Potting up Asparagus, by Daitheplant

While I was hiding in the greenhouse yesterday I decided to pot up some Asparagus.



First, build a "tower" of compost in a 2ltr pot.


Then place the asparagus crown, making sure the roots straddle the compost.


Finally top up with more compost.



Job done.

Plan Plan & then plan again by Moonraker

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Evening all,
First i'd like to say thanks for all the people who took the trouble to read what ive had to say ref the new to gardening people.

Again this next bit is aimed at trying to help those "new to the allotment or indeed the garden.

To be able to plan or look ahead is always a good thing in gardening terms and as a hobby its a must to have a starting point and to be able to see the verious stages run as smoothly as you can and to plan ahead is very worth while all the way to the end harvest.

We are now in the middle of the wet season and you as a new to gardening i dare say have not given a thought to the dry spells of the summer to come,
I found that all my years on my council owned allotment that the hose pipe ban (water shortage) seemed to come as some big surprise to some members, and a lot of shouting was heard but not much doing in advance could be seen.

As ive said in the first thread ref plants needs, "water" was one and the amount of free rain water we get is to be given some thought,

Water collection via the shed roofing gutters/greenhouse gutter system is well worth thinking and doing something about,
The shed just like the compost heap & the perennial beds are sited for a long time and so its a good plan to have a water collection system in these long term areas,
I myself after a few years of dry summers (1972 was the final and last time i was going to be caught out) I not only dug out an under ground water storage tank but i made sure every corner of my shed had 45 gal containers in-place and a follow through tube so that when one container filled this tube took the overflow water to the next container.
These days you can buy 1000ltr x-fruit containers that are really good and safe for water storage.

A 45 gal container is worth getting hold of just to make your own liquid feeds in, Why buy feed when you can make your own?? at a fraction of the cost of bought feed????

I myself believe in the comrey plants leaves placed in a sack along with a brick or stone to weight it down tied and sunk in 45 gals of water, use a lid or cover as for the first 3/4 weeks it stinks to high heaven, but its liquid gold to us gardeners, used as a 10 parts water to 1 part of the comfrey and water the plants once a week,

nettles can be used in the same way as above and these are again natures way of feeding, But you'll need the containers to store this water so why not save the rain water and plan ahead??
Plus i feel rain water is a much & safer bet than a lot of tap waters,
If you have any fly problems just add a few drops of olive oil to your water container and all will be fine (flies dont like olive oil) but if you keep a cover on the container you wont have this problem & birds wont try to drink the water and end up drowning in the container.

This sort of using the plan ahead idea's now is really worth thinking about during the winter because come spring you'll meet yourself coming back (you'll have so much to do)

Now is also the time to get in the shed and make wooden framed arch shape covers to protect your crops from the birds ect (I use chicken wire as the protection and wood as the frame)
They last for years, and dont move in the wind, and rain or watering can can still water the plants without moving the arch.
You could knock up 6 of these in a weekend.
Plan plan & plan again "it really pays in the long run.

Starting up on the Allotment by Moonraker

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Evening all,
Well you've got your new allotment, you've had a dream come true and now your wondering what the hell have i done????

All those other allotment holders are looking at my plot and waiting for me to appear and start "But how do i start" what do i do??

Well this thread and indeed the next few threads from me are to both help you and let you know we we're all starters once.

You've heard im sure of the term "Greenfingered gardeners"?

Oh he or she can grow anything "they've got green fingers".

"Rubbish".
if you see anyone with fingers that are green then they need to wash or see a doctor,

Real gardening is'nt about the colour of your skin its not that hard to garden and get really good results,

But you only get as much as you put in, in other words being a human and knowing what you need to be happy and grow strong is'nt that much different from growing plants/trees/shrubs etc.

Look at it this way,
some people like the sun and feel really good spending their holiday in the likes of spain,

Some other people hate the sun and are very unhappy and they may like to go to colder places for their holidays.

Whats this got to do with gardening? Some plants dont do well in full sun others like full sun,
Now if you find out what your plants needs are! your half way to growing them in a state that they will mature,

The same is true of the soil your planting or sowing into, ie some plants are lime lovers, other plants will die if they come into contact with lime,

some plants like acid soils and so the plan goes, "find out your plants likes and dislikes simple is'nt it"?

Now one more must know!

" what state is the soil in that you wish to grow in?"

In gardening terms this question is asked by saying "what is the P.H reading of your soil.

