April in the garden | Sarah Raven:
Veg
Try direct sowing some new salad leaves, carrots, peas, beetroot, spinach and chard.
Sow some quick growing half-hardy annuals, like pumpkins, squash, sweetcorn, basil and French beans.
Plant Maincrop potatoes.
Plant tomatoes and cucumbers (under cover).
Keep on top of thinning seedlings.
Rotavate the vegetable garden.
Get ready for a mass sowing of hardy annual veg, such as spinach, carrots, beetroot, lettuce and radish.
On heavy soil, integrate plenty of grit and organic matter. On freely drained soil, only muck and/or compost need to go in.
Plant out onions, shallots and garlic.
Pot on tomatoes. It’s tempting to move tomatoes from a module or seed tray straight into their final, large planting pot, but this slows growth. Tomatoes like to feel contained and cosy; their roots can’t cope with a large volume of compost and tend to rot. Pot them only one size up and add a cane at their side to support them as they grow.
Plant asparagus crowns.
Salad and herbs
If you want to get going with some salad, sow now undercover or in gutters in your greenhouse or conservatory.
Eg corn salad, rainbow chard, mizuna, rocket, winter purslane, mustard and plenty of lettuces.
Direct sow chervil, chives and coriander or sow dill, fennel and French sorrel under cover.
Fruit
All soft fruits, eg strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, and gooseberries, will benefit from a mulch. Garden compost, leaf mould, organic manure, straw, hay and spent mushroom compost can all be used.
Direct sow a pack of zinnias.
Sow a wild flower meadow to encourage pollinators.
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Tuesday 11 April 2017
Monday 10 April 2017
Sunday 9 April 2017
How To Make A Teepee Trellis For Veggies.
Teepee Plant Support – How To Make A Teepee Trellis For Veggies:
A teepee plant support should be 6-8 feet/2m tall (although, a short 4-footer will work for some plants) and can be constructed out of branch creating anywhere from five to 10 poles.
Water loving trees that grow near ponds, swamps, or rivers tend to have great flexibility.
Take your three to 10 supports and tie them together at the top, spacing the bottoms of the supports at ground level and pushing them in a good couple of inches.
You can tie the poles with garden twine or something sturdier such as copper wire, again depending upon how permanent the structure will be and how heavy the vine is likely to get.
You can cover the copper or iron wire with a rope of grapevines or willow to camouflage it.
'via Blog this'
A teepee plant support should be 6-8 feet/2m tall (although, a short 4-footer will work for some plants) and can be constructed out of branch creating anywhere from five to 10 poles.
Water loving trees that grow near ponds, swamps, or rivers tend to have great flexibility.
Take your three to 10 supports and tie them together at the top, spacing the bottoms of the supports at ground level and pushing them in a good couple of inches.
You can tie the poles with garden twine or something sturdier such as copper wire, again depending upon how permanent the structure will be and how heavy the vine is likely to get.
You can cover the copper or iron wire with a rope of grapevines or willow to camouflage it.
'via Blog this'
Friday 7 April 2017
Tuesday 28 March 2017
Saturday 25 March 2017
Thursday 23 March 2017
The war on slugs starts at home.
The war on slugs starts at home - Telegraph:
The mail-order sachets of nematodes infected with deadly mollusc-killing bacteria temporarily raise the proportion of nematodes and brings down the slug population. I’ve been an advocate for years.
However, there is also an allotment-owner’s trick for making your own slug-killing nematode potion, using nothing more than
a bucket,
some weeds,
tap water and
the slugs from your own garden.
If you are already used to killing slugs by drowning them in a bucket, you’ll find this method right up your street.
How to make your own slug killer
In any average garden some slugs will be carrying bacterial diseases or be infected by nematodes, but their low density means that they won’t devastate the rest of the population.
But, catch and confine the slugs and, if the disease or nematodes are present, you can concentrate these micro-predators and harness their natural slug-killing power.
