Chit Chat Garden ~ 2020

cut the grass

Clear the leaves first

I have got rats in my compost heap.

One of them is a right smar tarse !

I filled bait boxes with poison blocks and the rat has pulled insulation out of my man cave wall and blocked both ends of the bait box with it

i know nothing about gardening and sowing etc

my guess is many will be learning rapidly

shot gun
it worked for jasper carrot with moles!

Pink Fir Apple and Purple Salad (the kids like the purple mash they make) potatoes chitting.

Got some garlic to harvest grown over winter

Been fastening all the fruit canes in my mini orchard.
Pear tree I planted five years ago finally fruited last year , 70 fruits they were terrific.

Got some Kiwi yams growing indoors , can't go out until frosts over.

Squirrels chewed through my ethernet cable... Bought new cable, protected cable with a hard plastic tubed ducting... feckers have chewed through hard plastic ducting and through new ethernet cable...

Ten tomato plants of various varieties in their pots coming along nicely circa a foot tall each.
Dozen or so rosemary seedlings an inch high.
Sowed spinach and broad beans in containers during the week.

Found a couple of egg like thingies in my 50l bag of Verve multipurpose compost.  First one accidently squished and it's a liquid inside.  Some kind of fertiliser pellet?  Been using Verve for years but first time I've seen these things.  Any ideas?

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Also, anyone know what is this bug I zapped in my kitchen window the other day?

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The bug would fit in the 5p.

You got pear trees?

No fruit trees.  Plenty mixed coniferous and deciduous about though.  Noticed this guy after my door had been open an hour or so when the weather was sunny and mild - so a visitor.

Bit early for summat that size, I thought.

Trilby, the fly looks like a lacewing. The egg could be from a slug or snail, was the compost bag open?

Similarities, Foin, thanks.  Bit early though - and up in Perthshire?  Body length 8mm.  Wings 2mm

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/other-garden-wildlife/insects-and-other-invertebrates/flies/lacewing/

Compost from last year but it's been indoors in my cool room and kept airtight.  Only found the two eggy things and the bags about half full.  I'll have a rummage in it another time.

wings 12mm

Sowed some Perpetual Spinach and lots of Sweet pea (saved from my pea plants last year) They are in pots in the polytunnel.

Got a tub of Runner Beans soaking (saved from my plants last year), i don't know if it makes a difference, although you get the "floaters" that you can remove, i believe they make for weaker plants.

Sowed my last four Courgette seeds, they are quite old now, hopefully i get a couple pop up. I have those on a warm radiator.

I am leaving my tomatoes a bit later this year, they got a bit leggy last year and IIRC some got stunted by a real cold snap. Two more weeks before i get those seeds out.

Yes it is early as they feed on aphids. Did you have the warm sunny weather over the last few days? Slugs get everywhere and lay their eggs in clusters in damp corners. They are perfectly spherical and surprisingly large.

One semi-warm sunny day - when the door was open but absolute zero chance of slugs getting in the bag.

Doing my toms early this year after leaving them late last.  In a south facing window.

I start my toms on a warm radiator and then when they show i put the pots up on the south facing windowsill. They still got leggy, so i figure i will leave it later by 2 weeks and maybe i can get away with putting them in full light in the polytunnel, fleeced if need be.

Agree slug/snail egg,fly looks  like a some sort of  Mayfly, early but been a mild winter.

seed companies and polytunnel companies, all reporting massive orders

Potted all my saved Runner Beans (Lady Di). Got all but 4 in the polytunnel, the 4 are on a warm radiator, just to see if they germinate quicker than the rest (if at all).

The polytunnel temp gauge shows a maximum low of -1.4c, i reset it 2 nights ago. It did try to snow here in Notts yesterday.

I have some NZ yams growing in the kitchen , cannot go out until frosts all gone.
My pear tree that produced 70 fruits last year is about to flower.
got some parsnips growing in my raised bed.
Will be starting peas and broad beans indoors shortly.

Repotting cuttings that overwintered , lavender rosemary , sage .
And I took a lot of rose cuttings off a wonderful tall rose with a smell to die for . These are good to go.

Smar Tarse 28 Mar 20 18:59

Sowed my last four Courgette seeds, they are quite old now, hopefully i get a couple pop up. I have those on a warm radiator.

I have 2 of them poking through this morning, that would do me from the 4 seeds

Smar Tarse  30 Mar 20 10:24

Potted all my saved Runner Beans (Lady Di). Got all but 4 in the polytunnel, the 4 are on a warm radiator, just to see if they germinate quicker than the rest (if at all).

Two pots on the radiator are showing   nothing in the polytunnel as yet. The polytunnel temp got down to 0.0 last night.

