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The forum was invaluable to me when I first started no-dig. I still look every day and read the posts, generally without logging in. The website has a wealth of information and the forum is the icing on the cake – Me – “Why haven’t my celeriac seeds germinated?” Charles – “You need to sow them on the surface without covering the seeds”. I doubt that you would get that practical advice based on personal experience elsewhere.
I do venture onto the Facebook site occasionally but with 16,000 users there are inevitably some who give incorrect opinion or are just plain unpleasant. It is more of a social site than Charles’ Forum – it is not a criticism, just that the two platforms fulfil different needs. I wouldn’t use the Facebook page as an alternative to the forum.
Best wishes
JohnHaving the weed fabric under your growing medium was bad advice. I would advise removing the compost, cardboard and fabric, relaying the cardboard and then the compost on top. It is early in the season for planting 4/6 of your beds so there is plenty of time for replanting. Perhaps, if planted just a few days ago, you can salvage your plants.
This might be a massive job depending on the size of the area and the amount of compost but you will have to remove it sometime and it will be much harder if you leave it to the end of the season when roots will have grown through the fabric – the voice of bitter experience!
I think that plants will grow as it is, as long as the compost is thick enough, but you need to decide on what is possible in the short term and best outcome in the long term.
I have been overwintering field beans for 4 years and the method has worked well for me. I am fortunate in having lots of space.
Link to 2015-16 green manure blog articleHi Andrew
A few days ago I scythed down the tops of my field beans and added them to the compost heap, leaving the roots and soil undisturbed. I am in no great rush to plant (usually, but not necessarily, brassicas from modules sown later) so I cover with weed fabric for a month or so to kill off any remaining greenery.
John
That sounds like a good plan. The RHS has a useful video and, although it is about trees much taller than yours, the principles are the same.
Photos need to be relatively small files, not straight from the camera. If you use the camera on the phone you can email the photo to yourself as a medium sized file and then upload it using the Attachments facility below the edit screen, not the ‘img’ tag above it; the latter is useful if you have images on a website. My photo is just a test!
The Henry Doubleday Research Association (now Garden Organic) used the term Household Liquid Activator. I remember my grandfather’s daily routine of barrowing an enormous container full of HLA down to his 2 allotments, the produce of which he used to feed his very large family. I was just a tot at the time so the ‘enormous container’ was probably just a jerry pot. One of my plot neighbours uses HLA to mark his territory around his sweetcorn and he tells me that he never has problems with the local badger, although it also has the effect of keeping his neighbours away.
Hi Charles
I have been taking your advice about leaving roots in situ, partly for the reasons you have given, but also to avoid putting any soil on my compost heap. I have some problem areas with onion white rot and don’t want to spread the soil-borne fungus into the heap and then, via the compost, to other areas of my plot. Does this seem a good idea or I am being paranoid?
Best wishes, John
I had the same problem, with the addition of bindweed, a few years ago. I chopped at the edges of the plants to get substantial ‘cuttings’ and started a new bed. I kept the old bed for the next season while the new plants established but you may not need to do this, depending on how much rhubarb you like! Many books recommend starting a new bed every 3-5 years; I am not sure that this is necessary but it certainly beats doing battle, usually a losing one, with infested plants.
Thank you Charles. Not even a full week has gone by in April but we have had 46mm already. My neighbour’s growbags form an archipelago in his flooded greenhouse!
Hi Charles
I sowed onion seed on 14th February in modules and planted out small seedlings on 21st March under a double layer of fleece. Almost all have disappeared! We have had a very wet March in Devon (not so sunny Exmouth!) and I guess that the fleece, resting on the seedlings, has been permanently wet. I wonder if this has been the problem. Is it likely to be just the difficult start to the season?
I will try some sets and experiment with resowing seed. Is this best done in modules as before?
Best wishes
John
Hi Rhys
I grew sets a few year ago and they did well until July when I noticed the white rot shown in the photo. Hope the photo helps.
John