Topic: The RAWK Gardening Thread. (All Questions Answered)

[reddebs]

Just got a little book on hot composting. Anyone done that? We have a little glen just at the bottom of our garden that's overgrown with 10 foot nettles and various other things, so there's a massive amount of stuff there just on the wilt/turn, and we're pruning our trees, which has led to about an oak tree's worth of tree shreddings.

I'm gonna give it a go, but no idea how to get the mix right.

Sounds interesting Roy, I've heard of it but no idea how it's done or whether it's a better way of composting.

Loving the glen project too, I bet it'll make a lovely quiet retreat when you've finished it.

Keep us informed of your progress on both too 😁

[reddebs]

We're getting towards harvest time for wild fruit again. We always make damson gin, but I'm interested in any other favourites that people may have?

I've seen loads of cobnuts in the lanes and hedges and I'm thinking of trying a cobnut (hazlenut) liquour this year. Anyone done similar?

We usually do damson gin too though we've no tree here to get fruit.  We do however have wild plums and sloes in our boundary hedges so might have a go with them instead.

Not done anything with nuts other than pick them to eat but I'd be interested in how you'd do a liqueur.

I am planning on doing some cherry brandy for a change but I'll be buying the cherries as my tree didn't like the move from Yorkshire and is suffering with a fungal desease so might need burning 😔

[reddebs]

Bits of the garden being weed on by the cat have basically died, so as a continuing aim to getting grass on the lawn, I've dug up those areas and dumped loads of grass seeds in the holes then put fresh new soil in, so hopefully will make a difference.

Our garden 3 months ago looked a show but the new grass is coming on really well. I dumped a load of seeds where the weeds are and the weeds are almost gone - the new grass taking their sunlight and nutrients I suppose?

Sounds like you've got it sussed Andy 👍

[Filler.]

Just got a little book on hot composting. Anyone done that? We have a little glen just at the bottom of our garden that's overgrown with 10 foot nettles and various other things, so there's a massive amount of stuff there just on the wilt/turn, and we're pruning our trees, which has led to about an oak tree's worth of tree shreddings.

I'm gonna give it a go, but no idea how to get the mix right.

Hot composting is basically similar to stuffing things into the black or green daleks?



You'll get to learn how to mix it properly if you investigate it early and regularly. Too wet, add some corrugated cardboard. Too dry, piss in it. All egg boxes and loo rolls go into mine aswell as amazon brown paper packaging stuff, plus old dried out plant pot compost. I never put grass cuttings in there tho.

In short, it needs to be moist - moist-ish. You can tip your vacuum cleaner crap in there too.


If you've got a ton of tree shreddings to add to it I doubt you'll need to worry!

[royhendo]

Hot composting is basically similar to stuffing things into the black or green daleks?


You'll get to learn how to mix it properly if you investigate it early and regularly. Too wet, add some corrugated cardboard. Too dry, piss in it. All egg boxes and loo rolls go into mine aswell as amazon brown paper packaging stuff, plus old dried out plant pot compost. I never put grass cuttings in there tho.

In short, it needs to be moist - moist-ish. You can tip your vacuum cleaner crap in there too.

If you've got a ton of tree shreddings to add to it I doubt you'll need to worry!

Ta for that mate - never thought of pissing in it, haha!

Yeah were left a couple of daleks (those exact ones actually) when we got here - it's worked pretty well - we gumtreed a tumbler in the early spring though and we've hardly had any food waste go out in the bins since - but the mix is supposed to get to 70 degrees, whereas ours never got near that. It was warm, but never that warm. We emptied it last month though and got two barrow fulls of decent compost out of it. I think I was putting too much cardboard and paper in cos reading this, they say adding green heats it up.

That led to making a big bay the other week cos we knew we'd get all those nettles and tree shreddings in there - and I got given vouchers when I left my last job and got the shredder with them. The shredder is tremendous, and addictive. So yeah, long story short we have a cubic metre of all that stuff plus the two barrowfulls from the tumbler, and we've almost filled the two tumblers. There's a lot of shit to use cos it's a really wild area. And Debs - I could clear half the nettles away and fill every space we have, but it'd still only make a dent in the glen. The glen is a jungle between April and November, haha! Doesn't keep the deer out tho.

