down at the allotment and in the garden what are you up to

[Millymollymandy]

M3 - dont know if u know or not but moles hate any kind of noise. If u put something that causes a constant sound down one of the holes it will keep the mole at bay. We have successfully used the musical thingie inside those horrid birthday/xmas cards. Might be worth a try?

Only if I don't hear it. I think hearing a tinny sounding "happy birthday to you" in the veg patch might be worse than moles!

Actually it could well be campagnols or mulots (what that is in English I don't know, voles or something).

I have read many threads discussing moles on other forums where generally people have never had much luck with anything other than the bombs you put down their runs. I don't much fancy exploding lawns or veggies!

The first year my anti-mole euphorbia seemed to do the trick but now it doesn't. It self seeds everywhere, constantly, and is now as much a pest as the moles.

[ohareward]

Hi 3M. We don't have moles in NZ, but I was interested about your problem. I went to Google and entered 'getting rid of moles naturally'. It came up with a few ideas you could try.

Robin

[ina]

Some people swear by putting juicy fruit chewing gum down the holes... Allegedly, the mint flavour doesn't work. Don't know whether it clogs up their digestive system and they die a brutal death?!

[Millymollymandy]

My husband has tried putting down a smelly substance he bought that they apparently don't like. So they just tunnel off elsewhere! Doesn't help any and I don't want stuff like that near my veg.

[Stardust]

Today I went out and bought all the plants i need to turn my grandads garden into a giant Allotment!

We baught

Courgette plants
Pumkin plants
PeasLeeks
Cauliflower
Runner beans
Beetroot seeds
Carrot Seeds
Radish, Spring Onion, and Lettuce seeds
Tomato Plants
Strawberrie Plants
Chives x2
Basil
Corrianderx2
Pine apple mintx2
Rosemary

Tomorrow first thing am going in to pick up my chilli and sweet pepper plants, then start the digging and hopefully get them all in

One piece of advice i need is how best to grow leeks? the label just said plant them in wet rows, cover with dry soil and leave for a while, that sounds dangerous to me! should i do anything else? anyone found anything they really like?

All advice welcome!!! Thank you!

[Millymollymandy]

There's a thread currently on the go about how best to grow leeks. I expect it is in either the veg section or the tips and problems section. Failing that try doing a forum search for 'leeks'. Good luck!

[red]

still not sure how to plant leeks yet.. still they are only the size of spagetti at the mo

so - have planted the last of my butternut squash - 5 plants

and last of my courgettes - 9 - well you know how it is.. you grow more than you need for failures... then plant them all.... and other things are not going so well in the garden.. and i want something that works!

last year 3 courgette plants was about 2.5 more plants than we needed....

planted more borlotti.. to make up for the ones that died in frost. planted purple sprouting brocollu out (no idea why i am doing brassicas when i am so bad at them)

[Christine]

Running out of space in the bits that are ready for planting. never mind, the slugs are clearing more and more for me every day - how kind!

Main problem is that the grand plan says that the brassicas go into the pea/broad bean bed once they are lifted but it's been so warm they need to be planted out early...

[Stardust]

PHEW!!! IM NACKERED!

did grandads ENTIRE garden today!!!! weeded cleared and doug over with manure three beds sizes 2x1 metre rectangle shapes.

Then planted out

Lettuce seeds
Spring Onion seeds
Raddish Seeds
Carrots
Beetroot
Cauliflower
Leeks
Peas
3 Courgette plants
and a pumkin!
two big planters of herbs
and 35 runner beans to germinate whilst im on holliday!

It looks SO good im really really pleased!!!

Did the leeks as advised so hopefully all will go well! going to get some pepper and chilli plants tomorrow!!! HEEHEE

[charlie]

Got given some more tomato plants, so they went in today. Also given some cucumbers.
Never tried those before, so should be interesting. Bought some sprouts, but got to try and find some space.
Might have to try and finally dig under the black plastic!

[gunners71uk]

well earthed up the last of me 14 rows of spuds,dug up a little spud by accident i think it may be self set or a rogue spud i have left plenty space and put them 6-7 ins deep so i will keep aneye out and if a few show just earth them up weeded and moved carpets on to other weeds hoes a weedy area weeded and hoed kew blues there starting to take off weeded runner bean row i have four of them about 150 plants lol. put some more runner bean plants in the gaps some old fella gave me.did some watering harvested some lettuce,turnip,raddish,onion,broadbeans,and aweet peas for the mrs back seems better, had a lager and waiting to stuff my face with roast dinner wifey has prepared with 2lb of broad beans .
regards dave

[red]

planted another 2 rows of borlotti beans, the las tof my veg spagetti, harvested some radishes, sown more radishes, and mostly just wilted in the heat

did most of the work after 8pm

[gunners71uk]

QUICK VISIT dug 8 holes put manure in water back fill and 8 cougette plants in did some watering and home .
regardds dave

[pskipper]

Weeding and Hoeing. Sowed some turnips and radishes. Planted tonnes of free tomato plants, 2 courgettes and leeks.

[Karen_D]

Weeding. Weeding. Weeding!

Have just found out that the leaves of Germander Speedwell (which is everywhere) can be used to make a tea. Has anyone tried this and have any tips?

Am trying the jam method of dealing with blackfly (feed jam to the ants farming the blackfly and they stop farming them and start eating them - that's the theory!), will let you know if this is successful.

Wassail

karen