Preparing for Winter V

PipneyJane

MingVase said:

Do blueberries need special compost or soil?

Yes, MingVase.  They like acidic soil.

- Pip

PipneyJane

silvasava said:

Very interested about diluted vinegar for ericaceous plants. I've 2 blueberries that I've had for about 6 years, both of them crop heavily and need very little attention apart from plenty of water as they are a sort of bog plant. My soil is clay so they are in pots, same as my azaleas and rhododendrons......I'm a glutton for punishment lol. 

I had trouble with my climbing beans germinating, finally got some and they're happily zooming up the bean mesh now  

< sarcasm alert > The blueberries are going to love my garden, then. < /sarcasm alert >  We've got really heavy clay soil, so we've built a bed at the far end of the garden out of breeze blocks and will fill that with ericaceous compost for them.  It's probable that the underlying clay will form an impermeable barrier.  (I had two lavender plants growing that inexplicably died.  I discovered that, when we'd dug out holes to plant them, the surrounding clay had formed an impenetrable bowl and the lavender's roots had drowned and rotted.  Poor plants tried their best - they survived for about 2 years.)

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane has no-one mentioned adding lime to force the clay particles to flocculate? Fab word, isn't it?

If you lime your clay soil, it makes the incredibly=fine clay clump together into more normal-sized particles, which then drain a lot better. Don't use it for your blueberries, though, as it will lower the pH - but if you want to grow almost anything else, then adding lime will really help most clay soil. Roses absolutely thrive on clay, so long as it has a bit of lime and a lot of well-rotted horse-muck! 

I don't know why lime is rarely mentioned these days - possibly because nobody gets to make much of a profit from it as I think it's just the waste from stone-cutting. I think you need to top-dress annually in winter, but it's easy enough and not expensive... 

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane has no-one mentioned adding lime to force the clay particles to flocculate? Fab word, isn't it?

If you lime your clay soil, it makes the incredibly=fine clay clump together into more normal-sized particles, which then drain a lot better. Don't use it for your blueberries, though, as it will lower the pH - but if you want to grow almost anything else, then adding lime will really help most clay soil. Roses absolutely thrive on clay, so long as it has a bit of lime and a lot of well-rotted horse-muck! 

I don't know why lime is rarely mentioned these days - possibly because nobody gets to make much of a profit from it as I think it's just the waste from stone-cutting. I think you need to top-dress annually in winter, but it's easy enough and not expensive... 

@Laura_Elsewhere, no I'd never heard about adding lime.  Blueberries love acidic soil, so I may try and get some before plant them out  (We aren't planting them until the weekend.) 

Thanks for that tip!

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane has no-one mentioned adding lime to force the clay particles to flocculate? Fab word, isn't it?

If you lime your clay soil, it makes the incredibly=fine clay clump together into more normal-sized particles, which then drain a lot better. Don't use it for your blueberries, though, as it will lower the pH - but if you want to grow almost anything else, then adding lime will really help most clay soil. Roses absolutely thrive on clay, so long as it has a bit of lime and a lot of well-rotted horse-muck! 

I don't know why lime is rarely mentioned these days - possibly because nobody gets to make much of a profit from it as I think it's just the waste from stone-cutting. I think you need to top-dress annually in winter, but it's easy enough and not expensive... 

@Laura_Elsewhere, no I'd never heard about adding lime.  Blueberries love acidic soil, so I may try and get some before plant them out  (We aren't planting them until the weekend.) 

Thanks for that tip!

- Pip

Oops, think I got that the wrong way round then - adding lime makes the soil LESS acidic so the blueberries won;t like it. That's clearer... I never did any chemistry so obviously muddled up the raise/lower of pH... 