Collect as many slugs as you can find in a jar that has a few small air holes punched in the lid with a hammer and nail – and a few weed leaves for them to eat.
The best time to hunt for slugs is after dark.
In the gloom, slugs become quite brazen and eat on top of leaves as opposed to holing up in cool, dark and damp places as by day.
If stumbling around with a torch is a bridge too far, look for slugs during the day in the drainage holes of pots, beneath stones and hunkered in long grass.
If they evade your efforts, set traps.
A classic that works brilliantly for hard-to-find small ground-dwelling slugs is to place the scooped out half-shells of grapefruits near the crowns of vulnerable plants.
Come dawn, the slugs make for the damp yellow domes, as they love to chew the pith inside.
Slugs also make a beeline for cardboard.
Lay a sheet on the ground among long grass.
Check your traps daily and gather your slimy harvest into a jar.
Once you have caught around 10 to 20 slugs – the more you have the better it works – decant them into a bucket with an inch or so of water in the bottom for humidity and a few more handfuls of leaves to make an edible floating island for your catch.
With the slugs safely inside, place a concrete slab (or any firm cover) over the top to seal them in.
The bucket is the perfect environment for the nematodes and bacteria to breed.
Nematodes spread in water, so check regularly, giving the slugs a stir with a stick.
The idea isn’t to drown them but to keep them moist so the nematodes can hunt them out.
Top tip: This is cheating a bit, but you can use a bought pack of nematodes to “seed” the brew.
Tap about a teaspoon of powder into the bucket to help it along.
After a fortnight a high level of nematodes will have built up inside the bucket and the slugs will have died from infection.
Now, you can dilute the brew: fill the bucket to the top from the tap and decant into a watering can fitted with a rose.
Prevent the weed and slug mixture from falling into the can with a filter of chicken wire folded over the can so it stays put while you pour.
Water the sieved brew around vulnerable plants – the raised nematode population will seek out resident ground-dwelling slugs and see them off.
Like the shop-bought version, this slug killer gives up to six weeks of protection.
Save the contents of the chicken wire sieve (uurrgh!) to start off your next nematode brew.
'via Blog this'
The mail-order sachets of nematodes infected with deadly mollusc-killing bacteria temporarily raise the proportion of nematodes and brings down the slug population. I’ve been an advocate for years.
However, there is also an allotment-owner’s trick for making your own slug-killing nematode potion, using nothing more than
a bucket,
some weeds,
tap water and
the slugs from your own garden.
If you are already used to killing slugs by drowning them in a bucket, you’ll find this method right up your street.
How to make your own slug killer
In any average garden some slugs will be carrying bacterial diseases or be infected by nematodes, but their low density means that they won’t devastate the rest of the population.
But, catch and confine the slugs and, if the disease or nematodes are present, you can concentrate these micro-predators and harness their natural slug-killing power.
Collect as many slugs as you can find in a jar that has a few small air holes punched in the lid with a hammer and nail – and a few weed leaves for them to eat.
The best time to hunt for slugs is after dark.
In the gloom, slugs become quite brazen and eat on top of leaves as opposed to holing up in cool, dark and damp places as by day.
If stumbling around with a torch is a bridge too far, look for slugs during the day in the drainage holes of pots, beneath stones and hunkered in long grass.
If they evade your efforts, set traps.
A classic that works brilliantly for hard-to-find small ground-dwelling slugs is to place the scooped out half-shells of grapefruits near the crowns of vulnerable plants.
Come dawn, the slugs make for the damp yellow domes, as they love to chew the pith inside.
Slugs also make a beeline for cardboard.
Lay a sheet on the ground among long grass.
Check your traps daily and gather your slimy harvest into a jar.
Once you have caught around 10 to 20 slugs – the more you have the better it works – decant them into a bucket with an inch or so of water in the bottom for humidity and a few more handfuls of leaves to make an edible floating island for your catch.
With the slugs safely inside, place a concrete slab (or any firm cover) over the top to seal them in.
The bucket is the perfect environment for the nematodes and bacteria to breed.
