[PoolfieldMember]

Another great success has been the improvement in the soil’s ability to cope with the hot dry weather. I haven’t had enough compost to cover the old pathways and the soil there is like concrete and cracked and yet in the beds between them the soil is still is still wonderful and the plants are looking very happy.

[PoolfieldMember]

Unless you have hours to spare I would recommend that you concentrate on part of the allotment and do it thoroughly rather than tackle the whole thing and end up with weeds that get away from you. Cover what you can’t deal with this year and get back to it when you can manage.

Each year the part you have dealt with is so easy to cope with that you can then tackle the next bit.

[PoolfieldMember]

So glad to hear other stories of people for whom no dig is working.

[PoolfieldMember]

That is the weird thing, these trees are in a windy field and although we planted hedge as a windbreak they still get blown about. It is a field that we considered putting a windbturbine in!

I have cut back all the little twiggy bits on the Bramley that looked sick, being very careful to keep cleaning the secateurs and made sure the centre of the tree is open. Now I’ll just have to hope.

There was a Newton Wonder that required more serious surgery but what is left is healthy.

[PoolfieldMember]

I am doing the winter pruning on my fruit garden and thankfully my cordon apples are looking good but the freestanding apples and pears have a quite bad attack of canker.

I was looking to see how far back I need to cut to remove it but on the Bramley I don’t think there will be much left. Should I just accept defeat and cut it right down and replant with canker resistant varieties?

[PoolfieldMember]

Woodchips on membrane seems to be a challenging combo cos you can’t hoe so I would either go for membrane or woodchips but not both.

I find I have to top up the mulch each year as I do more shredding to keep it effective as a light excluding mulch.

If you can store the woodchips so they can compost over several years they will make a good compost eventually.

[PoolfieldMember]

LBS no longer stock 25g fleece, I have ordered a roll of 30g as the only other they do now is 17g. I’ll report back whether it still seems fragile.

[PoolfieldMember]

Sorry just found you already had a thread going about this undr a different title.

I have put 6″ of muck on the bed and planted on top but I think having read the other post I will dig up the herbs and strawberries that are battling with the couch and plant them through landscape fabric.

[PoolfieldMember]

We bought some from a local quarry to fill the gaps between paving stones without using cement and I can confirm that moss grows well in it

We had to buy half a ton and the excess was put on my raised beds just to get rid of the heap, I can’t say I have seen any difference between that bed and the ones that didn’t get any but maybe it was too coarse.

[PoolfieldMember]

At last we seem to have got to a point where the crops make more growth than the slug numbers can harm.

I guess in frosty weather the slugs slow down? I will continue to put the traps in new areas before I plant seedling next season. Thanks to the course in Oct I am now picking healthy mixed leaves (and peashoots) in autumn/winter for the first time ever.

[PoolfieldMember]

I am still collecting 40 ish slugs every few days from 4 dishes in the polytunnel, there must have been huge numbers in there. I wonder how much longer this will continue?

[PoolfieldMember]

I had a go with beer traps in the polytunnel last night, I used old Sundae Dishes and I was amazed at how many slugs I collected. Very successful and less sickening than stabbing them with a knife. At least they died happy.

[PoolfieldMember]

Last growing season I started no dig and having watched numerous permaculture youtube clips I did a straw mulch over all my fruit and veg plots. As Charles says I had a huge slug problem especially on potatoes, I hardly had any undamaged spuds.

The straw doesn’t rot down in one season either so I have now had to rake it all off and put it into the compost heap.

The only successful use of straw was on my soft fruit beds as a weed supressing method but I still used well rotted muck first, I’m not sure I’ll add any more straw this year if I can get hold of some well rotted muck instead.

[PoolfieldMember]

That is a very encouraging story for someone just at the beginning of the no dig process, thank you.

[PoolfieldMember]

I am planning on keeping myself in peashoots through the winter by growing tray after tray on various window sills and then when I have taken the first cut I’ll pop them in the polytunnel for their slow regrowth.

I am using dried peas that were intended for soaking and cooking and they germinated really quickly indoors and they were really cheap at £1.56 kg

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