Greetings!
I have had a very busy week both at work and in the garden, planting out my tomatoes in the greenhouse amongst other things, so I can now share with you a few ideas as to what you could do this week.
I have added a questions and answers section this week.
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| What to do this week
Sowing leeks
I have found that the best way to sow leeks is to fill a 7 inch pot with compost, sprinkle the seeds quite thickly on the surface( 25- 30 seeds). Then cover with a thin layer of vermiculite (available from any garden centre), water and cover with a piece of glass or clear polythene until they germinate.
Sowing runner and climbing french beans
Now is the perfect time to sow runner and climbing french beans. I sow them in 3 inch pots, 2 inches deep. They should be kept in a warm light place until all danger of frost is past, mid to late May depending on where you live.
I find that 16 runner bean plants and 8 climbing beans is a good number to feed my wife and I plus guests and some to freeze.
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What you could be eating now
This week I have been finishing off salads which overwintered in my unheated greenhouse:
American Land Cress and Lettuce.
Sorrel, Chives, Parsley, Rhubarb and Rainbow chard from the garden and nettle soup and Ground Elder! I found a good recipe for ground elder as a lightly cooked vegetable in Richard Mabey's excellent book 'Food for Free'. |
Your questions answered
From Ms AW of Brighton "Just wondered what you thought of this company greengardener.co.uk my neighbor was recommended
them, she has loads of ants nests in her front garden which she wants to turn
into a veg.patch......I was looking at their anti snail
products?"
They are a good company, but it can become quite expensive. The best way of dealing with slugs and snails is to keep the garden relatively tidy, not too many hiding places, in the area where you are going veg. I do have many wildlife areas in my garden too. Beer traps are effective, you can either buy these or fill an old tin can with cheap beer and sink in into the ground, the slugs will come to a happy end. The other very effective method is go out with a torch at night and collect any slugs and snails that you see and to dispose of them in the way that you see fit.
If you need to use Slug Pellets Growing success Advanced Slug Killer are harmless to birds and animals.
Ants I am not sure about. Pouring boiling water down their holes is the standard method if you don't want to use toxic ant killers. Ants do a valuable job aerating and breaking up the soil but do damage plants too. An American friend of mine has suggested using a homeopathic spray, i am looking into this. * * *
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