Grow your own

Jim Garten wrote: Thanks for that Dean - previously being purely a supermarket garlic user, I assume by "dry bulb" you mean the condition you'd buy them at Tesco (not familiar with the term "wet-bulb")?

Yup - supermarkets are starting to sell wet garlic (ie it's the latest fad), but anything we traditionally buy as garlic (with a dry, papery outer layer) is dry garlic. Wet garlic isn't as bitter as dry, but it's still strong.

One last question in the Carry-On Gardening thread; more on how to kill than how to grow, though.

In the last year or so, Ivy has been growing from our neighbours' garden, up our side wall & has now reached the eaves of the house. During a garden blitz yesterday, we cut through all the root systems we could find (both on our side & theirs) leaving at least a foot gap in all of them & pulled down all the ivy we could reach. Will this kill the ivy which is still out of reach, or will the remainder still obtain moisture from the air & continue to grow, thereby necessitating a quivering wreck up a high ladder (ie me) pulling it off by hand (oo-er missus etc etc).

Panel?

It will die. And the roots will regrow.

it's there to confuse the cats.

Snow Dog wrote: Dean wrote: it's there to confuse the cats. You have a problem with cats? Me too. How does it work?

shine laser pointers at it while it spins - drives them nutz.

Dean wrote: It will die. And the roots will regrow

Thanks again...

All I have to do now is discover a way of killing off the root system of a large ivy without resorting to a thermonuclear device (which I understand is still only a temporary measure as far as ivy is concerned )

Dean wrote: In the UK we have a hosepipe ban, (yep - national flooding and we have water restrictions) which means that I have to water everything manually using a watering can - two gallons at time - watering a few pots requires much less water than watering acres of beds and vegetable plots. Fortunately I have an efficient rainwater collection system that can nett 90 gallons an hour during a good storm and a 1500 gallon underground tank to store it in, but I still can't use a hosepipe or automated sprinkler system to water my garden. If climate change is a reality and the population continues to grow we have to be more efficient at growing stuff, using less resources and less water - we have to be better than nature.

  I noticed in that article that drip systems are still allowed. Having spent a decent portion of my life in the southwest of the USA I know about water conservation. For gardening purposes drip systems are by far the best. If water shortage is a real issue drip irrigation is the most efficent use of water. They are also the best for not having to worry about watering. In a raised bed situation like you have there it's not too hard to set up a permanent drip system. Turn it on in late spring and off in the fall, no fuss no muss. I like it because I hate watering. I look at my plants everyday and pull off the odd bug and pull out a few weeds and I don't mind spending the time doing that. but to stand there and watch water poor out of a can... No thanks.

Couldn't get on with the one I bought, probably had it set up badly, but I found one end of the run, the pots were dry & the other end, waterlogged; could never get a happy balance.

On a day to day basis though, and I know it takes ages to do, but I use water from the rainwater butt to water plants

Slartibartfast wrote: Dean wrote: Snow Dog wrote: Dean wrote: it's there to confuse the cats. You have a problem with cats? Me too. How does it work? shine laser pointers at it while it spins - drives them nutz. Be careful or you'll get a disco dancer infestation.

Too late!!!