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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: The green blade re-riseth (gardening thread anew)
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Wow amazing stuff about compost I didn't know. Thank you.
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Roxanna
Apprentice
# 9639
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Posted
Can anyone advise on the advantages of insulating a compost heap? Mine is a wooden box and stuff seems to take ages to rot to a suitable consistancy, especially in winter.
Thanks
Posts: 33 | From: near Spigot | Registered: Jun 2005
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I think you'd do better to chop the stuff up pretty fine if you want to speed things up. I don't think compost heaps do much in winter, unless it's very warm or very, very large. Besides, how could you insulate it much without keeping the water out as well?
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
I gues she was thinking of lining the wooden box with polystyrene or something. Is this correct?
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Roxanna
Apprentice
# 9639
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Posted
Yep,
I've seen various instructions for building boxes with a layer of polystyrene or similar, and wondered if the improved results were worth the effort.
Posts: 33 | From: near Spigot | Registered: Jun 2005
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Poppy
Ship's dancing cat
# 2000
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Posted
Probably not as the compost isn't going to do much in the winter anyway. Is it worth moving the bin to a sunnier spot so it gets hot naturally. My heap is in a shadey spot and that probably accounts for its sorry performance.
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At the still point of the turning world - there the dance is...
Posts: 1406 | From: mostly on the edge | Registered: Dec 2001
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
Gooric said, quote:
You may find the female flowers do eventually develop on your courgettes - just keep an eye out for them.
Only a few days later and it looks like you may have been proved right - when I watered this evening, I think I saw 2 females.
So it looks like I was panicking a bit prematurely.
Thanks, everyone.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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obble
Shipmate
# 10868
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Posted
Back to compost again...
Old carpet is the standard way to insulate compost heaps, at least on all the allotment sites my dad and I have worked plots on, but beware of nasty bits of old carpet getting into the compost - don't use a rubber foam backed carpet!
But I'm of the opinion that it's not worth the effort, although our compost heaps are literally heaps - the unrotten stuff on the outside just gets put onto the new heap or dug in and left to rot underground.
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Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
Posts: 1700 | From: Some other planet | Registered: Jan 2006
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by M.:
Goodric said, quote:
You may find the female flowers do eventually develop on your courgettes - just keep an eye out for them.
Only a few days later and it looks like you may have been proved right - when I watered this evening, I think I saw 2 females.
So it looks like I was panicking a bit prematurely.
Thanks, everyone.
M.
No probs - a nice soft paintbrush may give the birds and bees a hand.
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Carex
Shipmate
# 9643
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Posted
Or pick a male flower, strip off the petals, insert into the female flower and wiggle it around a bit.
Although courgettes usually seem to manage quite well on their own - we more often do this with melons.
Did you think that plants are any different than humans?
Posts: 1425 | Registered: Jun 2005
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The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Corfe:
quote:
Originally posted by Goodric:
I didn't know that about compost activators. I'm going to have to try very hard as the bins are fairly tall. By the way, why is pee a good activator - genuine question.
So you never heard of liquid gold then?
I have.
And I can assure you it's nothing to do with urine. Liquid Gold is poppers.
After much indecisiveness about rubber plants and swiss ncheese plants, I finally bit the bullet and went all the way.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
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auntie di
Ship's Magic Pudding
# 11521
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Posted
ace move st bertolin- however, keep posting, so that we can be sure one of them hasn't pole axed you!
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auntie di
Posts: 586 | From: Staffordshire | Registered: Jun 2006
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The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
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Posted
lol
I promise I will. Thanks for all your help. I'll probably be coming back for guidance about care of them. I suppose if I keep them happy they are less likely to plot an attack whilst in transit.
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If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
My garden's blossoming nicely - the fuchsias are thriving (even the one I thought I'd killed); the jasmine was spectacular as ever, the self-seeded nasturtiums from last year have been popped in the hanging baskets (OK - with fuchsias and nasturtiums together it's an eyewateringly colourful garden but hey, I like colour), the weeds coming through the paving stones are vaguely under control....
So it's just the damned squirrels I have to complain about. One of them just dug up a nice young cutting that was rooting away nicely. Grrrrhhhh. I can vaguely understand them digging up bulbs but why they have to uproot my plants I don't know. I even caught one in winter sitting on the window box chewing the geranium petals.
I'm sorely tempted to get a pop gun. BBQ squirrel anyone?
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
Here is a traditional recipe for squirrel.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
Hah, now they should be scared, very scared.
(Although I am slightly concerned as to how full of pollution a London squirrel would be.)
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Can they be trained to eat slugs?
