Anyone want a GARDENING CHAT

[Alicat]

It does take sometime to get going and mine seemed to live off the coir bedding that comes with the pack for a few months. But once they got going it wasn’t too bad.

When your wormmery arrives it should have an instruction book with it, telling you all you need to do. Food likes /dislikes, ( The Menu.) where to put it in the winter/ summer and so on.

Basically they eat anything organic including citrus fruit (in small quantities). The more varied the food the better. cooked and uncooked . They prefer the food to be chopped up small or liquidized and paper should be soaked in water as well as this aids the decomposition of the food and also helps the worms to eat it because they have no teeth. They will also eat hoover dust and the fluff from your tumble drier.

The only things not recommend are fresh manure, cooked meats and cat/dog muck ( if you have just wormed them) as it will kill the worms.

As for where to house it. The garage should be fine for the winter, they don’t like being too cold. Equally they don’t like being to hot.
The book says ideal temperature of 24c degrees. But they will tolerate temperatures from 10c to 30c degrees. If it gets hotter than this then place them in a shady spot of your garden.

Hope you like playing with worms. ;D ;D

[Plocket]

I've just replied to this on the Wormery thread Alicat! ;D

[Plocket]

I've had a bit of an idea as far as a garden for LP is concerned, and wondered if you could all take a look if you get a moment: gardenworld.proboards103.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=chat&thread=1168264386

Ta, Px

[Chuckles]

Did you manage to get anything sorted with your GH sweetleaf. Hope you managed to salvage plenty and didn't loose to many of your plants. The weather is so cruel sometimes

[Plocket]

Oh crumbs yes! I thought about your greenhouse at about 3.00am this morning Sweetleaf, when the wind whistling around our house woke me! What did you do and how was the greenhouse this morning?

[oldmoleskins]

plocket said:

I've had a bit of an idea as far as a garden for LP is concerned, and wondered if you could all take a look if you get a moment: gardenworld.proboards103.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=chat&thread=1168264386

Ta, Px

P. you can buy scaffold boards (strong treated timber approx 12' long x 9"x1.25") for about £10 and treated fenceposts 6'x4"x4" for about £2.50/£3.

2 boards and one post would convert easily to a container approx 4'x2' or 3'x3', 18" deep with a strong post at each corner, perhaps topped with a knobby knob if the budget can stretch a little further!

Paint it trendy New England-style pale blue, (ie not too carefully) and Little P'll have the BBC round to feature it in the mag.

Especially with a few of those dwarf sunflowers from the trials in full bloom...

OM.

[Plocket]

Brilliant idea OM - where can I buy scaffolding boards? And would I have to line it with anything to protect the wood? If I'm pleased with the construction LP can paint it herself ;D

[oldmoleskins]

plocket said:

Brilliant idea OM - where can I buy scaffolding boards? And would I have to line it with anything to protect the wood? If I'm pleased with the construction LP can paint it herself ;D

Jewsons, Rigeons, Travis Perkins.... you might even find they have sawn timber of the same sort of size that works out cheaper by the metre, and most places have a sawmill - so they could even cut it to length for you.

If it's treated (tanalised is the keyword) then it'll last a few seasons, but you might like to line it anyway with old compost bags, that sort of thing...

Don't accept the first price, btw - the last boards I bought (3 months ago) started out at £14.50 and ended up at £8.20 (Jewsons), but I did buy a dozen. Phone around and play them off against each other.

OM.

[Plocket]

Hum. I don't think we've got any of them near us - not that I know of anyway. We've got more of the DIY places like Wickes, B&Q, Focus - that sort of thing. I'll do a bit of searching though and see what I can come up with.

[Chuckles]

If there is a local timber merchants near you it may be worthwhile asking them if they have any scrap wood that you could use. As OM says tanalised is what you really want. If it's not tanalised then you would need to line it and I'd treat it with some wood preservative too. Like you said you could use a coloured one on the outside.

[Cheerypeabrain]

Well I've just been looking at the plant trial thread...getting a stirring in me gardening-glands at the very thought. It's good therapy because I get soooo down at this time of year. The garden isn't looking too bad considering, but I love to plant and sow, weed and generally pootle about in the garden and it's just too wet/windy/cold and I'm doing more harm than good treading on the wet soil...

