Hobbit Allotment!

[horticultural_hobbit]

It's really depressing, the cukes were so happy. Then came the cold weather. I don't think mine are going to be alive much longer, in all honesty. They do look like they are shuffling off their horticultural coil. If they do, might have get some from a GC.

[Two_Sheds]

Currently sat by a warm window.

Me too.
It's down to 6c this week, so my cukes are still in the gh. Will it EVER warm up?

[horticultural_hobbit]

Nope, they are inside. Was going to put outside to harden off-they are marketmore- but didn't as the weather changed. Currently sat by a warm window.

[Two_Sheds]

Are they outside HH?
I think it's still too cold at night to have cukes outside?

[horticultural_hobbit]

think my cukes are dying. All keeled over, not crispy but wrinkled leaves. Can't be lacking water. Soil is moist.

[Two_Sheds]

Not sure which grass it is. Might be couch, ...Have been digging out the clumps

Couch is easy to tell: it has thick white brittle roots which run to 12" lengths

Annual grasses, in comparison, have fairly feeble little roots (which are actually very strong and hold onto the soil for dear life if you try to pull them up).

Grass is easiest to pull out (as are all weeds) if you catch them just as they are flowering: there hold on the earth is less strong

[horticultural_hobbit]

Uncle Sno...I didn't say that jennifer was big and grown up.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

The triffids would be the nine courgette/squash thingies.

Not sure which grass it is. Might be couch, with its purple tentacles. Think it has me defeated at the moment. I'm going to dig it out in small sections. The large carpet of it on the onion shallot garlic bed will have to wait ti later. Have been digging out the clumps with a fork, and then bashing it to decrease the size of the clod before discarding the grass clump.

My next job, is to weed beneath the runner bean wig wam before putting all the runners in.

This made be smile yesterday. Such pretty colours.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

[snohare]

Is it couch grass, or annual grasses ? Because the latter are fun to weed - yes, once bigger they get a good hold and are hard to haul out, but smaller sized they're not hard to remove, (admittedly time-consuming) and shaking the soil off the roots can give you wonderful, fine crumbs ideal for potting or sowing seeds in modules. I reckon the roots of annual grasses actually improve the soil structure.

Triffids

Are you planning on world domination ? Talk about blind ambition... (Or could you be meaning peppers ?)

my kiwi got leaves!

Come on, don't be coy - show us a picture. You can't just keep me in suspense like that, I've never seen a real live kiwi plant !

[horticultural_hobbit]

Triffids and tomatoes planted out. Waiting for raised beds. Have so much grass in the borders where the tulips and anemones were sown. Has completely over run the onions, shallot and garlic. Tis the most depressing thing bar the weeds. Especially as the onion shallot garlic patch is my favourite for being the first thing I planted. At least those will only be in the ground til August; by then I can try and dig it up and out. Really need to sort the borders out, so I can sink summer bulbs and things.

It's a tough time in the school year, so going to the plot is going to get more challenging. And Ma is poorly, a double whammy.

On a plus side, my kiwi got leaves! Raspberrys not so much.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Please don't put plastic in the soil


Noted Aunty two_sheds

[Two_Sheds]

Cover base of raised bed with black bags with holes in, to prevent weeds but aid draining.

Please don't put plastic in the soil

Use layers of newspaper instead, which will actually improve your soil, not pollute it (save your own, ask on Freegle)

Winter pansies... would that help bumble-y bees and therefore polllination?

Viola are better than the big-flowered pansies. Mine self-seed around the allotment.

I have loads of flowers going on, and I let some veggies go to flower for the bees too (comfrey, chives, coriander & brassicas are good)

[snohare]

Anything fragrant is usually pollinated by a moth - bees use polarised light and UV patterns to decide what they are going to visit. But from what I remember, pansies are highly visible under UV, so worth a try.

[snohare]

Depends if it s'warm weather or not !

[Sanjo]

Water filled squash bottles?
Tentpegs? (�1 shop had some the other day. Not very long but should be big enough
Short canes?

[horticultural_hobbit]

Beetroot throwing out?

Afternoon, my lovelies,

Any advice about these?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

Currently sat in the 4TB. Would like to get them down the plot at some point.

Have just located all my carrot seeds, to try again. I felt awful, but was determined mind, this morning. Digging over the failed carrot, parsnip and what they called, turnip beds. had one carrot baby, and three parsnips! Sadly, for the greater good, they met their maker.

Turnip bed, will be remade as a raised one. Need to modularise those. Patch was half submerged with the rain. I put my welly straight in, one day, and did a funny left leg in, out, shake it all about thing to get it free.

I have noticed, that the only weedy areas-with the exception of the onion shallot garlic bed-are the borders between beds. Making me feel a bit more positive. I need to to do that properly, if I want to put in summer flowering bulbs.

The one major bed that needs digging over properly-rather than cack handed weeding where you do it delicately and like a wimp-is the bed where cukes, radishes and miscellany are going. Again, a raised bed is going there. So I can dig it over, and not worry too much about it.

There would appear to be logic to the madness, and a learning curve.

What else did I want to know ::Scratches head::

I've forgotten now. yes, I know now. Cover base of raised bed with black bags with holes in, to prevent weeds but aid draining. No, that wasn't it.

It'll come to me.

oh, wait. Winter pansies. Are fragrant, apparently. So if I were, to hypothetically, plant them in August, would that help bumble-y bees and therefore polllination?