Kitchen Garden Forum

Morning retropants,
There is a Longacres garden centre in Shepperton and they sell composted manure in 60L bags 3 for £10 delivery extra.Good stuff they buy it in from the Compost Centre.
Standing joke with my family:-

"What do you want for Christmas,Dad?"
"Shit!!"
"OK"

thanks Snooky! I'll have to compare that to the compost centre's prices. I am quite tempted to ask for it for christmas!

Bit difficult to gift wrap a trailer load of manure but probably one of the best practical gifts you can give a keen gardener! I'd rather have this than a bottle of perfume any day, as long as Father Christmas or his elves do all the heavy shovelling !

We haven,t heard from Elmigo for a while. Guess he,s busy with other things and hopefully not a virus sufferer. Was keen to know how he feels his first year in his new garden plot has fared.

I gather the Netherlands entered another five week lockdown yesterday. I have friends and relatives in various countries who are all suffering similarly.

There's a lot of our old favourites missing at the momment, Primrose...but so pleased you are back..

We have a guy called compost Steve he delivers the large bags of farmyard manure and seed compost to your plot at 3 bags for £5 it’s good stuff as well so far this year I’ve had 38 bags I’ve still got 7 left

Pouring down outside so sat here in the dry reflecting on the growing season on my new to me allotment.
Marvellous crops of onions,shallots, leeks and salad stuff.Plentiful runner beans,french beans and broad beans,so much so that they were passed around the neighbours who are looking forward to next year!Squash and pumpkins did well as did the potatoes.Charlotte produced over 25K from a 3k seed pack,the experimental Cara and Kestrel reccommended when I asked about a specific potato for baking(on here) produced over20k each from 5 potatoes of each variety sown but were full of scab.
Carrots a failure because the fly got them;beetroot small but usable and parsnips looking good.Turnips attacked by pigeons as was the Brussl sprouts when the protective cover blew off.Star of the show was the sweetcorn and,Sod's Law,I can't remember the variety I put in!
The area has been put back as one.The planking put in as raised beds has gone except for one area which was the fruit bed. That has been rough dug over. Plans to put Asparagus there along with some of the soft fruit bushes which I have saved.Also,going to put the compost heap there.
Pests were pigeons,field mice and the usual flying varieties,blight took the tomatoes when cropping well but didn't touch the potatoes.Rats,Foxes and sqirrels put in an appearance too.
A learning curve and it has given me an insight of how to manage the plot next year.For starters plenty of netting protection and keep a diary so that I know which varieties I have sown!!

A brilliant write up, Snooky, always interesting to read what others have grown through the year...

My new trees: Christmas Pippin, Broadhome Beauty, Monarch

May I wish you all a happy Xmas & a good growing year.

Now there's something to look forward to in future years, Stephen....

There's nothing much to report here as every day is pretty much the same. Some days it's colder than others. We've had "freezing rain" when we were advised not to go outside unless absolutely necessary. (Most people work from home anyway.)

Even so, my little indoor hydroponic garden is doing pretty well so we're planting new things and hope to supply ourselves with some more "exotic" greens over the winter.

I'm learning all the time and discovering that the more you cut some things back, eg "morning glory", the more ferociously they grow back - so more people can share in the bounty! I'm planting some more of the stuff!

It's a bit melodramatic to say that it's a life-saver for us, but definitely true that the little "garden" significantly improves the quality of our lives.

Sorry to hear of your various troubles and I hope next year is better for all of us.

Am I dreaming or is it morning glory that some people smoke or make green tea out of it ,I’m sure it was that one of our neighbours used to get high on as soon as his wife stepped foot on the plane to fly her back to see relatives

Perhaps o,m becoming forgetful but did i mention I,ve got several flowers now appearing on the solitary overwintering pepper I cut back which is now on my lounge widow sill. .

I'd attempt sowing a few salad leaves but suspect the light levels are probably too low and days too short to get much of a crop to make it worthwhile.

Started cutting the huge Holly hedge at the big house today, and couldn't believe how many Snowdrops were showing their white tips...and this isn't one of the early varieties.