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Gardening/Foraging 2013 Diary

I've got cabbage plants and parsley which I've been growing over winter in the greenhouse they are beginning to grow more now. Just need to get compost to start some basil on my window sill. I'm hoping everything won't get eaten by snails this year.
 
I started off some greyhound cabbage seeds a few weeks ago..pricked out and doing OKish on a windowsill. I also grew some dwarf beans, and potted them on. But they are getting very tall, and one fell over and snapped :cry:

What sort of bean leaves can buns eat? I'm growing dwarf beans and runner beans..if buns can eat the leaves, I'll grow more.

My first attempt at herbs in my heated propergater died...just about to sow another lot! basil, coriander, dill & thyme.

edited to say that I just chopped off the tops of my dwarf beans and gave them to my buns...and they all turned their noses up at them :roll: so I gave them to the piggies...and they haven't touched them either :lol:
 
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I had loads of snails & slugs last year...the wetter the weather, the more they come. I use old compost bags laid on ground, or upturned plastic plant pots, and tried to go round each morning and evening and collect them up to dispose of them. bear traps don't work as well. I lost loads of seedlings last year as one snail slug can do so much damage in one night! I bought copper tape to wrap around the table legs in the greenhouse, as I found copper tape to be the best deterrent. I also used old plastic bottles and stapled copper tape round them to make a protective band to go around young plants..but only seems to work for a while, if you keep on top of the snail population
 
Willow_Warren said:
A bright windowsill will be fine for starting seeds off - the only problem can be that they get leggy due to lack of light - one way to help this is to put a sheet of foils behind them to reflect light back.

There's plenty of time for growing yet. I grew parsley very sucessfully from seed last year (still have plants now as should last 2 years).

So far this year I have sown chillies, sweet n' neat tomatoes & onions. Going to start normal peppers off shortly (they are slower growers that tomatoes) and seems like I should be starting peas and sweetpeas off soon as well.

None of these are but the bunnies though, but later I will grow some carrots along with various herbs.

Hannah :)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how many 'experts' start peas so early but I always do and so far I haven't had a single bad year for peas, not even last year. I put peppers in yesterday. I have onion sets to go in (obviously not for the bunnies!!) as well but need to prep the soil still.
 
fruitandnutcake said:
I started off some greyhound cabbage seeds a few weeks ago..pricked out and doing OKish on a windowsill. I also grew some dwarf beans, and potted them on. But they are getting very tall, and one fell over and snapped :cry:

What sort of bean leaves can buns eat? I'm growing dwarf beans and runner beans..if buns can eat the leaves, I'll grow more.

My first attempt at herbs in my heated propergater died...just about to sow another lot! basil, coriander, dill & thyme.

edited to say that I just chopped off the tops of my dwarf beans and gave them to my buns...and they all turned their noses up at them :roll: so I gave them to the piggies...and they haven't touched them either :lol:
Click to expand...

I tried herbs in the propagater last year and they didn't do much. This year I'm leaving it until March/April time and going to try not to mollycoddle them too much!!
 
My piggies finally ate the dwarf bean tops I gave them. Last year was a very bad year as I became very ill and didn't have the time or energy to maintain the garden..it is now a jungle of bindweed and brambles...I just hope I get the oomph to start clearing it ( about 30ft by 70ft at bottom of garden). I've always wanted an allotment, but been put off after watching allotment programmes where the neighbours are awful! And I don't know how well I'll be in the future ..so allotment is out of the picture now :cry:
 
rabbitnutrition said:
i've uploaded pics to our fb group showing a contraption of a cardboard box with foil to bounce the light around. There's also explanations of why plants go leggy on the windowsill
i'll go dig it out for you :)
Click to expand...

Thanks :D

Seeds haven't arrived yet so got time to prepare!
 
Hi everyone.
I'm not yet energetic enough to do much gardening but still very much into foraging, now trying to fight the battle of snuffles, using the low dust, bunny natural diet.
The cleavers & dandelion are beginning to take off in the local hedges. I am absolutely delighted that Benjie is less interested in the dried plantains (which have strong antibiotic properties) & wants fresh grass. This has to be done very gently indeed, & we're getting there.
 
I spent 2 hours digging yesterday and dug up 6lb of anya potatoes...shame buns can't eat potatoes..but they did get a few dandelions and baby brambles. This morning I have tied in all my raspberry canes, which seemed to have multiplied drastically...so lots of raspberry leaves for buns soon!

Unfortunately I've managed to kill all my cabbage seedlings on the window sill :cry:
 
Picked some goosegrass and dead nettles for them today. They weren't overly impressed but ate most of it.
 
Elena said:
Picked some goosegrass and dead nettles for them today. They weren't overly impressed but ate most of it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's very slow to start this year. Plants started to come up, then just stopped. (I reckon they'd go back down again if they could.:lol: It was snowing this afternoon even down here in the warm, sheltered SW.)
Benjie isn't too keen on the goose grass this year either.
We're just about at the end of the winter stores but fortunately there's a good supply of fresh timothy & couch grass nearby.

The coltsfoot is in flower. It always looks like an alien invasion to me cos there's the scaley stems & yellow flowers sticking up but no leaves at all. Wierd plant.:lol:
Benjie wants his hawthorn, & can't understand that the leaves haven't come out yet.
 
thumps_ said:
Hi everyone.
I'm not yet energetic enough to do much gardening but still very much into foraging, now trying to fight the battle of snuffles, using the low dust, bunny natural diet.
Tstuhe cleavers & dandelion are beginning to take off in the local hedges. I am absolutely delighted that Benjie is less interested in the dried plantains (which have strong antibiotic properties) & wants fresh grass. This has to be done very gently indeed, & we're getting there.
Click to expand...

Stu has snuffles and gets worse when it's about to rain. Is fresh grass better than the dried plantain?
 
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