+++ Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++

EssexHebridean

My current bag of Basmati is the laila brand and I'm happy with it - smells nice, comes from the right place, and cooks well. That ticks the boxes for me. I think I paid £16 in M's for the sack I've got. Definitely no stickiness from it. Mine is the "gold" version if I recall correctly. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Sorry EH - I missed out a comma - the Bad$hah brand that I used was prone to stickiness, plus it was bitty/broken.  On the MrM site someone complained that the (green) La1la rice was bitty, no mention of stickiness.  

Greying X

redofromstart

Im
not convinced in the minimal savings to have a lot of money tied up vs damp and mice here. 6kg purchased in 23.

@LadyWithAPlan I am fairly new to making stuff in jars but I'm not ignoring you on recipes, I'm trying to find the recipe for the chilli jam (I think good food and cherry toms) and I haven't tried the mango yet to
know if it works. 

redofromstart

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Sorry EH - I missed out a comma - the Bad$hah brand that I used was prone to stickiness, plus it was bitty/broken.  On the MrM site someone complained that the (green) La1la rice was bitty, no mention of stickiness.  

Greying X

I saw that that brand was £13 for 10kg on MrM last night so useful information - thank you

redofromstart

I never win anything, so quite pleased and surprised to get the £10 voucher on the Lidl wheel thing today. Straight back round to use it and pick up the free bread too. 

I spent the afternoon outside on the sunshine, some roses pruned (David Austin climbers that  cover the stone wall that separates the veg plot from the main garden), nasty weeds removed from veg plot and the basics of my no dig experiment started with retaining edges, cardboard and the coir in for hydrating. Like all compost experiments I think it will need far more bags than anticipated to fill my 10 foot square. 

Sun_Addict

Well done 👏 I’ve had absolutely nothing from that wheel thing. 

KajiKita

It’s amazing how much compost a garden or veggie plot can absorb… ! 😉
Well done on making progress - did the nettles get beaten back? 

Lovely about the voucher win 🎉🤩

KK

themadvix

How thickly are you laying the compost? Is this the first time and 6”? It is a lot - I ended up with two tonnes of garden waste compost for my allotment!

redofromstart

I think I picked a good spot to start with in that it was planted with veg last year and I was reasonably on top of weeding, so a rake off and then digging out a couple of nettles that invade from the sides.  It is well worked and manured soil so not trying to exclude grass or major weeds. Edged with some old fence posts, Brown cardboard down and I've added 600l of coir and am slowly rehydrating but clearly much more is needed.  I do have some very well rotted manure but it is a bit weedy so I may leave it where it is and use the space for courgettes.   I've got 150l of coir left and a 100l bag of multi purpose but I want to save some to top up the polytunnel beds. I've also got 4 bags of bark so a vague plan to cardboard and bark some paths round the new bed.

I've tidied and sorted my seeds, and ordered a few packs as there is free P&P on a few seed sites this weekend.  

We are nearly out of milk and there was none in the co op last night so we might *have* to go to local town and the emporiums of compost in the morning.

redofromstart

The co op obliged with milk so my cunning plan failed.