What are we doing in the garden 2024

I dislike the peat fields going. i will look tomorrow to see the contents, but I know it is full of bits and bobs. I always reuse or dump into the rockeries.

 

It's not just used in horticulture. IIRC there's more used for other purposes, burning as fuel etc., than for compost production.
Don't you lecture me young man! I use absolutely anything I can get hold of to mulch and the trees are now starting to make their presence felt by contributing leaves. The fact remains that none of the 'substitutes' is a patch on peat for raising and growing on plants. Living near vast pine forests, the producers of bagged compost here sell shredded, barely composted pine bark and street sweepings as 'compost'. If you're 'lucky' they add manure which leaches out with the first waterings .
Vive la tourbe!

 

noun feminine = peat apparently cognate with the English turf.
2°meaning = mob or rabble
Isn't the internet wonderful.

 

The Norfolk Broads are made from harvested peat bogs. They are full of wild life and beautiful.

Planted the new Solanum Glasnevin, transplanted some honesty and did some weeding.

 

Nobody has mentioned that peat bogs act as an amazing store of CO2, and surely most of us realise the devastating problems being caused by rising CO2 levels.

 

I've used a fair amount of peat over my gardening life and I agree its mostly good stuff.

I think the problem that arises with the substitutes is that the suppliers dont really put in the effort regarding creating a sellable product, its not properly rotted half the time because that takes time, they are so used to just digging it up and bagging it with a bit of fertiliser added, job done and big profits.
They barely have to make it, which is what has to be done with the non peat products.


As for burning it, well we aren't allowed to burn much coal these days either, I cant remember the last time I loaded up the fire with peat.

 

But the peat that is extracted is the undecomposed remains of vegetation that grew when atmospheric CO2 concentration was much higher than the predicted scenarios of doom. Any current growth of vegetation absorbs and sequesters carbon. Amongst the possible ways of 'storing carbon', were it necessary, would be the harvesting of vegetation and deeply burying them in anaerobic conditions.But first one would need to produce such vegetation.
Carbon cycling is the way !

 

I took my large roll of sticky parcel tape down to the greenhouse and taped up the worst two holes in the tarp. over the greenhouse. It now looks like a very badly wrapped parcel But it does the job so far, I shall wait to see how long it lasts.

 

I find Gorilla tape very good for repairing holes in the g/h.

 

I am so stingy I was determined to get another years use out of a threadbare holey old plastic tarpaulin. I didn't realis Gorilla did a tape, useful to know.

 

Peat bogs also store water which, in times of increasingly heavy and sutaine downpours, can affect and reduce floods further down the hills.

Public holidays here - VE Day today and Ascension tomorrow so noisy gardening allowed only between 10am and noon. OH has been strimming a wider path down to the the veg plot and chook pen. I've potted up the 3 hardy geraniums that arrived yesterday, a bit battered looking so needed a rest first. The two clematis alpinas were much more lively loooking and all are now looking well.

It's finally sunny and temps will not go below double figures at night so this pm we'll bemoving the rather large ficus benjamina and elastica out onto th eterrace for their summer hols. That will involve some furniture arranging as they have to be in windows all winter.

 

I potted on White Malva and Blue Aubitilon plug plants which arrived from Spain today and repotted two Adeniums into slightly larger pots. T'other Half got the watering done early too. It is 27c already now so it was time to come into the coo!

 

Something was damaging my grape vine leaves so looked it up and it could be one of several different things. Looked under the top leaves to try and identify what the problem was. I discovered nearly each one has a very tiny baby snail under it. Any one any ideas they got up there?

 

Sameway they get to the top panes of glass in the greenhouse, onto to the upstairs windows of the house, up to the top of the Japanese Maple and up the trunks of the tall conifers, they slowly and steadily crawl and will continue to do so as long as conditions suit, damp and a supply of food, or until they get predated.

 

Probably headed up to miss the eclipse super high tide on April 8th !