Thompson & Morgan has this new product today

Fennel ‘Victoria’ F1 Hybrid – 1 packet (50 seeds) £2.29
Outstanding yields of large, smooth and pure white bulbs with an enticing and traditional aniseed flavour. Fennel ‘Victoria’ is a newly bred form which has neat foliage and improved resistance to bolting. The foliage of this hardy perennial makes a tasty addition to salads or as an attractive garnish. With a multitude of uses, fennel can even be used as a compress for softening rough chapped hands, or for treating numerous ailments. Height: 60cm (24″). Spread: 45cm (18″).

New products at Thompson & Morgan

Pak Choi Collection – 3 packets – 1 of each variety (450 seeds in total) £3.99
Three unique hybrid Pak Chois to highlight salads or stir fries. Collection comprises one packet each of: Pak Choi Purple F1 – An eye catching reddish-purple top leaf contrasts with the green undersides and the bright green stems. Pak Choi Green F1 – Produces vibrant apple green stems. Pak Choi White F1 – Produces pure white, juicy stems. Ready to harvest in 30 days from sowing as ‘baby leaf’ or 45-70 days as semi-mature to full size heads. Earlier and later sowings for ‘baby leaf’ can be made under cloches or fleece.

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This month has already been soaking wet. We were grateful here for a sunny weekend as the bees arrived on our allotment. They seem to have settled in already and have been out foraging and returning to their new hive laden with pollen!

The allotment is looking good at the moment, we have a new person just signed up and hope to get another person signed up to a quarter plot soon as well.
I’ve started a second solarisation compost bag – this time with grass cuttings and cardboard. It’ll be interesting to see how this one competes with my wheelie bin attempt at this composting method.

My potatoes that were being eaten have had slug pellets put around. I’ve never seen such devastation on spuds from slugs! Apparently they’re particularly fond of maris piper which explains why they’ve been singled out.

Jersey Plants Direct

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0EtVtgoi0w

Jersey Plants Direct

You’ll need grow on trays fillwed with compost, a dibbling tool to help get the plants out of their original trays.
remove one plant, make hole in grow on tray and add the plant. Firm on. It takes momemnts to do.
Make sure you’re doing it a good height for you – have everything to hand and you can whizz through doing loads of them.
Remember to water them in well and then water every day.

The ‘Permaculture in Leeds skill share event’ Saturday 21st July – a day with
a difference. Attendees will enjoy a whistle-stop tour of three permaculture projects
in the Leeds area, with the opportunity to share skills, be inspired, meet like
minded people, have fun and chat with the coordinators of established permaculture
‘LAND’ centres. The day will include;

1) A tour of the Cobden Road -part of the Edible Cities project in Wortley.
Niels the main project coordinator will be leading a walk and talk of the agroforestry
systems used on site.

2) Next stop will be Kippax CSA a members based community supported agriculture
scheme providing seasonal veg, salad and herbs in Ledston Luck East Leeds. The
main coordinators Neal and Louise will be giving a tour of the site, demonstrating
low impact technologies including rocket stove cooking and providing a delicious
home grown, home cooked lunch.

3) The last stop on the tour will be PULSE (Pudsey LAND Share Enterprises)
in West Leeds. PULSE are a group of permaculture practitioners demonstrating
home scale urban permaculture, supporting community food growing through living
examples and activities. Members Hannah, Gil and Suzi will be showcasing some
of the PULSE projects and leading the group in an exciting activity.

The day will cost £7 per person (under 5’s go free). This includes transport
to all three sites, refreshments and a local organic lunch. All food will be
vegetarian – please let us know on booking if you have any dietary requirements.

Please post a cheque made payable to ‘Leeds Permaculture Network’ at the address
below.

Please book early to avoid disappointment, as spaces are limited!

Dates and Times
21 July 2012
The day will run from 10.00am until 16.00pm meet at Pudsey bus station.
Venue information
Kippax CSA is a working market garden so be prepared for uneven ground and please
be mindful of the on-site pond. Much of the day’s program is outside so
please bring sturdy footwear and waterproofs. Children are welcome but must
be accompanied by an adult at all times. Sorry dogs are not permitted on the
day.
http://www.kippaxcsa.co.uk
Booking and further information
Cost:
£7 per person
Contact name:
Hannah Whelan
Email:
foodinpudsey@gmail.com
Address:
23 Brick Mill Road Pudsey LS28 9EN

Someone on our allotment who was keen to get hold of straw has placed straw all around his greenhouse as a mulch. He’s going to add some ammonium sulphate and then some more straw.

This site also mentions this method – it’s to encourage the straw to rot down.

Using urine on them will help them break down quicker too – the urine contains plenty of nitrogen which works with the carbon in the straw to break it down.

This one is packed with photos, a video clip of the rain (My rain is worse than their rain!) and lots of lovely updates and projects. Lovely photos – so well worth a look!
http://linearlegume.blogspot.co.uk/

I’ve mentioned on a forum that slugs have been eating my potato tops. Someone said they didn’t think slugs did this! Well take it from me they do!

In fact don’t just take my word for it, but look at the photos I’ve taken.

interestingly they’re on the maris piper potatoes most. I’ve got two lots of Maris Pipers and the second lot I put in are worst affected. There are also some first earlies affected – Sharps express.
I’ve never been troubled by slugs eating potato tops before – although it might be that I’ve just never picked a variety they found so delicious! It’s interesting to see how they can devastate plants – when a few yards away courgettes are sat there untouched!

I should go and save the plants and sprinkle some pellets round but it’s absolutely peeing it down right now!

The white one looks like Deroceras agreste,the orange Arion subfuscus says Dr Noble who very kindly offered to look at photos of the slugs on my allotment.

A momentous occaision for me. I’ve just ordered my bee keeping outfit from Simon the Beekeeper

Many months ago my neighbour said she was interested in keeping bees. We have an allotment on the same site so I thought it sounded fun! The chair of our allotment association also said he’d like to too and they went to a beekeeping meeting at the local association.

A month later there was a meeting at a hive on a community site nearby. I thought I’d go along as I’d been getting more interested in bees and had been reading about them online. At this site we suited up and watched as someone dismantled the hive and explained what everything was. I was fascinated. I held several frames of bees and was entranced! It was amazing! Not scary at all!
I decided I’d be more interested in keeping bees too!

The next meeting is tonight so I’m going along to sign up as a member – which costs £23 a year and gets you insurance for keeping bees!

My neighbour has a hive, and we will need other items of equipment but we will get everything we need soon! There have been swarms offered – one wasn’t honey bees though and another was in a cavity which makes it very hard to get at.

This week the book I bought arrived – I picked – Bee Manual: The Complete Step-by-step Guide to Keeping Bees – as it is supposed to be really good for beginners! It’s got tons of pictures in which makes it easy to understand! Bee Manual: The Complete Step-by-step Guide to Keeping Bees

This book is at amazon and is £13.99

The book has been written by two bee experts who’ve both been general secretary of the British Beekeepers Association and have years of experience between them.

The book is broken down into chapters which start off with Bees, The Equipment, Colony Management, Honey Harvest, Preparing for Winter, Pests and Diseases, and a summary of the Beekeeping year.

The book is packed with photos, diagrams and simple explanations of things.
The swarm prevention section is impressive with different techniques explained clearly using detailed descriptions and clear easy to follow pictures.

Use this to ID weeds

Flowering grasses, weeds and more!

Take a photo or bring a flower or seed head in side so you can look in more detail at the flower.