What Preps are you doing this week? Part 10

[jennyjj01]

In a months time your plants will need air. Tomatoes can be too hot. Mind you,your little greenhouse there will do the job for all sorts. Lovely.

Cheers.
I hadn't thought it through, and originally planned to dig over and plant into the soil inside it, using it more like a cloche. But now i see how heavy it is, and inaccessible inside, I'm thinking some sort of adjustable shelves and literally use it as a greenhouse. I think I'll pop it onto a base of a couple of concrete slabs, which I already have my eye on. The top front panel hinges down and everything else is fixed with screws, including the top.
Going to christen it today with lots of seed sown into pods. This should be far better than my east facing kitchen window. But it'll also mean I HAVE to be vigilant with watering, which is so much easier in the kitchen. Time to revisit hydroponics or irrigation, because with the best will in the world, I won't be watering at the allotment every day.
Any suggestions for super simple automatic watering?
What about these... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404071967187

[Frnc]

Took my bike for a free check at the local bike shop the other day, before my big ride on Saturday. Got talking about growing veg. She said they grow all theirs. I told he about my slugs. She was quite encouraging. But there is also my back. I don't want to mess it up before Download. Maybe I'll get back into it next year, or even grow some peas in the autumn. She was advocating no dig.
Not had anyone get back to me about the roof. Ordered an extending ladder to look inside the loft. I can wear my fire-retardant overalls to keep fibreglass off me. I just want to see which way the joists go and if there are beams that will stop spread.

[Nurseandy]

Took my bike for a free check at the local bike shop the other day, before my big ride on Saturday. Got talking about growing veg. She said they grow all theirs. I told he about my slugs. She was quite encouraging. But there is also my back. I don't want to mess it up before Download. Maybe I'll get back into it next year, or even grow some peas in the autumn. She was advocating no dig.
Not had anyone get back to me about the roof. Ordered an extending ladder to look inside the loft. I can wear my fire-retardant overalls to keep fibreglass off me. I just want to see which way the joists go and if there are beams that will stop spread.

Another possible option for gardening with a bad back is to use a properly raised bed - i.e. about three feet high. Much much easier on the back and I also find much more likely to get weeded cos you just pick weeds everytime you walk past instead of it being a mission.
It obviously takes a lot of soil/compost to fill a three foot high bed so with my latest beds I'm experimenting with putting a straw bale into each (each bed is about 3ft x 5ft as that was the timber i had from an old fence) and then planting into holes in the bale filled with potting compost. Hopefully by the end of the season the bales will have rotted quite well and be the basis for the beds next year.
Seems reasonable in theory, I'll update with results.

[jennyjj01]

Soaked and sowed 20 peas and 8 runner beans into pots. I treated them to some quality seed compost. Into the cold frame, to see how they compare to a few sown in my kitchen window box.

A question about seed compost...... It seems to be mostly sand and maybe light in nutrients. Is there any reason not to keep using it, year on year, if only for germination. After all, the seed uses its own nutrients and just needs a sterile*, moist growing medium.

* If re-using it, I could sterilize it in the microwave.

[jansman]

Soaked and sowed 20 peas and 8 runner beans into pots. I treated them to some quality seed compost. Into the cold frame, to see how they compare to a few sown in my kitchen window box.

A question about seed compost...... It seems to be mostly sand and maybe light in nutrients. Is there any reason not to keep using it, year on year, if only for germination. After all, the seed uses its own nutrients and just needs a sterile*, moist growing medium.

* If re-using it, I could sterilize it in the microwave.

Bin it and start again. Not worth the efforts. I use that much I couldn’t use a microwave! And the price of leccy too? I always buy compost in Autumn when it’s cheaper.

My runner beans I have stuck straight in the soil . A trayful in the greenhouse too. Saves effort.

[jennyjj01]

Bin it and start again. Not worth the efforts. I use that much I couldn’t use a microwave! And the price of leccy too? I always buy compost in Autumn when it’s cheaper.

OK. Good points.

My runner beans I have stuck straight in the soil . A trayful in the greenhouse too. Saves effort.

I planned to direct sow, too, but with other stuff going on, I hadn't prepared their growing space, yet, and i wanted to get them going now, so pots it is.

[Edit] Hmmmf. I misjudged how many peas to so. Sowed 20. I think more like 50, repeated every few weeks is more to scale[/Edit]

Tried beans last year and none survived. I think they got shaded and over-run by my courgettes. I only planted about 10 peas last year and my crop was pathetic

So, some Spuds are in, Onions, triffids, Tomatoes, peas, and runner beans now sown. What next? Leeks? Beetroots? carrots? I wonder if I have time to try okra and aubergines again?

I have some autumn raspberries starting to bud. Plan on letting them fend for themselves. Strawberries want rescuing from the intermingled weeds. Gooseberry bush? God knows what to do with that. I haven't eaten a gooseberry in 55 years . They're hairy grapes aren't they?

[Arzosah]

Chuck your used seed substrate in the compost bin, surely? Completely agree with not re-using it for seeds, though.

[jennyjj01]

Chuck your used seed substrate in the compost bin, surely? Completely agree with not re-using it for seeds, though.

I'm not disagreeing. But I don't really understand. I'm still grappling with the distinctions between different types of compost. I know multipurpose pot compost is only good for one season because plants will suck nutrients from it, or it might decompose or get infested ( https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/m ... t-compost/ ) . I was just thinking that seed compost, and for that matter coir are more neutral and so might be reusable.
That said, if I've transplanted a seedling in seed compost, then that compost has been moved on anyway along with the seedling.
I do have some seed compost from last year where I failed to water and nothing survived. It's pretty much dust still in its pods. Surely I can reuse that more or less as is?

[Arzosah]

Trying to think logically here ... yes, re-using isn't about the need for nutrition for the seeds and seedlings ... I think its more like what they might pick up over the course of waiting to be re-used: viruses, bacteria, insect eggs, mould spores etc. The texture of dust might not be great to seed things in anyway. But its up to you, you're a famous experimenter, go for it!

[jennyjj01]

Trying to think logically here ... yes, re-using isn't about the need for nutrition for the seeds and seedlings ... I think its more like what they might pick up over the course of waiting to be re-used: viruses, bacteria, insect eggs, mould spores etc. The texture of dust might not be great to seed things in anyway. But its up to you, you're a famous experimenter, go for it!

I'm busy googling the topic. But the more I read about compost (and soil) the more perplexed I get. It IS rocket science to me.
Why can't soil just be soil ? Either good fertile soil that we can grow things in, or rubbish nutrient poor soil that we can add stuff to to make it into good soil... to grow things in? How did our forefathers manage with just soil and the odd bag of poo. None of this namby pamby five quid a bag stuff from the garden centre. I'm sure Dad used to grow stuff in the back garden and he never bought a bag of compost in his life. Did they even have garden centres in the 70s?
Roll on harvesting my home brewed compost.