The ups and downs and ins and outs of growing your own, 2018

Dizzy_Ditzy

Isnt it typical - i come back to work after 11 days off and todays weather is perfect allotmenting weather! :rotfl:

sazzlebgood?

gem gem to be honest we have to net alot of stuff due to pigeons, but you could try old cd discs in fruit trees and bushes. Our allotment neighbours tie bin bags to sticks- noise. Regarding slugs we used crushed baked egg shells and in the greenhouse we set beer traps.If we find any whilst gardening we put them in a sealed container and on our way home we set them free. Other people use grapefruit skin halves or slightly raised planks of wood and check them in the morning and get rid of whatever is lurking underneath.You could cut lemonade bottles in half and then cut long strips into it and place over your plants so when they climb up it their weight pulls it down and dislodges them. We don't use slug pellets as i think they have some chemical that actually attracts them. Hope that helps I'm sure others on this forum will have other ideas.

Gem-gem

Dizzy_Ditzy wrote: »

Isnt it typical - i come back to work after 11 days off and todays weather is perfect allotmenting weather! :rotfl:

I know, I was working from home today and longingly looking at the garden wishing that I was out in it. (I've had the last five days off).

Went to a friend's house for supper after we went to her allotment ( it is at the end of her street). Had a look at what everyone had been doing, some have all their canes up ready for their plants, others have dug their allotments over and started to partition it up. My fiend broke her shoulder six weeks ago so hasn't been able to do anything yet this year. Her onions and garlic looks good.

Last year, I swapped plants pots for strawberry plants with my neighbours (I had approximately 100 strawberry baby plants).
I shared these pots with my friend.

Gem-gem

sazzlebgood? wrote: »

gem gem to be honest we have to net alot of stuff due to pigeons, but you could try old cd discs in fruit trees and bushes. Our allotment neighbours tie bin bags to sticks- noise. Regarding slugs we used crushed baked egg shells and in the greenhouse we set beer traps.If we find any whilst gardening we put them in a sealed container and on our way home we set them free. Other people use grapefruit skin halves or slightly raised planks of wood and check them in the morning and get rid of whatever is lurking underneath.You could cut lemonade bottles in half and then cut long strips into it and place over your plants so when they climb up it their weight pulls it down and dislodges them. We don't use slug pellets as i think they have some chemical that actually attracts them. Hope that helps I'm sure others on this forum will have other ideas.

Thank you, I have tried the relocating two years ago but last year resorted to slug warfare with the pellets. But I don't like the idea of the chemicals near my food. I will try the egg shell and beer trap (mind you hubby might not be too pleased if I start using his home brew!) If you have boiled eggs do you still baked them? How long do you bake them for?
We don't buy fizzy drinks but I will see if anyone at work would like me to upcycle them. I wish that I was bold enough to walk down my road on bin day and pick up the plastic Bottles.

unrecordings

They said it wouldn't rain today, but it did so I mainly worked out of the workshop dodging the showers. We had a lot of snow yesterday morning, and the ground is just over saturated, so much so that the pond liner has risen to the surface in one place (which hopefully will disappear again in a couple of days). Lots of standing water, and we're on a slope (!) Planted some out of date brassicas in my cold frame to see if they'll at least produce something for my Ramen. Top dressed some garlic chives in pots, and sowed some teasel seeds in places where I thought teasels might be quite nice. Pigeons have eaten my last remaining Japanese Spinach (which was unprotected), but so far not got to my Kale which is protected by a lot of sticks

sazzlebgood?

gem gem not sure about the boiled eggs as often they can have egg still stuck on. Other egg shells i put in the bottom of my oven for about a week and then take out put in a glass container with a lid and shake, not too much though.

CAFCGirl

Looking forward to some allotment time over the next two days if the weather app is to be believed. I want to check on my direct sown stuff, get my onions in and I have a kiwi and a tayberry plant to put in too.

The indoor sowings of last week are doing well - peas, sunflowers, corn, basil and courgette are all up. The courgette will need potting on before it gets a chance to go outside I think. I'll save those jobs for the weekend when the rain is back again.

Finally set up my wormery today, with my wee baby worms. They were lively as anything when I put them in, hoping they don't go wandering in the night!

Stay safe, and stay dry lovely people!

Gem-gem

sazzlebgood? wrote: »

gem gem not sure about the boiled eggs as often they can have egg still stuck on. Other egg shells i put in the bottom of my oven for about a week and then take out put in a glass container with a lid and shake, not too much though.

Thank you for your help.

Managed to get out in between showers (worked from home and took my break when it stopped raining). Planted some rocket, spring onions and spinach on the sunny side of the garden.

unrecordings

Nothing to report here other than I finally persuaded the cat to chase a squirrel off, after weeks of them mooning at her from the handrail of the verandah. I'm sure she thinks they're just kittens

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Gem-gem wrote: »

Thank you, I have tried the relocating two years ago but last year resorted to slug warfare with the pellets. But I don't like the idea of the chemicals near my food. I will try the egg shell and beer trap (mind you hubby might not be too pleased if I start using his home brew!) If you have boiled eggs do you still baked them? How long do you bake them for?
We don't buy fizzy drinks but I will see if anyone at work would like me to upcycle them. I wish that I was bold enough to walk down my road on bin day and pick up the plastic Bottles.

I don't waste perfectly good beer on mere slugs. A far cheaper (and less depressing) way of enticing the little wotsits to their doom is to pop a pinch of yeast into some warm water in a disposable receptacle with a small pinch of sugar. Fermentation occurs, it smells incredibly attractive to the slimy beggars and they die with an air of disappointment.

Finally got into the mudbath today in between rain to deal with the Rambling Rose before it took over the place, along with the other very spiky things that surround the walls - ended up mostly pulling long strands down and tying them in, as the burner was still full of the pruning I did in November (it's been that wet ever since all I could do was cover it up and wait). Hopefully that'll keep the neighbours happy and still give the massive wall of scent and flower I (and the bumbles/leafcutters and mason bees) love so much.

Also pulled up a load of stray raspberries and chopped a few shooting canes back down, as I really don't need an entire garden of the things.

The only real irritation was finding Blue Alkane has decided to intrude upon one of my best Rainbow Chards, as they are miraculously still going strong. I'm going to have to dig up both plants - but on the bright side, the ground is so soft, it's not going to be hard work.

And my baby Cherry tree has finally sent up some long shoots after years of refusing to do much at all. I think it's going to do something this year - and, by a miracle, I think I relocated into the one bit of the garden that will still get a little bit of sunlight in the afternoon when the new housing goes up properly (it's all just girders at present). I'm not expecting much in the way of fruit from anywhere else, though, thanks to the notion that in a town with hundreds of empty office blocks, what they really need to do is take over land that hadn't ever been built upon and cram as much undersized housing in as possible.

I might try some out the front where it's brutally hot, but that will either frazzle or be stolen, I suspect - it's perfect growing conditions for lavender and rosemary, but not a lot else, especially when there's no way of keeping thieving barstewards out.


Just took advantage of a prolonged lack of rain to burn off the old prunings, as nobody is going to be trying to dry washing - unfortunately, due to it just being prunings, it's been quite smoky and I had to partially cover it with the metal sheet I use as a lid. I might go back in the morning to find charcoal glowing away.

When I go out there tomorrow (assuming it's not raining too much) I'll deal with the Alkane and then possibly chuck some more wild flower seed around in what pretends to be a lawn, but is largely Red and White Clover and Borage by June . I like it better like that, anyway. If I find some clear ground that the Cat doesn't commandeer, I'll chuck down some old veg seeds left over from last year as well.

And I might actually pick some chard for an omelette.