Growing organically

ALIBOBSY

We have tried weed matting, but found it didn't last more than a year and initially is hard to plant through, then breaks up into clumps you keep digging up for years. I use a mulch, but like to weed the beds first as well. I have used compost, grass cutting and newspaper in the past.

So I do a quick clear of the bed and any moss early annuals come off first. then I dig each perenial up, but save having to do a full dig. After a weed this year I am using shredded paper from the house (we always have loads) and shredded newspaper as a mulch on the worst beds. I wet it as i put it down to stop it blowing around. I am then adding homemade compost or a mix of compost and well rotted chicken poop (from our hen house).

Ali x

Kirri

Few more things planted today, still loads to dig, still very wet, loads more weeding done.

Potatoes in, various types.
Garlic growing well at last
Golden beetroot, radish, parsnips, rocket, carrot seeds in. Found some veg seeds I'd won last year which were organic, from the Secret Seed Society

Chives almost big enough to eat. Herb bed needs a makeover though..

Had another win of a packet of wildflower seeds through the door today from the National Wildflower Centre (I have ordered from them before too), planning to grow a larger patch this year.

cjb02

Kirri wrote: »

REALLY annoyingly there are 3 plot holders reasonably close who use weedkiller without a thought..

They have just as much right to use weed killers as you have to choose not to.

Kirri

cjb02 wrote: »

They have just as much right to use weed killers as you have to choose not to.

In a shared area ideally no one would be using it and especially not when they are careless and use it in windy conditions or contaminate other plots that are growing organically or is used on shared paths and I would not hesitate to say something put in a complaint if I see that happening again. Lucky it was the next plot they got it on and not mine last time they did that, they killed a huge area off with their carelessness.

Kirri

On Countryfile tonight, pesticides and bees issue.

cjb02

Kirri wrote: »

On Countryfile tonight, pesticides and bees issue.

As a beekeeper and Allotmenteer. I agree careless use of weedkillers is a bain to ALL allotmenteers. As some one who uses weedkillers I would be annoyed if some individual came along spraying their plot for weeds and killed off my crop! Organic grower or not, careless use of weedkillers helps no one, neither you or I. However please accept me for my style of growing with weedkillers as I accept yours without. I spray carefully.

As for pesticides and weedkillers, one kills pests and one kills plants, they do not do each others jobs.

However about pesticides and neonics that tonights Countryfille is about, Their is no definitive evidence that neonics is killing bees , IMO, neonics are better than other pesticides because neonics are applied to seed only and are NEVER sprayed on, which does/can effect bees/pollinators. (farmers tend to pesticide spray at dusk when bees/pollinators have gone to bed. I think their might even be legislation in place to enforce this)

This is an American article by a bee keeper come scientist on "what is killing our bees this spring" here (PDF document 30pages long by the way). It is a long but interesting document. It does not lambast neonics and rightly so. (his scientific bee keeping website is here)

The weather caused my bees problems last year not pesticides. The OSR, field bees and field margins, small tree copse, river banks, dykes and wild meadows helped keep them alive and gather honey to get them through the very bad warm wet winter.

Leif

darkrain wrote: »

Edwardia

£4.99 is horribly expensive for just 8 L
to buy 50 L at that price works out to £31.19

try this

creativegardenideas.co.uk/miracle-gro-fruit-and-veg-organic-compost-50l

£6.25 50ltr
and Buy 3 or more bags and SAVE £0.62 per bag
Buy 30 or more bags and SAVE £0.94 per bag
Buy 60 or more bags and SAVE £1.25 per bag

and its Free Delivery on orders over £30 rather than over £40

In our area New Horizon is sold for £6 for 50L, buy 2, get one free, so £12 for 150L which is not bad for organic peat free compost.

Edwardia

Thanks for all the ideas.. I have grown nasturtiums for salads and indeed they did get covered in blackfly just like the artichoke did as soon as the choke started growing.

I haven't got room to store many bags of compost but I will investigate that.

It's supposed to be myth but it happened to me as a teenager.. sunbathing topless in the secluded garden.. crop spraying plane gets a glimpse and comes in closer for another look, resulting in spray drift in the garden.

Fortunately it was a pesticide not weedkiller otherwise the garden would have been decimated, but I was freaked out. My father was in an awkward position cos the farmer who owned the field was a major local landowner and big client.

Spotted on Oxfam

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/books/home-and-garden/organic-gardening-918334

jonewer

darkrain wrote: »

Hi
The Telegraph readers offers had 3 mini fruit trees, 2m tall x 0.5m wide
1 red spur apple
1 gold spur apple and
1 Lilliput pear
for about £25 the lot
(EDIT They still have them for £25.99 but it was last months offer so you have to click on previous offers to see them)

Yougarden.com
has
' Braeburn' Apple
'Conference' Pear
'Victoria' Plum for
£19.99

I got mine through the post this week and they all look very healthy

Just a word about organic growing and common varieties of apple trees.

Most of the apples you buy in the shops are selected for their appearance and keeping properties. Disease resistance and indeed taste being minor considerations.

Growing Braeburn, or indeed Golden Delicious, Spartan, Cox or Bramley, organically is going to be very challenging because they all have poor disease resistance.

You are going to have to do some spraying and even so called 'organic' substances like Bordeaux mixture are toxic and nonspecific. Thats bad for the environment.

You can get disease resistant varieties that also have fine aromatic flavour profiles that well exceed the bland sugary lumps of pectin you get in the supermarket.

A good guide is to look up the history of the cultivar. If it is pre-victorian, it is also pre-agrichemicals and as a rule of thumb will have good disease resistance (makes sense, why else would that cultivar have been selected and passed down the generations?).

Theres something else to all this too. Buying and planting one of the old and endangered cultivars not only helps to preserve valuable biodiversity and puts you in touch with the food our ancesters ate, it gives you something fairly unique, something you will never find in any shop, and you will derive great satisfaction from that.

There are a number of nurseries that sell older varieties including Keepers, Bernwode, Ashridge and Adam's Apples.

Good luck.

Edwardia

Garden Organic is the new working name for the Henry Doubleday Research Association
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/

Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent, is the home of the National Fruit Collection.
http://www.brogdalecollections.co.uk/

Hopefully these two websites will help re: heritage seeds, old varieties etc.

Daylesford organic farm is hosting James and !!!!!! Strawbridge and their new series 'Saturday Farm' on ITV
http://daylesfordorganic.com/about-daylesford/saturday-farm-at-daylesford/

I have mint, chives and lemon balm in my garden and was able to snip for my salad lunch

The mini greenhouse has fallen over twice already, thankfully no plants in it yet