BUT

I opened my gardening journal up today and wrote the date. I plan to keep notes about the trials as well as all my other ramblings about seeds/sowing times/germination rates etc...but for now all I've got is today's date and a list of the plants I'm hoping to grow in the MB trial...(this one and the beeb one)

so I'm a bit happier.....

[Alicat]

Hi Plocket

Another thought:- You could try a scaffolding company. - You should be able to find one in the yellow pages. - I phoned my local one and they have old boards that no longer Pass health and safety regulations, so sell them off for about £2 upwards depending on their condition.

Ali. x

[Alicat]

Hi chuckles (BB)

Forgot to say earlier - great new thread.

[Chuckles]

alicat said:

Hi chuckles (BB)

Forgot to say earlier - great new thread.

Thanks alicat, it's being well used too.

While I'm here, has anyone seen The Pocket Vegetable Expert by D.G. Hessayon. I wondered what it was like compared to his full size version.

[Plocket]

Thanks Alicat - I'll try that. OH was keen on the idea when I ran it by him last night but I get the feeling I'm going to have to build the trough. I'll need his car to buy the wood though!!

[sweetleaf]

greety said:

alicat said:

Hi chuckles (BB)

Forgot to say earlier - great new thread.

Thanks alicat, it's being well used too.

While I'm here, has anyone seen The Pocket Vegetable Expert by D.G. Hessayon. I wondered what it was like compared to his full size version.

Its ok but I still bought the full size version, as it is easier to read, and goes more into detail, as youd expect. ;D

[piggingardener]

Plocket

If you're still after scaffold boards locally, try the following:

Cox Long Ltd
Head office
Airfield Industrial Estate
Hixon
Stafford
Staffordshire, ST18 0PA


t: 01889 270166
f: 01889 271041

[Plocket]

Piggin you really are a

You've saved me the bother of having to hunt around - I feel rather lazy now!!! ;D

[piggingardener]

S'ok

Many many years ago when I was doing rather a lot of decorating, I needed a couple of scaffold boards and I bought them from Cox Long. They used to be in Stafford then but have moved to Hixon. They supply all sorts of timber products to the building trade I believe.

[Plocket]

Well your recommendation is good enough for me! Which reminds me - I haven't been to find that re-claim place. Perhaps I should save some pennies first though! ;D

[piggingardener]

I've been meaning to check out the reclaim place since I've lived here - 10 years!! One of these days........

[Plocket]

I'll let you know if I go Piggin - I've saved the link in my faves for when I get around to going! ;D

[piggingardener]

If you go on a weekend you could pop in for a cuppa and a tour of the garden!!

[Plocket]

Now that's tempting! Mind you I could pop in for a cuppa and a tour, and then we could go to the reclaim place together! ;D

Hark at me - Miss Shy!!!

[piggingardener]

Good idea!!

Mind you - b*gger the cuppa, we could have a glass of vino or summat instead!

[Plocket]

PML! Not if I'm driving there!!! ;D ;D ;D

[Chuckles]

sweetleaf said:

greety said:

Thanks alicat, it's being well used too.

While I'm here, has anyone seen The Pocket Vegetable Expert by D.G. Hessayon. I wondered what it was like compared to his full size version.

Its ok but I still bought the full size version, as it is easier to read, and goes more into detail, as youd expect. ;D

Thanks sweetleaf, got the full size version while I was in town today. Will have a read through it when I get rid of this awful head cold.

[Chuckles]

plocket said:

Now that's tempting! Mind you I could pop in for a cuppa and a tour, and then we could go to the reclaim place together! ;D

Hark at me - Miss Shy!!!

Oooooh wish I lived your way, I love those sort of places

[sweetleaf]

I recently bought an "Antique" Be your own Gardening Expert By said Dr Hessayon, ( It features a pipe smoking, very smart looking man and ladies with pinnies on the front, cover price 1/6! ) It included soil testing paper in a little bag inside the front cover too, its still there!

I paid a couple of quid for it including postage just out of curiosity, to see how gardening has changed in the last forty or so years. It was a real eye opener let me tell you.
The poisons used in the average garden back then must have decimated all the friendly insects for decades......

[Chuckles]

Wow what a find SL. I used to go in the local charity shops after work and root about in the books, never found anything worth getting on the gdn side, lots of old cookery books though. I'll have to start looking again.