Search found 830 matches

by FelixLeiter
Sun Aug 23, 2015 5:35 pm
Forum: Cooking tips
Topic: How to remove stubborn glue from jars and bottles
Replies: 15
Views: 10789

Re: How to remove stubborn glue from jars and bottles

Manufacturers do not want labels which come off if they get wet, or even if they get a bit damp, and nor do shopkeepers. I've always found white spirit will remove gummed labels and leaves no residue with minimal rinsing. Whichever glue is used, a metal scourer and a bit of elbow grease will always ...
by FelixLeiter
Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:37 pm
Forum: General chatter
Topic: Brown/Fothergill
Replies: 6
Views: 2881

Re: Brown/Fothergill

Suttons and Dobies are under the same roof. Suttons also sell Carters seeds as a retail brand in some discount stores (Poundstretcher etc.), although no longer in those beautiful packets that they used to be sold in, viz.:
by FelixLeiter
Sun Jun 07, 2015 10:10 am
Forum: Best practices
Topic: Romanesque cauliflower seeds
Replies: 10
Views: 4242

Re: Romanesque cauliflower seeds

Romanesco / Romanesque is more like summer broccoli than a cauliflower in how it's grown. Sow as soon as possible, direct where it is to grow, and thin to the strongest seedlings at a 30cm spacing. They enjoy full sun, plentiful moisture and a rich soil. Heads mature in early autumn. Those green cur...
by FelixLeiter
Sun Jun 07, 2015 9:55 am
Forum: Best practices
Topic: Lime
Replies: 3
Views: 3413

Re: Lime

I feed everything that requires feeding with Tomorite, including citrus, with good results. I'm not altogether convinced of the benefits of feeds specific to certain genera, especially a winter feed for citrus — I cannot see sense in feeding a plant when it is dormant. Citrus are robust growers and ...
by FelixLeiter
Thu Apr 23, 2015 11:42 am
Forum: Best practices
Topic: tree peony
Replies: 10
Views: 4604

Re: tree peony

Perhaps your peony is one of the intersectional types, such as Kopper Kettle . Characteristically, their growth is neither shrubby nor herbaceous, but something in between. Nevertheless, for your peony to have not made much progress in four years suggests that it's unhappy for reasons other than an ...
by FelixLeiter
Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:50 pm
Forum: Best practices
Topic: Sowing tomatoes in individual pots
Replies: 6
Views: 3156

Re: Sowing tomatoes in individual pots

They will need careful labelling though. Here's a labelling tip: Use coloured labels (available from a garden centre near you. Probably.) Write the name of the variety on one of the labels, but not on the other labels of the same colour which you then insert in the pots of the other plants of the s...
by FelixLeiter
Sat Mar 14, 2015 6:12 pm
Forum: Technical Data
Topic: Crimson Crush Tomato
Replies: 6
Views: 8425

Re: Crimson Crush Tomato

I expect it is being marketed as plants because this variety has not yet been registered under the Plant Varieties and Seeds Act . A loophole in the legislation allows unregistered varieties to be sold as plants but not as seed. As far as it being of hybrid origin, it is likely to be so. Nevertheles...
by FelixLeiter
Sat Mar 14, 2015 6:00 pm
Forum: Growing places
Topic: Raised Beds - Soft or hard wood?
Replies: 35
Views: 26010

Re: Raised Beds - Soft or hard wood?

Geoff wrote:I always ask "why raised beds?" Fashion or necessity?

I should also like to ask the same question. They make for a pleasant enough carpentry project, I suppose, but I'm not convinced of their benefit. From a cost / benefit point of view, measurably unnecessary.
by FelixLeiter
Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:03 pm
Forum: Best practices
Topic: Broad beans
Replies: 10
Views: 4008

Re: Broad beans

I wondered whether to sow them a bit later if they are so dainty in case they are more susceptible to frost damage. Size of the seed / seedling has no bearing on hardiness. Field beans have smaller seeds than the varieties we grow for eating fresh. They are sown in autumn for overwintering. All bro...
by FelixLeiter
Sun Mar 01, 2015 6:48 pm
Forum: Harvesting Q&A
Topic: calcots
Replies: 4
Views: 7014

Re: calcots

They are normal onions grown in a special way: mçot The seed you have bought may be no different from most other standard onion varieties, but I guess there's only one way to find out. Me, I don't see they're much different from Welsh Onion / Japanese Bunching Onion (Allium fistulosum) which don't r...
by FelixLeiter
Sun Mar 01, 2015 6:30 pm
Forum: Technical Data
Topic: Planting Raspberries - different colours
Replies: 10
Views: 8899

Re: Planting Raspberries - different colours

The parentage of black raspberries is hard to determine. The variety I have grown, Waldo, had characteristics more like those of a blackberry, producing an extremely vigorous — rampaging, it's fair to say — vine which put on three to four metres growth each year. What is for sure is that they are no...
by FelixLeiter
Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:34 pm
Forum: Best practices
Topic: Another question about peas
Replies: 8
Views: 4169

Re: Another question about peas

Can anybody tell me what kind of pea pods they might produce if grown to that level of maturity? I like to grow mangetout peas. They're obviously expensive if purchased in a garden centre seed packet. I was wondering whether the immature pods of mushy dried soup peas would produce a substitute &quo...
by FelixLeiter
Sun Feb 08, 2015 2:35 pm
Forum: General chatter
Topic: 2015 Big Allotment Challenge
Replies: 50
Views: 15114

Re: 2015 Big Allotment Challenge

I watched this show for the first time on Friday. What a peculiar programme. I don't think I'll be watching the next series, if there is one. I was rather shocked by how poor the finalists were, made me glad that I missed the heats.
by FelixLeiter
Sun Feb 01, 2015 2:51 pm
Forum: Best practices
Topic: Blackberries and Raspberries?
Replies: 4
Views: 2556

Re: Blackberries and Raspberries?

This seems to be a rather ill-founded bit of wisdom to me. By extension, we ought not plant raspberries next to raspberries, for fear of transferring diseases. There's some excellent information on the world wide internet about raspberry virus diseases. Here's a link to the RHS page, giving sound ev...
by FelixLeiter
Sat Jan 31, 2015 12:40 pm
Forum: General chatter
Topic: Cabbage is king again.
Replies: 10
Views: 3723

Re: Cabbage is king again.

I didn't know that cavelo nero was a cabbage. There was an article by a cookery writer in a recent edition of The Times summarising what's on-trend with all the smart chefs these days. Always good for a giggle. Anyway, Cavalo Nero was one heading, under which all its great qualities were espoused (...