Garden Centre
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Going, going ...
The sweet peas are nearly gone. These are about the last of them, beaded with rain (what isn't?), and on very short stems, but still scenting the house gloriously. August is almost upon us, and despite the wettest summer since records began, most of the standard tasks for the 'hottest' month are still on my list of things to do:Autumn crocus need be planted this month, to get an extra week or two of flowers after the main garden plants have finished for the year - and this year I'm going to dip my bulbs in turpentine before planting to try and beat the squirrels; last year I didn't get a SINGLE flower!
Spring flowering perennials need to be divided and transplanted in August, this is a lovely job for the long warm summer evenings, if we get any …
My summer flowering shrubs like ceonothus and weigela will be pruned back into shape after they have finished flowering.
Autumn and winter vegetables will need to be organised, we're growing all year round onions, carrots, lettuce, spinach, black radish, and winter cauliflower and for all of them we'll be sowing seed directly into the garden in the next week or so.
Labels: august, autumn crocus, garden flowers, garden tasks, summer pruning
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3 Comments:
"All year round carrots, lettuce and spinach" ... now that has my interest. Do you mean in a glasshouse, though?
Winter cauliflower is self explanatory, however, even though I've not heard of it. I'll look out for seed for next winter - too late for me now, as it's mid Winter in New Zealand.
Also, you'll not remember, but my first compost crop :) is now about six weeks in the making, and I've three quarter filled one of my two black compost making bins, so I decided this weekend to fork all the contents to the second contain to get the air in, etc, which I've read I'm supposed to do. My query is, on doing this task I notice there doesn't appear to be a lot happening. I've been layering rose prunings with lawn mowing, food and then green matter, but on the transfer of the material, although the food is breaking down much of the rest is still dry matter, for example the lawn clippings, with the odd black oily looking patches developing here and there (no smell). Plus even down the bottom of the bin I've not seen one earth worm.
After six weeks does this sound 'right' to you? Perhaps it was too early for me to be transferring from one bin to the other.
Hey, after covering the small plants that came through from the frost, on your suggestion, that crop is looking very healthy, and I seem to have a very good strike of garlic coming through (although I think I may have planted them a bit early, but it's all experiment at the moment.
Mark Hubbard
Hmmm, difficult to say, although six weeks is quite early. Was the bin hot? For the decomposition process to work, heat is generated by the organisms that decompose the contents of the bin, and can reach 100 degrees! If you compost isn't hot, and you're adding new stuff regularly, then the problem may be that there's not enough air and you'll see new activity, and heat, now you've turned it all over and added air to the mix.
Is it too dry? If it doesn't feel moist when you stick your hand a couple of inches into the pile (moist like a warm mist, not like a cold bog!) then it may be too dry - add a good splash of warm water and turn the top into the middle to distribute the moisture.
It doesn't sound like it can be too woody, but once the oxygen is used up on a lot of green material, you can get those slimy anaerobic patches you mention, which suggest you need more 'brown' stuff like twigs to keep the pile ventilated.
Best advice - find somebody who has a horse, buy a bag of non-sterilised horse pooh, the more recently produced the better, and mix it into the bin - it does all the things listed above and contains wonderfully healthy and active bacteria that will help leaven your bin for years to come.
Good luck!
Cheers. There's a paddock of horses down the road, obviously my next port of call :)
Mark
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