So, Tell Us, What Are Ye All At In The Veg Garden?

[terryd 8,044]

her plot is higher up the bank than mine and further up the hill. She went bit loopy and dug it over very quickly then just seemed to cast seed every where. Looked like she was just filling it up. But her plot was like 70% flowers and obviously worked well for protecting the veg some how. I doubt my dozen plants will make much diffence but i think I will try and plan to have more

[Tiercel 6,986]

her plot is higher up the bank than mine and further up the hill. She went bit loopy and dug it over very quickly then just seemed to cast seed every where. Looked like she was just filling it up. But her plot was like 70% flowers and obviously worked well for protecting the veg some how. I doubt my dozen plants will make much diffence but i think I will try and plan to have more

I just wonder if the scent of the flowers overrides the scent of the veg for pests?

 

TC

[terryd 8,044]

I had a readup on it last year and one of the sites says.

 

Plant Nasturtiums as a sacrificial crop. Cabbage white butterflies will lay their eggs on Nasturtium plants, keeping caterpillars away from your Brassicas

 

but then you would expect the flowers to take a pounding but another says this which sounds a likely option

 

Nasturtiums fit nicely into the companion plant category by attracting hoverflies, which will destroy aphids on your prize roses or in your vegetable garden.

 

and as you say maybe the scent. To be honest when I read about companion planting it sounded bit pie in the sky then I saw that and though hang on a minute thats working. That was at the peak of the season when every one else's stuff was getting shredded lol

[The one 8,397]

Went to a garden centre today to get some Apache potatoes and they had over 70 types of potatoes wish I had the space to get a kilo of each just to try them

[Tiercel 6,986]

Those Apache Potatoes are the dog's do-dahs. Brilliant taste roasted, boiled or steamed.

 

TC

[Treehands. 1,379]

French marigolds or a bed of tagettes ( not African ) one of the best companion plants imo.

The object is to bring in the predators, they do this well and pretty to boot.

I always plant my garlic around the carrots to keep away carrot fly.

[whatdog72 287]

Had a few afternoons on the new plot getting a few raised beds in, thinking of trying the no dig method

Anyone tried it and if it works what did you use

[forest of dean redneck 11,190]

Wish I could get down mine,had 2 days of rain,looks like day 3 of it today,it was nearly weed free as well,

Not tried no dig,but next year I'm considering the square foot method .

[terryd 8,044]

from what I understand of the no dig you require a lot of compost to put on top thats where it falls over for me anyway when I read about it. You can of course make your own but again you need a lot I would have thought.

A blight alert this morning thats early

 

A Smith Period alert is in place today for at least one of your chosen postcode area(s).

A 'Full' Smith Period occurs when the following criteria are met on 2 consecutive days:-

Minimum air temperatures are at least 10°C

Relative Humidity is 90% or above for at least 11 hours

a handy service http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/ not that you can do much about it anyway

Edited May 11, 2016 by terryd

[LaraCroft 863]

Killing slugs ! Wow, the high temps and rain have brought them out in droves/flocks/stampedes.

 

Got sunken jars with beer, glass pellets, gravel, matting, fencing, checking the PT at night to remove any that I see/letting a chicken into the PT during the day to eat them etc but they still climb in. I guess the mild winter didn't kill off so many, but they are pretty scary this spring.

[devon flighter 421]

Had a few afternoons on the new plot getting a few raised beds in, thinking of trying the no dig method

Anyone tried it and if it works what did you use

sort of tried it ! we built our beds on a site that we took 18" of concrete off in winter 13 / spring14 and scraped what soil we could off the paths onto the beds we did not fill the beds as per the books with a lasagne system but used the compost we made that year from the garden/kitchen along with some composted wood waste then the autumn 14 we filled all the beds with horse manure and increased the bed depth from 4" up to 8" with more boards and continued adding the compost as available until now ! we have not dug the beds at all just top up with compost as available which is standard mix with the waste from the chicken coups mixed in .

got to say the flower borders that are dug are way more weedy than the veg beds, took a couple of medium sized trugs ( got to be 7 gallon + each)of weeds off the equivalent of 3 veg beds size wise "i guess ive had a lot less than a 2 gallon bucket of weeds out off 8 beds since autumn last year !

WORKS FOR ME

[jok 3,036]

Eh up Devon and Lara and, and and, we meet the same subject again. Well, get yourself a tub of diesel and a brush. Go round your perimeter and I think the problem will be gone. The little shits can't or won't go over it. Now then. The pigeons. They are a problem. Airgun. Cats. Not allowed to say much on here. Neighbours dogs running amok. Kick there arses. The guy next door wondering if you have a beer to spare. Yep. Bacon Sannies on a Sunday morning before going to the pub.OK? All in all the allotment works like a dream. Keep on top of the weeds and a lot of the slug/snail problem goes away. Just as an aside. The snails eat well. Jok.

[devon flighter 421]

just met some where else as well jok ill let you figure

[jok 3,036]

Well it wasn't down the garden pal. Lol funny old world.

[terryd 8,044]

not been up the plot for a few nights due to the rain so popped up tonight and put support up for my peas. I had 3 lots of peas in 2 were soaked in paraffin and scaffold netting buried all around them and they popped up fine and the third just soaked in paraffin and not a pea to be seen. So basically netting well buried around them is the key to keep the mice out.

Also noticed much better germination on seed after giving the ground a good pummeling with the big rotavator compared to the last 2 years when I haven't had it.