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Thank you Charles. I will thoroughly wash the tap on an empty bin and transfer the contents to that bin adding some cardboard and grass cuttings as I go. I do add shredded newspaper but that is obviously not sufficient.
I have a problem with the tap blocking up and I cannot therefore drain the bin properly. Has anyone else had a problem with this and how did they solve it. Many thanks.
Regarding slugs/snails in the polytunnel. I use 1 litre water bottles with the base removed buried upside down in the ground next to a lot of my plants like peppers, tomatoes and beans and along rows of peas etc. I fill these up with water rather than water the soil on top. I find that this deters them as the top soil is always dry and the water gets directly to the plant roots where it is needed.
This is my second year of growing yacon. I overwintered the buds in a large bucket of moist compost in the polytunnel and they sprouted in the spring without a problem. My yacon have never grown above four feet but the tubers have still been enormous. My biggest problem was what to do with them, how to eat them, as there were so many. Has Steph any ideas?
The said plant is now about 8 ft tall. I am not sure if it will grow any more as the stem has a kink where it reached the top of the tunnel and started growing over to the other side. It seems to have the habit of “the sutton” in that it has beans growing very close together on the stem but they are up to 10 inches long. I will be saving some seed but unfortunately I have already promised seed to others. Perhaps next year if it comes true I can let you have some. There is a picture on the letters page of Amateur Gardening this week but the photograph was taken back in April and it was nowhere near as tall as it is now.
My overwintering onions are going to seed as well. Not sure about the garlic it seems to be OK at the moment.
Checked my outside broad beans today and have small beans on three out of four varieties sown last winter.
I grew The Sutton broad bean in a small polytunnel over winter. One of the plants (obviously a rogue seed) has grown to over five feet tall and still growing. This plant already has about a dozen small beans on it but there is nothing on the others. I have also picked Douce Provence peas sown in November and very nice they were too. A product of the mild winter presumably.
Hi Anne
Could you let me know where you got your Bio BT from.
regards JanetHave you tried Deep Root Trainers. They are expensive to buy but last forever if you are careful with them. I got mine at a local end of season sale and they get used for several crops a year.Not sure if they are available in France.
I have a 10x20ft tunnel and I have found that a central 3ft bed with a 1.5ft pathway and two 2ft beds either side works well for me but my tunnel does have straight sides.
I am only 5ft tall and therefore have quite short arms and this means I can easily reach all areas of bed from the pathways. The side beds may appear quite narrow but it is surprising how much you can plant in them.I have the opposite problem. I only have two beds on my allotment for potatoes and as I like to have several different varieties have always bought them loose from a well known chain of garden centres. This year they are only supplying them in 1 or 2 kg bags prepacked. Luckily I have found a local garden centre (Monkton Elm) who have a tremendous range of potatoes loose at £2.29 a kilo. They get my support from now on.