MattF
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That's what happens when folks don't pay attention to their senses & conditions, & rather rely on just time of year & such.
- Thread starter Onoff
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That's what happens when folks don't pay attention to their senses & conditions, & rather rely on just time of year & such.
Pigeon_Droppings2
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Just dumb luck stopped me being wiped out too...I ended up working the bank holiday sun/mon so didn't get the planting done ....quite lucky!
I'm trying lidl compost this year..£3.99 for 40l. We have clay here so I'm using it more as a soil improver.
MattF
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Indeed. Fate has a funny way of working.
Las year it was awful, almost no root growth from my tomatos and luttuce set me back 6 weeks, the runoff water looked like tar. Melcourt multi purpose £6.50 40L this year for starting and potting on tomatos before they so in the ground, they are doing much better this year. Winter lettuce did great in my own compost.
Pigeon_Droppings2
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That's good to know...I won't buy any more of it and I'll report back how it goes!...I'm using it to break down the london clay. Mixing lidl and my regular compost at a 2:1 ratio.
Its a bit of an experiment....I also use the dry cow manure pellets which I find excellent for the green plants.
richie00boy
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Last years Lidl compost was awful along with most others even branded expensive ones, it was the first year of mandatory peat free and I think a lot of suppliers had insufficient prep/trials.
This years Lidl compost is good but compost is much more variable these days as a lot of it uses green waste which itself is very variable and often contaminated.
I buy mine online now after finding a good one but its 3x the price of the old stuff and still not quite as good.
This years Lidl compost is good but compost is much more variable these days as a lot of it uses green waste which itself is very variable and often contaminated.
I buy mine online now after finding a good one but its 3x the price of the old stuff and still not quite as good.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Full of sticks when I used it last year. I had to hand sift it to get the big hard bits out.
Pigeon_Droppings2
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Maybe they improved it...it was quite a nice soft consistency the stuff I got. I wonder if it's quite variable and the next bag I open might be awful!
Greeves246
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After a couple of bad experiences with peat free I awitched back to peat based. Harder to get but worth it. Peat from sustainable areas in Ireland .
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Every other year I have used compost, Lidl I think generally to start my bean seeds off. Reckon I've had a nigh on 100%, bean to viable plant success rate. This year I just used soil sieved from the veg patch. Cost, yes even from Lidl was a consideration as we're watching the pennies. (Saying that I'm veering from downright austerity to the odd rash stress buy where I'm not thinking straight at the moment but that's for another thread).
Popped a lump of 4 year old cow poo in the base of each card pot and did 32 beans. If the snails hadn't had a few I'd have had 25 out of 32 viable plants. I've kept them watered adding the odd dose of Tomorite to the watering can.
Every other year I've religiously brought the trays into the boiler room overnight. This year, for a good period at the start I just left them out. I'm trying to bring them in now.
A week after starting the ones above I did another tray as aforementioned. I've never been sure of how to plant a bean and read conflicting things. 16 on the left with the split side of the bean face down i.e the bean laying horizontal. The 12 on the left with the bean vertical and the "dot" on the split side at the bottom.
The face down ones, probably 8 of the 16 have started. The 12 dot down ones, nothing. All have the same sifted soil / lump of cow poo in the pot.
Too wet, too cold?
We're forecast some really hot weather at the end of this week so I'm hoping that bringing them in at night will give them a boost and bring more on.
Popped a lump of 4 year old cow poo in the base of each card pot and did 32 beans. If the snails hadn't had a few I'd have had 25 out of 32 viable plants. I've kept them watered adding the odd dose of Tomorite to the watering can.
Every other year I've religiously brought the trays into the boiler room overnight. This year, for a good period at the start I just left them out. I'm trying to bring them in now.
A week after starting the ones above I did another tray as aforementioned. I've never been sure of how to plant a bean and read conflicting things. 16 on the left with the split side of the bean face down i.e the bean laying horizontal. The 12 on the left with the bean vertical and the "dot" on the split side at the bottom.
The face down ones, probably 8 of the 16 have started. The 12 dot down ones, nothing. All have the same sifted soil / lump of cow poo in the pot.
Too wet, too cold?
We're forecast some really hot weather at the end of this week so I'm hoping that bringing them in at night will give them a boost and bring more on.
premmington
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Two baby chicks in our garden a day ago.
The mystery was: We only got two freerange small hens wondering round our lower garden.
I kept asking wifey "how did that happen"...?
She stood there with the youngest grandsons saying "do I have to explain to you how things are conceived"...?
Turns out - she told me later in the day - someone gave her two fertilized eggs and she put them under one of our broody Bantam hens.
The mystery was: We only got two freerange small hens wondering round our lower garden.
I kept asking wifey "how did that happen"...?
She stood there with the youngest grandsons saying "do I have to explain to you how things are conceived"...?
Turns out - she told me later in the day - someone gave her two fertilized eggs and she put them under one of our broody Bantam hens.
droopsnoot
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I spent a bit of time in the greenhouse this afternoon, trying to get to the back through all the stuff that's accumulated in there. Managed to do so, and do a reasonable job of removing these ferns which had grown up behind some old shelving.
The shelves were made of metal rods pushed into plastic fittings, and the plastic has gone brittle over the years so I replaced them with some small shelving that I rescued off the scrap pile years ago. I've actually uncovered a bit more floor, and been able to find enough room to move all the tomatoes and one or two chilli plants there. It actually looks like some of the tomato plants are about to flower, without growing tall and spindly as my earlier post showed. It seems as if the opaque roof panels on the lean-to are blocking more light than I thought, though next door's tree might have some of the blame.
There's more stuff growing up behind the shelves on the left side, but I ran out of time and enthusiasm to attack that one. There's been bubble wrap on the inside of the windows, I forget why it was put there, probably something from one of the many magazines or Gardener's World, but that has also gone very brittle and drops to pieces as soon as it's touched. Some of that has gone in the bin along with some more plastic pots that are in the same state.
The shelves were made of metal rods pushed into plastic fittings, and the plastic has gone brittle over the years so I replaced them with some small shelving that I rescued off the scrap pile years ago. I've actually uncovered a bit more floor, and been able to find enough room to move all the tomatoes and one or two chilli plants there. It actually looks like some of the tomato plants are about to flower, without growing tall and spindly as my earlier post showed. It seems as if the opaque roof panels on the lean-to are blocking more light than I thought, though next door's tree might have some of the blame.
There's more stuff growing up behind the shelves on the left side, but I ran out of time and enthusiasm to attack that one. There's been bubble wrap on the inside of the windows, I forget why it was put there, probably something from one of the many magazines or Gardener's World, but that has also gone very brittle and drops to pieces as soon as it's touched. Some of that has gone in the bin along with some more plastic pots that are in the same state.
Shiny Steve
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Pigeon_Droppings2
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I found cucumbers on the south wall works really well...they also shade the greenhouse and stop it overheating.