Anyway, the chat in the book is that if you get more than a cubic metre on the go with the right mix of greens (nitrogen), browns (carbon) and moisture, then it'll ramp up with the bacteria and beasties' heat to between 55 to 70 degrees, and if you get it to that level it kills off things like bindweed or ground elder or whatever else you don't want to come out of the other end of it. That and the process speeds up supposedly. So yeah, I'm gonna try and do that. Oh and you need to make sure air can get in so the guy actually says 'drill holes in your daleks' (although he calls them Green Jennies for some reason).

This lot are doing it in Brighton as a community project and it just looks like a trial and error thing to me.
https://www.instagram.com/compost.club/

[reddebs]

Roy that makes your glen sound even better.  I'd definitely be making a little clearing with a hideaway just to watch the deer.

I might invest in one or two of those daleks for hot composting if it'll kill off the deadlies but I'll wait till next year now when my composting is a bit better organised and more controlled.

I've just got back from the stables with bags full of beautiful, sticky, smelly and free manure.  Can't wait to get it to work on my beds and borders.

[royhendo]

Spot the gardener eh? Manure is the shit, isn't it?

I meant to ask Filler - why don't you put grass clippings on the pile?

[Filler.]

I meant to ask Filler - why don't you put grass clippings on the pile?

Because they don't add anything. They just add moisture and nitrogen.

Ideally I'd have a big 2x2m box in the corner where I can just chuck all this crap* into and have done with, and have a pile or two where I can make compost and another pile where I can make proper mulch - leaves 'n shit. Grass cuttings are only good for keeping down weeds. I never put them in compost.



*crap=

You can compost nettles, but never their roots. Same with bindweed etc But I'd love a corner where I'd throw this shit into. I throw it all into the 'brown bin' for recycling. Recycled into other gardens eventually sadly. Top tip: Never buy compost from recycling centres.

[Filler.]

I have thousands of worms in my compost pile. It's even under shade but I have clumps of worms falling off the lid when I put more into it. So much so that I  give it an hour for them to relocate as I hate squashing them. I always forget.

[John C]

And prepare yourself for mice Roy. I tried it about 15, frigging hell maybe 20 years ago when Liverpool issued compost bins for free to encourage it. Often there was a mouse peering up when you lifted the lid.

If you've got land, try windrow composting.

Christ I'll never forget being instructed by my boss to learn about that in 1994!

[royhendo]

We're doing food waste in a sealed thing off the ground. It was some gumtree deal really - one of these (a bit rusted) for £40. The woman had bought a bigger one but this took all our food waste for 6 months and combined with sawdust it spat out what those fellas on that compost club call 'Hummus' - not a million miles from usable compost. Spawney! So yeah, that hummus goes into the pile.
https://www.quickcrop.co.uk/product/joraform-little-pig-composter-jk125

[reddebs]

Not sure what's going on with my compost, it seems to have stopped doing it's stuff.

I checked on the little one last week and absolutely nothing was happening to the last lot of kitchen waste or grass cuttings that had gone on it over a week earlier.

It was cold and dry, even the lower down stuff that had composted.  No worms or signs of anything usable.

The main things that have gone on it are kitchen waste, raw only, dead headed flowers and old cut flowers, some ashes from a garden bonfire, cardboard from toilet and kitchen rolls.

The big compost that's now full really is full of shite and it wouldn't surprise me if it ends up totally unusable.

It's had far too much grass sods, full of weed roots, lots of wood chippings, not shredded, the veg plot waste and lots of bonfire ashes.

I hope I'm wrong and some of its usable for next year as I really don't want to be buying in again but having done a bit of research I don't think we have the right ratio of green and brown waste to make it work.

[reddebs]

I've been on a killing spree today which I feel bad about but you don't come into my garden and help yourself to my alyssums and think it's ok.

Damn caterpillars!

[RedSince86]

Courgettes in the garden are loving this weather, they have almost double in size since friday, i thought this would be the last of them this summer, but can see some other ones sprouting now.

[cormorant]

Working from home here and sick of looking at the same old *hit. Decided to spruce up my south facing front room today. Bought 4 succulents and 2 medium-sized houseplants. One of the houseplants is a rubber plant, the other is a weeping fig. Any ideas on how often to feed them, and what with? Guessing that a general feed would be ok?

