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#1
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"Gardens: Old wives' tales" from Saturday's Guardian
Adam Funk writes:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...d-wives-tales- gardens or http://gu.com/p/2yyd7 This was the one that shocked me: Crocks in pots improve drainage ... False: a drainage layer in the bottom of pots reduces the volume of soil available to plant roots. Don't add gravel or crocks, but ensure pots have drainage holes. I always feel silly when on all the TV shows they say to add grit to compost whenever you re-plant anything for drainage, but garden centres don't sell bags of grit in their compost section, so what are you meant to do?? Big bags of grit from the aggregate section in B&Q? How coarse should the stones be? Wish they'd answer these questions for the noobs like me kate xx |
#2
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"Gardens: Old wives' tales" from Saturday's Guardian
kate wrote:
Adam Funk writes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...d-wives-tales- gardens or http://gu.com/p/2yyd7 This was the one that shocked me: Crocks in pots improve drainage ... False: a drainage layer in the bottom of pots reduces the volume of soil available to plant roots. Don't add gravel or crocks, but ensure pots have drainage holes. I always feel silly when on all the TV shows they say to add grit to compost whenever you re-plant anything for drainage, but garden centres don't sell bags of grit in their compost section, so what are you meant to do?? Big bags of grit from the aggregate section in B&Q? How coarse should the stones be? Wish they'd answer these questions for the noobs like me kate xx Gather these items; an empty tin can, a trowel, a kitchen sieve. Go out in the garden on a nice sunny day, and scoop some dry soil into the seive. Shake the sieve to remove the soil, leaving only grit. Transfer grit from the sieve to the tin can, Buy a new sieve. |
#4
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"Gardens: Old wives' tales" from Saturday's Guardian
In article , Charlie
Pridham writes If you want to acheive the same effect without the weight use perlite instead of grit. I like vermiculite, not had much success with Perlite. I sprinkle it on top of seeds as well it's never too heavy for very small seeds. Good for getting drainage when doing cuttings. Best stuff i ever sued when first potting up cuttings was a block which first had to be soaked and swelled to about 8 times it's size but when used in the pots and with a tiny bit of slow release added gave me absolutely stupendous root growth on all the cuttings. Not so food for second potting on but for the first it seems to encourage really good root growth and you don't want to burn bay roots with strong fertiliser anyway. Think i got the coir brick as a freeby from Wiggly Wiggler's when first bought a wormery. Not seen them much since. Must look for it again. i had forgotten my success Janet -- Janet Tweedy Amersham Gardening Association http://www.amersham-gardening.net |
#5
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"Gardens: Old wives' tales" from Saturday's Guardian
On Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:55:47 +0000, Janet Tweedy
wrote: In article , Charlie Pridham writes If you want to acheive the same effect without the weight use perlite instead of grit. I like vermiculite, not had much success with Perlite. I sprinkle it on top of seeds as well it's never too heavy for very small seeds. Good for getting drainage when doing cuttings. Best stuff i ever sued when first potting up cuttings was a block which first had to be soaked and swelled to about 8 times it's size but when used in the pots and with a tiny bit of slow release added gave me absolutely stupendous root growth on all the cuttings. Not so food for second potting on but for the first it seems to encourage really good root growth and you don't want to burn bay roots with strong fertiliser anyway. Think i got the coir brick as a freeby from Wiggly Wiggler's when first bought a wormery. Not seen them much since. Must look for it again. i had forgotten my success Janet I've been using coir exclusively for 3 years to grow on seedlings and plug plants and get much better results than the days when I used "ordinary" composts. For sowing seed I mix coir with John Innes No. 1 on a roughly 50-50 basis. My feeding regime is now very much "QVC" - I use Richard Jackson's Flower Power range as, again, I find I get much better results with it than with Phostrogen, Miracle Grow and the like. I don't feed any more than I would were I using ordinary compost. When planting up my baskets and wall planters I use a mix of about 25% compost and 75% coir with some added "Rain Gel" (combined water retaining granules and controlled release feed) for good measure. I don't use coir in tubs though. I get the large "bricks" that make about 70 litres when you water them (I use the wheelbarrow for this) - I bought a "job lot" last year from a local garden store which worked out only about 25p a brick more than equivalent bags of compost. I notice that Ferndale Lodge are selling this size for about £19 for three. "The Garden" January edition has an article on peat free compost, including coir. Incidentally, where I need to line a basket, I use the similar blocks of dried, compressed moss. Much more fun to do than just stick in a pre-made liner, looks a lot better and often lasts for a couple of years befoire going on the compost heap. And a lot cheaper than bags of moss in the garden centre. Jake |
#6
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"Gardens: Old wives' tales" from Saturday's Guardian
In article , Jake
writes I get the large "bricks" that make about 70 litres when you water them (I use the wheelbarrow for this) - I bought a "job lot" last year from a local garden store which worked out only about 25p a brick more than equivalent bags of compost. I notice that Ferndale Lodge are selling this size for about £19 for three. Any names or makes I could Google Jake? I thought it was brilliant and so easy to store and to carry about until you wanted to expand it. Roots seem to love it and it didn't become overdry or overwet. -- Janet Tweedy Dalmatian Telegraph http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk |
#7
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"Gardens: Old wives' tales" from Saturday's Guardian
On Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:02:21 +0000, Janet Tweedy
wrote: In article , Jake writes I get the large "bricks" that make about 70 litres when you water them (I use the wheelbarrow for this) - I bought a "job lot" last year from a local garden store which worked out only about 25p a brick more than equivalent bags of compost. I notice that Ferndale Lodge are selling this size for about £19 for three. Any names or makes I could Google Jake? I thought it was brilliant and so easy to store and to carry about until you wanted to expand it. Roots seem to love it and it didn't become overdry or overwet. Hi Janet. I don't use Google but in Bing I've just searched on "coir bricks" and got a lengthy listing. Try that. Jake |
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