Allotment/Veg Patch - Thread 7 - The Harvesters Arms

[bookbook]

Well, it's been an interesting summer, to say the least.
We are now heading into the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness :)
Everyone welcome to join in and ask for advice , share their woes and just enjoy growing!
previous thread here

Afternoon!
all is going well then shove
Had a decent hour or so at the plot this morning. A bit cool, no wind and damp, but a tiny peak of sky came and helped. It has been so cloudy and grey, it was nice to see :)
I spent most of the time taking up the weed membrane that is around a gooseberry bush, right at the top end of the plot, and outside the chicken wire fence (= out of sight, out of mind !) and getting rid of the couch grass that does like to invade and come up through it. Picked sprouts for tea, and spent rather too long chatting to a near lady neighbour ( not that many people were about today). Had a peek at my broad beans under the fleece and hoops. They have germinated , nearly ready to unfurl the first leaves . No sign so far of mice either ! May sow some more in a couple of weeks time in the greenhouse.
After lunch, I finally got around to mulching the thug rhubarb, which is also unfurling leaves. Then I realised after some leaf clearing that one of the later variety rhubarb plants is also budding . So stuck a great load of compost on top of that. We were going to move that one this year ...

Evening all. Long time no see.

That nativity girl singing her heart out, is now at university. She was on the One show this week.

Well, I've had a nice break from gardening for a few weeks, will be back onto it next week once work is done. We have raspberries to move and pick out the couch grass roots from. I've even got nice clean nails for a change. And overwintering onions to put out. Still got cabbage, beetroots, leeks all that the plot. The cabbage is amazing in home made coleslaw.

I also ordered my Heritage Seed Library seeds today. Looking forward to getting those and will start some chillis off sometime in the next week or so too...my year starts on Dec 22nd on the Solstice and cannot wait!

Hope everyone is well.

Hello all..... have caught up on posts finally, and it's been lovely to hear what's been happening with you all. Welcome to the new plotters too!

I am ashamed to say I haven't touched the garden for a couple of months. Very busy since df passed away, with looking after dm, work, Christmas shopping and prep for our small family on a modest budget,and the rollercoaster of dc's school happenings over the last month of term. Phew!
I have 4 more days at work whilst dh entertains the children. We are even hoping to manage a quick half of bitter for an hour without the children, for about the third time in nearly 9 years...!

However, there is a problem, that I hope Shove can help me with. The rats are back, fgs. We sent our 3 elderly chickens away to join a nearby friend's farm over a month ago, due to a massive infestation. Almost instantly rats disappeared. Marvellous. Then a week ago noticed my compost Dalek, which is on grass, had some spillage out of the front door, and some suspicious poo on the lid. Tidied it up with trepidation, and more appeared every day. Today, bold as brass, there are several fully grown rats hanging off the low door to try and lever open enough to let another one in to grab food items from the compost. You've got to hand it to the buggers, really.

So: do I need to bag up and bin my lovely 3/4 full Dalek contents (if the have had rats running through, or even - shudder - nesting in it, would it be safe to use anyway?
We do compost large amounts of garden waste, shredded paper, and small amounts of kitchen waste (kitchen roll, paper, cardboard, eggshells, teabags, coffee grounds and small amounts fruit/veg. Very small amounts of other food waste - plate scraps of bread/rice/beans, rarely a scrap of meat/fish as we have 2 greedy Labradors!). Do I need to just stop any food waste at all?
I have read that Bokashi-ing the food waste enables a wider range of stuff to be added e.g:bones, even, and most importantly PUTS RATS OFF COMPLETELY when the output of the bin is then composted.

Pleeeaaaase help, I feel terrified to go out to clear up the poor garden!

Oh, I should say, when I put in the bin last Spring, I put 2 layers of chicken wire underneath, but perhaps should have brought it up over the door. I have read in my rat horror internet trawling that they can chew through wire, brick and concrete though, so not sure if this has helped. Too scared today to tip over the bin, and won't have enough daylight to do it until the end of the week as working long days.