Love the difference that they've made for about £25-30. Might even give a trailing one a go off the top of my bookcase.

[Filler.]

Not sure what's going on with my compost, it seems to have stopped doing it's stuff.

I checked on the little one last week and absolutely nothing was happening to the last lot of kitchen waste or grass cuttings that had gone on it over a week earlier.

It was cold and dry, even the lower down stuff that had composted.  No worms or signs of anything usable.

The main things that have gone on it are kitchen waste, raw only, dead headed flowers and old cut flowers, some ashes from a garden bonfire, cardboard from toilet and kitchen rolls.

The big compost that's now full really is full of shite and it wouldn't surprise me if it ends up totally unusable.

It's had far too much grass sods, full of weed roots, lots of wood chippings, not shredded, the veg plot waste and lots of bonfire ashes.

I hope I'm wrong and some of its usable for next year as I really don't want to be buying in again but having done a bit of research I don't think we have the right ratio of green and brown waste to make it work.

I'm a bit of a compost 'purist', or at least follow some tried and tested positive results.


Grass sods and grass cuttings never go in my compost pile/dalek bin. Put them somewhere else. If you've got space just put them somewhere else in a corner to do whatever. Grass cuttings are nitrogen only - you'd need the same weight in dry goods combined to turn them into anything useful and they wouldn't be very useful.

Weed roots go in my garden recycling bin that gets taken away by the council. Don't put weed roots in your home recycling bin unless you're convinced that they're getting destroyed by heat. If it steams with a plume of steam you might be ok. Personally, I don't even go there.

I don't compost potato skins. You CAN compost them, but you can also compost fish. I don't.


It's vital to find that perfect spot between wet/dry. Toilet rolls always go in... it needs lots of dry.

My compost bin is currently a horror film of worms.




edit: Don't put bonfire ashes into it either - and never put in ashes from coal. Burnt charcoal is potash which should be used for particular plants and not as a general. It's alkaline, and most edible plants like slightly acidic soil. Tomaoes like potash.

[Sarge]

Anyone hear anything from Debs?

[Red-Soldier]

Anyone hear anything from Debs?

No. She has totally disappeared from the site.  Hope everything is OK with her.

[Sarge]

No. She has totally disappeared from the site.  Hope everything is OK with her.

Late September since she has been on, hope all is good.

[cormorant]

^^

My sentiments exactly. Hope she is okay.

[Filler.]

Anyone still seeing bees buzzing around? It's November... got Boeing sized bumblebees flying about and self seeding summer flowers already growing again. I live in England. Bees aren't supposed to be doing this. There was a throng of bees buzzing around a flowering tree here today. Anyone else have similar?

[Crosby Nick]

Anyone still seeing bees buzzing around? It's November... got Boeing sized bumblebees flying about and self seeding summer flowers already growing again. I live in England. Bees aren't supposed to be doing this. There was a throng of bees buzzing around a flowering tree here today. Anyone else have similar?

I have a fuschia and a rose plant out the front that are still flowering. I also saw a big bumble bee bobbing about yesterday which was nice to see. Still pretty mild at the moment.

[Red-Soldier]

Anyone still seeing bees buzzing around? It's November... got Boeing sized bumblebees flying about and self seeding summer flowers already growing again. I live in England. Bees aren't supposed to be doing this. There was a throng of bees buzzing around a flowering tree here today. Anyone else have similar?

They are likely queen bees.  They overwinter in rough ground, but are still flying about, as it's very mild. 

My grass is still growing and the red clover in my lawn is about 10 cm high.

[Trada]

Like i said i completety took my lawn up and they used that machine to turn the ground over and then planted wild flower seeds and also a thornless blackberry bush that i have built a terris for that after the picture was taken.

That was about 6 weeks ago and this time it seems to have worked got things coming  up it will be interesting to see what its like in the Spring

[Red-Soldier]

Like i said i completety took my lawn up and they used that machine to turn the ground over and then planted wild flower seeds and also a thornless blackberry bush that i have built a terris for that after the picture was taken.

That was about 6 weeks ago and this time it seems to have worked got things coming  up it will be interesting to see what its like in the Spring

Great to see you've got things coming through.

It's always exciting waiting to see what comes up   

[Trada]

Great to see you've got things coming through.

