Humph's Happy Horti-cult: harvesting, preserving, mulching, leaf-gathering, bulb-dibbing, seed catalogue-surfing and hunkering down for winter

[Lexilicious]

Following on from the original March to August thread. For all - whether still gardening through the winter or planning to sweep the shed, hibernate, sharpen the tools and get started again in the spring.

Happy gardening again!

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Oops! I've read forum discussions of the 3 sister methods. Peep were saying you really have to get your timing right, eg sweetcorn the right height. Also people said it is difficult to get at the corn to harvest and that in its original use, the corn was used for animal food so picked later and being dried out didn't matter. Don't know how true that is.

This year, garden chums, I'm not buying any plants (particularly veggies!!!) unless it is absolutely impossible to grow them from seed. As of now I'm also going to keep accounts of what I buy and the yield of my veg and note how much equivalent would have cost in supermarket.

On a similar money saving vein I see in my seed catalogue the Jiffy7 seed-raising system which looks like toilet roll sized cylinders of compost wrapped tightly in cling film. 36 of these cost £6 from suttons or two packs for £9. Has anyone used them and am I right they're just cling film? I sense a messy toddler project...!

I have a feeling I saw something recently which debunked the legumes fixing nitrogen thing, but even so I always leave legume roots in the soil on the grounds it can't hurt.

Lexi - I use Jiffy7s for tomato seeds [bad me as they are made of peat]. I think I spend about 8p each on them at the gardening club, where we buy them in bulk and sell them loose.

The clingfilm I guess is packaging, as what holds the peat together is very fine net, which the roots will eventually grow through. Each Jiffy7 starts life about the size of a £2 coin (so what you are looking at is presumably a stack of them, reinforcing my packaging theory). It has a little dip in the top, into which you place one seed. To use it, you soak the Jiffy7 and it expands to about the size of a cotton reel as the peat fluffs up. You then sow the seed.

They work well in that you don't need to transplant - although the Jiffy7 can be potted-up into a 3" pot once the roots are filling the peat - but it is a faff to ensure that they're always damp enough but not waterlogged, as (obviously) there is no barrier as there would be with a pot wall to stop waterloss.

If anyone's thinking of growing jerusalem artichokes this year let me know and I'll send you some tubers. I've still got over half my plot left this year as we've been pretty poor in eating them regularly. Even with the ones I replant I'm likely to have some spares this year as I normally replant them around the end of Feb which doesn't leave a lot of eating time...

Sorry, also meant to say, Wynken - can Oca be grown in containers like potatoes can? If so, and you haven't had any other takers, I may put my hand up for your spares.

Bertha , I think they would be fine in big pots, you are very welcome to some.

I cracked yesterday and in the greenhouse (which is probably being replaced so very silly time to be putting things in it) I have basil, coriander, cabbage, sweet peas and winter lettuce. Plus sorted out my solitary dahlia bulb to try and get cuttings from it.

Haven't used those jiffy pellets yet but been given some last week to start my chilli seeds off. Think I'll do that next week.

Am contemplating hauling myself to allotment to do some path shifting but am very comfortable where I am and having motivation issues as I hate shifting bricks.

Glad I went. Met site manager and she said if I laid weed membrane where I want it, she and her team of helpers will shift bricks and stones onto it next week. Managed to lay it out without membrane taking off.

Planted a couple of bits of rhubarb root, some strawberries, transferred a few more raspberry canes and found some little marigold seedlings on old plot and whacked them in. Have got my herbs moved and some red cabbage under a net. It's now beginning to look like my allotment and feeling quite exciting. Need to do some digging over next few weeks as couch comng back up. All in all a very satisfying day as came back with two types of kale, rainbow chard, carrots and swede.

Yes please to the Oca then Wynken. I'll PM you.

Finally got an hour to myself to sort out the long bed this afternoon. Felt a bit paranoid about pulling weeds up as I'm sure I've probably pulled up some things that I'd have rather kept! Think I managed to leave all the baby aquilegias though.

Your allotments have a site manager and helpers, Wynken? I am so jealous. May I also have some oca? I was looking at it today at the seed fair and remembered your kind offer.

I have potted up 15 baby aquilegias from the top of one pot of bulbs. I'm hoping at least some of them will be black and white.

I love aquilegias. Have sprinkled much seed from MIL's garden around and have seen a lot of seedlings popping up.

DH moved all the raspberry canes from the bank into the orchard today, they will go in the rectangular veg patch at the far end. He also moved the picket fence that has been partitioning off the rose walk from the round veg garden. It looks loads better. The round shape of the veg patch is echoed by the small round centre to the rose walk, and then again by the roundish shape of the cottage borders on the other side.

We have been trying to get someone to make hazel hurdles to fence off the cottage garden bit from the rest of the garden but are finding this rather problematic. They all seem to be aimiable hippy types who never phone you back

I accidently hoed off an allium today Looking at the spread of them makes me realise we need at least as many again.

