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.

The potato council has a page showing incidents of potato blight

The page has a map as well as info on the level and postcode.

Bricks! Am digging a rockery up and have discovered tons of bricks. Most are going to be used as hardcore on a project but I’ll keep some of these intact ones as they have a nice name on!


They say Halsall Bury on them.

It’d be interesting to know how old they are.

The TV show Gardeners World – do you watch it on TV or catch up on iplayer?

You can only watch them for 14 days after they’ve been on TV but probably wise to keep up with the for the seasonal advice!

Monty’s hint of don’t water potatoes until they’re flowering needs noting!

I’ve always enjoyed watching gardening programs on TV. I prefer those with vegetable gardening or interesting projects to watch. I don’t mind watching about flower shows but unless it’s something really special they’re going to see it can be a bit dull. I’m not overkeen on flowers – not that I dislike them, but prefer to find out more about other aspects of gardening.
I used to watch Gardeners world back when Geoff Hamilton used to present it. I loved the show then – even though I was young, as I loved gardening and pottered in my gran’s greenhouse all the time.
With the weather being so bad at the moment it’s nice to know you can watch gardening programs on iplayer to catch up with your favourites.
Monty Don’s garden is Longmeadow – Geoff Hamilton’s was Barnsdale. I love the parts of the program they do on their own gardens.

How to make Comfrey potting mixture.
How to do this?
Can’t find definitive instructions – but suspect you could either:
Take lots of comfrey leaves and mix with autumn leaves. Store in a black sack or leaf container until a fine compost is obtained.
Or
Take well rotted leaf compost and add comfrey leaves to it for a couple of weeks until they have rotted down. This would add lots of plant food to the material.

Or
Shred comfrey leaves and normal leaves and leave to rot. This process will help the leaves break down fast. It is often suggested to mow leaves up from a lawn which mixes them with grass cuttings which speed up the composting process.
I will be experimenting with this as soon as my comfrey plants are strong enough next year to give me a harvest!

If you have conifers you want to get rid of then you can either send them off in your council’s green waste bins or try to compost them at home. The branches are tough and take a long time to rot down. If you have a quiet corner to use then try to shred them as finely as possible and make a compost heap. If you don’t then you can burn them but they will burn brightly. They will make an acidic compost – but that can be useful if you want to grow things like blueberries.

A long lasting mulch of shredded conifer material could be used on paths. It’s acidic nature will suppress weed growth in theory so could be very effective!

Not sure what this is. I know what I want it to be though!

Blackcurrants forming well.

Be nice to nettles week – 16 – 27 May 2012

I don’t recommend you hug a nettle though!

Almost everyone is familiar with the nettle having experienced its formidable sting. To many it is a troublesome weed that should be eradicated wherever it is found. This point of view has only recently developed. Indeed the humble nettle has played, and continues to play, an important role in the natural world…

Video of flowers opening. Lovely pictures!