Hot bed trial

[rary]

I have some bags of grass clippings, as well as several bags of leaves I was adding them to a compost bin when I realised that the grass clipping were giving of some heat, so I intend mixing them tomorrow and covering the raised bed in the greenhouse, after which I will cover with a couple of inches of compost, hopefully this will give sufficient heat for growing lettuce

[Bren In Pots]

Let us know how you get on Rary, which variety of lettuce are you sowing ?

[rary]

I have set up the raised bed, first by covering half of it with some seaweed then a mix of grass and leaves, I then covered that with compost, I didn't have time to clean up my hard n compost so I used a bag I bought last spring, the second half I first sprinkled some grit over it then covered with grass/leaf mix, followed by a bag of compost, I don't have photos of the second half of the bed but will try later first what I have of the first part
And as usual they don't come out in the order of hoped for

[rary]

Let us know how you get on Rary, which variety of lettuce are you sowing ?

Not sure yet Bren , what would you recommend

[Bren In Pots]

If you’re sowing now any of the winter varieties, I use either Arctic king or ‘All year round’. Winter density is another good one.

[rary]

^^^ many thanks Bren for suggestions

[Nicos]

Let us know how this gets on Rary .
Nice thread

[rary]

Will do Nicos, unfortunately I have been a bit preoccupied at present but hope to pay more attention after the weekend

[rary]

Coming up on four weeks of the trial, but it's hard to say whither it's working or not, I had sown some peas along with mooli radish as well as lettuce seeds, but lost everything, at first I thought nothing had germinated the noticed that the peas had bee dug out, so set a trap and caught a mouse, so with that I tried again and again nothing, I set the trap up again but kept loosing the bait, possible cause, snails, put beer trap down but nothing so set the mouse trap again and lost the bait, it one of those human traps that catches the mouse without killing it, so lifted the front with a bit of wood so that it was slopping backwards put the cheese in as far as it would go, and following morning there was a mouse in it unfortunately it was dead I think it was too cold overnight for it, however I will try again with the seed sowing and see what comes.
Hopefully not more mice

[Snoop Puss]

Is the temperature maybe getting too cold or the daylength too short for seeds to germinate?

[rary]

Is the temperature maybe getting too cold or the daylength too short for seeds to germinate?

You could be right Snoop, not so much about the temperature more the day length, as I have the bed covered with a sun tunnel and there's a small container with some water in it which hasn't frozen over so I think lettuce should germinate OK, however time will tell

[Snoop Puss]

Good luck, rary.

[Bren In Pots]

Hope it goes well this time Rary.