Selfsufficientish.com

Parsnips are weird this year, don't give up if they didn't germinate. I sowed 4 rows of parsnips on the 27th of March with fresh seed. About a dozen came up and are doing nicely now, but 2 rows did nothing. I decided to hoe off the weed today in the 2 empty rows and guess what ? Lots of freshly germ...

Try digging up the roots that are still in the compost, you might find greyish grubs there that have eaten the stem through (cabbage root fly larvae) or you might find an yellow orangey wormy thing that has burrowed into the stem (wire worm) although that's less likely in compost. If you find the ro...

Yeah, I agree with ocailleagh, I am trying one this year for the first time. These planters sound like a good idea but .... with the centre tube it's easy to water the bottom ones and the top ones are obviously easy, but there is no way to water the middle ones. If you discover a better use for one,...

My bet is it's probably a Costoluto Fiorentino (I think that's how it's spelt) It happens to mine, every first truss has a huge mutant flower in the centre, but it just dies and never turns into a giant tomato. Doesn't seem to be a problem though, all the other "normal" flowers on the trus...

I'm growing 2 varieties of blueberry in my garden under near ideal conditions here in south west Ireland ... acidic soil and copious rain ! One thing they didn't like though is cold wind in early spring. They had just come into flower in February when we had a nasty cold east wind which burnt the ne...

Hi Adjoa. Welcome to the site .. we are both newbies together. Tomato leaves curling themselves under I've found is caused by too much bright sunshine, they prefer bright but filtered sunlight when the summer days arrive (have they ?) In a greenhouse situation you usually shade (paint) the glass wit...

Are you sure they're woodlice ? I have been plagued (literally) by earwigs for the last couple of years, especially in my polytunnel. I have upside down tin cans on sticks filled of hay and every morning have to dispose of several dozen in each can. They browse off just about anything, especially em...

If you are producing eggs to sell quasi commercially then the figures possibly don't add up so well. BUT, if you are keeping a few chicken for your own eggs then I don't understand some of the costs quoted here. I bought 3 pullets about 6 weeks ago that cost me €7 each. With a low wattage bulb in ...

Hi there Brij I did an experiment this year with window sill tomatoes. I sowed some "Micro Tom" tomatoes at the beginning of January and grew them in 3 inch pots on a south facing window sill. They did wonderfully well (and still are) producing loads of cherry sized toms which we started p...

Mark, a few things that might help (or confuse you even more) I fattened several batches a few years back, the were Cobs .. the ubiquitious white chicken of commerce. As they are for fattening and culling at about 16 weeks they are not sexed so you can sort out a breeding trio (or more), as long as ...