The Potting Shed - come on in, the kettle's on!

covgirl

Sorry to hear about the blight, Lotus-Eater. I'm trying horse-tail potion this year to see if it works. But not being very scientific, I forgot to leave some without the treatment, so even if I don't get it this year, I won't know if it's down to the horsetail or sheer dumb luck :rolleyes: Oh well, the important thing is that it makes me feel less bad about the horsetail being there in the first place!

Well, we didn't get nearly as much rain as I expected, and it still feels very close here, but it's almost as if everything has woken up again. The birds are tweeting happily again, the plants have perked up, even the cat has become marginally less lazy. It's like we've all woken up!

sandracarol

Ooh tea two sugars please
just come in from giving the garden a late night watering, just in case it gets frazzled tomorrow.
This is my first year of actually trying to grow stuff. in the past I've always let the husband spend a fortune on bedding plants and hanging basket stuff from b&q.
But this year I volunteered to give it a go myself.
grown everything from seed and am soooooooooo excited now its all baring fruit.
(though I may have been a little over enthusiastic with the tomatoes..

*sits down for a well earned rest

calleyw

I have a bottle of iced water or squash.

watered last night as it was a bit warm yesterday.

Thought I would give my little potted christmas tree a drink when something brown came running out from behind the pots. Nearly screamed thinking it was mouse or even something bigger.

Was a fledgling black bird. He is still being feed by mum and dad. Us going in and out of the back door had not disturb it. It went scuttling off under the rabbits cage.

That now explains why a tub of potatoes has been knocked over twice in the last few days. Reckon a cat might have been trying to get to it. But have no idea where he came from.

Anyhow my dad very kindly told me tonight that I need to plant out my kale. Umm no as I have no other space to put it. So it will have to sit tight for the time being. And not get thinned out.

But I have a cunning plan for next set of raised beds. I already have a wall about 5 bricks high and my dad said why not use that D'oh never thought of that. So might have to do some jigging to get it the way I want it. As I wanted one big raised bed. But that might be to wide for me too work on. So it might be two but smaller. Just will have to see.

Yours

Calley

Zazen999

I haven't even sown my Kale yet.

ceridwen

covgirl wrote: »

Sorry to hear about the blight, Lotus-Eater. I'm trying horse-tail potion this year to see if it works. But not being very scientific, I forgot to leave some without the treatment, so even if I don't get it this year, I won't know if it's down to the horsetail or sheer dumb luck :rolleyes: Oh well, the important thing is that it makes me feel less bad about the horsetail being there in the first place!

What is this yur horsetail potion of which you speak? Now sitting here thinking "think horsetail must be that plant that has a stem one can pull apart and put together again that I was shown on a recent herb walk....???..and it looks like it could be a useful treatment for some garden problems......"

covgirl

ceridwen wrote: »

What is this yur horsetail potion of which you speak? Now sitting here thinking "think horsetail must be that plant that has a stem one can pull apart and put together again that I was shown on a recent herb walk....???..and it looks like it could be a useful treatment for some garden problems......"

It's not really a potion, it's just like nettle tea made with horsetail instead. All you have to do is stuff an old plastic bottle with horsetail (just the green bits, not the rhizome - you need to be very careful disposing of the rhizome!) and top it up with water. Leave it a month or so, then mix one part of the resultant liquid to ten parts water and use it to water blight-susceptible plants. I read about it in a permaculture book, but this is my first year trying it. Apparently it can get rid of other fungal and mildew problems, too.

rhiwfield

Morning all, raining outside and more forecast. Sowed spring cabbage and some more climbing beans yesterday. Today was going to sow a bed of leaf beet and swiss chard where earlies cleared but its too wet....maybe tomorrow.

Jack's_mummy

Morning all.

After a lovely wet day yesterday (I can't believe I just said that!) the sun is back and it's warming up nicely.

We should have another harvest of mange tout today and some more carrots too I would think. Finally my runner beans are climbing up the pole after they took weeks to come through and then just sat and sulked at the 2 leaf stage.

knithappens

Wow, just cleaning cat poo from my little veg patch ( the netting i bought the holes were too big, !!!!!!s can get in, plus to top ot off it is my cat that is doing it Argghh) and noticed new shoots thought they were weeds, but turns out from my own compost there were a few what i thought were well dead and mulched in tomatoes , well they have started to grow, little baby toms, so have left them in the patch to see how they go, so a nice surprise lol.

My daughter has volunteered to dig some more veg patch for me today, the soil is very poor underneath so need to get rid of what is there, and put compost etc down. Hopefully will get some new netting today too.

Loving my strawvberrys right now, but there are too much to eat fresh so thinking of freezing them to use in smoothies and smoothie ice lollies for the kids. Off to the £1 shop today to pick up some ice lollie moulds.

How is everyone else this lovely morning??

misskool

Very excited that it's the weekend and can spend as much time as I want in the garden

Planting out some more carrots (sadly, most of the ones before this didn't survive the slugs) and maybe some cauliflowers. Depending on what looks ready. Lots of garden to clear.