[DazzerelliParticipant]

For me it’s a tie between ps broccoli and climbing beans. The taste and yield of these, more than other crops, has improved quite dramatically since I started feeding the soil 3 years ago.

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

Thanks for the advice Charles. The technique and the reasoning sounds like that applied to Tomato plants. I had not thought of pinching shoots out at different times to spread the harvest over a longer period, I think I’ll try it this year.

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

Robin, I read your flower sprouts posting and just afterwards was in Waitrose and noticed that they are selling small trays of flower sprouts now. Very posh.

Really enjoyed the article in Grow It! You’ve done a terrific job on your garden, it looks fantastic, great pictures. Love the bath.

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

I’ve tried using enviromesh but, as well as looking unsightly in my garden and making maintenance a pain, it seemed to create such a cosy microclimate that the plants were covered in whitefly which billowed out whenever I touched the mesh. Like you Pete I’m looking at making my own with the aim of them being both affective and easy and quick to use as well as looking ok. The best design I’ve seen so far is one with wire hoop supports with string criss-crossed from one side of the bed to the other holding the covering in place on the wire. The covering can be slid up and down between the string and the wire for maintenance/harvest/ventilation. The RHS Veg growing book describes how to make them and Joy Larkcom’s Growing your own veg also mentions them. One neat feature is a small loop in the wire, near the soil, that the string can be looped round. Hopefully the 3.5mm wire that I’ve sourced will be strong enough.

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

Thanks for your reply Charles. It wasn’t going to keep the seedlings on for so long but it sounds like I can be a bit more bold than anticipated. Do you find it necessary to use a thermostat so that the heat doesn’t get too much on warmer days in the greenhouse? Is it useful to cover trays or modules with sheets of glass or domed clear plastic tops of the sort that most ready made shop bought propagators seem to have?

I’m looking forward to sowing the seeds that you mention in your reply this weekend. It feels like the starting gun for this year’s growing has finally gone off!

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

http://moreveg.co.uk is good for small quantities of seeds. They are selling packets of 75 Freckles seeds for 50p.

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

Hi Kate,

I find MoreVeg good, a good range of all vegetables and particularly good for small quantities at low prices, handy for trying out lots of different varieties:

http://www.moreveg.co.uk

Nicky’s Nursery also has a good range and has started to sell a limited range in smaller and cheaper packets:

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk

If you have Charles’ books handy, I think he lists some seed suppliers that he uses towards the back, maybe in the references section.

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

Thanks Charles

If the ‘manure’ is predominantly rotted sawdust, should I be concerned about it not being balanced, e.g. very low in Nitrogen, very high in Carbon etc. or does this balance out as it breaks down into the soil?

Darren

[DazzerelliParticipant]

Thanks Charles, I think I’ll go down the enviromesh route as you suggest. The heavy duty anti-bird net looks to be just what I was initially after in terms of flexibility, however with the mesh size being 25mm does this keep out the butterflies?

[Author]

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