Allotment News

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  • Makes sense.  Now I know what to do with my old cotton pants! image

    I love this thread - I think I must bore so many people I know silly with talking about both running and gardening, so it's good to find a thread for running gardeners/gardening runners! image

  • you can also use hair clippings in wormeries and compost heaps
  • Wow!  I will never waste anything again!

    We're already at the stage of only putting our rubbish bin out once every three weeks or so (we'd put it out less often than that, but what with the smell an' all...)

    Can you use nail clippings as well?

    Bit gross I know, but they're made from much the same stuff as hair...

  • Last night one of the 'older-gentleman' at the allotments asked if I had aany old tight he could have!!!!!!!!! My imagination went into overdrive but apparently he cuts them into strip and uses them to tie things up. 
  • yes - nail clippings are fine

    the only things that wormeries don't like are meat/fatty foods/lots of fruit (makes it too acidic)/onion peelings.........green material provided it isn't too woody or fibrous as they're really designed kitchen waste obviously rather than general garden clippings, plus cardboard and paper provided it's shredded well to start with.....

    compost heaps are more accomodating although don't put stuff on there that are likely to attract rats (meat etc)

    tights are also used for supporting things like marrows/cucumbers/gourds etc rather than having them drag on the ground as you can stick them into the tight leg!
  • Mrs G wrote (see)
    Last night one of the 'older-gentleman' at the allotments asked if I had aany old tight he could have!!!!!!!!! My imagination went into overdrive but apparently he cuts them into strip and uses them to tie things up. 


    The Joy Larkcom Grow Your Own Vegetables book recommends storing onions in old tights/stockings!

    fat buddha wrote (see)

    yes - nail clippings are fine

    the only things that wormeries don't like are meat/fatty foods/lots of fruit (makes it too acidic)/onion peelings.........green material provided it isn't too woody or fibrous as they're really designed kitchen waste obviously rather than general garden clippings, plus cardboard and paper provided it's shredded well to start with.....

    compost heaps are more accomodating although don't put stuff on there that are likely to attract rats (meat etc)

     tights are also used for supporting things like marrows/cucumbers/gourds etc rather than having them drag on the ground as you can stick them into the tight leg!

    So much wisdom from this thread!  My grandad would have approved.

    Always wish I could do something with waste from meat etc - I'm obsessed with not filling up our rubbish bin!  But maybe I could just donate meat scraps to next door's cat (although he's already overweight...)

    Ooops - I'm supposed to be working right now.  Bye for now!

  • Best thread on here.

    God I must be getting old,sad or both image

  • following it avidly, I am just gleaming information and have nothing to add,

    keep it coming

    what should I be planting now? 

  • I am sure you have plenty of valid input PM.

    I looking for a bit of tomato advice this morning.

    I have 10 very healthy vine in my poly tunnel that are groaning with fruits,struggling slightly to ripen but getting there slowly.

    I also have about 40 plants out side that are again covered in very green toms & with all the wet weather I am concerned that I might lose the crop,some have already started rotting on the vines.

    Do I call it quits & pull the plants,hang them & let whats on the vine ripen in my shed & do I hold off & hope they survive & we actually get a summer at some point soon???

    Spoke with the land lady of my local last night & the beer from the slops trays is now coming my way for my slug traps,beats buying the cheapest brew @ Morrison's just for this purpose.

    May be worth enquiring at your local if this is a slug trap method your already using or are considering.

  • Re: tomatoes

    Joy Larkcom recommends removing supports from outdoor tomatoes towards the end of summer, carefully bending the stems down and covering the plants with cloches to help the fruits to ripen whilst the plants are still in the ground.  Should also work during summer if it's as crap as this one!

    I'm in exactly the same boat with my toms so will have to do the same soon.  No rotting as yet, but lots of lovely, good-sized green fruit...

    Nice tip for slug traps!  Quite a few pubs round my area...

  • Fantastic, a thread full of gardening runners!

    I've never managed brassicas yet as something always eats them before I do.  This year I thought I'd give it one more go, so I put in a row of sprouts and one of spring cabbages, which were fine until they sprouts got too big for the netting.  Now they're sitting in the open and surprise surprise I've found a load of caterpillar eggs underneath the leaves.  According to somene on the Grow Your Own forum, this is the next best thing to picking them off and hurling them over the fence:

    Garlic & chilli spray - basically chop up 2 garlic bulbs and chillies, boil in 2 litres of water for about 20 minutes, add some chilli powder if you haven't any chillies, strain the liquid, then use about 1 tablespoonful to the watering can and water the plants as usual. I put the diluted solution into a spray bottle so I can squirt on the underside of the leaves. You need to give the leaves a good soaking on a dry day so the liquid dries on the leaves

  • Good one, Hashette!  Think I need to try that on my sprouts...

    Spent a good while squishing some nasty little yellow eggs before covering the plants with fleece, but it won't be too long before they're too big for the fleece 'tents' I've created for them.

    This has to be my favourite thread right now! image

    Who'd have thunk it? Five years ago I could never have seen myself either running or gardening!  Much happier these days though as a result of both!