Actually I do have a severe slug problem and have tried beer traps, dawn & evening patrols etc and the only thing that seems to be an effective and cheap defence against the blighters are those nasty blue slug pellets. Yes I know they are not particularly ecologically friendly but at the moment I'm being over run by these slime trailing plant consuming swines.
My question is how close can one use them to plants you intend to eat - beans, lettuce etc? I don't want to poisen the family (well maybe just one or two) as well as the slugs. Can anyone help me on this please?
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Go outside with a friend, stand under a tree, and talk VERY LOUDLY about how you really hope the squirrels won't touch your lovely slugs, they're the best crop you've had in years. That ought to do it.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Corpus cani
Ship's Anachronism
# 1663
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Posted
My slug pellets are supposedly environmentally friendly and are harmless to "children and wildlife" (tautology?). Sadly I can't tell you what they're called because [a] illicit advertising on the Ship makes Baby Jesus cry and [b] they're in the potting shot, the key to which has been... temporarily misplaced by one of the SBs. (I'm expecting to discover it jamming the washing machine any day now...)
I'm sure there are lots of different brands of the same thing, though. I've yet to die from eating my produce and so far am fairly slug free too.
Corpus
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Bishop Lord Corpus Cani the Tremulous of Buzzing St Helens.
Posts: 4435 | From: Trumpton | Registered: Nov 2001
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Mine are the nasty blue ones containing 3% w/w metaldehyde. Slugoids
Your answer will determine whether I feed them to my family or give them away to my troublesome churchwarden. ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
[ 12. July 2006, 14:34: Message edited by: Goodric ]
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Pearl B4 Swine
Ship's Oyster-Shucker
# 11451
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Posted
If you want something other than metaldehyde, try these ideas for killing (preferably torturing)slugs:
1. Sprinkle salt on the ones you can see. You'll enjoy seeing their reaction.
2. Put down a band of granular fertilizer, like common 10-10-10 or whatever, around your veg. bed or particular plants you want to protect.Make the strip of granules deep enough and wide enough so the slug will pick up plenty, if it tries to cross the line.
3. Use lime (garden lime, ground limestone) the same way.
THe good thing about using fert. & lime, is, they are good for the productivity of your soil, and although not GOOD for pets & wildlife, not nearly so harmful as outright poisons.
Posts: 3622 | From: The Keystone State | Registered: May 2006
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Carex
Shipmate
# 9643
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Posted
We virtually eliminated slugs in our hothouse with a layer of lime on the floor. Diatomaceous earth (crushed rock containing fossil diatoms, also known as diatomite) is another option that also works on many insects (it has lots of microscopic sharp edges that get caught in the joints in their shells.)
Now we use "Terminator Turtle" bait stations that keep the bait contained and protected from the weather and animals with good results. (Sorry I can't find a photo of the Terminator Turtles, but this also discusses the dangers of the various slug baits in Chapter 2.)
For protecting small areas, particularly raised beds or individual pot plants, slugs won't cross a strip of bare copper. We've put strips of it around table legs or tree trunks to keep them from climbing up (also works on snails.) The commercial products sold for this are much more expensive than other sources - we found some sheets of copper circuit board material in a disposals shop that we put under individual pots.
Posts: 1425 | Registered: Jun 2005
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daisymay
St Elmo's Fire
# 1480
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Posted
I have a spray called SAS, "Ready to use slug and snail repellant", which is sprayed on the pots with my plants, or can be sprayed on the floor or stone ground slabs - it smells like liquorice and contains yucca. It's safe for pets, birds, and "for you". It works really well to stop them climbing up into the plants and munching.
I have tried that business of providing swimming pools full of beer for alcoholic slugs to dive into and die, but it takes them so long I feel guilty.
And salt does torture them. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
If I find any remaning slugs, I use a little metal spade, chop of their heads, squash the whole body as fast as possible, while praying for their instant death and asking forgiveness from God for my violence....
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London
Flickr fotos
Posts: 11224 | From: London - originally Dundee, Blairgowrie etc... | Registered: Oct 2001
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
lots of very nice alternative anti-slug tips, which I very much appreciate - and I'd love to hear any more, but does anyone know anything about how safe these pellets are in proximity to vegetables?
[ 12. July 2006, 18:09: Message edited by: Goodric ]
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Carex
Shipmate
# 9643
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Posted
Goodric -
The link in my last post has some information on the hazards of various commercial brands, though they are ones available in the US. However you should be able to correlate the type you have by looking at the active ingredients on the label.
