I don't spend huge amounts on garden stuff but I love visiting gardens and will always come home with plants.
The Lockdown has meant I couldn't do that - I'm not complaining because I've loved every minute of having to stay home.
But my garden is full - maybe I've had more time to plant stuff in, or the weather has brought more plants on faster? 
I bought 10 dahlia tubers in jan ...about £24.00
I also bought 3 packets of flower seed approx £7.00
3 bags of compost - £10.00

Then I splashed out on 10 clematis - £110.00 
So a total of £141.00 ( but the clematis was an investment) 

How much have you spent?

Some of you may remember that the VC Calendar has 3 seasons :-
Season No 1 = March - June
Season No 2 = July - October
Season No 3 = November - February

The summer Equinox was yesterday and we are moving into No 2 - or, as I think of it, the Second Spring.  Its the time when I resow the quick maturing seeds I sowed in March - courgettes, beans, peas and some early tomatoes;  salad leaves, carrots, beetroot, radish and spring onions, kale and  cabbage. In fact most veg apart from those that need to be in the ground for a looooooooooooong time.

Don't want to upset you but, with the daylight hours decreasing, July is also the time to plant Spinach, Fennel and many Oriental veggies that are prone to bolting if sown to early.

Any recommendations for suppliers of 'cheap' debris netting for greenhouse shading?   I got some last year off Ebay  very reasonably but the prices seem to have gone up since.  It's for new GH, so I'm undecided what width.  I chose 1m x 10m for existing  GH and drape it around the roof and down the front, like a shawl, back is already in shade, but might consider a wider width to drape over like a tent.  Either way my 1m x 10m was under £7 incl p&p, every thing on Ebay at the moment is almost twice that.  Maybe I just got lucky last year, or I'm looking in the wrong place.  Not an urgent requirement as GH not even delivered yet.

I'm growing calendula Lemon Daisy (I think), they're yellow (DUH naturally)  and dwarf. They are so easy, but how do you stop them getting powdery mildew and starting to look really tatty.  BTW I will prob have seeds of this for the seed swap if anyone wa ts them.

One mystery I believe is solved. I’m 99% Sure My accidental overwintered chilli is sugar rush peach.

   

The other 3 are still a mystery.
The 2 big ones, I found as seedlings in the compost I saved from last years chilli pots. 
So they will definitely be offspring of a named variety I grew last year. Don’t know if they’ll come true Or be crossed. 
Probably crossed.

The little one I found coming up in the raised bed in the first tunnel. Last year had my mystery chillies (never did identify any of them) in there. I only kept it because it had purple seed leaves. 

Only time will tell if any of them will be any good.

   

Hello Folks

I'm getting about 5 bags of clippings a week from a friend and want to store them for later use.

If I leave them in the bag they are steamy and hot within about 2 days, if I spread them out they dry in clumps in about the same period.

Obviously I could put them in the compost heaps but I wondered if there were any other ways to store them to eventually use as layers for the future raised beds?

The only other thing I thought of was to initially mark the beds out then cover with cardboard / grass and install the wooden sides as and when I get them? (I think this will be Vinny's view)

Spent lots of time in the tunnel tying up & isolating. And getting very hot.

   

   

   

   

   

Tapestry lawns are Grass-free and need less mowing than a grass lawn. Also better for wildlife, absorb more rainfall and need no fertilisation. They also look good!

I'll be honest, I've never heard of Tapestry lawns before but there's a website, a book and a 4 year study supporting the concept sponsored by the RHS.
Have a read - I think it looks great but I'm not sure I'm up to stripping off the "lawn" to start afresh. Maybe small patches at a time, more of a patchwork quilt than a tapestry!
https://www.grassfreelawns.co.uk/index.html

As I was thinning out the carrots and saving those big enough to eat I pondered: does anyone eat carrot tops?  I cut some of the leaves of the baby carrots, but did I need to?  Answers on a postcard to..............Jen

Hi all,

We're experiencing the exciting phenomenon of growing more fruit on our new plot and having most of it eaten by birds...I'm considering the value of building a walk-in-height fruit cage for next year. It feels like something we could do with some chunky posts and chicken wire, but perhaps I am being overly optimistic/simplistic. Does anyone have any advice or experience of building a <ahem> very cheap <ahem> fruit cage that was worth the effort in protecting your produce and not too much of a pain to deal with for weeding/harvesting?

We're pretty low-tech with tools, though we do have a circular saw. The soil is pretty heavy, but I reckon we could work with it when it's as wet as it is at the moment.

Thanks!