hi Garden Mum and others. I used to get leafmould from the school gardeners, but now I sweep the streets in the autumn and put it all in a cage on the allotment. I find it rots down well enough in one year, but after 2 it will be the real macoy. What i do is to spread it in quantities on the beds wh...

Normally I find potatoes which I missed when harvesting showing their foliage about now, usually where it isn't wanted. Usually I have allowed a few of these to mature to see if I got anything worthwhile before they interfered with the next crop. This wasn't worth the effort, I found; it didn't add ...

I have to admit that I just open up my compost bins and sieve the extract. Then i use the sieved compost for sowing. During the sieving, as I put the stuff into bags, I add organic seaweed meal and some leafmould. I also have courser stuff which I use for potting on. I haven't had any cause to compl...

To be getting flowers on a 4 inch high plant seems to me unusual, Ian. But plants flower when they think they are going to die, so maybe they are not as happy as they look. How about potting on half of them and seeing if that makes any difference in the long run. What variety are they? It really won...

To get the wormery dry enough, I just add more newspaper, egg cartons and other absorbant stuff. I have just moved my wormery out of the sunshine and into its summer location. I drained it and got the best, thickest, richest mixture yet. the worms have really been accelerating during the warmer weat...

Part of my roof is north facing and I get quite a lot of moss off that. Maybe I'll have a go at lining a hanging basket with it - there won't be enough for more than one, though, sop poundland it is.

There is another sweetcorn thread sonewhere from last year. Somebody -own up now please! - suggested that the way to get good pollination is to sow twice - the second sowing once the first has germinated or some 3 weeks afterwards. Plant in blocks with alternating early and late sowings. This is bec...

Hi Elderflower. I think [JB and others correct me if I'm wrong] the idea of chitting potatoes is to mimic the winter conditions of the warmer climes they originated from. April is rather late [but not too late] to get a delivery of seed potatoes - I beg the seed merchants to delay sending mine til t...

They'll get addresses so that they can post their pesky viruses. By the way, hi there everyone. I haven't been sulking, just far too busy now that I'm retired. Working harder than when I was paid to work.
mike

One is usually warned off using off-cuts from shop-bought produce, because it often comes from abroad and is genetically adapted for te country of origin. Having said that, however, I know that somem people find this to be very successful with crops such as garlic. Westi seems quite happy with her r...

You know what? I think the reason for the edging to raised beds is simply to stop the soil getting onto the paths. I have found raised beds to be good for carrots, parsnips, cleriac, tomatoes, broccoli and not particularly effective as oppocsed to opther methods in the case of other brassicas and. p...

Hi all. I have recently joined the Heritage seed library and my aim is to save some of the seeds I get [a] to send back to them (although I am not a Seed Guardian) and [b] to distribute to those who would like some (including me). I will only be harvesting these in summer/autumn 2011, so the earlies...

Rookie, from time to time over the previous 5 or 6 years people have asked this question and if you are clever at searching back through a forum like this you will be able to find the threads. Perhaps someone else will tell you how. Mistakes I made: Sinking in the sides of the raised beds. My sugges...

Sorry, Compo, I forgot to say add leafmould, as muc as you can get. I dare say worm compost will also be good, but carrots like a slightly acidsic soil and the leafmould will do a treat.

Compo, raise the SIDES of the bed rather than the bed itself. But after my experience this year I will recommend Enviromesh or some such; I didn't get any carrot fly. Of course, you can raise the sides of the bed and drape the enviromesh over the edges, but you'll need a way of holding it down again...