[JDParticipant]

My other concern is what has the carpet been treated with? Many, many moons ago I did some tests on tadpoles for the Environment Agency so see the effect on them of a then carpet insecticide dieldrin. It has since been found to be highly toxic to aquatic life and been banned as carcinogenic! Maybe anything in your old carpet has degraded by now but I would always hesitate to use them myself.
I’m also astonished that you can grow potatoes over winter as we have to start in the spring here. Maybe you have a milder climate or are growing them under cover.
Good luck with everything and have bountiful harvests.
Jan

[JDParticipant]

In the northern hemisphere they go anti-clockwise and in the southern they go clockwise, though I suppose there will always be a few rogues. You can always tie them in to your canes very loosely to give them a start. Your missing tips could be mechanical eg wind damage or more likely may have been eaten by slugs/snails who love them – check for those. From what I can see it doesn’t appear to be weed killer related. The beans will grow new shoots from leaf nodes, so expect two or three rather than one main shoot, but it will take them a while to do so.
Good luck
Jan

[JDParticipant]

Both the products you mention lefti are probably just some derivation of/similar to the municipal green waste compost you can get from your council. They like to dress it up with smart words to make it sound like must-have superfood for plants. You may be one of the lucky ones and your council may deliver. Mine don’t, but I was able to go to their recycling facility to collect some tubtrugs of compost free of charge. The downside of this is that the green waste is probably still composting (mine was 60 degrees) and may need storing for a few months before it’s optimal to use. I just limited myself to a couple of beds of bought compost, then used the green waste later when it was ready. Now trying to compost like mad. Don’t think there’s anything better than your own freshly made compost teeming with beneficial microbes.
Best of luck and have fun with growing your first crops.
Jan

[JDParticipant]

Probably best to go with the brassicas as it’s a different family. Just pulled my elephant garlic too as it didn’t look happy. Never grown it before so can’t comment on likelihood of rust contamination.
Enjoy your garlic
Jan

[JDParticipant]

Thank you Tris,
Bed finally finished and much overdue celeriac finally planted. Don’t think it liked being in the plug trays so long. We’ll see how it gets on. It’s in a bed all on its lonesome with insect net over as some perpetual spinach has been decimated by leaf miner and I’m not sure if it’s the same type that attacks celeriac. Have put a dwarf French bean between each block of 4 sweetcorn and hope no ill effects.
Thanks again
Jan
PS have people stopped using the forum or just extremely busy at the moment?

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