website
 

Lislaw - this website is really helpful. Thanks to all for advice!

Sow early potato varieties as these are seldom affected by blight. You will not need to spray at all.

I was wondering about that. When is the earliest you can put down spuds?


And if I take off the growing stalks can they be left overwinter in the ground if they're covered with straw? Saw this in a neighbours garden and I've vague memories of it from my grandads garden when I was a kid.

March according to that linked Irish gardening site http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about1270.html
As for leaving them in the ground, I think you can as long as the clay does not get too wet.

Potato Blight
 

Thanks- that's good advice and I will give it a try again around March when hopefully we will have decent weather for a bit of gardeninig as I don't like getting wet and muddy.

Plastic greenhouses.
 

You mentioned those plastic covered greenhouses, can anyone please let me know if there is anywhere to buy the plastic covers? My cat scratched openings in two of them and the wind took away the others. I have frames but no plastic. Is it a scam by the company that we need to buy the whole thing again? Surely we should be able to purchase replacement ones? Am I the only one with this problem? Would love some feedback.

I'm no expert, Lislaw - but I think a lot of tomatoes didn't ripen last year (mine didn't, others I know also said the same) - I got the small green ones as you said, but I guess there wasn't enough sun, that was my take on it.

Someone else mentioned blight, I suppose that might be a possibility - but I think blight gives blackened and /or withered stalks and spotting on the fruit - again, I may be wrong here, as I don't know a lot - my gardening maxim is plant 'em and see what happens.

Some useful ideas for tomatoes:
Always use new soil.
It can help growth if you graft two palnts into one. Just cut a notch in one pant and remove the top off another, leaving a corresponding sliver. Push the sliver into the notch and tape up with a piece of cloth carefully. Double the uptake going into one plant.
Collect pee (yes pee) in a plastic bucket. When full, leave it for a week to get rid of nitrogen. Dilute as follows......one third pee and two thirds water. Apply once a week. An old Italian market gardener used it on tomatoes and they were brilliant. Doesn't smell all that good, but excellent stuff and think of the flushing water saved ! Good luck.

That's taking reycling/repurposing to a whole new level.

zip up greenhouse
 

Hi, Easyliving did you try ringing Argos and see if they have new covers???

My problem with my zip up plastic green house is that it just gets wrecked in every storm and THEN whats inside gets blown to the four winds. And I have weighted it down, tied it down, everything. We don't live in a sheltered spot. But I will have a go again as what choice do I have?

plastic greenhouses.
 

Hi, yes...I have tried everywhere to get replacments but nothing turned up. I also bought heavy plastic to try to make my own covers but this was a disaster also when the wind took it. I wish there was a solution as I have quite a few plants that need shelter and sun. The zips are very fragile also.

I have rotation plans that I use for growing in my raised beds, I have 28 but you can grow smaller quantaties of the type of veg.

I know the soil and you need loads of manure - these some on the farmers section here so load up and get it on the garden, then cover your beds with black plastic and it will be perfect come planting time.

my beds are higher 11 inches as the ground can be water logged, if you have good draining you should be fine with your 6".

mail me if you would like the plans or any other information.

i would be very interested to hear more about the plans you refer to and also it'd be great if you could explain more about the manure and covering with black plastic?

Raised beds
 

I built my beds nearly 9 years ago now and planned the garden so that I had concrete slabs between in paths. This had been a god send as the land is so wet in winter. I can go out in my slippers and garden.

I split the beds in my plan into 4 rotations

1. Potatoes, followed Kohl Rabi for the goats

2. Onions + sweetcorn followed by Brassicas - followed by winter bunching onions, parsley and miners lettuce.

3. Beans and Peas - pulses and courgettes, squashes, marrows, pumpkins etc

4. Roots and salads.


I plant squashes, courgettes, marrows, pumpkins and other bits and pieces where there have space, though they like the shade from the beans and peas.

I also have permanent beds for Artichokes - flowering green globe and edible flowers, Asparagus, a seed bed and a perpetual garlic bed. This removes 4 of the 28 beds leaving me with 24 beds.

I also have not listed some non raised beds 4 = 1 rhubarb, 2 herbs, 1 perpetual brocoli.


I rotate so everything gets 4 years minimum before its back in the same bed.


I came to this arrangement by trial and error using the type of food I like to eat and what would grow in this environment.


Suppose my year starts around November when I much out the goats and put the bedding straight onto the raised beds, I stack it quite high and spread it out well, then pull black plastic over and fix it down. I leave one bed half open and on December 21st plant garlic.

By the time the end of March has come around I look under the black plastic and I am left with well rotted fine layer of manure.

I do sow directly large seeds such as potatoes, beans and peas. But the rest I grow in the greenhouse first and plant out when the frost has defiantely gone.

I usually eat my first salad around May and its now February and I am still eating onions, parsley, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, rhubarb, Kohl rabi and herbs from the garden. The freezers are still overflowing. I have my fruit garden set out the same way but with larger beds and with bushes in the beds and trees intermingled around them. I still have plenty of fruit for the coming year in case of disaster, or I will simply one warm summer evening turn it all into wine :)

the veg. beds are 10ft x 4 ft this size suits me. To start with I, put newspaper on the grass inside the bed, put a mixture of horse manure and peat moss in them and then got the goats and took over with their bedding which keeps the beds topped up as the soil inside composts and reduces.

I lay a layer of manure over veg such as Silverbeet, onions, and potatoes who like it when it rains and they get a shower of feed from the manure.

I also have 6 home made wormeries and poultry who contribute to the soil activity.

-plastic covering
 

i maby on the wrong track but lidel had small plastic greenhouses at one time if yours is like that i am sure i seen a spare cover in my mums shed will have a look next week if i remember lol but as its plastic would be cheap to post