Early spring bits & bobs.

[donedigging]

Dear OH,
I do and it's not slugs.
Number one son has been diagnosed with Guillain Barre syndrome
This is his third week in hospital.
There are not enough hours in my days at the moment
Slugs hopefully won't find anything until I get up there Saturday morning

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Donedigging, i'm so sorry to hear your Son is unwell, i do hope things soon improve for you all.

[Geoff]

Today's Guardian Crossword had this in it that didn't last long!

Where one used to Dig for Victory and become competent to tackle danger? (9,6)

[Jude]

Oh, good, my brain must be more awake than than I feel this morning, got that quite quickly!

[Geoff]

I'm looking for good ideas!
I have a steep banking round the edge of the grass nearest my house that faces North/NorthWest. It is about 12'x34'. We have decided to make it into a large heather bed as they do quite well with us. It should eventually be low maintenance though I am not looking forward to the weeding while they establish. I cleared it last year but it needs a few days weeding to clear it again. It is fairly heavy soil. I have ordered 240 plants from Springwood Garden Centre (thanks for that contact a few years ago Monika) as what they had looked good and couldn't argue with 85p.
I have two problems to resolve.
How much preparation to give the soil and what with. The small bed we have, although nice now, was slow to establish. I haven't got enough compost so I am looking at recycled green bin compost or the cheapest potting compost I can find. The frightening bit is that 1cm of mulch needs over 350 litres of material (sorry about mixed units from higher up) so I am wondering what you think is the cheapest material that will give a result and how much to use. I have also thought about well prepared planting holes and mulch between later. Would you feed all over with FBB? Any thoughts?
The other problem is when we throw things for the dog she charges down this bank. I am trying to design a temporary path to divide it in half then using a bit of low fence of some sort to train her to use it. My first idea is a strip of weed suppressing membrane with log roll edging or plastic roll out path flat on top. Think it would work? Any ideas where to source? Any other ideas?
Well writing it down made me think it through but any ideas would be appreciated.

[pongeroon]

I can't be much help, Geoff, but a local roundabout here was planted up with heathers following annual beds. The ground was rotovated, membrane put down and heathers planted, no fertiliser used at all. A couple of years later and they look good. As they grow well on mountains, maybe they don't need much nutrition. I'm no heather expert, can you tell???

Dog track sounds good

[Monika]

Geoff, I might just be able to help with two points:

(1) I certainly would not use any fertiliser for heathers. Most of them like it lean.
(2) You might try to get some compost in bulk from Growing with Grace, an organic nursery and recycling centre on the A65 at Clapham (North Yorkshire, not London, for those not in the know!). I think they produce peat-free compost from garden bin collections and might be able to deliver it in bulk rather than bagged to you as you are not too far away. Their website is growingwithgrace.org.uk

If/when you do spread some compost, I would advise working it well into the existing heavy soil, otherwise one heavy downpour might wash the entire top layer off!

[Geoff]

Thanks for that. I emailed Growing with Grace last night as they say ask about bigger quantities but they haven't replied. I might go and see them in the morning whilst my wife is getting our one paper of the week and doing Bentham library. Somebody gave me a Hayes Ambleside token for my birthday and this week we got a mailshot from them with a voucher for 300 litres mpc for £10 (I'm wondering if I can use another voucher from a neighbour and use my £20 token, just over 3p a litre must be worthwhile). We don't normally go there but we haven't had our day out in the Lakes yet.
The reason I asked about preparation and feeding was that we planted the ones we have straight into poor soil as we thought that was correct but they took ages to establish full cover. I am worried about stuff washing off, I had already rejected using a membrane like the roundabout above for that reason.
Hoping to start the weeding and grading tomorrow.

[Jude]

I'm probably completely wrong, but doesn't heather grow on peat rich soil in the wild? Or at least on the acid side? Please feel free to shoot me down in flames!

[oldherbaceous]

Just been to Wickes, they have a notice near the desk saying that their compost is not suitable for seeding, i take it they mean for seed sowing.

Anyone else seen this, and do you think it means that the compost is too coarse?

[donedigging]

Dear OH,
I haven't been to Wickes lately, so can't really answer your question...
But I would be thinking on the same lines as you
Not good for seed sowing

[peter]

Delivery from Edwin Tuckers on Friday.
Seed.potatoes, nicely un-sprouting, onion sets and various seeds.

[Clive.]

Good dose of rain overnight..and some more yesterday morning too...turned out a lovely sunny afternoon.

Looked too wet to get on this morning but got some forking over done this afternoon at home here where some Brussels and Leeks have been.

Planted first row of Premiere Potatoes on the sunny South side of the North fence.

Clive.

[Monika]

Jude, the winter flowering heathers Erica carnea (which are actually flowering now) don't need peaty soils though, I think, they do appreciate the texture of a more peaty soil rather than heavy soil.

About your earlier query, Geoff: if you don't get any joy from Growing with Grace, what about Keith Singletons at Egremont? I know it's further from you but they seem to be a largish outfit and probably deliver into your area in any case.

[Westi]

Gutted - was supposed to be awful today and turned out lovely - guess who had this giddy flu thing and couldn't bend down without falling down!
(And NO wasn't the wine )

Never mind struggled through and potted on the stuff in the propagator so feel I did something anyhow!

Westi