Morning!
Christmas with clean fingernails Chuck - - nice to hear from you - hope you have settled into the new job. I must put cabbage on my list to grow - ( well I do have cabbage, but only savoy as DH prefers it ) what variety do you grow-? I know shove has grown Tundra
hello quince - sounds like you have had your work cut out on top of grieving. That takes every bit of strength, so the garden and vegetables can wait. What sort of jumped out at me when you mentioned the rats are back
Very small amounts of other food waste - plate scraps of bread/rice/beans - I think that may well be the main problem. I do put apple and pear cores in mine, but nothing at all that has been cooked. I wonder if that is why they are back in such numbers. I seem to remember you have a huge garden. Could you take off the dalek, and wheelbarrow the contents to a far unused corner, and re do the dalek? - shove adores her Bokashi bin , and I believe Chuck has/had one. So that may well be the answer for the small amounts of food waste for you. We are very lucky here. We have a brown waste collection, which includes food waste - they provide biodegradeable bags to put the food in, and then put in the bin. It works a treat

just re-read a bit of your post - you said you don't want to tip over the bin . Sorry head obviously not in gear this morning....

Hi quince. No advice, but rats sound awful so I hope you can get it sorted without too much trouble!

Thanks for the advice, books and shove. I think I'll get a few different kinds of gloves, then. I won't be completing my new garden in the next couple of days as I ended up with a swollen hand (wimp!) and have my driving test on Thursday so don't want to jeopardise that. Will get some nice thick gloves to use for digging.

good luck for the driving test, Kiwi.
I can tip the bin over, Book, just too scared of finding millions of rats!!!
Steeling myself to do it Thurs am. I'll play Radio 4 at high volume to disturb them, works with dh.
I wonder why rats are keener on a dry old crust of bread, as opposed to a juicy fruit core or veg peeling? I'm guessing they were attracted by hen food and have decided they quite like this new wilderness with lots of hiding places, and currently no gardener to disturb them ...

Afternoon!
( I am lurking here before going back to the battleground of wrapping presents . Not that I have many, but family are descending tomorrow unexpectedly , so having to round them all up and put them away safe, so I may as well wrap them at the same time :) )
Ah, hope it goes well Grouchy - fingers crossed for you!. I hope the hand gets better quickly.
quince - you have made me laugh. Not at all to do with you not wanting to tip the bin over and have rats every where, but the blasting of R4 at them - I personally would favour the loop of Christmas songs blaring out in every shop tbh. I think it the more non rotting edible bit is what attracts them - cooked rice and beans I suspect, but they are renowned for getting into almost anywhere for grain too. I keep my bird seed in big lidded bins made of metal for that reason.

Yes don't put anything cooked in a compost bin. Also, soak it. They like warm snug places and sopping wet compost is not an attractive prospect. I'd soak it for 3 days in a row with some manky waterbutt water, and then lift it, move it 3 feet away and fork the whole lot from the old pile into the new position. And then soak it again.

Oh quince, I was thinking of you last week, and hoping that you were doing OK. You've had such a rough ride of things lately that I'm not surprised you haven't touched the garden. And nor should it be foremost in your thoughts (unless you want it to be) - there's so much to do when someone passes away, and so much to cope with, that your hands and heart must have been overfull. The weeds slow down this time of year, so at least nature isn't racing away.

You poor thing with the rats, too - that kind of thing can feel traumatic if you are already fighting battles. I have little to add to what the others have said. Maybe find another way of dealing with the cooked food waste - a bokashi bin or a wormery might be ideal. The advice from chuck to get it wet is great - the thing about the bokashi waste is that it smells (this is why the bins have a tight-fitting lid) and is all wet and soggy, so rats won't want to clamber through it. The smell, however, is neutralised once it hits the compost bin - I just pile a layer of garden waste on top as soon as I empty mine.

