Looks like Seed Swapping Events are back this year after the Covid gap. Also Potato Days.

Please post any events that you find. Don't want to miss a good seed-swap, do we?

HEREFORD this Saturday February 5th 

SATURDAY FROM 10:00-14:00

I know Veggie once posted an offer for big pots.....but.....before I buy, has anyone tried these?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/YouGarden-Pack-...205&sr=8-3

Thanks

I was digging some carrots this evening for tomorrow’s dinner, and found these guys, they were a bit to big likely to be woody so compost bin they went.

   
   

Hello Folks

I've just about finished tidying my strawberry beds and wondered is it too early to put down any chicken pellets and or growmore?

After struggling with a blunt tin opener I needed a new one.
There was a battery operated one in the drawer so I loaded it up with batteries and away it went, shuddering and juddering its way around the  can. It opened it OK but it left a murderously sharp edge and a tin that lacked stability. Unfortunate really because it was a tin of tuna and the brine squirted and spilled out leaving a smell that only tuna is capable of doing.

The Moneyless Chicken reluctantly spent money and bought a new opener https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lantana-Safety-...ast_sto_dp
It opens tins effortlessly and rounds the edges so that they're safe to touch. You can even put the lid back on the tin after opening if you want to keep the contents covered.

If you need a tin opener, I recommend this one.

I'm a big fan of aubergines; this year I sowed on January 21st - 

Turkish Orange
Long Purple 
Violette di Firenze
Tsakoniki 
Blanche Ronde a Oeuf
Rotunda Bianca Sfumata di Rosa
Back Beauty 

As with everything sown in the heated props last year, my aubergines suffered with an outbreak of fungus gnats which pretty much wiped out all but a handful of plants. So I'm hoping for better luck this year. I'm planning on 6 plants of each, bar the Turkish - very bitter fruit so one or two plants will be enough. Pity it is so productive!

Is anybody else growing them?

2021 thread for reference https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=796

Can I, should I?

I experimented with growing carrots in pots last year as they hate my heavy clay, with a little success. Given that they don't like rich soil, could I reuse the compost do you think - it is a 50:50 mix of sand and MPC - if I add a bit more MPC.

TIA

Most of us think that Hairy Bittercress is a weed, one that spreads easily and springs up everywhere that you don't want it. 
Think again before you weed it out. Its actually an edible plant - one that's worth tasting too. 
There's a good article about identification and use at https://www.wildfooduk.com/edible-wild-p...ttercress/

Next time you see some, have a little nibble.

I'm curious to know how many of us picked wild food when we were children and whether you encourage your own children to do the same. 

Do families still go out to forage or are we frightened to by internet scare stories?
Do we have sufficient money that there is no need to find food for free? 
Or, don't we have the time or the inclination? 

When I was a nipper, it would be a family day out. My parents knew the best places to find mushrooms (only field mushrooms - they wouldn't risk eating any other fungi).
There was a clean stream where we'd stop to pick watercress.
We'd pick blackberries every weekend for a couple of weeks so Mum could make jam.
Elderflower for cordial 
Dewberries in the sand dunes and whinberries on the hillside.
A couple of wild trees for damsons and apples.
We'd also gather winkles (yuk) when we went to the seaside.

Whilst we only picked a few, easily identifiable items, we also learnt the ones to avoid - the strange coloured fungi, the dirty streams, fruit on twining plants in hedges.

   

Keyhole beds are like big fat pies with a slice taken out to reach the "cherry" in the centre. The outer "crusty edge" is made of stones/bricks/wood/anything to retain the soil/pie filling which mounds up to the "cherry" which is filled with compost and watered. The idea is that the liquid compost feed leaches out into the surrounding pie filling

That's a lot of work for a lazy gardener like me so I'm going to try a simple version. I have lots of blue barrels and water butts that have been cut in half to make rings. These have been used to grow spuds and courgettes in but they're not needed this year. My plan is to put one of these rings on each bed, maybe sunk into the soil a bit. Put cardboard in the bottom to keep the weeds from growing and then chuck the dead stuff/prunings from the bed into the ring. Add comfrey leaves, chicken muck etc and let it compost in situ.

When the bins are full, I'll either plant a courgette in there or move the bin to another position and start again, leaving the heap of compost behind to improve the soil.
 
Don't worry about Mr Greedy Hotbin. I rarely bring compost material from the garden for him, he's fed by GH and kitchen waste, so he won't be starved by this cunning plan.

What do you think? Have you done something similar, Vinny maybe?