It's always exciting waiting to see what comes up   

Not sure what i got coming up, i had 4 packs 1 was a bee and butterfly mix, a scented mix, a cornflower mix and Yellow rattle and i mixed them all together and scattered them.

I thought someone was pinching the end of my Blackberry bush and noriced fresh growth was dissappearing checked under the leaves and found a single caterpillar  and killed it its to small a bush for that right now.

Is it normal to have active caterpillars in November?

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Have any of you built your own planters & if so what wood did you use ?

My Mam wants a load for her Hostas and other flowers and the prices are shocking,told her I can build whatever she wants,just send me a link,am thinking the best stuff to use would be decking boards (sleepers I know,but not using them) & the cheapest places I have found are Wickes and Selco (it's where the trade goes).

[reddebs]

Thought I'd check in here to see how everyone's getting on with their summer/autumn projects?

I'm still waiting to complete my wildlife pond as once the guy dug it out for me it's filled with water and never emptied since. 

Now you might say that's how it should be and I may just leave it as it is and see what happens rather than prettying it all up with a liner, stone edging and planting it up.

What a weirdly mild autumn we've had though.  I've just been out for a few hours therapy after last night's shite and there's daisy's, sweet williams, primroses and even the kerria flowering 🤷 the roses we're still flowering at the beginning of December.

It looks like we lost a beautiful solanum climber during the gales that we'd put in in the summer.  It was flowering so well and had established itself along the fence, now it's wind burnt and straggly.  We also lost the metal archway that supported the rambling rose too 😔

Hope we get a warmer, dryer and calmer spring this year though.  I'm not used to these wet and windy conditions that the west of the country gets 😂

[Sarge]

All good Debs happy Christmas and Happy Gardering New Year.

[reddebs]

All good Debs happy Christmas and Happy Gardering New Year.

Good stuff mate and same to you 👍

[reddebs]

I'm feeling a bit lazy for the busy upcoming spring gardening season so wanted to know your thoughts on some time saving ideas I've got.

I collected loads of seeds from my perennials in the autumn to save on having to buy more plants to fill out the gaps I have in the borders.  What I can't be arsed with is sowing them in seed trays then having to prick them out before eventually planting the seedlings out in late spring. 

As they are mainly plants that would self seed anyway would it hurt to just sow the seeds directly into the borders and just hope for the best?

I've got Delphiniums, Hollyhocks, Aquilegia, Oriental Poppy, Snow in Summer, Sweet Peas and Penstemon.

[Slippers]

I'm feeling a bit lazy for the busy upcoming spring gardening season so wanted to know your thoughts on some time saving ideas I've got.

I collected loads of seeds from my perennials in the autumn to save on having to buy more plants to fill out the gaps I have in the borders.  What I can't be arsed with is sowing them in seed trays then having to prick them out before eventually planting the seedlings out in late spring. 

As they are mainly plants that would self seed anyway would it hurt to just sow the seeds directly into the borders and just hope for the best?

I've got Delphiniums, Hollyhocks, Aquilegia, Oriental Poppy, Snow in Summer, Sweet Peas and Penstemon.

I've always done that with the Aquilegia,although we have too many for me to be able to collect all the seeds every year.

I usually collect half of them and scatter them on parts of the garden where nothing else grows.

[reddebs]

I've always done that with the Aquilegia,although we have too many for me to be able to collect all the seeds every year.

I usually collect half of them and scatter them on parts of the garden where nothing else grows.

Perfect thanks for that.  We literally bought one of everything that we liked then waited to see what else appeared so there weren't really that many to collect.

I've enough to do a few scatterings leaving a few weeks in between to give us a better chance of getting somerhing.

[Slippers]

Perfect thanks for that.  We literally bought one of everything that we liked then waited to see what else appeared so there weren't really that many to collect.

I've enough to do a few scatterings leaving a few weeks in between to give us a better chance of getting somerhing.

These were already here when we bought the place,one of the few plants we kept when we sorted the garden.

[royhendo]

They spread really well by self seeding where we are - we've more foxgloves than we can shake a stick at too cos we copied a fella off a gardening programme giving them a shake when we cut them out.

[reddebs]

They spread really well by self seeding where we are - we've more foxgloves than we can shake a stick at too cos we copied a fella off a gardening programme giving them a shake when we cut them out.