For the existing heap, I would definitely try chuck's method of getting it wet, not least because you can hose it from a safe distance before you get closer. Then, once it's really sopping, you can do a lot of banging and crashing around and try to get them to scarper that way. (Love the radio 4 idea!! Though it would have to be someone barky like John Humphreys, wouldn't it, rather than Neil Nunes with his velvet voice?).

grouchy - best of luck for the driving test! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

I have a question about seeds. I'm drying some Verbena bonariensis, and there is a lot of chaff in there with the very light seeds. Normally at home I just sort of sprinkle the dried seedhead over the ground, but I don't want to send the person a load of messy seedhead! How do I separate the two? chuck - your seeds are absolutely perfect, how do you do it?!

Thanks, Shove! I am working towards getting back in the garden over the Christmas break, and hoping for some bright, cold and crispy weather, rather than the too-warm grey muddiness we have had for a while.

I can feel a peruse if different Bokashi bin options coming on, for a Christmas present to myself...

Will report back later in the week after rats and compost attacked!

Hello everyone! Hope all is going ok. Have been completely overtaken by new job and have collapsed into the holidays and it's so nice to find everyone again - even with added rats. I came face to face with one in the compost at the end of summer - we looked at each other and i just put the lid back on and walked away as couldn't face adressing the issue . I had hardly been out in the garden at all since summer until a lovely girl I used to teach now in her late teens got in touch. She wants to do horticulture and needs a garden to play in. It's been great because she comes for 2 hours every week or so and because it's booked in I have to make time. We've moved the raspberries out of the raised bed where I had put them in a moment of idiocy , cleared up various areas and this week moved (and possibly killed) a big camilia that was too deep in a bed to be seen. Leeks are still alive but growing very slowly and kale is doing pretty well. It's outrageously mild at the moment I've got strawberries trying to flower and a poppy out on the stone wall. No sign of frost.

Can I ask advice on where to get really heavy duty weed membrane? I got some from b and q but it's not going to cut it.

quince - I'm hoping for a change in the weather too! I love it when you get those days of winter sunshine in December - everything is so bright and crisp, and I can think of all the slugs dying in the frost and feel happy. I did notice tomorrow is supposed to be nice and the 27th/28th don't look too bad at the moment where I am.

cath - I think it's so wonderful your students can turn to you for their life aspirations, not just for teaching! Reminds me of all the many kindnesses done to me by teachers when I was younger (even though I was, I fear, an extremely difficult child!).

Heavy duty weed membrane - the woven stuff is tough, like this www.amazon.co.uk/Control-Ground-Driveway-Landscape-Fabric/dp/B006H1N0SA (but you may be able to find it cheaper on ebay). However, I've successfully used the thinner stuff under paths etc - provided it is weighted down, it is a bit more robust than it might look!

Afternoon!

• house to ourselves again :) good to see you have survived shove . Can you do the gentle shake and rub of seed/chaff in a paper envelope and pour away the chaff? I have no idea mind . The only seeds I dry are poppy seeds, - I cut the head off and put into a deep envelope upside down, leave them to dry totally , then shake the seed heads as I take them out the envelope , and hope for the best. oh and yes the heartfelt wish for some crisp bright days Cathpot - lovely to hear from you - exhausted I bet ! Fabulous that you have help, and also you will beable to pick raspberries with no risk to life and limb :) mmm heavy weed membrane - the best I had came on a big roll ( we were doing some gravel stuff at the side of the drive ), and it has been great, but a few years back now, and I cannot find anything similar. It was like woven material, rather than plastic though. I will keep hunting to see if I can find someone still selling it. DH and I popped down to the plot for a brief de- compress this morning. He oiled my exceedingly squeaky wheelbarrow ( though it does need to come home to be sorted properly at some stage I have been informed) And I dug up leeks, a swede , a celery head to make soup and cut sprouting broccoli for tea. I am glad we went, because there was a rather frantic bird in my brassica cage. I shooed it out, but honestly do not know how it got in . I went around and checked, but there didn't seem to be any obvious way in. A mystery, but at least it flew out okay.

Evening all. We have made the beetroot and orange chutney and our on our way to Dm's tomorrow. More beetroot has been requested for Christmas dinner instead of red cabbage so I am happy to oblige. Next year I hope I will be able to provide all the veg. Now my question, I bought a blackcurrant bush last year and have it in a pot outside, it is beginning to show signs of leaf buds, can I put it in the ground in the plot or is it being sheltered from possible frost in the pot?

