Solitary chicken - need advice

[Egluntyne]

....with two types of cabbage, onions, spinach and broccoli.

 

I cheated and bought little plants.

 

Sprinkled Diatom around the bases to attempt the slugs from munching them.

[Redwing]

Ace!

 

Buying plug plants isn't cheating at all it saves a lot of time worrying about your seedlings!

 

I would be interested to know what you made your beds out of and what you filled them with if possible.

[Lesley]

I wish I'd put Diaton around my brassicas

 

We need photos Egluntine

[Couperwife]

I thought it was too early for onions.

 

we have onion sets (I think thats what they are called) can we plant them now??

 

Kev has spent the last 2 days making raised beds at the lottie, I would love to plant all the onions - when would they be ready?

 

sorry, this is like the spanish inquisition for onion planting

 

your raised beds sounds brill

 

cathy

x

[Egluntyne]

Ace!

 

Buying plug plants isn't cheating at all it saves a lot of time worrying about your seedlings!

 

I would be interested to know what you made your beds out of and what you filled them with if possible.

 

They are linkabord beds....I've had them over a year now, and they are excellent.

 

I fill them with compost. A mixture of home made and bought.

[jackiepoppies]

What are linkaboard beds and where do you get them

 

DS has new 'lottie and would appreciate any really helpful [economic] tips

 

Just a quickie.....our local tip has 1st class compost that we can help ourselves to at no cost, and as much as we want

 

Jackiex

[Egluntyne]

What are linkaboard beds and where do you get them

**Link-a-Bord**

 

I've got the compost bin too. Fab. Its huge.

[dancing cloud]

Wigglywigglers also sell linkabord and were cheaper than anyone else when I bought mine

 

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/

 

I have three of the 2x1m size and have been impressed at how easy they are to plant up and look after, even for a brown-thumb like me.

[Redwing]

The Link a Board kits sound good, I was going to use old scaffolding planks but these do look really neat and I also like the idea of the compost bin with the growhouse on top as it will get warmth from the heap below -clever!

[Tiggy]

I've got link-a-board too, the cheapest I found was at Harod Horticulture - on line - they only do black though

[Valkyrie]

Couperwife - you can start your onion sets off in the greenhouse in cells, but I would wait until February to plant outside in March. I tend to do this because mousies in the past have picked the sets and collected them in a corner of the raised bed so I had to replant them. They tend not to bother with ones that have already rooted - it is a bit more pallaver to dig them in though as opposed to popping the sets in direct. Although this year I wasn't going for spring sets because I planted lots of Japanese winter onion sets instead. Now I'm thinking of trying a few onions from seed as an experiment - they can be sown now in an unheated greenhouse. The winter onions are poking through, although the garlic is rather slow, but I have seen one huge shoot, so hoping the others will soon follow now the weather is hopefully getting a bit warmer.

 

We've added 3 more deep beds (12ft x 4ft) - OH DIY with timber from a local sawmill, but have to wait until the soil thaws so that we can bed them into place - or until it is dry, looking outside. Good bye bottom lawn - DD and DS will complain but they don't use it any more and the swings and slide have long gone, so we are making use of it instead.

[Tiggy]

I have a day of on Wed and have bought potting compost & paper pots (I'm sure I have a gismo somewhere to make these) and will be looking through all the seeds I have collected to see what I could be sowing now. we still have lettuce in the greenhouse and garlic & onions poking through in the raised beds, the kale is still there and some of the brasicas

[surferdog]

The Link a Bord is on sale at Wriggly Wigglers - I've just bought the 2 x 1m one for £18 (Omlet effect strikes again ) to be delivered with the bokashi bran.

 

OH was going to make me one but this is cheaper than the timber not to mention the time and stress saved from not having to nag until he does it. Will set it up myself so he just comes home to to find he is not indispensable HA!

 

Re paper pots I made mine last year using these origami type instructions. Just use old newspaper and the whole lot can be planted out.

