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Because I’m a wimp about smells and can’t stand the whiff of nettle tea, I was glad to come across an alternative, can’t remember where I found it, the brain cells are aging!
One needs a bucket, a plant pot or something with a hole in it and a further weight for the top which will not let water through – I use another bucket which catches any rainwater.
The bottom bucket will catch the exudate. The plant pot is put inside it and nettles, comfrey,etc are piled in the plant pot with the weighty bucket on top. As the pile reduces, I add more. After a few days, there is liquid in the bottom bucket which can be diluted 20/1. It has no smell at all, even to my sensitive nose.
After the weeeds are well compacted and brown, I remove to the compost heap and start again. It is brilliant😃
I haven’t had horsetail, but bindweed, nettles, creeping thistle and couch. I covered with cardboard, thick banana boxes – collected daily free from Morrison’s – overlapped and compost on top. It did take some time to collect and open the boxes and spread them with no gaps, but I have not had to uncover and I planted into the 10cm of compost same year. I only have a small allotment about a third standard size and just did a small bed at a time, 4 feet across and 10 feet long. With the little re emergence at sides and on path I have a trusty old bread knife. I slip it into the soil beside the root and saw the root as far down as I can, pull out and firm down so no light gets down. I have to Keep at it but only a few villains a week now – started last April. Maybe you could try the bread knife (or reasonable facsimile) around the tree? Good luck with whatever you do.
They need lots of water (not a problem at the moment!)I cut bottoms off a few plastic bottle and hollowed a space to stick them in 2 to a bale and added water every couple of days last year, but April and May were very dry. They grew courgettes, butternut squash, pattypan squash, strawberries, cucamelons, all successfully. I planted in holes and added a little compost in the hole to help them establish, but only watered after that. I made a square with 4 bales with compost in the middle and grew sweet corn in the middle with borlotti beans supported by the sweetcorn. Unfortunately the lovely cobs were eaten in their entirety by rats the night before I intended to harvest them☹️
This year bought some organic compost from Aldi at £2 for a 40 litre bag. Have my suspicions that it is green waste re labelled. It is growing lovely salad leaves in the polytunnel, however.
Local tip sells green waste compost at £2 a bag which I have used as a mulch last autumn. Ours looks better than the green waste in Charles’ pictures, much less woody bits, but still dark and I would not try to grow seedlings in it, but it seems great as a mulch, lots of worms in it this spring.
Hope this is helpful, have a great time growing
I had a straw bale area last year. They are still pretty intact this year so I am planting in them again. One is falling apart and I am layering it in my compost bin as I found using as mulch led to huge numbers of slugs. Just one person’s experience for info.
I find my allotment neighbours very ready to water when I am away. I leave a couple of full watering cans next to the vulnerable ones and someone always obliges. I, of course return the favours.
Have been buying my seeds from ‘Real Seeds’ this last two years and had no germination problems. Even last year’s packets have come up trumps. They also encourage you to save your own. Small company, very ethical.
They don’t do F1 hybrids though, if you want a special crop. They do lots of older varieties and they test all the seeds themselves for germination, growth and flavour.
They are sold in clear plastic pkts, with sowing instructions enclosed. The post is very quick.
They have to charge you 1p initially to become a member of their club, because, apparently, outside the main protagonists, no one is allowed to sell seed without a licence. Ah, this modern, capitalist world🙄
Went in mid July as slightly thinner pencils. The soil in that patch is very sticky clay and there was only a couple of inches of compost on top, so maybe they were too compressed and no air around the roots. They will get a better patch this year☺️
Mine are producing, but only small shoots, lots of them. Some have been decimated by the blessed pigeons. Put one of those solar powered flashing lights next to them and not seen more damage for 3 days.
Lovely warm sun today, no frozen fingers! Just had a variation on cauliflower cheese for lunch – picked Kallettes, PSB, flower sprouts from the kale and tiny romanesco cauli flowers, with a leek and cheese sauce, yummy.
Tidied up my spinach beet today. Planted last April and have picked steadily all year and plants still look healthy and producing masses of small new leaves. What a performer!
My leeks, however,are still pencil thin after months in the ground. Going to call them spring onions and start again☹️
What a lovely day on the plot.😃
I started on a new small allotment this year. The soil is heavy clay, compacted by vehicles building houses next to it and full of building rubbish.
There are ten of us and most are diggers. The site is now waterlogged after the snow and rain of the last weeks. The grass (weed) paths between plots are wet mud or standing water.
I followed a no dig approach and included a couple of small hugel mounds and a straw bale area. I also did a ‘lasagne’ bed (not so successful!) I covered weeds with cardboard and put compost on top and planted into it.
Had a lovely year, except for the rats eating all my sweetcorn just before I was about to pick it.
The best is now, however. None of the beds are waterlogged, the pathways are chippings and though soft have no standing water and I am still harvesting – kale, PSB, chard, spinach, pea sprouts, lettuces, romanesco caulis, Kallettes, spring onions, spinach beet, none under cover. I had a poly tunnel, but it ripped in the last storm, our site has wonderful views but is very open.
Many thanks Charles for all your inspiration. One other plot holder has gone to no dig now.
Much sympathy. First year on a new site of uncultivated and building land. Doing battle this year with slugs, moles, rats ate all my lovely sweetcorn, pigeons, whitefly, rabbits and caterpillars. My Kallettes have been spared and we are really enjoying them.
Hi Charles,
It’s not about slugs, but can’t find how to post a new topic. I had 14 lovely sweetcorn, checked them one evening, returned following morning to harvest, having picked one to sample(delicious) to find everyone had been eaten.The stalks were still standing but every cob had been stripped. Mice? Rats? Birds?
Should I grow in fruit cage next year.
Mourning😢
Bought some wooden snakes from tiger, green and orange on the top. Move them around and bend into a ferocious looking position! So far damage seems to have stopped on brassicas. We shall see!