"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
The message from "FarmI" ask@itshall be given contains these words:
"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
The message from mewthree contains these

what is best to feed it with, since i didn't prepare the ground
with manure?

I've never had to feed rhubarb in my life, and I've been gardening
woman and child) for over 60 years!

Good grief! I'm pea green with envy! You must have good soil. My stuff
(soil is not what you could have called it) was so sick when I started
here
that it's a constant round of soil improvement. I might be able to stop
doing that in about 5 years time as I now have worms which I didn't when
I
started.

We lost all out earthworms a few years ago, when New Zealand flatworms
appeared over here.

I've read about NZ flatworms being a problem in the UK, but since I wouldn't
know one if it bit me on the nose, I'd be interested in what they do/don't
do in a garden. All the articles I've read (which were in UK mags) seemed
to assume that readers would know what the problem is.

That was when I bought my wormery, and we're about
back to notmal now...haven't seen a flatworm in last past couple of years.

How do they look different to a "normal" earthworm? Flat????

I still leave black polythene bags with garden rubbish dotted about the
place though, just in case! G Well, that's _my_ excuse!

To drop the flatworms into???????

I never harvest rhubarb after the end of May, and what growth it makes
after that will, eventually, rot down...this feeds the plant.

This seems to be a very different thing than is done here in Aus. Your
May would be equivalent to our October here, yet I've just stewed a batch
for tomorrows breakfast cereal a full 4+ months after you would have
stopped
harvesting. Why isn't it usual to crop for a longer time in the UK?

I had never stopped to think about it, but I suppose that by June other
fruit would be available, and the rhubarb would be getting tough and
stringy?

I'd have to say that I've not noticed any difference between the early
spring rhubarb and later autumn (now) rhubarb. Mind you, we don't have the
early forced rhubarb that you can get in the UK. Here it's always been
garden (or open field) grown.

Thinking about it, I tend to pick it when it's growing strongly so perhaps
it's either always tough and stringy and it's just what we grew up with or
it's always edible and acceptable (manky stalks excluded of course).
Interesting one.


Short term, for this year only, since you didn't do any initial
preparation, I'd throw some general purpose fertiliser at it...
it all depends what your soil was like to start with, really.

Wanna swap? I'll give you my Australian dirt first ever cleared of trees
and put to rough pasture in the 1960s for your soil which I'd like to
think
has been under cultivation for at least the last thousand years. I
pine for
good soil and a gentle temperate climate and that long Autumn productive
light you mob have over there.

This scheme (housing estate) was built in 1948, on what was a rough
grazing
hillside. The folk who had the house for the first 20 years didn't even
cut
the grass...we inherited some pretty awful, if virgin, soil. I've spent
years improving it, but it's still pretty stony and 'claggy-clay' in
parts.
The best parts are where the children's sand-pit used to be, and the area
where I used to keep the bins for the ashes from the fire...not
surprisingly.

Swop? No thanks! I've put too much work into this garden... ;-)

Yeah, I've probably done too much in mine too.