes, leaving your plants starved of vital nutrients .

Often in theses bags of " Composted " farm yard manure you can see see loads of still solid cobbles of horse muck . Any bag of such manures I get, I take out a small sample mix it with our homemade sterile growth medium and then try to grow two pots of overnight soaked peas in it .or several radish seeds ...... peas emerge by day five if its's kept in a warm place ......no peas or radish showing means its no use.

 

[addjunkie]

Wickes are selling 50L Farmyard Manure at £5 a bag.

Where there's muck there's brass etc.

Find some one with alpacas. Get the poo. Put it in one of those net veg bags you get at the supermarket. Hang in your full watering can. Give it a reet good mix, creating tea. Water your plants with it. Because of the multi compartment stomach system the poop is in effect already partly composted, and can be used directly with our burning leaves etc like many other manures.

You will not be disappointed!

 

[brewdexta]

My neighbour brought his muck spreader around after he had spread the last load of cow muck on the fields. There's always a bit left in, two barrow loads of muck now on the hops

 

[Gragson]

Making a raised vegetable patch 240cm x 100cm x 40cm. Suggested making it 60cm high but just been told to do...
Got 12m of 25 x 3mm flatbar coming from Brundles which I will make corner and side fixings to keep it all together.

I'm not involved in any of the gardening / planting - but a couple of things appreciate advice on.
1) Is this ok for veg if I mix in some rotted horse poo etc? - https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/top...G7Y8qr1R9f_-tT-ilMxoCEdwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

2) Should I staple some copper strip across the top sleeper members to keep slugs / snails out or is that balony - like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175749046848?var=475141293781

Cheers

 

[Onoff]

Beans planted May 7th:

https://flic.kr/p/2pR6Cz3

Czar beans on the right, majority saved from last year's beans coming on strong!

Tongue Of Fire on the left showing through. Again, majority last year's seed.

In the centre section:

1 out of 3 Greek Gigantes (forefront) coming through.

Only the Stringless Emergo, the bulk of the centre lot are lagging.

 

[addjunkie]

Check soil is good quality and not full of recycled bits of brick and glass. Theres bagged top soil and bagged top soil. BS 3882 is what you want I think.

Or you could start no gig gardening where you cover the base in cardboard and plant in compost on top. Plants grow, card rots and composts. Cover with card again winter, repeat with compost till the box is full. The cardboard kills any growth by shutting out light.

​

 

[Onoff]

Check soil is good quality and not full of recycled bits of brick and glass. Theres bagged top soil and bagged top soil. BS 3882 is what you want I think.

Or you could start no gig gardening where you cover the base in cardboard and plant in compost on top. Plants grow, card rots and composts. Cover with card again winter, repeat with compost till the box is full. The cardboard kills any growth by shutting out light.

​

I won't do no dig because of all the wildlife in the undug bit. Gradually clearance to give them notice to move on.

 

[Gragson]

Check soil is good quality and not full of recycled bits of brick and glass. Theres bagged top soil and bagged top soil. BS 3882 is what you want I think.

Or you could start no gig gardening where you cover the base in cardboard and plant in compost on top. Plants grow, card rots and composts. Cover with card again winter, repeat with compost till the box is full. The cardboard kills any growth by shutting out light.

​

Thanks for the tip on cardboard, makes sense.
Will do a deeper check on the quality of that travis perkins top soil

 

[Onoff]

Is it too late to plant butternut squash in pots?

 

[DAPPH]

Is it too late to plant butternut squash in pots?

Do it now .
Sprout through in a glasshouse or cling film covered tub ( don't let them get too hot ) then pot up in two's in a 25 litre bucket /tub that has drain holes in the base sides and water well each night, giving liquid feed every three days .
Place tubs in a full sun position , grow the squashes up some pig wire / stock wire fence ,wrapped in a three foot dia tube around the tub,

As the squash grow . feed the tendrils into the wire so you get an even dispersal around the wire circumference . IIt makes picking the fruits easy and allows you to slip big ones in to ladies pop sock nylons to tie to the wire.