I don’t have much real experience as a gardener and have only become a keen one in the last four years, so have much to learn. I’ll try to do a monthly gardening column, passing on what I’ve learned, but also in the hope that better and more experienced and gardeners than me will contribute and pass their knowledge on.
One thing I’ve learned about gardening is that, if you ask ten gardeners the same question on how to do something, you will get at least twenty-five opinions, some completely contradictory though not necessarily wrong! But never mind, the more the better. We can always pick and choose, so pass on your wisdom or, if like me you are lacking in it, ask for help in the comments section. Better still, write an article for us.
My garden skills, such as they are, centre around my glorious greenhouse, ; the grow room, pictured below, where my microgreens spend their short lives; the shed where I keep my worm bins and where I make my own fertiliser, and a few beds where I grow rainbow chard, perpetual spinach, broccoli, pumpkins, courgettes and climbing beans with modest success. I also grow tomatoes inside the greenhouse and out in the open and have a sitting area where I have a lot of potted plants. I’m improving slowly, after making lots of mistakes.
My mistakes and troubles are that I tend to over-water, am never sure about feeding, leave seedlings in small pots too long, have a patchy record on germinating seeds, and am almost a complete failure at growing carrots. The compost I make is good stuff. I can’t get enough of it, but it often contains a lot of seeds. I’ll write again in more detail about all this but if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.
I’d especially like to hear about controlling, or preferably eliminating, slugs and snails, the absolute bane of my gardening life. I can just about cope with the rabbits and wood pigeons and even the odd deer. The shotgun comes in handy. But you can’t shoot slugs. I’ve tried everything, pellets (slug pellets, not shotgun ones), pastes, copper strips, beer traps, nematodes, coffee grounds, barriers made of thorns and brambles, the lot. But the bloody slug always gets through. At the moment I go out two hours after sunset each night with a torch, a stick, a pair of scissors and some stout boots and murder the brutes. Some nights I get over 200! But there’s still plenty the next night, and the night after.
I have a confession to make. I’m a no dig gardener. I was converted on Youtube by Mr No Dig himself, Charles Dowding and followed his advice. It seems to work reasonably well, but I’m not evangelical about it. Easier than double digging, you see.
I’m hoping to become a rhubarbarian (I love rhubarb crumble, which Mrs A makes to perfection), growing rhubarb from seed. I have six three-inch seedlings just in the ground. Frustratingly though, I didn’t read the small print, and have only just found out that I need to wait till next year to harvest them. Any rhubarb experts out there? And I woke up this morning to find one of them had parted company with its only stem. I’m blaming the slugs but can’t see a slug trail.
In fact, I often get this, with seedling’s stems nibbled off or parted at ground level. Any ideas why? Is it always slugs or snails, or is something else going on? A conspiracy perhaps?
Another problem I have this year is that my pumpkin plant leaves are turning yellow. They are planted in a bed that has never had pumpkins in it and which was sown with a white mustard cover crop over winter. Can the mustard have sucked all the nitrogen out of the soil? Can’t be too much sunshine, can it?
If you have a lawn, as I have, and hate mowing, as I do, get yourself a robot mower. I have a Husqvarna and highly recommend it, one of the best buys I've made in years. Now this is pure speculation, but before I got the Husqy, I used to get regular visits from moles, illegal immigrants from the field next door. But from about the time I got the robot, no more molehills. I still get the odd one away from the lawn, but none on the lawn itself. Maybe Husqy's noise and vibration scares them away? The only other thing I can think of is that I have started to spray the lawn with iron sulphate. This stuff is acidic, and worms don’t like acidity, so they pack up and leave for pastures new. No worms no moles?
I have a comfrey patch and use it to make fertiliser. Walking past it this morning I thought it was turning black. It wasn't, it was black with bees. They really do go crazy for it. They also like borage, which is not yet in flower, but when it is I share the flowers with the bees. My share goes in ice cubes for GTs and Pimms.
One tip from me, if you have a greenhouse, the space and the privacy, install a cheap solar shower. We use ours from May through to October.
That’s all for now folk, except to ask one more question. Has anyone any idea what the hell this is? It pops up every year just outside our front window, stands proud and erect for a couple of days, and then wilts. A fiver for the first one to tell me.