I'd just add some compost, and put a bit of grit in the bottom for the blueberries - they grow wild on acidic bogs all over Britain's uplands, so they do cope with pretty damp conditions, inc the roots. But not the lime for them  

alfsmum

boultdj said:

Crystals is the name on the flask, got it off Amazon, and they do different sizes, the one I've got hold's 3 full kettles worth of water, any left over in the evening goes in the wash bowl for washing the pot's with, this weather we are using it for cold water, for the dilute pop. hth

Thank you

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane has no-one mentioned adding lime to force the clay particles to flocculate? Fab word, isn't it?

If you lime your clay soil, it makes the incredibly=fine clay clump together into more normal-sized particles, which then drain a lot better. Don't use it for your blueberries, though, as it will lower the pH - but if you want to grow almost anything else, then adding lime will really help most clay soil. Roses absolutely thrive on clay, so long as it has a bit of lime and a lot of well-rotted horse-muck! 

I don't know why lime is rarely mentioned these days - possibly because nobody gets to make much of a profit from it as I think it's just the waste from stone-cutting. I think you need to top-dress annually in winter, but it's easy enough and not expensive... 

@Laura_Elsewhere, no I'd never heard about adding lime.  Blueberries love acidic soil, so I may try and get some before plant them out  (We aren't planting them until the weekend.) 

Thanks for that tip!

- Pip

Oops, think I got that the wrong way round then - adding lime makes the soil LESS acidic so the blueberries won;t like it. That's clearer... I never did any chemistry so obviously muddled up the raise/lower of pH... 

I'd just add some compost, and put a bit of grit in the bottom for the blueberries - they grow wild on acidic bogs all over Britain's uplands, so they do cope with pretty damp conditions, inc the roots. But not the lime for them  

Ahhh.... So lime raises PH not lowers it.  (Yes, that makes sense.)    Just as well that I didn't buy any last night, when we went to B&Q and bought 12 bags of ericaceous compost. 

I will keep it in mind, though, when next in a garden centre.  The rest of the garden would probably appreciate being limed.

- Pip

[Deleted User]

I had some apples arrive in a food delivery yesterday and I have apples still in the fruit bowl from last weeks so I shall process and dehydrate them for store, even eating apples make nice desserts so the money we spent on them won't be wasted and neither will they.  Every tiny thing makes a big difference if you remember you've paid for it and every tiny bit I can put into store means a better future.  The oranges I dehydrated last week have worked very well, they took nearly 3 days to dry completely but they'll probably rehydrate well and will certainly make a potpourrie to scent a winter room.

Good productive morning, the 9 tray dehydrator is fully loaded and I've got 3 trays of apple rings, a tray or rosemary, a tray of chopped chives and 4 trays of mint drying to use for winter meals.  Tomorrow I shall tackle the sage patch and I have more onions than I can use so to stop them going to waste I'll fill the rest of the trays with onion rings, it will smell delicious.

[Deleted User]

5 trays of sliced onions in the dehydrator this morning, I cried for England but it will be worth it in the winter when I can just grab a handful for a stew. Everything I did yesterday turned out really well and I've rubbed the dried herbs to tiny bits and snipped the rosemary with scissors to make it small enough in sauces, all in jars now and put away in the store.  I'm going to start a 'soup mix' jar and if I get carrots, potatoes, green beans etc more than I need and they start to go over I'm going to dice them small and just mix them all together again to grab a handful for soups and to save waste now.

Laura_Elsewhere

There is a house near here with a very heavy-cropping sweet eating cherry tree - last year they all rotted on the tree or the grass under it, so this year I rang the doorbell and she is delighted for us to go next week and pick as many as we'd like! 

So I shall be making pickled cherries (Jane Grigson's recipe, whole cherries pickled in a syrup made with malt vinegar, brown sugar and spices, delicious with cold meat or cheese), and I shall put some in brandy with a bit of sugar, maybe even try making my own glace cherries for my little Xmas cake - I'll also just eat lots
I think we'll easily get 5lbs, maybe 10lbs, so I may also halve and stone some to freeze for cherry pies in winter. I love black cherry jam but that's made with special cherries with a very strong flavour and I'm not sure the usual sort are right for jam. 

But it's the start of my preserving season, a month earlier than usual!