  • re outdoor toms

    are you feeding them? if not you should be doing as that will help keep them in good nick and ripen.

    have you been pinching out side shoots?? you don't NEED to do this but you do tend to get a better crop if you do

    cut off the lower leaves below the trusses to aid air circulation around the plant as this will reduce any likely fungal infection. for the time being leave the fruit on and wait - my outdoor toms are only just ripening now and I live on the Sussex coast. pull any rotten fruit off and discard and cut out any browning shoots/leaves.

    if however you suspect blight which can happen in wet weather then you have no option but to pull and discard - nothing will stop it. do NOT put blighted plants on the compost heap but either burn them or put into landfill as the fungus is easily transmitted and the spores pretty resilient. I lost a whole garden full of toms/chillis etc a few years ago with blight - nothing I could do.
  • Good advice, FB - completely forgot to mention most of this image, but I have been doing a lot of it!image

    I've been feeding my toms regularly, pinching out side shoots, removing lower leaves and any brown bits.   My plants are still healthy right now, like I said, no rotting as yet..

    I'm up in Sheffield, which tends to be a bit behind the South in terms of seasons so I guess that's why things are slow...

    Re: not putting blight-infected tom plants in compost - the same goes for potato plants.

  • the same goes for potato plants.

    and any blighted plant!!

    blight tends to be confined to plants of the Solanum genus - the problem is that includes

    toms
    peppers
    chillies
    aubergines
    potatoes
    plus a number of others that you don't see in the UK
  • Can you put blighted plants in the green bin?
  • Thanks all.

    Pinched most side shoots out,as they are in pots I have even been moving the pots around to make sure they catch the maximum of the little morning & evening sun that we have had.

    I have been feeding them with an organic pellet.

    I think I will leave them at least another week & just keep removing the rotting fruits.

    Sorry more advice please.

    This is my 1st year as a gardener & to say it's been a learning curve would been an understatement.

    My 1st bath of sprout plugs that I planted out a couple of months ago all got eaten.

    I have since grown more seedlings of sprouts,turnips & swedes in my ploy tunnel which are going very nicely,have I missed the boat for planting them out?

  • you're probably a bit late but give them a go - they are autumn/winter crops anyway so they may produce a decent amount if planted out now. the sprouts should also overwinter well depending on what sort of winter we get - just make sure you keep the fecking pigeons off them or they will be stripped bare! and broccoli tops make a great meal - treat them like spring greens...
  • Thanks FB.

    Got a mountain of Swiss Chard as well,take a chance & plant it out ?

  • yep - chard also winters well. if you've got any spare when you harvest it - please send it down my way. it's a cracking underrated veg
  • No problems mate.

    Can post you some plugs,if you would like any?

  • nah - s'alright - haven't got enough space in my garden for veg! I only grow toms/chillies/cucumbers/courgettes these days - all in pots outdoors.

    I've had big gardens in the past but when we moved last we decided to go with a smaller plot that needed less maintenance so we could get out a lot more - we wouldn't have been able to mix Ironman and all the training needed for that with managing a big garden, specially with 2 of us training. the last thing you feel like doing after a 5hr ride is a few hours breaking the back in the garden!

    BUT saying that we are looking to move sometime and as we are reining back on long distance tri will look for a bigger garden as we do miss growing lots of our own veg......
  • Woohoo!  Ate our first carrots yesterday! image

    I'd sown an early variety suitable for 'finger carrots' - whilst most of our soil is absolutely wonderful, there are a fair few stones about so thought it best to keep 'em small to avoid forking/weird shapes.

    Germination from the first sowing was a bit erratic, although successive sowings mean there are plenty more to come. image

    Just pulled several out of the ground, gave them a cursory scrub and ate 'em all raw (seemed a shame to spoil the crunchiness).  Absolutely delicious - small but perfectly proper-carrot-shaped, and so, so sweet! image

  • I have really have had a tomato disaster of the highest order.

    Most of my plants are beyond redemption due the bruising they have suffered from the rain.

    Lost most of my crop & what has survived has been turned into a chutney,for fear of losing them if they were left on the plant.

    Really annoyed image

    Then to cap it some blighters have only gone & eaten most of chard & sprouts.

  • Oh no, BRT - that's awful! image

    I've got two out of three Brussels sprouts plants still intact, but some little buggers have gone and nibbled the middle plant to smithereens too.

    I've had very much a can't be arsed attitute over getting rid of it because of the rain and working really long hours this week - hopefully this weekend I'll face up to the damage and remove the offending plant before the others are affected...

    My tomatoes are still (just about) okay - only one fruit is showing any signs of ripening though, and that one's on the most pathetic-looking of all my tomato plants!

    At least you made use of yours as well as you could - I may yet be doing the same...

  • Definitely not a good tom year LP.

    I have acouple of tons of manure coming next week which will need barrowing about 100 yards before digging inimage

  • shite news on the veg front there BRT - luckily my toms are still OK and ripening well now......2 courgette plants are showing signs of mildew now but frankly not too bothered as I'm getting a bit fed up of them!! and I still have 2 others that look good.....

    and it wasn't me that snaffled the chard... image
  • Maybe you didn't snaffle it, maybe you zuffled it.
  • stupid boy - you need curtains to zuffle
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