Evening!
elephant - - The total joy of digging up and using your own vegetables :) .
I personally would plant the blackcurrant out. It's still relatively warm ,and it can get snuggled in and be ready to go come spring. ( I tend to think frost does more damage to plants in pots than in the ground) .
Have a good time - the beetroot and orange chutney sounds yummy

Thank you for weed membrane recommend -that looks perfect. Spent today with the kids at a theatre in the woods thing mostly in a light drizzle. The actors were relentlessly cheerful and Christmas-y so all had fun. They had hung one tree with about 40 small glitter balls, it looked amazing. Pondering doing the same as a surprise for my youngest- she has a patch of scruffy trees behind a shed as her den which could use some cheering up.

Thinking about veg for Xmas might pull up some leeks- they aren't very big. Haven't grown them before am I expecting them to just carry on going over the rest of winter?

Another question -thinking about next year- was reading about cucamelons- they sound interesting - do I need them in my life/ in my G and T?

Morning!
Cathpot - leeks should be fine to keep in the ground over winter. ( Some varieties are bred for cold resistance) I just dig up the fattest ones as I need them . Just look out for them going to seed - you can still use them , but you will need to take out the solid seed stalk out of the middle.
Gliltter balls sound lovely!

Cucamelons - well I grew them this year, as I was given some seedlings. Lets just say I won't be bothering again. They grew well, fruited really well, but after forcing them on everyone to try them , no - one wanted to eat them again. I think that is the consensus on here :) but I don't actually drink G & T - maybe that was the problem!

elephant - I planted in some currants, jostaberries, rasps about a month ago. They're pretty frost hardy and do fine even in harsh weather. The one you have to watch out for a bit more is the blueberry, some varieties of those are a bit temperamental. I do love currants - I love how they look, how they smell, and I ESPECIALLY X 1 MILLION LOVE BLACKCURRANT JAM!!

cathpot - I saw a deciduous tree decorated entirely in gold baubles outside someone's house and it looked lovely. I think that would be the most magical surprise for your DD!

I am trying cucamelons for the first time next year so disappointed they don't taste THAT good (the name sounds like they really should)! Doesn't Zebra quite like them? I miss her - hope she'll be back on the thread some time.

I saw Spotted on another thread shove so I think she's fine, maybe just not growing veg any more. I miss her too .
Making blackcurrant jam is a labour of love for me - it is DH's favourite. One batch this year was particularly good ( blackcurrants , rather than me doing anything spectacular) so I was just faintly wondering about putting it into our very small flower/veg/produce show. I put one jar right at the back in the cupboard , but DH had eaten all of it by the time the show came around. Ah well !
Cucamelons - yes I think they are okay, but like a lot of things, taste is in the mouth of the eater ! They seem to me to be more texture than taste IYSWIM.

Blackcurrant jam is the best jam. I really hope my bushes grow a decent amount next year (and my children don't pick all the berries before I can).

We're expecting awful weather - strong wind and lots of rain - for the next few days so I won't get into the garden again till Boxing Day at the earliest.

Thank you for your kind comments re my test. They worked: I passed!

Great news - congratulations Grouchy

Wow grouchy that's brilliant news! A well-deserved early Christmas present. Well done you. I don't enjoy driving at all (I'm not very good at it) but it comes in REALLY handy once in a while

Keeping my fingers crossed that your weather isn't too awful!

book - I suspect that would have happened in our household too! It IS testament to how brilliant your jam was that the saved jar was discovered!!

Well done Grouchy, what a lovely Christmas present!

Shove - I had a bumper crop of cucamelons this year. They aren't the tastiest thing going, but they are easy to grow, pretty, don't take up much space (they scramble but are very fine and delicate, so a small wigwam of canes and string is fine for them), fun to harvest and photogenic. I pickled most of mine with dill and white wine vinegar gherkin style and they are lovely that way.

No more gardening for me till probably after NY now, although I will pop up to the plot for a few leeks now and then, I am leaving mine in the ground too.

In case I don't post again, I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!