Plans for planting

[Erichalfbee]

Ah right , we don't have a solar melter

I wouldn't put wax in but cocoons are fine
I once put a while load in straight out of the melter and had bees buzzing round it for days.
Lesson learned.

 

[JamezF]

Nowadays I wish I still had my GCE notebooks from 60 years ago but even more I wish I still had my further education notes. My Kempes engineers yearbook is still on my shelf but hasn't been opened in quite some time now. I've still got my scientific calculator with Polar to Rectangular conversion facility in the drawer somewhere.

The only subject my daughter is doing for A Level that she took for GCSE is Art, so she didn't feel she particularly needed to keep her notes

James

 

[JamezF]

I'd love to have the raised borders that you have

They didn't actually start as raised. A couple of years back it was just a level area of soil divided into four by two crossing paths to give what is a guess a fairly common arrangement for a four-bed rotation. Since I decided not to dig any more I've changed to eight long beds four feet wide and added about 6" of compost in total over two winters, whereas the paths have just had a bit of woodchip shovelled on to help suppress the weeds and cover the soil so the paths don't get too muddy when it's wet. The beds are now definitely starting to look raised as a result. What with blackbirds and other creatures that like to come in and have a bit of a dig about, the division between the beds and the paths has got a little blurred though.

Particularly where they're making new beds on top of existing vegetation, some people start with wooden-sided raised beds and remove the sides after a year. I couldn't justify the cost of the wood and sides often provide lots of places for slugs and snails to hide, so I was happy enough to do without them from the start.

James

 

[JamezF]

I wouldn't put wax in but cocoons are fine
I once put a while load in straight out of the melter and had bees buzzing round it for days.
Lesson learned.

If the heap is big enough to do so, I'd just make a hole in the middle with a fork, dump the comb in and bury it again. Or wait until there's a reasonable amount of material such as grass clippings going in and bury it under that. I've not needed to do it with comb specifically, but it's worked fairly well with other stuff that might attract animals.

James

 

[Nannysbees]

They didn't actually start as raised. A couple of years back it was just a level area of soil divided into four by two crossing paths to give what is a guess a fairly common arrangement for a four-bed rotation. Since I decided not to dig any more I've changed to eight long beds four feet wide and added about 6" of compost in total over two winters, whereas the paths have just had a bit of woodchip shovelled on to help suppress the weeds and cover the soil so the paths don't get too muddy when it's wet. The beds are now definitely starting to look raised as a result. What with blackbirds and other creatures that like to come in and have a bit of a dig about, the division between the beds and the paths has got a little blurred though.

Particularly where they're making new beds on top of existing vegetation, some people start with wooden-sided raised beds and remove the sides after a year. I couldn't justify the cost of the wood and sides often provide lots of places for slugs and snails to hide, so I was happy enough to do without them from the start.

James

That's a point, more places for slugs, what do you use to keep them at bay. We have a resident hedgehog so i don't use pellets but as I'm planting my green healthy seedlings im hoping they don't disappear overnight!!

 

[JamezF]

That's a point, more places for slugs, what do you use to keep them at bay. We have a resident hedgehog so i don't use pellets but as I'm planting my green healthy seedlings im hoping they don't disappear overnight!!

Mostly I don't use anything, though I do put fleece over early plantings and that seems to help with keeping the slugs and snails off when it's laid directly on the ground.

What I've read or been told or got from somewhere or other is that slugs and snails are a bit like nature's bin men: their particular evolutionary niche involves cleaning up dead and dying vegetation (by eating it). So if that sort of stuff is available they'll be attracted to it and also start eating other plants. When the soil is covered by compost or woodchip and is kept weed-free, there's much less food available so they seem to move on to somewhere with a better menu. Fortunately spreading compost each winter appears to keep the weeds to a quite manageable level, and I try to remove all the dead and dying leaves from the vegetable plants before they fall off and provide the slugs and snails with any food or shelter.

