Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

misskool

:j I had 2 lemon drop chillies germinate

adelight

vicks how big are your peppers? my over-wintered ones are tiny! They're banana shaped sweet peppers and about four inches long

I've now taken absolutely everything out of modules and they're all in pots in the garden or greenhouses. Other than quick weeding it's the last thing I'll get to do for a few weeks until my dissertation is in.


Being ridiculously impatient (and plain stupid) I dug up a garlic just to see how they're doing... not much has happened. Why did I do that? :eek:

aliasojo

Does anyone here use Nematodes?

http://www.nemasysinfo.com/applying_nematodes.shtml

Was just looking into buying some brassica collars that had copper in them for when I plant out my cauliflower seedlings and I came across someone who was talking about using Nemaslug quite successfully.

I'd no idea what this was so googled and found the info. I'm no lover of slugs and other garden nasties but it seems a bit freaky and slightly alien to unleash something that will get inside them, kill them and use their bodies to multiply. _pale_

Mind you, I find it difficult to thin and just chuck out the weakest seedlings too. Maybe I'm just too soft to garden successfully.

annie123

I had a problem with how it works too aliasojo, but I did try it once, many moons ago.
Yes it did work, or at least I didn't spot as many slugs but it only kills slugs, not snails as they are not underground and I have 10x more snails than slugs.
It's expensive too from what I remember so I stick to copper tape which does work, beer traps which also work and looking behind pots etc in the day, putting them in a container and let them go in the local woods.

I am trying garlic this year, as it seemed to be effective in last years mini trial. This year I have put garlic around the edge of one tub and will put lettuce in it and not in another.
When my comfrey came through and the little s*ds got to it first I put crushed garlic cloves and dotted them around it and it's not been touched since......all looking very positive.

lemonjelly

Over the weekend I repotted my peas that had sprouted, from their trays, into bigger pots.
I planted more peas too. I guess I've had a 55% success rate with germination.
I've planted my 2nd batch of lettuce.
All 4 cucmbers have germinated.

Drum roll.......

My toms have finally shown signs of life!:j In the space of a couple of days I had 2, then another 3, & now over half have sprouted!:T

I've commandeered all the window sills, as they are still suggesting the risk of frosts, though I do want to get them back outside soon.

I've planted my 2nd batch of tomatoes, & now am just waiting for the peppers to weave their magic!

lemonjelly

djohn2002uk wrote: »

Another plus for Daleks here. We have 2 and we get one full Daleks worth of compost each year and if it's warm we get even more. Tell Uncle Bob he ain't keeping his worms happy.

2 daleks here too. Situated where the sun gets on em in afternoons. Does pretty will - a little slow. As Lotus eater says, fill one & leave for the year to turn into the good stuff. Whilst that one is out of use, fill t'other.

The fact that you can just pick em up, leaving a big pile of compost is (imo) great!

lemonjelly

PS Mr BE, seiving sand? Yow'm posh!

& where'd you get all these extra recycling tubs? I want some!

lemonjelly

Someone mentioned carrots. Find em quite straightforward tbh. I noticed that they've started to germinate too. So all in all, a decent weekend.

2nd batch of carrots will be planted early may.

The only issue I did have with carrots, was last year I harvested them in late sept/early oct, & froze them instantly, thinking "christmas dinner!".:)
On Christmas day, I thawed them out & they were just like socks full of water :eek: - you could wring them out!:(

How do I prevent this from happening again?:o

aliasojo

lemonjelly wrote: »

.....& where'd you get all these extra recycling tubs? I want some!

I was eyeing those up too.

'Fess up MBE...did you go on a midnight stroll round the neighbourhood? :whistle:

djohn2002uk

aliasojo wrote: »

I was eyeing those up too.

'Fess up MBE...did you go on a midnight stroll round the neighbourhood? :whistle:

I think in one place he mentioned reclaiming some from the tip where he got rid of his "bootload of rubbish soil" from his digging. But got to say I've never seen any at our tip.
I used to seive soil like that and make an 18" deep hole with a crow bar waggled round to make it connical, fill with the seived dirt and plant 3 parsnip seed in. Throw 2 weakest away when they germinate and you get one long straight parsnip more than big enough for the two of us.