[JD]

Last photos.

May I take the opportunity to thank you all so much for the forum and all your support. In its hay day it was amazing and has provided support in glum moments by just leafing through comments. It was instrumental in helping me get through the death of my mother just before Christmas last year, so thanks guys. I’m going to miss it!
Jan

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[JD]

More photos

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[JD]

One word: gutted.
So,so sad it’s come to this. Like others, Im not on any social media.
I would like to thank you so very much for all your time and expertise put in over the years. I well remember the excitement of having my first question answered 3 years ago!
Thank you for maintaining the archive. It’s a very valuable resource.
With appreciation
Jan

[JD]

Thanks Sausage,
I got the plants from Delfland originally cos I was late. They hadn’t been in long when hit by the swarm of flea beetle. Update is none of them survived!
Jan

[JD]

My plot is next to a designated ‘wildlife area’. Its a windy site. I now have seeding dock, many grasses inc couch, bindweed, willow herb, creeping woodsorrel, thistle, bramble etc, etc – you get the picture – all within 30 cm of my plot.
It’s been designed and tended by the lady chairman (who’s put a small wildflower meadow right next to my plot too) so I can’t even complain.
Oh joy.

[JD]

Wow that’s amazing. Never seen that before. You’re a real source of gems of knowledge, Cleansweep. Thank you for all your posts.
Jan

[JD]

What do you now have for “what used to be the grass”, because continual mowing is an established method of weakening plants. Do you mean that it was once grass and has now been infiltrated by tall bindweed or do you mean you’ve removed the grass for something else?

Yes, you can use packaging. Brown for preference.

[JD]

No, don’t wet cardboard.
Yes, use the manure with two provisos. a) test it for aminopyralid first. b) I know they’re wonderful to have and vermicompost great for the soil etc but I would try to remove as many red worms on my site as I could. That’s because I have an issue with moles and they love the worms more than I do. However, you may not have a problem, in which case go ahead.
If you’re worried about
the seeds you could either, top it off with a layer of shop bought compost (often reduced at the end of season), or wait until the top layer of seeds germinate and hoe off before planting in earnest.
Either way you will have your work cut out with horsetail and bindweed, but it will lessen over time.
Jan

[JD]

Anyone know whether it (or anything else) works for flea beetle? They’ve suddenly arrived and I’ve never seen such numbers, probably because of the rape field next door. My swede seedlings in particular are just skeletons even though they were netted with very fine mesh. Might try it anyway.
Jan

[JD]

I would start now. Even if you just cover the area with something light-excluding like tarpaulin/black plastic/mypex it will deprive the weeds of light in their peak growing season and they will start to die. Personally, I like to put a small amount of compost underneath at the same time to give it all a kick start, but it’s not necessary.
When you start to build your beds in earnest depends on the state/age of your compost and your available time. If you have well-rotted weed-free compost you can leave it all until just before you want to plant. If it’s less well-rotted/lumpy you might benefit from spreading before winter so the frosts can break up surface lumps and produce a fine tilth. It would be in situ then for hoeing off your spring flush of weeds before planting.
Up to you. Timing’s not critical. Just don’t plant into fresh (hot) compost, and check first whether you are using anything that could contain aminopyralid weed killer. (Lots of info on this site)
Good luck. Must be lovely to have a ready source of manure. Enjoy!
Jan

[JD]

I feel for you.
How big is your onion patch? Maybe not much help but in the old days my dad used to stretch black cotton (sewing cotton) between sticks crisscrossing his lettuces etc to keep the birds off. It worked. About 10 cm high and lower at edges to stop them sneaking underneath.
If it’s not too large, maybe just surrounding the perimeter with a barrier may stop them wanting to land in a restricted space. If nothing else to hand and as it’s short-term possibly even several sheets of newspaper hung over string and clipped together with clothes pegs/bottoms buried could work if it’s not too wet and windy. (I haven’t tried it)
Finally, as a last resort, as blackbirds are the likely culprit you could always take the nursery rhyme route!
(Only joking)
Enjoy your shallots.
Jan

[JD]

I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, but just wondered if you had any spare netting you could put over the bed while the rest were drying?
Birds keep ripping up my paths too. Cardboard everywhere.
Sorry, unable to help on preserving.
Jan

[JD]

No. You can plant it straight away if your compost is not ‘fresh’ and still hot. Just keep pulling/trowelling any persistent weeds that appear.
Jan

[JD]

Thanks guys. I’ll give it a go.
Jan

[JD]

Thank you Cleansweep. That’s reassuring. Took some photos earlier but before I saw your reply so didn’t specifically look for central stem. One thing I did notice is that the outer leaves are splitting at the base. Is this how it normally grows? Sorry, only pictures I’ve seen of it seem to be of large bulb and small tuft of leaves so nothing to compare to.
Jan

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