The places they can tend to congregate are in the carrots once they have lots of leaf, but by that point they're relatively harmless there, and in the peas I grow for shoots to go in salads, because I just allow those to sprawl on the ground, and again that's not a particular problem, especially as they all get bundled up and removed to the compost heap when the pea plants are over.

I know in drier climates where people are not digging they often lay material that isn't broken down on the ground directly -- basically just shredding what might otherwise go into the compost heap and spreading it on the beds, but that's probably a slug's idea of heaven so it could well be disastrous here. And of course if you can generate enough heat in a compost heap then it will kill weed seeds and all sorts so it's possible to be less fussy about what goes in.

I guess it's not an approach that really works with flower beds though, where people often want to cover the soil entirely with plants.

James

 

[E&MBees]

Ah right , we don't have a solar melter

They are easy to make. I used offcuts of PIR, a metal baking tray with a lip cut into it to drain the wax out and a piece of Perspex for a lid. I’ll take a photo when I’m back home from work.

 

[Nannysbees]

They are easy to make. I used offcuts of PIR, a metal baking tray with a lip cut into it to drain the wax out and a piece of Perspex for a lid. I’ll take a photo when I’m back home from work.

Thank you that'll be interesting

 

[pargyle]

Thank you that'll be interesting

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125609724@N03/albums/72157655336719145

 

[Nannysbees]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125609724@N03/albums/72157655336719145

Thank you, easy to follow pictures, brilliant

 

[E&MBees]

Thank you, easy to follow pictures, brilliant

Mine is very similar to Pargyle’s.

 

[E&MBees]

Thank you that'll be interesting

Sorry that I didn’t post a photo today. When I arrived home, there was a peregrine falcon sitting on the lawn eating a pigeon. I didn’t want to disturb it. They nest in a local church spire. Normally Bath city centre provides enough pigeons, but occasionally they venture further afield. I’ll try and take one tomorrow.

 

[Nannysbees]

Sorry that I didn’t post a photo today. When I arrived home, there was a peregrine falcon sitting on the lawn eating a pigeon. I didn’t want to disturb it. They nest in a local church spire. Normally Bath city centre provides enough pigeons, but occasionally they venture further afield. I’ll try and take one tomorrow.

Wow that's much more exciting than taking a photo, how lucky

 

[E&MBees]

Wow that's much more exciting than taking a photo, how lucky

The grass did look like a pillow had been burst all over it, once the falcon had finished!

 

[pargyle]

Sorry that I didn’t post a photo today. When I arrived home, there was a peregrine falcon sitting on the lawn eating a pigeon. I didn’t want to disturb it. They nest in a local church spire. Normally Bath city centre provides enough pigeons, but occasionally they venture further afield. I’ll try and take one tomorrow.

Far more exciting ....I wish they would come and eat some of the bloody wood pigeons in my garden !

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Far more exciting ....I wish they would come and eat some of the bloody wood pigeons in my garden !

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/pigeon-pie-recipe-mushrooms

 

[Nannysbees]

Far more exciting ....I wish they would come and eat some of the bloody wood pigeons in my garden !

I agree they are a right pain!!

 

[Nannysbees]

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/pigeon-pie-recipe-mushrooms

I'm not sure I could bring myself to eat pigeons supposed to be delicious!!!

 

[Nannysbees]

We have a sparrow hawk that swoops in, it moves like lightning. I wouldn't mind if it targeted the pigeons but it prefers the smaller birds that mass around the feeders. Depressing to see what's left of blue tits and goldfinches.

 

[Newbeeneil]

We have a sparrow hawk that swoops in, it moves like lightning. I wouldn't mind if it targeted the pigeons but it prefers the smaller birds that mass around the feeders. Depressing to see what's left of blue tits and goldfinches.

One day my daughter rescued a pigeon which had crashed into our patio windows. She spent a while making sure it had recovered from the shock etc and when she released it a sparrow hawk swooped and took it out of the air a couple of feet above her head! Obviously the reason it had crashed in the first place!