Compost, Fertilisers & Recycling

What I have finally done is shred it all by manually tearing into strips, I have even done this whilst watching television. The strips are a bit coarse but that was much faster than putting it through a small domestic shredder which took forever. Thank goodness for bin bags - I stored the...

I see Homebase are selling Vermiculite, this used to be used a packing and insulation, but is very good for starting runner beans and the like, as it encourages root growth, stores moisture and allows the plants to be taken out without damaging the roots. Now for a piece of chemistry; clay needs...

Brassicas. But it should really be done during the autumn/winter and not just before sowing or planting.

More likely to be slow worms rather than snakes I would think, and they wont like being disturbed this early I shouldn't think. :D But whatever you find its bound to be harmless, and more scared of you, than you are, of it.

dendrobium is correct but it really depends on how many hundred apples and how big your compost heap is. Burying them won't do any harm either. You could also leave some apples in parts of the garden where they won't get in the way. The birds would love them this time of year. Our blackbirds...

Quite right pete, when the government were trying to get us to use water butts I emailed them and said that it was just a diversion from the real point of water storage and consevation. I also pointed out to them that as we were in a drought (and a heatwave) we weren't going to get any rain to...

Now this topic has answered my question! You learn something new every day....!

Just answered this here! :Dhttp://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=31;t=000265;p=2

Thanks for that Beefy,will check out our local one tomorrow

Just found this Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow PlantsI wonder if all the whisky and real ale I drink will help my plants????

There used to be some Toggenburger goats in the field out back of our house for quite some years (unfortunately a house there now). The owner always let us have the muck out of the shed and did our garden ever grow! I'll never forget the size of the African marigolds - a good meter tall! ...

Just looked at Keble Martin and that seems to confirm my suspicion, with the notch at the bottom of the leaf. It is one of those things that if I saw it in the flesh I could be quite definite. Do the leaf stems all come from a small crown at ground level? Cause that is how lesser celandine...

Many thanks to both whis4ey and LesH for their replies, they were both very helpfulteajay

I had an email sent to me on the subject of composting and thought it was very kind of him to take the trouble to help me, but unfortunatly i deleted the message by mistake before i had chance to reply and I can't remember the persons name. If this is you could you please email me again.

If you know anyone who has a subscription to 'Which? Gardening' or if your local library has it you can read the article in this month's magazine. It is entitled 'It's in the bag' and shows the results of their latest trials on composts. They divide their findings into 'Peat-free...

It never occurred to me to soak the paper, boy gardener - thanks to all of you for your comments, I will now put all the shreddies in the compost bin

Dave,I always have a 'working'plastic bin that steams up a treat and add a few fork fulls from it to the other bins. I just thought that using much bigger sealed composters would speed things up all together especially the heavier garden waste.

That's a useful site, Oktarine - hadn't come across it before. Thanks! :D

Peat free composts can be a bit rough for seed sowing. There is a new Genie range of peat and loam free composts made from UK sourced 100% re-cycled ingredients. They are intended for seeds and cuttings etcSee:http://www.vitalearth.tv/

I'm tackling whitefly and aphids from a different direction. Every hibernating or semi hiberanting ladybird I find in the garden gets a new cosy winter home under a few peach tree leaves in the greenhouse. Hopefully they will do the job!