Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Any old (sorry!) gardeners here?

25 replies

Onlyhereforthebatshitneighbours · 14/07/2023 14:28

Not looking to offend! Lol

Wondering if any gardeners of older generations are about as I'd like to know how people protected their crops from insects before polypropylene and other plastic netting were standard?

OP posts:
granstable · 14/07/2023 14:40

There was netting made from string! Chicken wire... old net curtains...

LadyGardenersQuestionTime · 14/07/2023 14:41

I see being old as an advantage and a virtue.

Chemicals. Everything was sprayed, and there was a poison for everything.

Onlyhereforthebatshitneighbours · 14/07/2023 16:08

Thank you for replying!

Old nets are a good idea, i don't know anyone who still has them though. I do use some chicken wire and I've found some jute netting to climbers but there doesn't seem to be a natural alternative to insect mesh for veg...Am thinking about buying a roll of sheer cotton or muslin but don't know if it would get mouldy in the British weather?

Am not surprised chemicals were widely used, but it can surely only be a couple of generations ago that gardening was done without much chemical use?

My surviving grandparents have never been gardeners so they can't help!

OP posts:
Onlyhereforthebatshitneighbours · 14/07/2023 16:09

*for climbers

OP posts:
Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 14/07/2023 16:13

I think any form of woven cloth would be too thick , it will not let in enough light and when it gets wet will either collapse ont to the plants or drip . Also the lack of air circulation is lovely for mould and fungus 🍄 .

i suppose you could look at skirt netting, the sort used for petticoats under dance dresses. You will need some sort of hoop to keep it off the plants, though

WhatADrabCarpet · 14/07/2023 17:43

The late and great Geoff Hamilton strongly suggested companion planting which is what I do ( pushing 60)
I plant nasturtiums near to my beans as well as old fashioned marigolds.
These attract beasts away from my beans.

Many older gardeners and gardeners before them knew that if you want ten bean plants to survive, plant twenty and some of them will succumb to beasts and leave the stronger plants alone.

Learning facts like making sure that you sow carrot seeds thinly to avoid thinning them out once they've sprouted is important. Pulling out carrot seedlings immediately attracts carrot fly as these beasts can smell them from miles away.

Basically, plant many more than you need, which doesn't help people with most modern gardeners.

Horticultural fleece has been around a long while. It breathes, it doesn't seem to rot and is very much reusable.

Charity shops might be a good place to find old net curtains . They're usually made from nylon.
Cotton lace would rot.

DustyLee123 · 14/07/2023 17:44

You can still buy window nets.

MereDintofPandiculation · 15/07/2023 11:01

Am not surprised chemicals were widely used, but it can surely only be a couple of generations ago that gardening was done without much chemical use? You’d have to go back a lot longer than that. Things like nicotine and copper sulphate (Bordeaux mixture) were used in Victorian times, and the use of substances on plants is probably as old as the use of medicines. It was post war that more “effective” chemicals came into wide use, and were used preventively. Gardening books of the 50s were full of cycles of chemical use - spray with A in spring to prevent X,then every 4 weeks with B to control Y, and in early autumn with C to prevent overwintering Z . Simultaneously there was a push to regular application of synthetic fertilisers, to the detriment of our rivers which are being killed off by too high nitrate levels from the run off. This approach is still seen in the “weed and feed” approach to lawns. All this was mainstream gardening, pushed by for example the RHS and Gardeners Question Time. Companion planting, organic gardening etc was regarded as “woo”.

I’m in my 70s, and my parents’ generation were enthusiastic chemical users. Remember it was as early as 1962 that Rachel Carson produced Silent Spring.

Jux · 15/07/2023 11:40

When I got blackfly on my spuds Imde a very strong garlic spray and used that; to my astonishment it worked! It does have to be strong as dd's tried it since and it's not worked so well. I think I used about half a dozen full bulbs in a pint of water, boil for ages, strain.

EversoDetermined · 15/07/2023 11:48

I know its not what you're asking, but I have two big sheets of micromesh which I use over strawberries in season and brassicas. They have been outdoors at my allotment 365 days a year for the best part of ten years and have not deteriorated at all. Now I know that's not great in terms of their eventual disposal. But it means they are the only crop protection I have ever needed. I don't use chemicals at all.

HarridanHarvestingHeldaBeans · 15/07/2023 18:20

My husband is 71 and his father and grandfather had a large vegetable garden, to supply their shop. The kids were bribed with sweeties to collect caterpillars and squish aphids (although aphids aren't much of a problem here, cabbage white butterflies can be).
They couldn't afford sprays and getting anything delivered to the further reaches of the Highlands was even worse then than it is now, so they just had to do what they could with what they had. And they had lots of kids!