 

http://gyocitygardener.co.uk/wordpress/?page_id=65

[eeyoreshunny]

The Link a Bord is on sale at Wriggly Wigglers - I've just bought the 2 x 1m one for £18 (Omlet effect strikes again )

 

 

one of those fell in my basket along with some of the metal planters that were only £2.50 wonder if LSH will notice

[Happy chickens!]

Ooh, not wandered into this part of the forum before (Uh oh, more time to waste! )

 

Does Diatom really work against slugs? Had a terrible year with them last year, but was hoping all this cold weather - and my movable slug eaters - might be enough. Tried allsorts before - copper (expensive), eggshells (rubbish) coffee (messy) etc, but prepared to give (almost) anything a try other than slug pellets.

 

Thanks

[Valkyrie]

Surfydoggy - try this link:

 

http://www.organiccatalogue.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=642

 

That's the only place I've seen it, but I am sure there are more companies that would be able to give a competetive price.

[surferdog]

Surfydoggy - try this link:

 

http://www.organiccatalogue.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=642

 

 

Thanks Kerry! (I really musn't buy anything else - I am rubbish at being frugal )

[Happy chickens!]

You don't need to - just collect your newspaper, save a loo roll and....

 

Fold your chosen paper until it's just a bit wider than your loo roll and long enough to wrap round it.

 

Roll it around the loo roll like you were gift wrapping a bottle, with the edge of your paper flush ( ) with one edge of the loo roll.

 

Tuck the longer ends back into the loo roll, and remove the roll. Repeat as needed.

 

It's not pretty, but it works. Ideally stuff 5 or 6 into a large plant pot or, even better, my local garden centres always have trays that they give away that were used to transport plant pots, you can squeeze quite a few of your new tubes into them and it makes them easy to move around.

 

Method works best for stuff that isn't going to sit in it too long -I tried it for overwintering sweet peas and found it disintegrated a bit.

 

Happy growing!

[Valkyrie]

That's a great idea HC - love the pun (not intended???).

I used to use loo rolls for years (well the card bit not the paper) to sow my beans in, until they started getting weird and wonderful fungi growing out from the sides. Now they go in pots. I rather like the rootrainers (12cm) because the peas and sweetpeas grew fantastically from them - after trying gutters and pots with not much success.

[Happy chickens!]

Know what you mean about the fungus - but it never seems to stop stuff growing; I like loo rolls on their own too (does that sound very strange? ) - but never have enough and don't feel quite the same about other people's when they offer! (pun noticed when I read what i'd written, thought I'd leave it!)

 

Rootrainers seem expensive compared to paper pots too and I use gutters loads - ideal for carrots, onions, salad of every kind - start stuff off at home, where it gets watered regularly(ish) then move to allotment when it looks like can survive on its own. Think the trick is not to let stuff get too big before you move it. (Guilty of this def)

 

Sorry Egluntine, just realised going off thread a bit - hope to get planting stuff soon too.

[surferdog]

You don't need to - just collect your newspaper, save a loo roll and....

 

Fold your chosen paper until it's just a bit wider than your loo roll and long enough to wrap round it.

 

Roll it around the loo roll like you were gift wrapping a bottle, with the edge of your paper flush ( ) with one edge of the loo roll.

 

Tuck the longer ends back into the loo roll, and remove the roll. Repeat as needed.

 

It's not pretty, but it works. Ideally stuff 5 or 6 into a large plant pot or, even better, my local garden centres always have trays that they give away that were used to transport plant pots, you can squeeze quite a few of your new tubes into them and it makes them easy to move around.

 

Method works best for stuff that isn't going to sit in it too long -I tried it for overwintering sweet peas and found it disintegrated a bit.

 

Happy growing!

 

Thanks for this HC, sounds much faster than my origami version (although a few hours folding while watching TV is very therapeutic - I really need to get out more).

[Valkyrie]

I decided against using the fungus rolls because I couldn't be sure what sort I was adding to the soil. I do get the most wonderful puff balls though - inedible and called mud balls or something like that.