We've loads of the pink ones too down the track to the house but none in the garden.  I found a few down the banking and moved them into the garden and they're growing fine.

My sister gave me a pack of foxglove seeds in June that are the cultivated mixed coloured ones which I sowed straight into a nursery bed I'd done.  I got 60 odd seedlings from them which have now been transplanted around all the borders so hopefully they'll establish themselves now.

I've so many seeds stored in the fridge that I've collected plus my sister who works at a nursery as a propagater has given us loads more, most of which are unnamed.  Then she's given us others that she's got free off gardening magazines.

At least I won't need to buy very much this year now 👏👏👏

How you doing anyway Roy?  How's your project getting on?

[Sarge]

Going to do a cutting and tidy up this weekend with the weather being so nice for this time of year.

[reddebs]

Going to do a cutting and tidy up this weekend with the weather being so nice for this time of year.

The weather's been lovely here too.  Spring is just around the corner unless winter decides to show up.

What you cutting and tidying mate?  The grass/lawn?

We've finished taking down the final bit of hedge to a manageable height this week, which means we'll have far more light in the garden as it's the southern border.

Also dig up and given away a huge clump of crocosmia Lucifer but planted some all round the boundary fences.

I've moved some small shrub roses and dug up and moved some acanthus that's huge but didn't flower last year as it was fully in shade.  Fingers crossed it'll survive.

[royhendo]

We've loads of the pink ones too down the track to the house but none in the garden.  I found a few down the banking and moved them into the garden and they're growing fine.

My sister gave me a pack of foxglove seeds in June that are the cultivated mixed coloured ones which I sowed straight into a nursery bed I'd done.  I got 60 odd seedlings from them which have now been transplanted around all the borders so hopefully they'll establish themselves now.

I've so many seeds stored in the fridge that I've collected plus my sister who works at a nursery as a propagater has given us loads more, most of which are unnamed.  Then she's given us others that she's got free off gardening magazines.

At least I won't need to buy very much this year now 👏👏👏

Lovely!

How you doing anyway Roy?  How's your project getting on?

I'm sorry I missed this Debs. It's been on hold pending things starting to sprout, because the plastic coverings over the wild bit of the garden have been on for about 8 months now. I've turned them over in some bits this week now it's starting to get lighter, and the only things still alive are the bulbs (daffs), and occasional last remnants of some kind of rhizome/creeping thing that I think might be ground elder (it has little bobbles of 'fuel' around each root, and it's amazing how many of the little f@ckers have managed to survive. I'm not actually 100% sure it's ground elder... but regardless, its days are numbered cos I'm gonna replace the plastic with the no dig cardboard and earth layer soon, and that should finish it off. And we'll have loads of veg hopefully!

So much wind damage though to the trees...

[reddebs]

Lovely!

I'm sorry I missed this Debs. It's been on hold pending things starting to sprout, because the plastic coverings over the wild bit of the garden have been on for about 8 months now. I've turned them over in some bits this week now it's starting to get lighter, and the only things still alive are the bulbs (daffs), and occasional last remnants of some kind of rhizome/creeping thing that I think might be ground elder (it has little bobbles of 'fuel' around each root, and it's amazing how many of the little f@ckers have managed to survive. I'm not actually 100% sure it's ground elder... but regardless, its days are numbered cos I'm gonna replace the plastic with the no dig cardboard and earth layer soon, and that should finish it off. And we'll have loads of veg hopefully!

So much wind damage though to the trees...

The winds have been savage since October time and my Solanum is still looking on deaths door but thankfully it's the only thing that's suffered and I'm still hoping it'll pull through.

Ground elder is a pain and so hard to get rid of but your cardboard idea should sort it out.  We're plagued with angelica here but I'm gradually getting rid of it bit by bit. 

I've still not been able to start on the pond since the hole was dug as it's been full of water ever since, which I know, it's a pond so it should have water in it but I need to get the liner in and finish off with boulders round the edges.

I bought my onion sets last week ready to go in next month but I'm doing my spuds in bags this year so the rabbits can't dig them up and I'll do some earlies, 2nd earlies and some main crop rather than just 2nd earlies like last year.

Still lots to do, as is always the case with a garden but the results are worth it.