Jujubes5 · 17/07/2023 11:28

Possibly there were more birds around to eat caterpillars etc. Cats not so popular.
Strawberry netting was made of fine rope/string/maybe sisal. Perhaps that also points to birds being more prolific.

OrderOfTheKookaburra · 17/07/2023 11:33

Rhubarb leaf spray would be effective. This wasn't permitted under EU law though.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 17/07/2023 11:42

There are some wonderful old programs about Gardening in Victorian and early 1900s times with Peter Thoday and Harry Dodson. They taught me a lot including how to use kittens as pest control :)

Not sure if the link will work...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5mpc6t

The Victorian Kitchen Garden - S01 - E01 - The Beginning - video Dailymotion

Harry Dodson on how they lived in Victorian Times growing their own fruit and vegetables....

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5mpc6t

Onlyhereforthebatshitneighbours · 17/07/2023 11:59

Thank you for latest replies, really interesting.

I shouldn't be surprised chemicals were widely used since victorian times, really!

Garlic spray is a good idea, will need to look up rhubarb spray as I guess there's something about if the EU doesn't like (probably with good reason).

Might have to get fine mesh, but I really want to keep my garden as plastic free as possible. Companion planting and leg work and acceptance is probably the way to go, especially if I want to grow organically. Good point about greater biodiversity keeping things naturally in check - I am very open to having lots of kittens as pest control but that wouldn't encourage birds 😆

Thank you the video link, will take a look now :)

OP posts:
JulieHoney · 17/07/2023 14:32

Companion planting, green fertiliser like comfrey, lots of homemade garden compost, going out in the evening slug/snail hunting, putting water out to encourage birds, it all helps.

The blue tits did a cracking job on the aphids on the roses a month or so ago.

OrderOfTheKookaburra · 17/07/2023 16:36

EU didn't permit pesticides that haven't gone through the testing process. No company is going to pay for the testing process as there is no profit in it for them.

Beebumble2 · 18/07/2023 16:58

My Grandfather ( in Scotland) protected his prize Chrysanthemums from earwigs with paper bags over the blooms!
He was not amused when my mother drew faces on them!

OrderOfTheKookaburra · 19/07/2023 03:54

I've read that putting comfrey leaves down next to a garden bed will encourage all the snails and slugs to the leaves. I haven't had enough comfrey leaves yet to test it though.

greenspaces4peace · 19/07/2023 04:56

yes a lot of fertilizers and pest control methods were deadly, led to cancer and an early demise.
my grandmother spent time in her garden and weeded. the things she grew were crops that were simple and no fail (gooseberry and currant bushes, apple trees, raspberries, rhubarb, veggies such as peas and beans that were hardy).
i actually think heritage seed varieties although not as "pretty" were probably more robust. i'm going to try this next year.
Three Sisters (agriculture) - Wikipedia

Three Sisters (agriculture) - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture)

MereDintofPandiculation · 19/07/2023 09:22

greenspaces4peace · 19/07/2023 04:56

yes a lot of fertilizers and pest control methods were deadly, led to cancer and an early demise.
my grandmother spent time in her garden and weeded. the things she grew were crops that were simple and no fail (gooseberry and currant bushes, apple trees, raspberries, rhubarb, veggies such as peas and beans that were hardy).
i actually think heritage seed varieties although not as "pretty" were probably more robust. i'm going to try this next year.
Three Sisters (agriculture) - Wikipedia

Let us know how you get on. I’m not sure how well this adapts to the UK, it’s N American in origin so lack of sunshine is not a problem there.

JulieHoney · 19/07/2023 09:25

Good luck with the Three Sisters, @greenspaces4peace ! Let me know how they work out.

I may have picked the wrong cultivars for the climate in Northern England, because my beans grew quickly and my sweetcorn too slowly to be a viable support. I went back to crop rotation after a couple of years.

Where I lived in America it worked much better, the corn grew really fast - all that sunshine I think.

So if you find one that is successful I’d like to know and give it another try.

MissAdelaide · 19/07/2023 09:28

It’s very noticeable, if you visit (say) National Trust gardens, that Victorian and Edwardian potting sheds are full of contraptions for spraying fruit and vegetables. Otherwise, as has been said, it was about vigilance and picking off pests by hand, which would have been easy to do on the grand estates before the First World War, when labour was plentiful and cheap.

RaininSummer · 19/07/2023 09:54

My nan used to send us kids out with a piece of net curtain and a jam jar to catch cabbage white butterflies. I think she then frowned then which is awful but at least not involving chemicals.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 19/07/2023 10:26

I've seen white decoy butterflies sold on thin metal stems. Do they work?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page