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Thanks, Charles. If at first……..
I am trying an experiment on slugs this season. I keep a bucket of very dry compost and The last thing I do before leaving the plot is to put a layer around my most vulnerable plants. I only have a small allotment, so it’s not too onerous.
So far it has worked on everything but the Chinese cabbage. Was a bit foolish to plant Chinese cabbage in April! I only have one left.
Have also a couple of planks for them to hide under and they go to my neighbours chickens in the mornings.
I bottle cloche my very diddy seedlings, which largely works, though some very enterprising slugs have managed to slither their way in.My allotment was full of thistle last year when I took it over. I did not remove any of the thistles. I cut them to the ground and covered in cardboard and compost.
It is now a year later. Thistles do emerge here and there and I pull them whenever I spot them, mostly at a very small stage when they are not too prickly to pull by hand. They are appearing less and less, so I guess this approach works.Last year, my first year on this allotment, was facing the same problems. The first bed I made was a lasagne bed. I had some big branches which I made the bed out of and then put cardboard on the bottom over the weeds, a good thick layer, then filled the bed with all the waste I could lay my hands on, just like a compost heap. I put a couple of inches of compost on top. The main difficulty would be the slugs, but I did not experience a huge increase in slugs here compared to the rest of the plot. This bed has grown perpetual spinach, chard, beetroot, spring onions and then sprouting broccoli and kale. Have added nothing more and there is now 6 inches of compost without adding any more to the bed and very few weeds.
I also made 2 hugel mounds. Dug a trench and put in logs and branches, horse manure, straw, topped off with soil and compost. The theory is it will be self watering and feeding for many years. Again they were planted in the first year and grew romanesco caulis, parsley, sweet potato (not great yields!)tomatoes, cucamelons, cucumbers,and squash. I started in April too.
Just a couple of ideas, if they are new to you there’s lots of info on the web.
Hi Jen,
Welcome. I started a new allotment last April and it was full of waist high nettles, thistles, dyers weld, couch grass and clover. I only used cardboard. I cut the weeds level and put cardboard on top with between 4and 6 inches of compost on top depending on what I was growing. The cardboard was free from Morrison’s. I collected their banana boxes daily and opened them up, using them double. I used them for the paths, too. I put branches on top to hold the cardboard down until it was well soaked and flat and had plenty of overlap. Some bits I pegged weed control fabric over to hold down the cardboard. Then I gradually made my beds and planted straightaway.There is very little regrowth of the perennials. The odd nettle pokes through and the odd thistle, easy to remove. This season the cardboard has obviously composted as I can plant as deep as I want everywhere and still very few weeds are coming through. Hope this helps
Hi Alfalfa,
I cut mine, with my trusty old bread knife below the surface, and nothing regrows. If they are not well anchored and come out without much disturbance to the soil, I take them out and smash them to pieces before putting in the compost.
Just cutting the last of my kale flowers now as they are fighting to flower.
It’s not raining!Hi Dave,
Adding vermiculite or perlite, Charles like vermiculite, to your sowing compost helps the draining and lumpy issues. I saw somewhere on the forum that making a little fingertip hollow and putting seed in that without covering worked well – a little moist chamber. I’m experimenting with it.
Old compost is not good news for seedlings, but you could spread as a mulch or put in as layers in your compost bin.
Out on the soggy plot this morning, but at least it wasn’t raining. The autumn sown plants are not phased by this cold and rainy period. I have kale, purple sprouting broccoli, Kallettes, spinach, lettuce to pick from last year, with broad beans sown November now flowering, chard beetroot and carrots coming along.
Warmer weather is coming, happy plantingHi Dave,
I think it is nothing you are doing wrong, it’s just the weather. It is so cold and so little sun. My seedlings I have put in the ground are doing very little, so far. I am cloching them at night with plastic bottles cut in half to keep the slugs at bay. It’s a pain putting them on and off, but they are not getting eaten.
My lettuces in modules, even in the polytunnel, are still very small. I think the plastic greenhouses offer shelter from the cold winds but still very cold at night. The forecast does not offer much cheer for the next days either.
You might try a bit of fleece over them at night. If your soil on the plot is still very cold, they may not fare well planted out just yet.
Some peoples do rain dances, we need to do sun dances and get the temperature to rise!Thanks for the cane and bottle idea, Cleansweep. Moley has just tunnelled under all my broad beans. My neighbours are busy digging their wet clay plots and mine is full of soft compost and lovely worms. Think he will need much persuading to go elsewhere!
Oh Sandra, pants pants pants! Much sympathy. How badly damaged were the toms? Would a bit of TLC help and repotting or were they too badly mangled? I have very little tomato plants at the mo.so you will not be too far behind.
After all the bad weather enjoying warm sun in uk today.
Battling too, Amanda. The slugs have the upper hand. Should have known better than to sow Chinese cabbage. My son donates plastic bottles, for some reason he drinks bottled water!! So now my lettuce, brassicas, beetroot seedlings are all residing under half bottles. It’s a pain taking them off and on but the seedlings are showing some recovery.
Have tried tall plastic collars open at the top, so don’t have to move them till they are too big. Jury is still out on them. Fleecing was disastrous, they had a rave followed by an orgy.Had a morning scavenge and found 37