Does anyone know anything about gardening?

ta

Today (Mother's Day) is an excellent day to go to the tip.

Mother's Day treat ?
My mother loves going to the tip - its one of the rare opportunities she gets to go out these days.

What flowers are safe to grow around cats on a small balcony? Got a couple of small pots to fill and would rather they stayed smallish.

silk flowers.

Have decided to use a few hook over planters to keep potentially iffy flowers away from the cat. Had no idea spinach was poisonous to them as well.
All this gloomy weather is slowing all my seedlings right down. Does anyone on here use those little led lights to suppliment sunshine for their propagators? I saw some fancy propagators in the garden centre yesterday with them built in but have seen them done a bit like desk lamps on amazon..

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What with the snow coming again, when do I plant my sweet peas out?

04/2019

Has anyone got any baby strawberry plants going spare?

I can swap for all sorts of annual flower seedlings.

Chilli, peppers and beans soaking up some led goodness.

@hoefla I planted out some bean seedlings last week. They didn’t survive. Have stuck a load of seed in the planter and will see what happens but growing some more inside as well.

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Does anyone want to do a seed swap? I’ve got plenty of half empty veg from this year and would happily trade for other edible stuff.

Want other salad leaves/peppers/chillis

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easter, diy, blah. i made a planter for some herbs

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That looks ace. I’ve just ordered some wire shelving and an led panel to up my salad game and get my chillis off to a flying start.

You are sooooo hydroponic.

I only have a 4x2m balcony. Mans gotta modernise.
I’m using the big Stewart propagator trays already which are great for trays and 1l pots. They should be a perfect fit on the shelves. The trays could be suitable for hydro but that sounds complicated and pointless as I just want it for starting stuff that’s gonna get planted out in soil anyway.

Got more pepper seedlings than I need. One or two each of jalapeño, cherry chilli and Romanian sweet peppers in e17 if anyone wants to collect today or tomorrow. The Romanians are a little floppy from transplanting this morning but will hopefully pick up.
Will take other seedlings in trade.

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Boom. And the lord said let there be light(and shelves).
I can confirm that the AmazonBasics small wire shelves are a perfect fit for the Stewart 52cm propagators.

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It’s like a House night for chillis...
Put yo leaves up for Detroit

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I've got a window sill that takes those 52cm gravel trays. Like you I've started stuff off too early ( again ) and there will be a period up to end of May where this place is going to be full of plants waiting to go out. I looked at some of those Amazon sort of things to maximise the only day/sunlight I get here but built my own in the end .

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That’s really nice. I also have Ikea towel rails on the door for herbs. They haven’t fallen off dramatically in over a year...

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Neat - are those square pots part of the Ikea rails ?

They’re also from Ikea but think they’re in the kitchen section, the rails are in the bathroom bit.
I just had to drill the bottom of the pots. They’re not a perfect fit on the rail and I have to keep an eye on them when opening the door but it’s all good.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/small-storage-organisers/bathroom-accessories/stugvik-towel-rack-with-suction-cup-white-art-30297014/
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/kitchen-products/kitchen-organisers-shelves/sunnersta-container-art-50303735/

Thanks - anything suction like that makes me nervous :)

I bought a hotbin composter in January. It is a polystyrene bin that insulates its contents so the heat produced by things rotting accelerates the process. Initially it was frustrated by the cold weather. But it is now consistently running at 50-60 C. At that heat things are turned to mulching compost in 30 days and full compost in three months. It can handle obvious things like fruit and veg matter but given the heat it can also deal with meat, bones, dairy products, dog waste, hair and loads more. It’s quite amazing, open the lid and a hot putrid waft bursts out with all manner of moulds on top.

In other garden related news we have a pair of buzzards who louterbin theboak tree by the bedroom window. We are now having fewer squirrels stealing from our bird feeders!

I ve got three compost bins on my allotment for about ten years now , for the first few years I used to turn the waste from bin to bin always leaving one bin free to generate the heat (hot bins) then realised if I leave it for a year and try to mix as I fill I end up with useable compost without the backache, saying this on cold days I find myself turning it guess those childhood habits are hard to kick,