Rockdust soil conditioner
Yesterday I popped into Notcutts looking for Rockdust. They didn’t stock it. In fact most of their shop was packed with Christmas things. They did have the jute sacks that Penny mentioned on my Autumn Leaves post – knocked down to four for a fiver. A bargain. We are composting like mad. We have the chicken poo from our flock and are considering bokashi composting since Suky told us how to make our own bokashi bins on the forum. I’ve spent some time researching the benefits and claims of Rockdust. A recent 3 year study at Glasgow...
read moreHow to make a cheap and elegant cloche
I spent a lot of the weekend searching for cloches on the internet. I’ve sown peas and carrots for an early crop in the spring and even though we have a lot of cloches I need the smaller ones to protect salad and stir fry leaves. I did find some ‘cheap’ fleece cloches for under fifteen quid but I would need five of these – out of the question at the moment. On one of my searches for “cheap cloches” I was drawn onto a gardening forum where several members had made cloches using blue water pipe as a frame. And then covering...
read moreAutumn leaves
I’m going to throw fruit nets over our vegetable borders next year when the leaves begin to fall. I spent most of the afternoon raking up leaves and testing out my new leaf collectors. They are really good for picking up leaves on the paths. In fact it’s quite fun seeing how many you can pick up at a time. But getting the leaves from between the rows of vegetables was a bit of a nightmare. They had to be shifted as with the recent rain they create a slug haven. Our vegetables are packed in pretty tight. As I ranged between the rows I...
read moreWrap up your greenhouse to retain more heat
I love our greenhouse. It’s a real haven for pottering. It’s 8’x6’ so it doesn’t have a lot of space but this also means that it can be heated very economically especially if I insulate it with bubble wrap. During the first year of greenhouse buying/building frenzy. I spotted that a client’s green house was insulated with bubble wrap. “It has a dramatic effect on the temperature in the greenhouse. In fact we don’t need a heater apart from the frostiest days.” So I did the same. I found that Homebase sells biodegradable...
read moreCutting the hedges
The garden at the cottage is divided into three compartments with a selection of yew, box and beech hedges. In fact I was so enthusiastic about my hedges that I bought a hedge trimmer when I planted them. “That trimmer will be a vintage model by the time the hedges are big enough to need it.” John had laid down his well oiled shears to examine the box. Then one glorious August day the hedges were finally tall enough to be sheared. John walked down the garden with a long extension lead and the trimmer. As he swished and moved smoothly...
read moreExplosion of ladybirds
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that were hundreds of ladybirds (ladybugs) in our garden. I was delighted, assuming that finally we had got something right and that these little bugs were happily breeding in our garden. Years ago I did look into buying ladybirds for our garden. They were expensive at £14.95 for twenty five adults. Apart from eating green and black fly, ladybirds also devour scale insects, mould and a whole host of nasties. No need for chemicals, the perfect answer to controlling pests organically. I counted over a hundred on...
read moreGarden, beds and bugs
We have chunky tomatoes in the greenhouse that are just beginning to blush orange. I’ve spotted doll’s house sized runner beans on the canes. We splashed out and are growing two types this year: White Lady – a sweet and stringless bean recommended by Maurice and a nameless bean donated by John Coe. “These have wonderful long pods and bright red flowers.” He winked. The seeds were a motley purple and black colour. The kitchen garden is doing better than any year before and we’re half thrilled half terrified of being hit by the...
read moreHessian sacks, traditional English sack and three legged racing
I’ve been storing the paper sacks from our chicken feed to house Danny’s spuds (if they sail through). I mentioned this to him last night. “I’d prefer hessian sacks, ideally.” A couple of years ago I’d found hessian sacks on the Isle of Wight garlic farm site. This morning I drew a blank. There is no search facility on the site. Perhaps they still sell them, I just don’t know. I motored over to Cambridge to visit my mum and on the way home I decided to drop into Notcutts, Horningsea. We needed short bamboo stakes to support our...
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