How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Dapph2]

Something's having a go at the radishes:

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That looks a lot like the dreaded flea beetle which attacks most brassica crops
Resolva bug spray is the solution , ensure you follow the withdrawal periods or you can damage your kidney's etc.

 

[Onoff]

That looks a lot like the dreaded flea beetle which attacks most brassica crops
Resolva bug spray is the solution , ensure you follow the withdrawal periods or you can damage your kidney's etc.

I don't think so! If rather lose the lot.

I'll apply a neem oil spray and hope for the best.

 

[Dapph2]

Just think of the spuds you would get !

Slightly soapy water protects the plants it's sprayed on from insect attack and stops their eggs from hatching .

 

[Onoff]

In the hot 1076 summer

I knew you were old but...

 

[Dapph2]

Pyto my man a pyto .

 

[Onoff]

Late last night I sprayed the radishes affected by suspected flea beetle, with some leftover neem oil/agricultural soap mix. Been in the sprayer for weeks.

Today they've picked up.

Made a fresh 2L and gave them a good dousing.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Two years ago we planted the garden, spot the banana then......

....and today.

 

[Ross365]

CACTUS COMPOST; a couple of years ago I made up some compost based on what info I could find on the web and some advice from the garden centre. I cannot recollect what the "formula" was, but even for cacti, I think it needed to retain a bit more moisture.

Can anyone recommend a good commercial cactus compost or offer a formula for one which is tried and trusted?
Thanks.

 

[Pete.]

I am not sure the OP,s neighbour does either. it would be an interesting test case..

Already been tested quite a few years ago I remember it in the news. Didn't fly with the magistrate and the fine stuck.

 

[Kram]

Already been tested quite a few years ago I remember it in the news. Didn't fly with the magistrate and the fine stuck.

Hmm? Its a ceptable for grey water to grain into a storage and then be pumped go a hosepipe. The water companies even recommend doing that..


I helped out the DrivewayGuy last week and it seems he had some spare turf. The customers daughter originally was going to take it but didnt, so it was offered to me to save, before it cooks itself!

10 rolls, 1.6m by 0.6m I think they are.
I didnt have time this morning so unrolled them on a tarp in the garage, watered and rolled them back up. I'm hoping they survive!
He said they are £6 m² so roughly 60 quids.

 

[Onoff]

Came back from the pub just now and wandered up the garden to dispose of the kitchen waste in the compost bin.

Two massive slugs on my radishes in the salad bar...th!

 

[Onoff]

I've a foot wide raised bed sort of thing alongside the beans. Can't remember why I did it like that. It's where the blue weeding tray is.

I'd dug a trench about 18", loads of manure in it too. All the soil that went back in was sifted.

Last year I grew runners in there but snails from the adjoining rough patch had a good go.

What could I put in there now? Beetroot, potatoes?

 

[DanZac]

Getting a bit late for most things, but Beetroot and Spring onions would probably have time to crop before the first frosts, along with any of the Lettuce type things. Or you could do Kale or Purple Sprouting Broccoli to over winter and crop in the spring.

 

[Dapph2]

On Off can you get hold of coal fire chimney soot ?
Ancient gardeners used to let it age a year or two then sprinkle it over the ground where there were slugs . It's not that toxic once weathered either , both my uncle gardeners used it for donkeys years . One died aged 88 of natural causes and the other died several months after getting knocked off his touring pushbike some 40 miles from home... aged 92 when he succumbed from his injuries
Their Christmas celery was something to write home about . Two big jugs of 18 inch long slug free stick on the table with home boiled ham for Boxing day afternoon scoff..

Mind their garden was a quality built with a mix of pig muck & straw bedding , chicken coop crap & cow byre manure with straw beddings in a five year heavy manuring cycle , One that they'd worked for 60 years or more almost three feet of easy digging anywhere in the garden of 40 x 40 yards .

 

[Onoff]

Poked a finger in the soil every six inches up the centre of the strip about an inch deep. Dropped a single beetroot seeds in each. Should I have put more than one seed in each hole?

Roughly draped some plastic coated wire netting to deter the moggies:

Then realised I'd dropped half a packet of beetroot seeds in the rough ground

 

[Dapph2]

Getting a bit late for most things, but Beetroot and Spring onions would probably have time to crop before the first frosts, along with any of the Lettuce type things. Or you could do Kale or Purple Sprouting Broccoli to over winter and crop in the spring.

Plant garlic , Take cuttings & bring them on in the bed.
I've just sent half a dozen Chou D Au Benton ( perennial kale ) rooted cuttings off to a lady we know . Slugs tend to leave them alone if there are sweeter crops in the offing , same with cabbage white butterflies If you would like some rooted cutting remind me at the end of August . Cut & come again mixed leaf salad will be OK.

Without looking it up IIRC Next years spring cabbages can be sown about now ,over wintering onions & broad beans will soon be able to be sown

 

[Dapph2]

Poked a finger in the soil every six inches up the centre of the strip about an inch deep. Dropped a single beetroot seeds in each. Should I have put more than one seed in each hole?

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Roughly draped some plastic coated wire netting to deter the moggies:

View attachment 506232

Then realised I'd dropped half a packet of beetroot seeds in the rough ground

Some beetroot seeds produce five or six beets per seed , alot of what we buy in th shops has ben specifically bred so there is only one seed to savce farmers from havig to pau=y toi have people single the beets out and gap them for spacings . You can presoak beetroot seeds for 24 hrs. , then sow one in each half inch deep indentation and cover it up .. It helps if you sow along a taught line on the ground and use a bit of wood to space the seeds every four or five inches apart ..once they break surface you'll easily see where you sowed them and where the weeds are.

Using your fingers to make the hang loose hand sign is a ready way of spacing the seeds if there is no right sized wood handy . Using just you fingers you can easily do a single row , two rows three rows and four rows in a one foot square grid

 

[Onoff]

Some beetroot seeds produce five or six beets per seed , alot of what we buy in th shops has ben specifically bred so there is only one seed to savce farmers from havig to pau=y toi have people single the beets out and gap them for spacings .

 

[Onoff]

What's the best way to use peanut shells in the garden? My old man would always chuck them in the compost. SWMBO refuses to as it makes the compost "sharp" according to her. Same with eggshells.

It's got to the point we now have his 'n her's compost bins.

I've read they can be used as a slug deterrent but worried the smell and odd lost peanut will attract vermin. I don't want to faff washing or roasting/toasting them etc. The same with eggshells. My gut is straight in the compost bin, leave plenty of space around the bin and let the vermin run the gauntlet with the cats.

 

[Onoff]

Here's an off the wall one. Slugs don't like salt right? Salt is sodium something or other.

I went round the rim of the salad "barth" with a natural stick deodorant. Will it work or will it attract them in droves Citronellol in it too which I believe is in insect repellent candles.