Topic: Another Link to Add to Favorites

[Roy Bham UK]

I have just copied this http://www.selfsufficientish.com/ website down off the Beeb (clickonline) programme and it looks great it’s crammed with tips and info like this section on build a compost bin http://www.backyardgardener.com/compost/index.html
You could spend hours surfing in there as it takes you off into cyber space and blown into oblivion so don’t lose your way out. :o

Roy 8)

[Pixie]

Looks really interesting Roy I will have a proper look later.

Sam

[andham2000]

Cheers, I think its really good as it is my site ;)

Both me and dave who run the site have allotments, as does our new writer Jackie. We try our best to offer something for all. So it is wicked to have it mentioned somewhere like here, cheers.

[windygale]

hi everyone, had a look roy's link and then found this site, http://www.earthlypursuits.com/GardenTips/tip-potatojuice.htm
old tips that was in use around the war, loads of info take a look.
Mother-in-law gave me a book called The New Illustrated Gardening Encyclopaedia by Odhams  a very good read.

[Roy Bham UK]

It's not a bad site is it Windy? Well done to Andy and Dave. I was just wondering if anyone in the race for a whopping big Marrow is using this old tip...
http://www.earthlypursuits.com/GardenTips/tip_pumpkin.htm

Roy ;D

[Doris_Pinks]

I saw that Roy!!! (noted for next year! ;D) But was wondering wouldn't it do damage to the plant? As I read it you put a hole into the stem! :o

[Roy Bham UK]

I've no idea DP, as I have never grown one but then don't you chop the Marrow off the stalk anyway? ???Come on you marrow growers, will the plant live?

Roy ;D

[Mrs Ava]

I reakon it would live fine with a hole in it's stem.  I had a pumpkin and the stem  was damaged from a very early age and yet the pumpkin grew huge, bigger than my undamaged stemmed ones!  However, wouldn't all that extra water just give you watery flavourless flesh?

[Roy Bham UK]

I've just picked this up from THATsite, is this really as good as it sounds?

A New England farmer says: "In my own gardening I have found a most satisfactory substitute for bean poles, which latter are not only expensive, but a source of trouble and care. I plant a sunflower seed by each hill of beans, the stock answering the same purpose as the ordinary bean pole, besides providing an excellent feed for my poultry. I have been using for this purpose a mammoth variety of sunflower seed, many of the flowers of which measured fifteen inches across the seed bed."
The Farm and Household Cyclopædia - circa 1888

Comments please ??? Plus it must look fantastic when in full bloom. :o

[tim]

Can't dispute what he may have done, but even our well braced metal poles were heaved over by the gales. Maybe the beans in his day were not so lush? = Tim

[john_miller]

 The only 'giant' sunflower grown in New England that I have seen is Russian Mammoth. Being an heirloom I wonder if this farmer of a past generation was referring to this cultivar. The flower head is indeed enormous, of the size suggested, but it is mostly ovaries with a relatively small disc of petals surrounding it. Once the flower head forms it hangs down quite determindly and can only be seen when standing next to the plant and looking up- it reaches about 4m tall.
 The method suggested is surely the two sisters adaptation of the First Peoples's three sisters growing method?
  The problem that I see with this method is that with the sunflower stems being completely vertical then the hormonal balance necessary for maximum fruit production will be compromised. Beans increase their production the more horizontal are the stems.
 

[tim]

Yes - ours get several degrees lean to start with. The gales did the rest!

My fault - took out the heavy stays at row ends - for no good reason. = Tim