Top Tips!

[EbonyH]

Hi All,

We're eager to hear about any great gardening and growing tips! Do you have a particular way of growing a veg/fruit type? Do you use alternative equipment or tools that you perhaps made yourself? Any tips, tricks or methods are welcome!


Tips handed down from generation to generation. What are yours? We'd like you to share those quirky, slightly unconventional, priceless and timeless bits of wisdom!


Thanks,

Ebony



Your comments may be edited and printed in the December issue of GYO magazine

[VirginVegGrower]

For quick composting, it is very important to layer your browns and greens. I pull the sides into the middle too as this keeps the heat in. I put my hens bedding and poop between grass clippings, all my other greens. My composter is made of pallets and we are planning three more for different stage compost. I have a need to make lots this year.
I also put a protective mulch of straw around my celeriac when the weather gets truly cold - protect those crowns. I pop crushed eggshells in my brassica planting holes along with lime to guard against dreaded club root. I sow beans in modules and peas in guttering (makes for easier row planting) before planting on to help avoid mice eating the seed. Squashes up on bricks to aid turning for ripening, also to prevent rotting. Tarpaulin beds in spring which makes weeding after so much easier.

[singleseeder]

I tried the plank of wood method to get parsnips to germinate after reading about it on 'tinterweb.

Draw a drill, water, place seeds at 4" intervals (I'm not called Singleseeder for nothing), draw soil over and then cover the drill with planks of wood. Leave for two weeks. Take of the wood and voila, 99.9% germination.

The wood must keep the soil moist and warm.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Best tip for newcomers is to pay attention to what the old stagers are doing. It's how I learned and undoubtedly saved me from many gardening disasters. Oh, and plant french marigolds among the onions. Learned that one myself. It keeps the onion fly away

[JamesM]

When supporting toms, sunflowers etc don't tie too tightly as as soon as the wind picks up it has a tendency to become like razor wire. Had several 'beheadings' last year and none this year despite some windy days

[Florence Fennel]

I grew on some brassica plug plants in plastic troughs with petroleum jelly smeared all around the edges. The result was very good size plants to go into the ground, with not a slug hole in sight. The jelly worked as a complete barrier. I also tried this by smearing paper plates with the petroleum jelly and using it as collars and that worked too, a bit messy, but worth it!

[endymion]

Feed the soil ... and dig a 'bean trench' late winter that can be filled with kitchen waste as you go along. The beans will appreciate the food, and might also need less watering.

Plant French Marigolds amongst your vegetables. The flowers attract bees and hoverflies - and hoverfly larvae love eating greenfly. There's also, apparently, something given off by the roots that deters eelworms.

If you haven't got much space then grow only things you know you'll eat, or fruit and veg that could be expensive to buy - grow a few plants of as wide a variety as possible.

Encourage wildlife into your garden, especially birds, they'll repay by helping keep the pests down and will also add a little bit of rich fertiliser. (This year Long-Tailed Tits cleared the blackfly from our Broad Beans almost overnight.)