Posted 03-25-2008, 7:53 PM by
Guy Barter
A perfect weekend – for the office, and with great good luck I was dispensing gardening advice to the multitudes at Wisley this weekend as the wintry showers swept across Surrey. Usually, days are balmy when I am working.
Posted 03-25-2008, 10:20 AM by
Geoff Hodge
What a washout – or snowout this Easter was. This is one of the most unpleasant ones I can remember. Snow, biting cold winds, frosts and sub-zero temperatures. They all combined together to make me feel more inclined to stay indoors and eat Easter eggs and hot cross buns.
On Saturday, I braved the snow, sleet and horrendous driving conditions on the M11 to shoot down to Chelmsford for my monthly slot on Gardening Plus on BBC Essex. I think most of the good people of Essex had decided to stay indoors too, as we were really busy with phone calls, texts and e-mails.
We had a wide range of questions, but strangely, most of the discussion was about wildlife – the unwanted sort that can make a mess of the garden – squirrels, foxes, moles and deer. We came up with our stock answers, but the favourite cure of the listeners was male urine! Yes, it has to be male, but apparently to those in the know it really works as a deterrent.
We also had a couple of guests in the studio.
Posted 03-17-2008, 11:35 PM by
Guy Barter
The rotovator got its first outing a week ago. Where big plastic sheets had kept the rain off, all went fairly well with the soil dryish and all the weeds killed by smothering. But where manure had been spread the rotovator struggled. The truth is I had been too previous and the soil was too wet for effective cultivation where soggy lumps of dung were present - I had expected it to be difficult, but it was in fact impossible. The manure was very lumpy and also had blocks of silage mixed it. The best that could be said is that the manure was very well chopped up and mixed into the top 10cm of the soil. The rotovator would not go deeper. This leaves me in a dilemma. Do I make the best of a poor job; or should I finish the job off with hand tools or come back in April when the manure has rotted more and risk losing valuable growing time and soil moisture? Go back in April I expect. At least the base dressing of poultry pellets were spread at a 200g every square metre (half this where manure has been applied or where carrots and peas are to be grown) and 20g of sulphate of potash per square metre. Almost complete lack of wind made spreading very easy.
Posted 03-17-2008, 11:19 AM by
Geoff Hodge
As it was an awful weekend weather-wise (not sports-wise – Wales beating the French at rugby and winning the Grand Slam), I spent most of the time indoors – but luckily I had plenty to entertain me there, too.
The seed potatoes were put out to chit – yes I know it should have been done earlier, but I had no room in the conservatory to put them and I wasn’t sure whether I was going to chit or not this year. Anyway, I convinced myself to do it and now there’s a tray of ‘Rocket’, ‘Charlotte’, ‘Desiree’ and ‘Pink Fir Apple’. The shoots had only just started to show, so no damage done there.
Indoors the sowing bug has well and truly started. To join the pots of
young chilli seedlings ‘Numex Twilight’, ‘Hot Portugal’ and ‘Georgia
Flame’, there’s now a pot each of ‘Cayenne’, ‘Tropical Heat’ and
‘Pretty in Pink’. I grew the latter last year and the small purple
fruit looked innocuous enough – but packed a punch when bitten in to. I
dried most of them and they’re sitting in the p
Posted 03-05-2008, 7:38 AM by
Guy Barter
Cultivation time approaches – but the soil was a tad too wet after rain on Friday to rotovate this weekend. No matter; plenty of time yet.