Clever Tulips
Posted by: Veggie - 12-04-2024, 09:05 PM - Replies (3)

           
A few years ago I planted tulips in a heavy stoneware pot. It was on top of an old tree stump, which, inevitably rotted. The pot ended up on the ground, upside down. It was too heavy for me to turn over so, being lazy, I left it where it fell. 
This year, the tulips have pushed themselves out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot - and are about to flower! They have changed direction completely in their search for the light. How clever is that?

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  The old chicken run
Posted by: Veggie - 09-04-2024, 08:48 PM - Replies (12)

Bright ideas needed please. Big Grin
As you know, I don't have chickens now so their old run is looking for other uses. 
Its fenced on all sides but there is no roof. 
The sides are higher at the door end (about 7') but only a couple of feet high at the far end. The roof was removed so that I could stand up in it. Putting netting over it would not work.
Its in the shade most of the day but I may be able to  lower some of the nearby shrubs to give a bit more light. 
The floor has been lined with chicken wire to stop rats so its not suitable for root crops. 
The floor has been divided into two halves - the upper half (door end) had gravel on it and this is mixed with the soil now.
The other half has plenty of well manured  soil/compost over the wire. 

How would you use this space? I have some ideas but thought I'd see what you could suggest as two heads or twenty heads are better than one.

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  Seedling Gallery
Posted by: Veggie - 08-04-2024, 01:21 PM - No Replies

Can't tell your Seedlings from your Weedlings? 
Useful information from Real Seeds https://realseeds.co.uk/seedlinggallery.html

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  Hummus (not humus).
Posted by: Veggie - 06-04-2024, 07:57 PM - Replies (2)

I like chickpea hummus - so versatile for spreading on toast, eating with salad or as a dip with vegetables.
The recipe usually requires Tahini but they didn't have any in Lidl so I asked the Duck for an alternative recipe. 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_hummus_96922
This recipe uses smooth peanut butter instead of tahini and, as luck would have it, I was given a jar of that recently. I only buy Whole Earth Crunchy PB so the smooth stuff was going to be used for satay sauce and not eaten. 
Anyway, back to the recipe, which claims not to need a blender and can be made with a potato masher instead. Don't believe it! Either my tin of chickpeas were incredibly hard or my mashing power needed a bit more welly. I couldn't be faffed to resurrect the Kenwood from the top shelf so I used one of those stick blenders instead. Once I added the water and lemon juice, the chickpeas started to blend, before that they were flying everywhere and clogging the stick thingy. 
The verdict - looks and tastes good, not as gloopy as shop bought hummus but at least I know what's in it and, all the ingredients were FREE. Big Grin

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  My latest Food Challenge!
Posted by: Veggie - 05-04-2024, 09:07 PM - Replies (26)

I've mentioned Dr Michael Greger before, when I was doing Veganuary in January. He's a nutritionist and has written several books that  intrigue me - although I'm too mean to buy them. There's "How Not to Die", "How Not to Diet" and "How Not to Age". Basically he recommends  "A Daily Dozen" of foods to be eaten to be healthy. https://veganuary.com/wp-content/uploads...t-2021.pdf Portion sizes at https://veganuary.com/dr-gregers-daily-dozen-checklist/
I've been dabbling with this list since January but I rarely manage to incorporate everything in my daily eating - because I forget something! 
My plan is to build a new habit every week, concentrating on just one item on the Daily Dozen List. Some are harder than others so I'm going to start with the simple ones, starting tomorrow. 

First challenge - to eat Berries every day. 

Berries are versatile foods you can enjoy fresh, frozen, blended, dried or straight from the pack.
They’re also the healthiest fruits. Colourful foods are often healthier because they contain antioxidant pigments. The colours are the antioxidants, which means red onions have more than white, red grapes have more than green, red apples have more than green, etc.
Include plenty of acai berries, barberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, goji berries, raspberries and strawberries in your diet.
Serving sizes:

  • 60g fresh or frozen – (3 tbsp)

  • 40g dried – (1 generous handful)

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  Northeast facing windowsill?
Posted by: Vinny - 05-04-2024, 11:14 AM - Replies (5)

My living room window faces Northeast. I need a couple of smallish plants for the windowsill. They could be either foliage or flowwring plants. I had a mother-in-laws-tongue whisch is supposd to be 'bombproof'..........and it died. Blush Same with another foliage plant.

Any ideas folks? Huh

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  Hanging Baskets
Posted by: Scarlet - 28-03-2024, 09:05 PM - Replies (1)

I haven't done hanging baskets for years.... but my Step Dad has requested some, he doesnt ask for much so I want to do a good job. 
BUT he isnt good at dead heading Big Grin and he wants them to look as good as those down the road -Big Grin
What would you put in? I dont really want to spend a fortune...

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  Gardeners World Forum to close
Posted by: Veggie - 26-03-2024, 05:42 PM - Replies (2)

Just in case any of you are members of the GW Forum, I've just seen that its closing down tomorrow! https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussions.
As they say "Another one bites the dust!".

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  Censored- Titchmarsh's trousers!
Posted by: Veggie - 26-03-2024, 03:26 PM - Replies (1)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68664644

I have to admit that when I saw the censored photo I thought AT's trouser's must be unzipped.  Blush

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  Bombay bronze & crystal beauty cockscomb
Posted by: Small chilli - 25-03-2024, 10:37 AM - No Replies

I’m going to bore you all silly with the growing of cockscomb plants again this year.

It’s starting very well with incredibly quick germination. Only 4 days for my self saved Bombay bronze and 5 days for crystal beauty.

I’ve sown a lot more this year. I may have got carried away!

   

 I’ll do a little experimenting with the Bombay bronze as I have so many. I’m going to pinch a couple out again even though I know that’s not what you’re supposed to do. Because one the plants I did that to last year. Produced some stunning stem for my jam jar bunches. But the other really did nothing. So I’ll have another go this year with a couple of them. I’m also going to plant a few of them close together. And a couple in their own pots.

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