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Thanks Hawfinch – had a read through the thread, makes interesting reading.
Hi, I’m also having problems with a rat in my (cool) compost bins. We’ve had to get the Rat Man out and he’s put some bait in one of the bins (where I’ve just started a new heap) and a cage containing bait outside the other (contains compost still rotting down). He was concerned as we have a dog and so this is what he advised.
My question though is this: will the compost be contaminated, either by the poison or by the rat’s droppings or urine – does anyone know please? He said there could be an issue with diseases carried by rats, eg leptosporosis, and I wonder whether I’m going to have to throw away all my lovely compost. That would be a huge loss for me.
Mine are doing really well this year actually – I’ve got 2 plants, both about 4 years old, planted at my allotment. I do mulch them and feed them a bit too – have to say I’m never sure whether I should be doing the feeding or not! However, really good crop this year, much better than previous years. Maybe it’s because they’ve been in a couple of years longer?
Ooh, I think I’ll try the Ikea net curtains grannyjanny! Thanks for that idea.
I got some from Homebase – they’re not bad – not as flimsy as those green ones I’ve used before which seem to be the ones that most places sell. The ones I bought have 40 cells, not sure if they do other sizes as I bought them last year.
Oh that’s good news – thank you Charles!
I planted 9 lettuces grown in modules, all a reasonable size, a couple of weeks ago. I surrounded each plant with Slug Gone (dried sheeps wool which has always worked for me against slugs every time) and every single lettuce has disappeared. I’m thinking that it must be leatherjackets in my case too. I was going to plant out some rocket that I’ve grown in modules, but after reading these posts, I’m wondering whether I should leave them in their modules for a while.
If anyone’s interested in trying them up/round canes, I do this every year and it works really well for me. The plants can then fit neatly inside my 4′ wide beds, I just have to make sure I keep tying the stems to the canes as they do grow so fast don’t they! And if anyone’s wondering, I don’t have a problem with the weight of the fruit at all even when they’re fully grown. Last year, I grew Crown Prince which grew fairly large, and Uchiki Kuri.
Might be worth having a look at the Alan Romans website? Not actually bought from them before as I don’t need these sort of quantities either, but I believe it’s an excellent place to get good quality spuds, and as I understand it, plenty of different varieties too.
I can’t believe I’m still harvesting raspberries – both summer and autumn varieties. Surely they must finish soon! I want to be able to cut the summer ones down!!
Thank you so much Charles – I’ll take your advice and put what I’ve already got in small amounts in my compost heaps (I’ve got compost heaps at home as well as at the allotment), and I think I’ll aim to collect some more over the winter months and put them in their own heap. We are very lucky in that there’s a brewery opposite the allotments so I just need to wheel my barrow over and bring as much back as I can. Thanks for the tip about the slugs if it’s spread on the garden as a mulch, I hadn’t thought that that might happen.
And good to hear the spent tomato compost and seaweed/concentrated manure suggestion gets the thumbs up!
Thanks again,
AdrienneI am in a similar position, and was thinking about adding some chicken manure pellets to the green waste compost – would that be good do you think?
Hope you don’t mind me putting a comment in here for what it’s worth, but I have a Bramley apple tree at home, it’s about 6 years old now – there are no apple trees nearby that I know of, and every year it has fruited no problem. Guess there must be one out there somewhere that bees visit and then come over to mine!!
Actually, last year after attending your course in February Charles, I followed your advice of covering my beds with compost, manure etc, hoeing more often, and lots of other advice I learnt from you, and I actually won ‘Most Improved Allotment’ which chuffed me to bits!
What about growing the butternut squash up a wigwam of canes – would that mean it might have enough space, or would it still be competing too much for nutrients from the kale/cabbage?
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