Smar Tarse 28 Mar 20 18:59

Sowed some Perpetual Spinach and lots of Sweet pea (saved from my pea plants last year) They are in pots in the polytunnel.

The Sweet pea (Mammoth Mix) are showing, they don't need heat under them to get going then, it has been below zero most of this week in the polytunnel.

No show from the runners in the polytunnel yet, the ones on the house windowsill are now climbing up sticks and looking well.

Planted all my potatoes.

Going to start peas and beans in my mini indoor greenhouse this weekend.

Tomato seedlings are appearing.

Last week i empted a 2ft deep tub that i was using as a waste compost tub last year, all the old plant pots got emptied into it. I must have put the remains of my spud tub in there as i found half a dozen or so sprouting spuds in the bottom of it.

I now have them at the bottom of their own 2ft deep tub, i will built the tub up with compost as they push through the surface.

I am still holding off sowing my tom seeds, next week i think.

Smar Tarse  30 Mar 20 10:24

Potted all my saved Runner Beans (Lady Di). Got all but 4 in the polytunnel, the 4 are on a warm radiator, just to see if they germinate quicker than the rest (if at all).

The Runner Beans in the polytunnel are showing now, 10 days after the ones on the warm radiator.

My Comfrey plants have shot up, they are large enough for a first harvest of the year

Hi smartarse - No one to debate with??   Where are Foinavan and Delta??  My runners are up in the greenhouse, as are my climbing French Beans Blue Lake - often grow these but they were brilliant last year as, for the first time ever , got the sequencing right; First beans end of May then consistent cropping till November. Do you grow Asparagus? Been eating for a week now! (am in Sussex). Happy gardening!!

t'was outside on t'garden blackbarn

Pots in today , onions in yesterday,

been no rain for weeks then 3.5 nearly on Sunday, lovely.

t'was outside on t'garden blackbarn

Pots in today , onions in yesterday,

been no rain for weeks then 3.5 nearly on Sunday, lovely.

Smar Tarse, you will be the winner of the green tomato chuntney award come Autumn



3.5 above was inches

mind you I have managed to drown my early pots and some parsley as was experimenting in containers with no holes,

Delta - no rain here for nearly 3 weeks and with my sandy loam that is not good. But one carries on rewardless.  We still have some of your Zeina seed, five of the last nine sown on Good Friday. Hopefully germination will be as good as previous years. Intending to keep some seed for this year (meant to last year). Hope you are well.

Delta - I used to grow Parsley from seed, then I bought a pot from Tescos and it was so good that I have been dividing and repotting it for about six years now. I grow lots of herbs in, wait for it, cast iron drain hoppers!!  I bought 14, identical if ever you did, from Ebay, had them shot blasted and powder coated Brunswick Green (yes extravagant I know) and they sit with their outlets sunk into the soil around the terrace outside the back door. They are totally impractical and need ridiculously frequent watering being cast iron but some of the herbs seem to like the frazzle. I grow, Chives (Garlic and ordinary) Parsley, Thyme, Mints (Apple, Spearmint and Chocolate) Oregano, Fennel. French Tarragon, Sage, Sorrel and then a couple of annual herbs.  If I had to recommend one, and a perennial too it would be French Tarragon.

Pond now full of tadpoles , spawn appeared on 12th of March.

All potatoes (pink fir apple and purple salad ) planted

Pear tree in full flower.

Tomato seedlings moved to bigger pots.

Talking of mint , everytime I see a variety I don't have I purchase it.

Strawberry mint , oddly sweet fruit smell

Oddest of all , Eau De Cologne mint .....smells like it belongs it in the bathroom ......you certainly would not add it to lamb.

I purchased a small pot of oregano a couple of years ago , it makes mint look slow growing .

blackbarn - I put the first lot of my Runner Beans out Sunday, there was a mini tornado or something like it that night knocking stuff around the yard waking me up, the runners got a right battering, they don't look happy at all, leaves all curled up

Deltâ - I was meant to open my tom seeds today, they will have to go in the heated propagator tomorrow

I am doing three lots of toms this year, Maskotka , these are going in large hanging baskets, if they are any good then i am going to fabricate a stand with "baskets" up its length, next year.

Next is a popular one Moneymaker.

And the third one is a supermarket special, it was by far the largest tom i have ever seen, i have no idea what variety it was, all i know is it was Dutch (someone gave it me)

no Coriander blackbarn?

Used to be one of the annuals, Delta! - But I originally planted it in the border where I originally grew my herbs before the containers - it is still there as it self seeds like anything.

NO show from any of my tomato seeds so far.( 8 days ) NO show from my sweet pepper seeds( 8 days )

Night Temps looking good for next week or so,gunna check my direct sown  peas tommorrow, have them well wrapped, once through will need a wall of steel to prevent the mice/voles from doing thar usual, it's war time again, battle station time.

