helper
I've been working as a horticulturalist for a few years now and run an almost organic allotment, even though I am looking for land closer to home! Would love to help anyone out with advice or just a shoulder to cry on when the weeds get too much.Feel free to e-mail and I will try to help-we were all new to this once.
grower
I work in horticulture and have been growing fruit and veg for about 7 years but our allotment is 7 miles away and I would love to find something more local, perhaps with a greenhouse, for more "needy"crops. I can also offer anyone the benefit of any knowledge I may have gleaned over the years and would be happy to help anyone who is just starting out growing.. I would also be interested to find other folk locally who may be interested in finding a spot of land for a local/community type orchard- a personnal flight of fancy!
I am CRB checked
There really is no way of avoiding some hands and knees weeding but I would only worry about hand weeding perenial weeds now and just hoe out and sheet anything else-if you exclude any light they won't come back. But brambles,docks, nettles etc will need hand weeding just to ensure they don't return. Good luck
Its always best to start with what you like! If it were me I would look at getting a good quantity of compost/manure onto the soil now ready for spring sowings and then deciding what you want to grow. My daughter always enjoyed anything that came up fast when she was young, so radishes,lettuce,beetroot,carrots were always on the go. Pumpkins are always good but choose a variety that you can grow up a wigwam or they will take over the plot! Most seed catalogues offer baby varieties which are only small plants at full groth so look out for them. And good luck-I think all kids should get to grow stuff and understand the impotance of the land.Keep us posted...
Hi Clare. I would be really interested in hearing about your experiences as its something I am very interested in although do not have the space to pursue at the moment. Would love to hear more.
Start small and work your way up as you have the time. Its really easy to grow most things in pots and containers which means less time digging, but you could try a couple of raised beds which can be as small as your space requires them to be. And then just decide what you want to eat. If space is limited then it can be a good idea to grow stuff that is either not easily available or at the more expensive end of the market rather than using swathes of space on spuds and onions. There are lots of great monthly magazines available that are really informative so it might be good to look at those but the internet is a wonderful thing and you can find all sorts of advice on it! If you start work on a plan now then by the time the season starts in the spring you could be organised for the year ahead. But the best advise is just to enjoy it! Good luck
What kind of control? I could be interested.
In response to does anybody need free rabbit control throughtout england?
Definately you can. And the plants look beautiful too. Just give them a warm,sunny spot and feed them with plenty of manure in the spring and they should be bountiful!
In response to can you grow grapes easily in this fair and pleasant land?
If you just want farmyard manure then contact a local farmer who will probably be pleased to see his manure go to a good home!
In response to I need to get some manure for my veggie patch in herefordshire, any ideas where i can get it from without paying a fortune?
Hi
As well as all the onions, garlic. broad beans, early peas etc, its spring bulb planting time and some daffs and a few tulops and alliums don't take up much growing space but make it possible to harvest early flowers and cheer the plot up in the depths of cold old March/April Good luck
In response to I have recently been given a piece of land to grow on, I was wondering; what can I grow right now?
Hi. Derris has been removed from sale and use, even though it was deemed organic. The best thing to get rid of them is to hose them down-if you continue that for several days in a row they will get the message!
The most natural way is to encourage beneficial insects like ladybirds into the garden to eat them and to ensure your plants are strong and well nourished so the attack isn't fatal! You can get rid of them by hosing the plants where they are or spraying them with a weak solution of washing up liquid, but make sure you don't do that on a sunny day or your plants will scorch. If you want to resort to chemical warfare there are now several organic sprays that you can buy at any garden cxentre which work very effectively as long as you use them every few days. Hope that helps
Definately. I'm sure if you sent flyer type leaflets to local gardening socs there'd be a huge response, or even just a post on here and other web-sites like River Cottage. Where in the Chilterns? I am in Beaconsfield.
In response to Would anyone in the chiltern areas be interested in a seed/plant swap. thinking about setting one up.
Hi
I think that probably it is just that they weren't settled in properly before an awful winter but it does seem strange that its all your Prunus. I would suggest digging them up and making sure all the root is out just in case its something root-borne and making sure anything you plant in their places has fresh earth/compost around it. I tmight be worthwhile contacting the supplier too- they may have had problems with whole batches, particularly if they were sourced overseas. Let me know how you get on.
Were they newly(ish)planted? If so it could have been the appalling winter weather. What type of Prunus? It could have been some kind of root rot caused by too much water sitting around the roots-if you dig them up and the roots are brown all the way through then that shows a root death problem. It could also have happened if the plants were unsteady and were rocking in the soil- the small new roots never would have gotten time to settle before they were broken by the rock. But some Prunus species are more vulnerable than others-I work with trees so let me know what type they were and we may be able to establish the cause more reliably!
Hi. Its possible that it could fruit if you keep it in a heated greenhouse but its pretty unlikely in any other situation as they need lots of heat and sunshine- the only places I have ever seen them fruit is at the Eden Project and in a heated glass house at RHS Wisley. But who knows with global warming, if the answer will be the same in 5-10 years!
They sound like scarid flies to me- they feed on nutrients from the compost and won't actually do the plants much harm. Rosemary can turn brown from too much or too little water but too much is most likely, or it may just need a bigger pot. Good luck
Hi Anna
If you make up a squirty bottle with a weak solution of washing up liquid and spray every day with this it should get rid of them but you can also remove all the dead/brown tips and leaves and that will stop them re-infecting- they much prefer new growth and it won't harm your plants.
Just leave it in a pile and it will get on with it by itself. If you turn it occasionally it will give it a helping hand.
Fill a squirty bottle with a very weak solution of washing up liquid and spray with that but make sure they are out of bright sunlight or they will scorch.
Olives tend t o respond to being left alone to get on with it as they are from the Med and so are usedto heat and lack of water and food. I would keep it somewhere that it will get maximum sunlight and warmth and protect it from harsh wind/rain and if we get the summer they are forecatiny you may get some olives-but they probably won't be ready til at least October! Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Definately attract some bees but also make sure you get the plants early enough that the bees get chance to pollinate them or ensure there is something else to attract them when the squashes are in flower- try sunflowers but make sure they are the type with pollen!!