Hello all, I'm Scarlet. Been loving the lockdown and the weather. After planting up 50 dahlias I'm seriously wondering what to do with the other 50 
I've slowly emptied the GH's to get my tomatoes in the borders but have been struggling a bit with the sun. More to do tomorrow.

I've been thinking of buying a "treat"  with the money I've managed not to spend during Covid - something I wouldn't normally buy for myself. All I can think of is a Hotbin!!

My main reservation (apart from the price) is that I have very little household food waste - not with 3 dogs and a chicken! So I might have to create stuff to be composted.
Do any of you have any experience with Hotbins (No Baldy, this is a sensible question. )

Please don't suggest a Wormery instead as I've failed miserably with them  and I'm no good with normal compost bins either!

I have some self seeded/grown garlic which is healthy and green. Because I thought this merely a supermarket cast off that has taken to the garden and decided to stay, and has very small cloves, I decided to buy some Casablanca cloves and try to grow garlic properly.   The Casablanca were started off in pots in early March then transplanted to their growing place in late March.  Now they are going brown and withering.  What do you think I've done wrong.  The onions and shallots in the same area are fine.  If you would like pics, can do.

This morning I was pulling up wallflower plants to add to the compost bin and after stripping off the greenery then started cutting the stems with secatures but cut off the roots to put in the general household waste bin, I never add roots of the brassica family to my compost and wondered if others do the same or am I just being a bit quirky
If there is a compost thread I couldn't find it so move if necessary

Thought I'd keep name the same so I don't get myself confused.

Riga is the name our house had when we moved here, a 3 acre semi-detached small holding. It used to be fairly peaceful surrounded by dairy farms but becoming more industrialised now - fewer farms but bigger machinery and big sheds for the cows. So we only have organic dairy products. Cheddar cheese was the hardest to find but Waitrose do it as a last resort with the current restrictions but I prefer to buy from an organic cheese farm from Lancashire (Leagram's) stocked where I get my eggs from in High Leigh.

In my current GH each border has some very old seeping hose/tube buried about 6 inches deep beneath the soil fed from a 150L water butt say 12" above ground level.  I acquired the old hose from a neighbour  and it is made of a white permeable synthetic fabric with a black plastic strip reinforcement along its length.   I've not found anything like it on sale today and would like to find an alternative.   I have tried several different sorts of the black recycled rubber seeping hose, recommended  for use with butts,  with no success whatsoever,  I assume because of the lack of water pressure.

Has anyone  got any bright ideas or experience of an irrigation system fed from a water butt for my new GH, preferably a seepy hose buried rather than drip taps on the soil surface (which I may end up with).

In the great scheme of things everything needs water obviously. But here in the south we've not had rain for ages and aren't likely to for some weeks.  Apart from greenhouse plants, and newly planted stuff, what do you consider the most important  things to water, and what can be left to it's own devices.?

Just to kick this area off, some pictures of crops from past seasons

Cauliflower - All Year Round
   

Garlic - Solent White
   

Parsnip - Gladiator
   

Onion - Autumn Gold
   

How do you protect your plants from pests I came across a reference about a homemade garlic spray has anyone tried making a garlic spray and if so how good is it and what does it protect your brassicas from

I wasn’t going to do the diary thing until I got my hands on my new garden. But thanks to covid I get to spend one last year in this garden that I love and has been my life for the last 6-7 years. It’s also done wonders for my mental health. 
So I thought it only fair to give it a little space in the diary.

When we moved in it looked like this.


   


Today it looks like this.