Early Spring Bits and Bobs.

[retropants]

The fox has been digging my freshly sowed carrot row. Any suggestions, I'm all out of ideas?

[oldherbaceous]

Chicken wire laid flat on the soil, could work…..

[Primrose]

Have you been using chicken pallets or any other similar form of manure? Sometimes the smell can attract them.
Short of covering over with cloches or some other makeshift protection I,m unsure what to suggest to discourage him, apart from leaving a saucer of food out to offer a more tempting and easily available potential meal. I don,t think foxes use earth or soil as a litter tray in the way that cats do. They just seem to poop wherever it suits them.

[Shallot Man]

Reminds me some years ago when Brother moved into a bungalow, decided to relay garden with turfs. Put copious amount of chicken pellets down, then laid turfs. Foxes had a great time moving the turfs.

[retropants]

No chicken pellets, I think he or she just hates me. Probably digging for worms. I'll go get some chicken wire tomorrow. thanks.

[Shallot Man]

Looking at the sunflower seed in wild bird seed I put out, decided to sow some. Weeks later of the dozen I sowed, one has come through. One must wonder how old the seed is, and more to the point, how much good it has done to the birds.

[Primrose]

Shallotman. I suspect some bird seed is pretty old. Some of the peanuts we put out are so dried up they,re like gritty pebbles so probably little remaining natural oil or goodness left in them we try to buy from a place whixh has a rapid turn over but nibidy had any idea how long they,ve been lurking in the distribution system.

Over the years I,ve had some odd finds in scattered wild birdseed including a mass of nigella plants from seed put out for goldfinches. One hot summer I had a plant sprout up which I didn,t recognise at all and my attempts to identify it revealed it was quite possibly a cannabis plant.! Needless to say, I didn,t want that one lurking around so it ended up on the compost heap.

[Geoff]

We often get sunflowers come up in the various tubs on the patio. Watched a nuthatch burying something in one a couple of weeks ago, I guess that could be the culprit.
Has anybody grown the Cuor di bue tomatoes before that came free with the magazine? They've germinated well and set off as strong plants so I'm wondering how many to grow on with it being a trial.

[Primrose]

I,m not trialling them this year as have some other rather expensive seeds to use up but whenever I've trialled new varieties in the past I,ve generally grown three plants. . It seemed a single plant was never a sufficiently reliable marker in case of accidents but I never wanted to trial too many at the expense of cutting back on my other preferred favourite old favourites.

I guess it all depends what you,ve got the spacefor Geoff. I,d trial in a greenhiuse and outdoors if possible. They might respond rather differently to specific surroundings. .

[Cider Boys]

Planted my final row of onions to-day and completed most of the rotavating. Soil still seems very cold and I have had very poor results with my seeds in the glasshouse, the nights have been too cold and I may have over watered my seed trays and I think they have rotted.
I have a paraffin heater but ran out of paraffin this year, it used to be very cheap and I bought it by filling a can from a bowser at a local supplier. They only now sell it in 4 litre plastic containers and it costs about the same as petrol, the worlds gone mad!

Barney

[Primrose]

Barney
I think this is the reason why we've been warned that many salad crops and items like cucumbers are going to be in short supply later on this season. I think the commercial growers just can't afford the cost of fuel to heat their vast glasshouses any more.

There's certainly no doubt when sowing seeds that a combination of cold and too much water is often fatal but it's also an automatic reaction to want to give dry seeds a good soaking to kick off the growing process.

[Cider Boys]

You are absolutely correct Primrose; and regarding too much water and the cold, I should have known better but I wanted to get away for a few days now and again and thought that sitting the seed trays in some water would prevent them drying out but instead they have been too cold and wet and have died out!

I use to get away with it with established tomato plants grown in 12" pots, I would stand the pots in containers with about 6" of water and I could leave them for say up to 5 days and they would be ok.

Barney

[peter]

Sadly I found this on my allotment on Saturday, called out a local badger person. His opinion, five week old boar been dead over a week, going by the maggots.
Said wrigglies were in tooth puncture wounds, most likely from a dog dragging it out of the sett. Five week olds don't go out and no sett close to our site.
It was on ground cover I laid last Sunday, so I reckon a fox or large bird relocated it from elsewhere.

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[Primrose]

Thwt,s sad Peter. Unfortunately spring is the time when all the hungry adults are looking for food for their infants so I guess their hunting becomes more aggressive. Badgers are not often spotted, either alive or dead.

[Cider Boys]

I saw a load of foot prints all over my small potato patch this morning and started blaming and cursing the local foxes but soon realised it was my sheep that had visited as I had forgotten to secure the stock fence around the patch.

Planted a row of leeks and a row of parsnips this after-noon (better late than never and better late in the ground than left in the packet). Soil still seems a bit cold, I do wonder how people who used to sow leeks and parsnips in February could get them to germinate, seems to me that this spring is cold or are my aching bones getting too old!

Barney