Again this is so easy for anyone to check, all you do is go to your local garden centre and buy a soil testing kit "it cost very little" a few pounds and what you'll get for your money is a chart with a colour section showing what the reading for each colour means, you'll get a tube to but your soil sample in and a chemicle solution to add to the soil, give these a shake and wait for the colour to appear, once this has happend all you then do is see whats the nearest colour on the chart to the colour you have in the tube and this will show you the nearest number opposit the colour ie 6.5
to 7 is about the average but if you have a higher or lower reading dont worry because you can do something about the changes needed for what ever your wanting to grow, adding manure or the likes of grow more will lift the reading number higher.

Now i hope you as the new gardener will understand that once the area of soil is cleared of weeds ect Before you plant anything its good to know your soil reading and if your plant will grow in it.

Coming back to us humans, it's just like you wanting to get fit,
you need to know the state of your heart reading etc before you start serious training (Then why would you not want to know what state your soil is in before you try growing in it??)

Well before you start wasting both your time and your money on all kinds of seeds and plants!
You need to know that they are being planted or sown in the correct conditions, (some people call this being green fingered but you and i know otherwise)

Remember its the starting off right that delivers the best crops,


Anyone can grow weak small crops "but do they know why ?

Tomorrow's LOOK FORWARD, soil and compost & how it all works.

Regards and happy gardening.

Few thoughts ref allotments by Moonraker

Few thoughts ref allotments

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Evening all,
Well i was just thinking about a few pointers ref the first time allotment people,

Before coming to live in france full time i had my allotment for many years and i can say with honesty it was hard to say goodbye to it,

An allotment is'nt just a place for growing food/flowers ect it's a meeting place for all sorts of people from the ones who want to be friendly to those who like their own company and those who live in flats and simply want a place to get away from the concrete jungle.

After a few years doing my allotment i found a few points that seem to come up time & time again,
ie the new to gardening "very very keen" and wanted to see results "yesterday"

This sort of person didnt last more than one year, and if they took over an over run with weeds plot? it didnt last even a year.

One point i found was that no thought was given to how much time was available to spend on the allotment?

If the person was in full time employment and they had summer evenings and weekends to attend the allotment "not allowing for bad weather etc"
would this be enough time to see what they wanted to see ref the growing of veg ect?

Planning is a very important fact when it comes to dealing with a live plot of land because while your not there unless you know what your doing this plot is growing and until the new comer understands how to control his land and whats growing on it It can be the start of the end for both the keen new comer and the dream of growing your own.

One of the points im talking about when i say know what your doing is a common problem of not understanding what plants need to live,

Light/water/air are three of the things im talking about,
when we talk about plants on the allotment or garden for that matter you have to understand that the biggest problem' with allotments or gardens is that plants such as weeds need tobe controled, after all weeds are plants its just that they're not wanted plants "But " weeds need the same three things light/water/air as the plants we want to grow need.

Weeds grow at an alarming rate due to the fact that they are living in their own happy space and they can stand the weather changes with no problems So if we really want to controle such plants as weeds we need to take away or reduce the three things they cant live without, light/water/air.
This is a very simple task and its not rocket science It's a simple black sheeting large enough to cover the area you dont want the weeds to grow in.

Once you controle both your time you have to spend on the allotment and the speed the weeds grow then your on your way to getting further each visit you make to your allotment rather than due to the likes of a delay caused via bad weather ect you find the work you did during your last visit a waste of time thanks to new weeds growing again in the space you'd cleared once.

raised beds are a god send to the gardener who needs results quickly as they are a smaller area to control and they produce food from day one of planting thanks to them being easy to keep weed free.

Mulching is another way of keeping the weeds down, all you need do is look at natures way of mulching ie a forest or woods, you wont find a lot of weed there due to the trees dropping leaves every year these stop the weeds getting light "hence" except the leaves the birds deliver via them being dropped as seeds,
the area's are for the size of the woods ect mostly free of weeds.

Starting to garden for the first time is'nt going to be easy, you really need to unstand a little more befor you start planting or sowing anything and i say this to help rather than put anyone off gardening,
Once you get going and get the results that are good! then you'll soon want more, but once you feel its all hard work with no or little results?
Well this is when the plot becomes over grown again just waiting for the next new comer.

Principles of seed sowing by PeterS

Principles of seed sowing

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I have just sent some seeds to a GM member, who says she has not had that much experience. So rather than trying to send instructions to her, I thought I would open it up as a thread. What follows is purely my method. There is no single right way, many people will use slightly different methods with just as much success.