Most of the slug baits appear to be more of a hazard to dogs and wildlife than to humans, though the long term effects at the levels that may be encountered by eating plants that may have absorbed the chemicals through their roots is uncertain. If the bait is kept from the immediate root zone of the plant (say at least a foot away with no obvious drainage patterns to bring it closer) then the risk should be very small.
This is one reason we use the bait stations - they keep the active ingredients from being washed into the soil and picked up by the plants.
Posts: 1425 | Registered: Jun 2005
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auntie di
Ship's Magic Pudding
# 11521
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Posted
slugs, the humane control thereof (oh to make a hollow laughing sound)
when I moved into my house, 6 yrs ago, I was going to be friendly in my pest control. Observing my fine crop of slugs and SNAILS i surrounded delicate plants with a circle of cat litter and crushed egg shells. i put down beer traps. the dogs (especially the late Gus) flipped the top off the beer traps and drank the beer.
as spring progressed i raised 35 dahlia seedlings to about 9 inches tall. i planted them out, surrounding them with a particularly lavish barrier. i like dahlias...
the next morning- THE NEXT BLOODY MORNING- i had precisely 5 dahlias left. i got on the phone to one of my garden mad brothers. through his sniggering all he said was "Nuke em". i went out and bought some blue pellets and have used them joyfully ever since.
if you want to use the pellets but in an unobtrusive fashion, get a plastic trap and put the pellets inside (then they die out of the way of thrushes and hedgehogs, who can't be affected by the poisen then). also, try putting pellets down in january and february, when the little buggers are just starting to get active, this reduces the burden later on. slug eating nematodes, available on the net are also helpful in reducing numbers, but to protect precious plants i still reckon on a few blue nasties nearby.
and when it rains in the summer i go dancing down the garden path in clogs, and with every "scrunch" i feel a little drop in my blood pressure.
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auntie di
Posts: 586 | From: Staffordshire | Registered: Jun 2006
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Ok those last two posts are really helpful - excellent - thanks.
I'll have to have a look at doing bait stations -
If the blighters will die in a bait station, so much the better - particularly for the wildlife. I think I could probably make one out of an old ice cream container.
I don't see why the slimey so and so's should eat the lettuces and beans I have grown for my family. It has been bad enough going to my early budding hydrangeas in the spring and then more recently my sunflowers and finding them totally shredded overnight.
I'm afraid I am suspicious of manufacturers claims for their products "can safely be used around vegetables" when in the next breath it says "avoid polluting watercourses with the products".....and.... keep away from pets /children" it just doesn't seem to add up somehow. If it can get in the water, it can surely get in the plant.
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Amos
Shipmate
# 44
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Posted
Ducks absolutely love slugs and snails. Ducks also love vegetables (lettuce is a particular favourite). If you don't want to risk your lettuce by borrowing a duck, you could always pay a child to collect all the slugs and snails in a container and take them down to your local park, where the ducks will thank you for them. And they're a lot better for the ducks than bread is.
Otherwise I use beer traps and salt. I'm not as kind as daisymay.
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At the end of the day we face our Maker alongside Jesus--ken
Posts: 7667 | From: Summerisle | Registered: May 2001
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Amos, I never knew that about Ducks, thanks. Hmmm it could be time to create Stalag Slug I and then engage in a little "rendition" to the webbed footed inhabitants of our wonderful park which is only 5 mins away - thanks. Far more creative than stamping on them - that is the ones that have not eaten the blue slug death.
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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auntie di
Ship's Magic Pudding
# 11521
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Posted
or you could adopt a hedgehog. added advantage that hedgehogs, being enthusiastic carnivores, aren't interested in lettuces. there was a newspaper article a year or so back about an organic strawberry farmer who'd got together with St Tiggywinkles (hedgehog hospital) to house convalescent urchins. gave a hut each and they'd spend the night marching up and down the rows of strawberries gorging themselves to fitness (on the slugs, not the strawbs!). i have gone to lengths to entice one into my garden on a permanent basis, but they're flirty blighters and refuse to indulge me.
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auntie di
Posts: 586 | From: Staffordshire | Registered: Jun 2006
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Poppy
Ship's dancing cat
# 2000
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Posted
We've got a hedgehog and he is really good at munching through the slugs. They are supposed to like cat food but we seem to have enough slugs to keep him happy.
I used to have one of those beer traps but in the hot weather they get very smelly very quickly.
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At the still point of the turning world - there the dance is...