Nematodes spread in water, so check regularly, giving the slugs a stir with a stick.
The idea isn’t to drown them but to keep them moist so the nematodes can hunt them out.
Top tip: This is cheating a bit, but you can use a bought pack of nematodes to “seed” the brew.
Tap about a teaspoon of powder into the bucket to help it along.
After a fortnight a high level of nematodes will have built up inside the bucket and the slugs will have died from infection.
Now, you can dilute the brew: fill the bucket to the top from the tap and decant into a watering can fitted with a rose.
Prevent the weed and slug mixture from falling into the can with a filter of chicken wire folded over the can so it stays put while you pour.
Water the sieved brew around vulnerable plants – the raised nematode population will seek out resident ground-dwelling slugs and see them off.
Like the shop-bought version, this slug killer gives up to six weeks of protection.
Save the contents of the chicken wire sieve (uurrgh!) to start off your next nematode brew.
'via Blog this'
How To Make Hot Compost.
Use for compost accelerants like seaweed, urine, woodchips, juice pulp or hay.
Start with a 30cm layer of twigs,
followed by a layer of grass clippings
and finally a layer of manure,
then you can continue adding carbon rich and nitrogen.
As a rule, add 2 parts kitchen scraps to 1 part garden waste.
You need much more carbon based scraps than nitrogen waste.
If you are struggling to find nitrogen and don’t want to add animal waste, urine is a great source of nitrogen.
You might have to balance out the moisture content with something like sawdust or shredded paper.
Keep the ratio of carbon and nitrogen around 25 parts carbon and 1 part nitrogen.
Too much nitrogen and your compost will stink.
Too little and it will be very slow.
The Berkeley method of hot composting was developed by the University of California, Berkley.
Here is the procedure:
Build compost cake, layering a third each of browns (straw, dried grass, dry bracken, wood chip, sawdust, cardboard), greens (fresh grass clippings, fresh weeds, green cuttings, green leaves, seaweed) and poo.
Cover and leave for 4 days.
Turn every other day until day 18.
Anything that was once living can be hot composted, there is not so much need to be precious about what goes in the pile.
The heat breaks everything down and there is no trace of the original ingredients when the composting process is complete.
As in your planting, biodiversity is better for the compost because diversity of ingredients means a wider range of nutrients in the soil.
From:
- http://www.thisweekinthegarden.co.uk/uncategorized/how-to-make-hot-compost-18-day-compost-in-the-uk/
- How to Make Fast Compost, how to make compost in 14 days:
Start with a 30cm layer of twigs,
followed by a layer of grass clippings
and finally a layer of manure,
then you can continue adding carbon rich and nitrogen.
As a rule, add 2 parts kitchen scraps to 1 part garden waste.
You need much more carbon based scraps than nitrogen waste.
If you are struggling to find nitrogen and don’t want to add animal waste, urine is a great source of nitrogen.
You might have to balance out the moisture content with something like sawdust or shredded paper.
Keep the ratio of carbon and nitrogen around 25 parts carbon and 1 part nitrogen.
Too much nitrogen and your compost will stink.
Too little and it will be very slow.
The Berkeley method of hot composting was developed by the University of California, Berkley.
Here is the procedure:
Build compost cake, layering a third each of browns (straw, dried grass, dry bracken, wood chip, sawdust, cardboard), greens (fresh grass clippings, fresh weeds, green cuttings, green leaves, seaweed) and poo.
Cover and leave for 4 days.
Turn every other day until day 18.
Anything that was once living can be hot composted, there is not so much need to be precious about what goes in the pile.
The heat breaks everything down and there is no trace of the original ingredients when the composting process is complete.
As in your planting, biodiversity is better for the compost because diversity of ingredients means a wider range of nutrients in the soil.
From:
- http://www.thisweekinthegarden.co.uk/uncategorized/how-to-make-hot-compost-18-day-compost-in-the-uk/
- How to Make Fast Compost, how to make compost in 14 days:
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