A few principles are worth keeping in mind:-

All seeds need both moisture and air to germinate. So if your compost excludes air by being too solid or too wet you will have a problem. By covering the seed you will maintain it in a moist environment, and all seeds contain enough energy for the emerging seedling to push its way up through the compost. Big seeds contain more energy and so can be buried deeper than small seeds. The general rule is to cover the seed by about its own thickness of compost. That very difficult to judge so I sprinkle compost on top a bit unevenly, leaving some seeds well covered and some hardly covered - the chances are that some seeds will be happy. Most seeds don't need light to germinate, but some like Salvias do - so they need to be left uncovered.

You have to think how a seed germinates in the wild in its native environment, and copy that. Many seeds germinate in spring because that gives the plant a long season to get established before winter. How do they know its spring? Well they usually feel its spring when they warm up. So many seeds like heat to kick start them into growth. Once they have started growing they can't get back into the seed shell - so they are generally happy to carry on growing at a lower temperature. But some seeds like to germinate at cooler temperatures than others so you must check the temperature requirements.

Don't use garden soil - it will have lots of unwelcome seeds in it as well as being too heavy to make good seed compost. I use a mixture of 2/3 multi purpose compost with 1/3 sharp sand. Perlite is probably even better than sharp sand as its light and holds water, but you don't see it for sale that often. The purpose of the sand is to help drainage and leave pockets of air. Compost by itself can get very soggy. I usually sieve the mixture (when I remember) to remove the lumps

If you want lots of plants - use seed trays. But if you only want a few plants use a small square pot. The advantage is that pots are deeper and hold more compost and hence moisture, and you can fit 15 quite large square pots into a big propagator, rather than just two full size seed trays. Square pots obviously fit better than round pots. Half size seed trays, can be divided into two with a plastic label if you want more plants.

I go by Christopher Lloyd's (Great Dixter) rule of thumb. Don't start sowing flower seeds till 1st March. And for tender annuals such as Cleome, Tithonia and Cosmos its often better to wait till 1st May. The reason is simple. You can easily germinate seeds well before with a heated propagator inside the house, but what do you do with them when they get bigger. There won't ge enough light or space indoors for them, and it will still be too cold to put them outside. If things like Cleome and Cosmos get too cold outside, even if its some way above freezing, they can go into a sulk and never fully recover. Obviously if you have a greenhouse or other suitable facilities you can bend these rules. Although May sounds late, the temperatures and light levels are so much higher then that tender plants tend to catch up quite quickly.

When it comes to sowing, fill your pots or seed trays with the compost mix and water well. Its quite a good idea to use boiling water, as this tends to sterilise the compost, but you must let them cool down and drain before the sowing. Sow the seeds on the top of the moist compost, then sprinkle a little more compost on top of that. The compost on top will probably be dry so you need to wet it. Don't pour water on, you could wash the seeds down too deep into compost. I spray water on top.

In fact I don't spray water, I make up a dilute copper solution, which is an anti fungal agent, and use that. I still use Cheshunt powder diluted as instructed on the tin - actually I use it more dilute. Cheshunt powder is now illegal and withdrawn from use. The reason, I have gathered from several sources, is not because there is anything wrong with it, but that the EU has forbidden it because new rules came in recently stating that all garden chemicals will be made illegal unless they pass through a rigorous (and expensive) testing procedure. Because Cheshunt compound is generic (ie is owned publicly for all to use) no one is prepared to spend the money getting it passed for 101 other companies to be then free to make it. It has been replaced by another copper based compound made by Bayer called "Fruit and Vegetable Disease Control". This is patented and owned by them, but reports say that it is not as effective as Cheshunt.

I then put the pots that have been sowed into a heated propagator and cover it with a lid. You don't need a propagator - you can always improvise with any transparent container that is covered. And you don't need it to be heated if you have it in a warm room. Because the propagator is covered it will lose very little moisture, so there is no need to give it any more water for several weeks. I just spray it occasionally with my dilute copper solution. This replaces the very small losses of moisture and more importantly acts as an anti fungal treatment.

Once the seeds start to germinate you can slowly start to let air in by slowly removing the cover. To prevent seeds 'damping off', ie dying from fungal infections, I continue to spray regularly with the copper solution. By using a very dilute solution, I don't worry about over spraying. So my spray doubles up as a watering system as well. Once the seedlings start growing well you can remove them from the heat. However most seedlings will continue to enjoy the heat as long as they get plenty of light. Too much heat and too little light will make plants grow spindly and weak.

You can pot seedlings on at any time that they are big enough to be handled. But most people wait till they have two sets of leaves - the cotyledons and the first true leaves.

Most seeds are straightforward, but be aware that some need special treatments, such as pre soaking, or a prior cold treatment. Your seed packet should give you full instructions - otherwise there is always the internet.