I spent my weekend filling these four beds with layers of autumn leaves, stable manure, lucerne hay, very old sheep manure & topsoil.
I am officially knackered after this effort!
But I couldn't rest as next came the great potato experiment.
In the top bed I laid down cardboard, placed the seed potatoes on it, covered with stable manure & lastly lucerne hay.
As the potatoes sprout they will be covered with more & more lucerne.
The bottom bed you can see had the works in terms of manures, organic matter & topsoil.
Both beds had Coliban, Nicola, Sebago & Desiree certified seed potatoes planted in them.
It will be interesting to see which bed performs the best.
Reuse & recycle is my motto.
I have used the base from an old bed as a trellis for my peas.
In front of the Melbourne Market Dwarf peas are Brocoletti & along the sides are Fordhook Giant silverbeet.
These are my favourite gardening books.
A big thanks to Frogdancer who came up with the idea to recycle empty toilet rolls by using them as seedling starters.
Fold down the 2 sides
Turn & fold down the "pointy" ends
Neaten the inside if necessary with the end of a fork/spoon/screwdriver etc.
And voila, seedling tubes ready to fill
The star of my winter garden
Hi Nicole :) I am just wondering whether you can just plant the whole toilet roll seed tube given it will break down, or do you remove the tube prior to planting? I'm keen to give this a whirl as we ALWAYS have an abundance of toilet rolls and I have a bunch of seeds coming this week! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Snickerdoodle
ReplyDeleteI just open the bottom of the toilet rolls to allow the roots to grow down & plant the lot.
Over time it all breaks down & it's a lot cheaper than buying jiffy pots.
Cheers