How does your garden grow?

[Onoff]

About half, so circa 25/50 of the runner beans have sprouted today including the 3 beans saved from last year.

I need "soil" for my salad enclosure made from an old bath. I have a load of top soil from the patio excavation. I can sieve this but is there some way of "sterilising" it?

[saveasteading]

I have taken to using a mix of garden soil, last years compost and some added fertiliser for all my pots. Yes weed seedlings grow from it.

So on top of it I dress with  westland or dobbies compost, as nothing seems to grow well in that.

[saveasteading]

12 hours ago, saveasteading said:

Yes weed seedlings grow from it.

Most of these are tomatoes or French marigolds which have seeded themselves. Easy to recognise and remove fortunately. Self sown tomatoes can be good or disappointing, so I only keep a few for fun.

Problem weeds esp grass seem to fail if covered deeply enough. 5cm?

[Onoff]

Could I...

 

Fill the bath with soil then cover it in say bin liners. Then punch holes thru and pop in little lettuce, carrot, whatever seeds, (plants?).

 

 

[The Reverend]

just hoe around the plants you want to keep.

[Onoff]

Looking like I'll get all 50 beans sprouting here!

[SteamyTea]

@Onoff

How well did your nettle tea fertilizer work?

[Onoff]

29 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

@Onoff

How well did your nettle tea fertilizer work?

 

Tbh, once it stopped stinking out the garden I forgot about it and never used it. The water in the bucket dried out last year. I'll approach with caution over the weekend. Might even set another bucket going.

[Onoff]

Got half the bean holes dug with my knocked up tool that I chucked together from scrap. Hit a red ant nest who weren't too happy. Got a few stings for my efforts!

 

 

The beans are more than ready to go in:

 

 

Bear in mind here that I'm not a gardener!

The cored hole is nom 3" dia and say 5 1/2" deep. Where they're dug, inside the rectangle of the galv frame, that's the relatively soft soil that I painstakingly sieved and layered with compost, ash, etc. Outside the galv frame is virgin flint country 

The little pots the beans are in now are nom 2 1/2" dia by 2 1/2" deep. I'm assuming to take the plants out of the pots and drop them in the holes. Maybe firmly pack round them with some bagged compost? Or should I leave in the pots and just drop in the hole, then again maybe just remove the bottom circle of card? Or run scissors up the side?

 

 

 

A success rate of around 47/50. That was 47 new seeds and 3 saved. Not sure on whether it was new or old seeds that failed. When I say failed, all the seeds came up but I've 3 stragglers. A couple were pot bound and grew the wrong way up and the 3rd I think was maybe got at by a pigeon. 

 

Cheers

Edited June 8, 2023 by Onoff

[Marvin]

Hi @Onoff

 

Disturb the roots as little as possible but take the pot off is what I would do.

[S2D2]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

Got half the bean holes dug with my knocked up tool that I chucked together from scrap. Hit a red ant nest who weren't too happy. Got a few stings for my efforts!

 

 

The beans are more than ready to go in:

 

 

Bear in mind here that I'm not a gardener!

The cored hole is nom 3" dia and say 5 1/2" deep. Where they're dug, inside the rectangle of the galv frame, that's the relatively soft soil that I painstakingly sieved and layered with compost, ash, etc. Outside the galv frame is virgin flint country 

The little pots the beans are in now are nom 2 1/2" dia by 2 1/2" deep. I'm assuming to take the plants out of the pots and drop them in the holes. Maybe firmly pack round them with some bagged compost? Or should I leave in the pots and just drop in the hole, then again maybe just remove the bottom circle of card? Or run scissors up the side?

 

 

 

A success rate of around 47/50. That was 47 new seeds and 3 saved. Not sure on whether it was new or old seeds that failed. When I say failed, all the seeds came up but I've 3 stragglers. A couple were pot bound and grew the wrong way up and the 3rd I think was maybe got at by a pigeon. 

 

Cheers

Given these are designed for hot drinks I'd be surprised if they compost quickly, I'd definitely remove them before planting.

[saveasteading]

Bes,tif there is a root ball, to take them out.

[Onoff]

2 hours ago, S2D2 said:

Given these are designed for hot drinks I'd be surprised if they compost quickly, I'd definitely remove them before planting.

 

Yes, these expresso pots certainly haven't gone as "soggy" as the recycled cardboard ones from Lidl did last year.

 

I wonder what "commercial" composting entails?

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, Onoff said:

what "commercial" composting entails?

Massive piles of garden and food waste generate huge temperatures that break up bones even.

But plastic linings are bad .

[Onoff]

I've scored a possible daily supply of coffee grounds from some posh offices. From what I've read they can act as a slug deterrent. 

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

Deterrent

Yes they say that. I do it but won't swear it helped. Ash is better.

But it is good compost so do it.

The office will be quoting this as a big effort in saving the planet. I hope they take the coffee out for you.

Where do the capsules then go?

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

From what I've read they can act as a slug deterrent

You can also make high grade compost from coffee beans.

Well that is what they claim at my local chain coffee shop.

 

[saveasteading]

I was once unreasonably annoyed when my business won a sustainability award for saving tons of carbon through efficient design, but had to share it with a hotel that was using coffee grounds as mulching...

Edited June 8, 2023 by saveasteading

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

The office will be quoting this as a big effort in saving the planet

Yes.

I am going to tell people that my bad habits are green, may save 0.1 kWh a year.

[Onoff]

Beans are in!

 

A scoop of compost in each hole. The expresso cup removed and plant popped in. Then a bit of soil packed around it & watered. Lastly a spray of garlic water around the perimeter. Fingers crossed.

 

 

 

[Onoff]

Went round the beans late yesterday evening with the coffee grounds I'd left to dry in the sun. Further reading says a weak spray solution of coffee is better than the grounds. Also that it is a neurotoxin to slugs and snails. On the down side it can apparently deter/affect beneficial creepy crawlies.

 

@saveasteading any capsules from coffee machines where I work get recycled separately.

 

The grounds I'm getting come from freshly ground beans. It's from the posh floors where money seems no object and staff welfare is paramount. Everything is top quality. I'm allowed to fish it out of the rubbish 😂

 

 

[saveasteading]

26 minutes ago, Onoff said:

I'm allowed to fish it out of the rubbish

Not so corporately responsible after  all.

How about tell them the credit they can claim IF they have a grounds bin for you?

 

I found sacrificial lettuce were a success. Slugs prefer them and are easily spotted on top at midnight. Soon all gone to the shrubbery.

[SteamyTea]

14 hours ago, Onoff said:

Lastly a spray of garlic water around the perimeter.

 

20 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

found sacrificial lettuce were a success

Starting to sound like (expletive deleted)ing witchcraft this gardening.

I have heard that deflowering a virgin makes the volunteer potatoes stand to attention.

Off to find a virgin for you.

 

[canalsiderenovation]

Slug deterrent, you can borrow our garden visitor . . . .

 

[Onoff]

More coffee Sir? Ring fencing the plants with grounds, so far so good:
 

 

 

I still need to clear a "no man's land" / small mower's width around the 4 sides. Hope to get the metal frame re-erected with new printed connectors and reinforcing gussets riveted on. That'll give me scope for future netting. In the short term I might use it as framing to grow some butternut squash up on the sunny side.