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Gardening

...and in the veg patch the first sowing of lettuces already being picked. I harvest a few leaves from the edges of each plant at a time. They'll be productive for 6 weeks at least unless it gets too hot and they bolt.

 
Mike Reed said:
Gosh but you're early; outdoor variegated lettuces too. You have the ingredients for honeymoon salad there ( lettuce alone :))
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They're all Italian seeds from the Alps and early varieties. It being pretty mild and wet for the most part they're doing really well and they're more than hardy enough to survive April frosts. The bright green ones are called canary tongues, Lingua di Canarino! They will all go to seed though so I'm just about to plant some more summer tolerant varieties. I usually get salads through to Christmas and some to over-winter but with the hose pipe ban last summer I gave up.

https://seedsofitaly.com/seed/lettuces/
 
I have just installed our first water butt, fed from a diverter off the main downpipe. It rained yesterday, and it turns out that 3 hours of Manchester rain is sufficient to fill a 100 litre butt. I've fitted a small tap inline from the diverter as our bath uses the same drain, so we have the option of collecting the grey water in times of drought, or not collecting it when nice clean rainwater is abundant, which is most of the time hereabouts.
 
gavreid said:
They're all Italian seeds
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I've grown seeds from that range in pasta years. The largest variety of tom's I've ever managed was 15, with sth like 12/13 either side of that year a decade or so ago. Very difficult keeping track but fascinating differences between them. Nowadays, two F1s and four common types are my lot. That was when my local (but national) garden centre used to sell off seeds at 50p a packet at the end of August. Chaotic rummaging in big bins took ages but yielded nice expensive F1s in all veggies, esp. tom's and capsicum.
 
Mike Reed said:
I've grown seeds from that range in pasta years. The largest variety of tom's I've ever managed was 15, with sth like 12/13 either side of that year a decade or so ago. Very difficult keeping track but fascinating differences between them. Nowadays, two F1s and four common types are my lot. That was when my local (but national) garden centre used to sell off seeds at 50p a packet at the end of August. Chaotic rummaging in big bins took ages but yielded nice expensive F1s in all veggies, esp. tom's and capsicum.
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Are you in your pasta years now? Teeth is it? :)
 
gavreid said:
They're all Italian seeds from the Alps and early varieties. It being pretty mild and wet for the most part they're doing really well and they're more than hardy enough to survive April frosts. The bright green ones are called canary tongues, Lingua di Canarino! They will all go to seed though so I'm just about to plant some more summer tolerant varieties. I usually get salads through to Christmas and some to over-winter but with the hose pipe ban last summer I gave up.

https://seedsofitaly.com/seed/lettuces/
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Can you recommend summer lettuce?
 
The first Mini Munch of the season. Nemotodes for the salad beds should arrive today (now that it's too dry!)

 
Almost credible, Mandryka; that lovely old BBC plum voice just makes it convincing. If I hadn't seen spaghetti being made...........
 
gavreid said:
Picture?
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I've mown it a few times and manually scarified it with a rake as best I can. I've also given it some combined moss and weed killer but I'm not sure how effective that has been.

There are clear tufts of what look like different grass or weeds or something, they don't show up too well in pics but are very clear to the naked eye. I'm wondering whether to dig these out as I was planning on reseeding the whole thing anyway, does this sound reasonable?
 
I am no fan of lawns, but one that looks good and is almost entirely grass is a considerable task. It is a case of managing the soil mostly, as with any gardening.
Grass ideally needs well-drained, aerated soil but with some moisture retention to remain green as long as possible during drought.

Your problem looks to start with poor drainage/compaction.

I would be very surprised if there wasn't a UK forum somewhere that isn't dedicated to turf care.
 
matt j said:




I've mown it a few times and manually scarified it with a rake as best I can. I've also given it some combined moss and weed killer but I'm not sure how effective that has been.

There are clear tufts of what look like different grass or weeds or something, they don't show up too well in pics but are very clear to the naked eye. I'm wondering whether to dig these out as I was planning on reseeding the whole thing anyway, does this sound reasonable?
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It needs a good scarify, bit of overseeding and a bag of multipurpose compost (any will do) spreading on top. The Wolf Garten scarifier will give you a workout you need one of the handles too (there's another model with wheels which is a little easier but doesn't get into the edges so well. Don't go at it so hard that there's no green left but you need to see the bare soil and create some grooves in it for the seed to lie. It's getting a little late in the season now so you'll need to keep an eye on the forecast - you need some rain for a good 2 week period or be prepared to water it. Seed at about 35 - 50 g per m2 just by hand.
 
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What do you think to digging out those weird looking bits Gav? There are already some massive craters further down from what I can only think where an old concrete washing line post has been taken out, so was going to fill those in before overseeding anyway.

My only issue is time, whilst the weather has been decent here the past couple of weeks, I've also worked the last 14 days straight so not been able to get anything done hence it being a bit late.
 
matt j said:
What do you think to digging out those weird looking bits Gav? There are already some massive craters further down from what I can only think where an old concrete washing line post has been taken out, so was going to fill those in before overseeding anyway.

My only issue is time, whilst the weather has been decent here the past couple of weeks, I've also worked the last 14 days straight so not been able to get anything done hence it being a bit late.
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I'd be inclined to wait until September for some wetter weather now since the weather looks to be fine for a bit - or check the forecast again in June. Rake a bag or two of top soil into the low spots if you want.
 
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