Smar Tarse

Toms  - hmm

Peppers - ok

PS

no rain again 

till next w/e

I have got water butts all over the place, got some of them linked together with tank connectors and pvc pipe. Two of them i have on stands that i made so i can gravity water direct from them with hosepipe.

I had the propagator in the polytunnel today, still no show from any toms or peppers yet......and i think i know why   I took the lid off a minute ago and the smell of Jeyes fluid made my eyes water

The bottom of the propagator has a thick layer of felt, i washed everything in Jeyes fluid back in November(ish), i don't think i rinsed it very well

I will still treat them as if they were ok, just to see if anything shows.

We've got a bare patch on the lawn where Mrs F spilt some Jeyes, it kills everything.

I love Jeyes Fluid, it reminds me of our old Primary School in the fifties which smelt of this, wet gaberdine and the dung heap just down the lane.

I do use JF to clear the moss on my drive but I would not use it in the Greenhouse or on anything that might come near a plant. In fact I do not use any cleansing chemical on or in my greenhouse and haven't for nearly 30 years.  I simply clean any green mould off the glass, and not even every year, with just hot water.  The rest of the stuff pots, trays etc I wash with hot water and a few soap flakes.  I am not organic, but see no need to introduce artificials where seemingly unnecessary.

nb - eat yer hearts out!  harvested 42 spears of Asparagus today. Peak day so far, although that's 2 days worth of six inchers tbf.

I am pretty sure i have never had Asparagus before

I jet-wash the polytunnel with water only, but the pots and trays get "dipped" in a tub of diluted Jeyes or diluted bleach. Something went wrong with the propagator felt, i must have spilled neat Jeyes on it and then put it away without a rinse.

them tomatoes when the do come thru will taste rank

blackbarn, I popped 6x Zeina seeds in yesterday, first of this year from the same original batch, fingers crossed.

are yours thru yet?

Mine are up too Delta - 100% germination - That was some seed you had.

Deltâ 25 Apr 20 09:06

them tomatoes when the do come thru will taste rank

I have done a few more pots now, but at this rate i might have to dust off the ode "pink light" to play catch-up

anyone got a weather station in their garden


any view/suggestions


not Michael Fish type one just basis one


tar

Woohoooo ! I can see Tomato seedlings Only from the newly potted Maskotka seeds though.

Apr 24, 2020 -- 4:50PM, blackbarn wrote:

I love Jeyes Fluid, it reminds me of our old Primary School in the fifties which smelt of this, wet gaberdine and the dung heap just down the lane. I do use JF to clear the moss on my drive but I would not use it in the Greenhouse or on anything that might come near a plant. In fact I do not use any cleansing chemical on or in my greenhouse and haven't for nearly 30 years.  I simply clean any green mould off the glass, and not even every year, with just hot water.  The rest of the stuff pots, trays etc I wash with hot water and a few soap flakes.  I am not organic, but see no need to introduce artificials where seemingly unnecessary. nb - eat yer hearts out!  harvested 42 spears of Asparagus today. Peak day so far, although that's 2 days worth of six inchers tbf.

Will it kill Ivy and if so where can I buy some please? TIA.

ericster

find the one original growth root, cut 6" out of it as low to the ground as you can -

black bag over it [lower bit] and leave a year to die off, then take all dried stuff off above and hopefully below has dried off too


its a pain

Thanks Delta, appreciated.

The seeds i saved from a giant Dutch tomato (unknown variety) have germinated. Very dark-green fost leaves, i cant wait to see what i end up with

Surprisingly the ever dependable Moneymaker are a no show.

And needless to say nothing has come from the pots that were sat on a felt base that had Jeyes fluid spilled on it last year

blackbarn, my Q's havent popped thru yet


where/how do you usually start yours off?

I reset the temp gauge in the polytunnel yesterday thinking we had a cold night to come, and woke up to quite a frosted over white lawn this morning! The temp gauge registered a low of -1.6.

How did you southern softies do, any frost ?

Polytunneling ain't gardening, grow up

Frost here in the foothills of the Pennines .
Spuds are in a raised bed which appears to have left them ok. Earthed them up yesterday for first time.

Peas and beans doing ok.
I grow them in pots which spend the evening on top of the various wheely bins , worked a treat last year keeping slugs and snails at bay.
Got some NZ yams growing indoors .
They go out after last frost and you don't harvest till the frost kills them.
The 'spuds' don't grow till the nights close in .

I have Spuds, Courgettes, Radish, Lettuce, Rocket, Spinach and Runner beans all outside in various types of containers.

Well that frost has killed my Courgette plants, it has "burnt" my Potato plants, and my runners look terrible

can we have some rain please

tar