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Garden & Gardening Tips

Trevor please tell me how you did those potato pots they look great, I have the bag ones but those look much better. As I don't like far from you I must frequent the same shops etc, I went to Cyprus Nursery the other day and then went tho Beech-croft in Belbroughton, I found they had all the size liners I needed and some different things there too.
 
Hello Patty, I got them from Webbs at Wychbold last year. I will ask whenever I am out over the next couple of weeks. Cypress Nursery is rather quaint and a little untidy but I love going there.
If you google 'BOTANICO', they are in Droitwich you will see they do a nice planter.
 
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Today I planted out fifteen pairs of Beetroot plants, I say fifteen pairs because I sowed the seeds in pots, three per pot and removed the weakest looking one from each pot. They have grown quite a bit and the greenhouse was a little overcrowded so this has made a bit of room. I have a number of rubber or plastic cane joiners and I have mad a sort of tent with these and some fleece. I have made it quite roomy and I can open the ends during the daytime. This is just in case we have a late frost whereby the fleece will protect against a low of minus five. It will be easy to remove the canes and fleece next month when there is no chance of any more frost.
 
My back garden has become infested with a weed called 'Bittercress' which is very invasive if allowed to seed. It can grow from a seed to maturity, flower and set hundreds of seeds in one month. All this happened while I was feeling under the weather, I have sought professional advice and was told it can be a real problem. The advice was/is to remove all the visible growth from the surface then hoe the area before covering with a 3" mulch of shredded newspaper and leave it until next spring. The bittercress will try to grow but it will fail and get tangled with the paper shreds and die before it can seed, then after the winter I have to light a small fire in the center of the patch and draw the paper shreds onto the fire with a rake a small amount at a time. This will take the weeds with and it will all get burnt away, for this procedure I have filled and used half a dozen dustbin bags full of shredded newspapers. Much of it cut into boot-laces with scissors because my electric shredder is a cross cut one and the pieces would be too small. I only have the runner beans and beetroot in the veg patch so it should be an easy summer for me from now on.
 
Trevor, we had a similar problem on our veggie patch one year, the weed we had was so invasive and was ruining everything. We had to cover the area with black plastic and leave the ground fallow for one season. We seem to have got rid of it, but those sort of weeds always seem to find a way back eventually. I hope you manage to clear the problem up.
 
Hello Maggs and Jean, here is a picture of the dreaded weed. It can be controlled with a good weed killer but this is on my veggie patch so I am reluctant to use that.
bittercressplant.jpg
I have removed hundreds of them by hand but they keep re-growing and this may be because when it is pulled out, some very fine white hair-like roots remain in the soil, even if the soil is loosened first.
I suppose the shredded paper will do the same job as the black plastic.
 
Trevor, you have the same dilemma as we had because being on the veggie patch we were also reluctant to use 'Round Up', which was what a friend at the garden centre suggested. It was him who said covering the earth for a season would also help, was an alternative. I can see on your pic that the fine hairy roots would easily start it all off again. Also the flower on the top may produce seed. Some of these weed problems are a nightmare to sort out. I know when we were trying to dig our's out, we had to be so careful that we didn't leave the smallest amount of the root on the earth. Have you thought about putting boiling water on them and the surrounding area?
 
Hello Maggs, I will be using the boiling water after the removal of the shredded paper in early spring.
 
Went to Lichfield yesterday and noticed round the trees were perfect squares of pea gravel that were glued to the pavement. Wondered if these were bought ready glued or could you use a special glue and cover it with gravel?. Unfortunately I left my camera in the car. Pete would like to do the same on the small patio. Thanks. Jean.
 
Not sure but they may be set in resin. Will ask someone who may know. In the mean time check this out.
 
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Good heavens have your ears been burning? I was only thinking the other day that we had not seen you for a while.

I pinched this from elsewhere (she won't mind). One question Lawn or Pond?

Pond or Lawn.jpg
 
hi bernie,you know what they say a bad penny.lol. i did not plan to put a pond in my garden,but i have one now. But there are people worse off bless them.
 
I've got lots of blackfly and ants on my evergreen clematis. Presumably the ants are "milking" the blackfly? Will they do any harm?
 
the ants eat the tops off my spud plants during the night.i only found the cause when i dug a plant up.crafty little pests.there were millions of them,
 
The Blackfly are very liable to spread and get onto other plants. You can buy a spray to eradicate Blackfly or you could try soapy water, not too much soap so the water you have washed your face and hands in will do. If that does not give results in two days you will need the spray.
 
I noticed a few weeks ago that my garden slabs and block paving were rather slippery when wet or just damp. This is rather dangerous if you depend on a walking stick so I sought advice. I purchased a product called 'Algon' and tried it out a couple of weeks ago and I can tell you it is excellent stuff. It has to be diluted with three parts water to one part Algon and it can be mixed in an old bowl and spread wherever it is needed with a soft broom. It must be used when a few dry days are forecast so that it does not get washed away before it does its job. You just brush it wherever you want to clean and let it dry, it takes about a week to finish working after which you can sweep away the algae and moss leaving the path nice and clean.
 
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