Posts: 1406 | From: mostly on the edge | Registered: Dec 2001
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Corpus cani
Ship's Anachronism
# 1663
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Posted
Have just seen our resident hedgehog for the first time this year. Nocturnal? Yup. Only this one was making the most of the morning sun. He was lying on his side on the edge of the lawn, with all his legs sticking out, fast asleep. I prodded to make sure he was alive and he didn't wake up - just wriggled a bit and sighed! So-o-o-o-o sweet! He's wisely taken himself off somewhere cooler now.
Any handy hints regarding Cabbage White Butterflies? I'm growing bored with wiping the eggs of each leaf of my cabbage, red cabbage and cauliflowers. Does anyone have a great tip to share to protect my brassicas whilst they still have leaves?
Cc
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Bishop Lord Corpus Cani the Tremulous of Buzzing St Helens.
Posts: 4435 | From: Trumpton | Registered: Nov 2001
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
Hmm, netting* would have helped stop the butterflies laying eggs in the first place but it may be too late for that now.
I wonder if spraying with soapy water would help? (I think it needs to be soap not detergent so washing up liquid's no good) Might not make the cabbage very tasty though.
*I vaguely remember hearing that you don't actually need to cover them with netting, just have it surrounding the plants and higher by around a foot (or maybe half a foot) - the butterflies apparently don't swoop down from above but cruse along around that height. But I could have mis-remembered - that might have been for carrots not brassicas. You'd probably want to check.
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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babybear
Bear faced and cheeky with it
# 34
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Posted
I have found mushrooms in my compost bin. Is this good, bad or not terribly important? We have had mushroom circles growing in the garden, and no doubt some spores became attatched to the grass.
Posts: 13287 | From: Cottage of the 3 Bears (and The Gremlin) | Registered: May 2001
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auntie di
Ship's Magic Pudding
# 11521
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Posted
do you want to eat them? if so, and they are field mushrooms or other edibles, then
if you don't want to eat them but are thinking of the decomposing quotient, still
fungi are decomposers par excellence, and the mushroom is the fruiting body of a large mycelium network of microscopic fibres reaching through your compost busily digesting the bulk material of your rubbish. yes, some of that is now incorporated in the mushrooms themselves, but they rot down fast in their turn, and your compost should be v good. you may find, if you spread the compost, that a few spores from your mushrooms are present, and if you have a damp autumn, you might find a few more fungi in the flower beds,- i never have a worry about this myself, but it could be a for you
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auntie di
Posts: 586 | From: Staffordshire | Registered: Jun 2006
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babybear
Bear faced and cheeky with it
# 34
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Posted
I am not a mushroom person. They are vile things. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif) However, I am now very happy to have them in my compost bin.
I got the compost bin in May, and have been adding layers of grass clippings, shredded paper and veggie peelings. I am wondering if it is now time to give it a bit of a mix up.
Posts: 13287 | From: Cottage of the 3 Bears (and The Gremlin) | Registered: May 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Yes, you're supposed to turn it pretty often. Though if you don't, no great harm done--only slows down the rot.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Carex
Shipmate
# 9643
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Corpus cani:
Any handy hints regarding Cabbage White Butterflies? I'm growing bored with wiping the eggs of each leaf of my cabbage, red cabbage and cauliflowers. Does anyone have a great tip to share to protect my brassicas whilst they still have leaves?
We used floating row covers - a light, non-woven fabric that lets the sunlight and rain through but keeps the bugs out. It has to go on right after planting to keep the Cabbage Moths from laying eggs inside. Also kept the plants from being eaten by flea beetles and elk.
Basically this would be a strip of fabric about 2 to 3m wide and long enough to cover the row. We put bricks along the edges then folded up the excess when the plants were young. As they grew they filled up the fabric (which is very light). Weeding, etc. were done by lifting the bricks and reaching under the cover. It certainly is more work, but it is the only way we found to keep the brassicas in good condition.
It is too late for this season, however, so you may have to find a commercial product containing BT, which is a natural organism that kills larvae and caterpillers. It is harmless to humans.
Posts: 1425 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
Can anyone help me identify a plant I was given a couple of years ago?
It was growing through hedges in a garden I was visiting in SE England, and reached about 4or5 foot high in that situation. The home owner didn't know what it was, but gave me a tiny rooted sucker (apparantly it suckers freely).
It has been pot-bound for most of the time I've had it, so is still small. but has clumped up nicely, and has flowered this year. It dies back to bare woody stems in the winter, and flowers on the current years growth The leaves are downy, especially on the underside, and it has no noticable (to me) scent from leaves or flowers.
I have not been able to find anything like it in my gardening books, but would like to know what it is so that I can plant it out in a suitable location.
Picture here.