I can't wait until May when I go part time. Estyn will be over and done with by next weekend too, so I hope I will not end up working all the time and will get some gardening in. DH is doing it all atm. He informed me that I need to choose clematis to go with the roses on the rose walk as they need to go in this summer. All the roses are white, purple or pink (no salmon) so I thought blue/purple/pink clematis would be good. Tell me of any of your favourites.

Anyone read The Garden In the Clouds? It is very near here, and an entertaining read.

Clematis Polish Spirit and jackmanii are both purple and are (to coin a phrase) a bit of a goer - I have Polish Spirit covering a fence (and it really does cover it, not just stretch limply across it) and jackmanii reaches the top of the apple tree. Niobe is also very lovely. Nelly Moser is a good pink one, but there's another one (can't immediately think of the name but it may be Hagley Hybrid) which has better markings. I planted Star of India last year. It is gorgeous. Oh and look at sieboldii.

Bertha I have PM'd you. Forgot to thank you for your kind offer of the JA . I'm very tempted but I think I'm going to pass as I don't think I can cope with the idea of DH eating them , have heard about their side effects !

Maud, PM me and I'll get some off to you later this week. I'm away for a night tomorrow. We have a NT allotment so its all very different to a traditional allotment. Its a renovated Victorian kitchen garden that was very successful in its prime but fell into disrepair after all the gardeners fought in WW2 and didn't come back

It was renovated last year and is lovely, they did a great job. The only downside is it is attracting lots of visitors and it can be a bit like being in a zoo. At first they were some distance away at first but apparently after a few months it was decided that the terms of the grant given say they must have access to the allotments as well as the other bit of the kitchen garden. I try to avoid it during the day if I can and go in the evenings, which is lovely . But it's shut to visitors at the moment so I had peace and quiet.

Humphrey, your garden sounds absolutely gorgeous and I am very jealous of the rose walk. I'm not very up on clematis, so am not going to be much help . One of the ones I have ordered was a pink one that flowers in autumn, Lady Aldeney maybe ? Maud will know !

Hmm. My clematis knowledge is limited to those I have planted (and in several cases killed). I don't know Lady Alderney.

Duchess of Albany it is, think you said you had killed it Maud now you mention it !

Oh yes. RIP Duchess of Albany. And Princess Diana, Blue Ravine, Madame le Coultre and Arabella. And probably other's I've forgotten.

Other's? Argh. Others.

Oh dear, that's like me with leeks and hostas !

I have never actually killed a hosta, but sometimes - through insufficient vigilance and application of Slugit - they have been reduced to lace by the end of the summer!

My kill rate with clematis isn't so bad, I guess, as those are about a decade's worth of fatalities. I'm going to start experimenting with growing them from cuttings.

Those clematis are ALL beautiful, thanks for the links Maud. Looking at them made me feel v excited about this year. DH likes them too. I think the colours are all really nice, as long as we think carefully about the repeat flowering roses and don't put a nasty clash in there. We avoided any salmon pink colour when choosing the roses on the advice of my MIL. I will def put Polish Spirit in with Mme Alfred Carriere, that will look fantastic.

I heard a rather alarming thing on the radio about a new box moth pest that is going to have an awful implact on gardens. Was depressed when I thought about the hundreds of box cuttings DH is nurturing for our future knot garden.

Glad you like the clematis suggestions. There are so many others, though, so have a good search online.

If the box succumbs, either to the moth or to box blight, you could replant with germander or lonicera nitida or ::forgets name of third option::

Have any of you grown (or seen grown) asparagus in containers? I know it can be done but I'm not sure what size container to how many crowns, soil type they like etc. I've been desperate for asparagus for ages but don't have the space in the veg plot. Also, does anyone know if deer would eat them?

Well, the BBC says don't, but "Container Gardening Tips", unsurprisingly, differs! Need a big big pot though.

Asparagus possibly has similar depth requirements to rhubarb, which I'm growing in a recycling box this year as well as two crowns in the ground. The box might even do better than the ground because the ground is solid clay beneath about 25cm, whereas the box is 30cm deep, acts like a raised bed and has drainage holes at the base. I won't have results until spring 2013 because you don't harvest in year one - same for asparagus?

I got a load of bulbs/corms at Asda in a 2 for a fiver promotion thing. I got a chocolate cosmos, another peony (to replace the one the scaffolding squashed) and 60 anenome corms to plant in the front garden to fill in the holes.

I am having a real problem with the neighbourhood cats coming and pooing in the garden at the moment. Any ideas (other than shooting them)? I am a cat lover but they are seriously making me cross - I have to do very tentative gardening because there are piles of poo hiding everywhere

Argh to cat poo. I don't have the answer (wish I did) but covering the soil with trimmings of holly and other prickly shrubs helps a bit. The RHS has a few tips.

I have just bought my first asparagus crown. I don't much like the stuff, but plan to use it as a foliage plant.