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Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Poppy
Ship's dancing cat
# 2000
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Posted
From the leaf shape and the fact it is so easily propagated I'd say it was an anemone. There are lots of types and some are invasive but will grow in difficult dry conditions such as under hedges where the lack of water prevents them from attempting world domination.
Might be wrong though, heat is causing Poppy wilt.
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At the still point of the turning world - there the dance is...
Posts: 1406 | From: mostly on the edge | Registered: Dec 2001
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Corpus cani
Ship's Anachronism
# 1663
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Posted
I've just been watching Mr Hedgepig. (I've decided it must be "he" - surely lady hedgehogs would move efficiently around the garden, probably with a shopping list. Mine, though, bumbles around the place making huge amounts of noise - you can follow his progress by watching the plants, bushes and even trees vigorously shaking their foliage as he lumbers through.)
For all his cuteness, I have witnessed him consume three fat slugs in my veg beds within the last half hour. And my word did he enjoy them! Every home should have one.
He has now disappeared under the gate and ambled off across the churchyard. Hope he remembers his way home!
Cc
Posts: 4435 | From: Trumpton | Registered: Nov 2001
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Corpus cani:
Any handy hints regarding Cabbage White Butterflies? I'm growing bored with wiping the eggs of each leaf of my cabbage, red cabbage and cauliflowers. Does anyone have a great tip to share to protect my brassicas whilst they still have leaves?
Cc
Ah I know about this....
Yep - just the thing Derris Dust or similar wiped out last years plague of cabbage white caterpillars with ease.
There are "natural" solutions including Bacillus thuringiensis (as referred to previously as BT - not a killer telephone) contained in preparations known as Dipel and Thuricide - but where you find this - I'm not sure.
Another natural solution was the parasitoidical wasp Ichneumon, which lays into the caterpillar and the laval wasp eats its way out of its host. I know they used to sell these, but then some ijut said they had to be licensed to be marketed as pest control and so I think have been withdrawn from sale in Europe.
So for me, if it is not to be the manual approach of picking the blighters off, I would say buy yourself a puff container of Derris Dust and have at them. Makes your patch look as though there has been a light fall of snow in summer!
[ 19. July 2006, 13:51: Message edited by: Goodric ]
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Oh and a request from me too please. Does anyone know why my Blackcurrents might taste more like grass than anything else and hardly taste of Blackcurrent at all?
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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chukovsky
Ship's toddler
# 116
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Posted
Are your blackcurrants ripe? Or are you comparing them to Ribena, which does not really taste like blackcurrants?
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Posts: 6842 | From: somewhere else | Registered: May 2001
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Well they are black...perhaps they are not yet quite ripe enough. Yes that lingering memory of Ribena is a confusion, perhaps I just can't remember what blackcurrents taste of. So how can I tell if they are properly ripe without tasting each one?
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
Posts: 7160 | From: You all know anyway | Registered: Jul 2004
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Carex
Shipmate
# 9643
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Posted
Some currents are selected for showy flowers rather than edible fruit. I wouldn't say that the currents in our garden taste like grass, but only because I haven't eaten grass recently.
Currents should be juicy and soft when ripe - if you pinch them between your fingers you should feel the current deform, giving the sense that you would pop it if you squeezed hard enough. The non-edible types (or not yet ripe) will feel more squeezing an apple than a grape.
Posts: 1425 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
Ah, as a man inexperienced in these matters, I am now enlightened and thank you.
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
Just as an update of very marginal interest (except to me) - my courgettes are now going great guns and I will soon be able to complain that I've got too many!
Many thanks for the advice.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Goodric
Shipmate
# 8001
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Posted
That is delightful news. Well done
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Happy Christmas Everyone You can find me here
Gone to a better place.
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auntie di
Ship's Magic Pudding
# 11521
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Posted
The plants at the allotment are doing fine, even in this hot weather and my "don't water anything that's planted in the ground" policy. Unfortunately, when I say "the plants" I mean above all, the weeds. I think I have the entire observer's book of weeds set, including bindweed, which has never been an issue before, growing throughout. I am inclined to the parable of the enemy sowing the weeds in the wheat and am scrutinising the old boys' bicycle baskets as they arrive to check for incriminating evidence. I don't like to use weedkiller near food plants, but I have had to resort to some of that "paint on" glyphosate on the bindweed, the ground elder and the plantains... courgettes however are rather marvellous- blanching and freezin the big job now. Any ideas about my broad bean problem: plenty growth, plenty pods, and many of the pods having only one or two beans inside. It's the same variety as last year (aquadulce), which was very successful, and freshly bought seed when sown, so what's going on?
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auntie di
Posts: 586 | From: Staffordshire | Registered: Jun 2006
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