BobTheGardener

Butternut Squash

Hi Matty, all squash take up a lot of room and trail, usually to about 3 or 4m, but Harrier is supposed to be more bushy than the varieties I've personally grown.  If you are short on space, you can train them up a trellis or strong net etc, but best if that is set at an angle rather than vertical as the fruit become very heavy and can pull the plant away from the support.  In the UK we need a pretty good summer to get more than one or two squash per butternut plant, so fingers crossed!  The further south you are, the more likely you will get a good crop.

Good Evening FORKERS

Nice one Dove.  Mine have spent the last 3 days and nights in the cold greenhouse where the temperature hasn't dropped below 10C and are looking as though they've really benefited from the extra light.  I'll leave them there until I get home on Thursday evening when temps are forecast to drop to 6C or below.  Then it's back to their daily journeys from indoors to the GH and back again until GH minimum night temps are once again 10C or above.  As I started them much later than usual this year, they'll get extra tlc .  

Talkback: How to build a raised bed

It doesn't really matter, Fiona, but to benefit from the improved drainage at least a foot high in my opinion.  Probably the most important consideration is the amount of soil etc you will need to fill them.  Twice the height = twice the volume.  The taller they are, the easier they are to tend though, so less bending and stretching required!

How do I prune this plant?

I'd say it's pampas grass, too.  Cut it back hard now, but if you see any small leaves growing at the base, try not to cut the tips off as unlike most plants, grasses grow from the base not the tip, so you'll see damaged tips all year.  Also watch out for this stuff - as well as having the razor sharp edges, I grew one from seed and it eventually became a real monster and grew to 3m x 3m from a base of about 1 square meter.  They are too big to dig out when that size and only a stump-grinder will rid you of the roots, if you ever tire of it and want to plant something else.

WILDLIFE PICTURES

"Of course I can carry one more worm!"

Getting rid of Bindweed

If (when!) you find it growing amongst other plants that you don't want to accidentally kill with the glyphosate spray, train it to grow up a cane.  After a couple of weeks you can slip the cane out and bundle the bindweed into a plastic bag, spraying it inside the bag to prevent the wind blowing the spray about.

What have I got here?

Looks like a Chionodoxa, nutcutlet.  They're usually blue but do come in other colours (well, white and pink, anyway!)

MORNING FORKERS

Just in for a cuppa after transferring lots of tomatoes from the modules they germinated in to small pots.  I wish I would just stick to one seed per module with toms but no, I always seem to insist to myself that an extra seed per module is insurance when sowing them.  They all germinate of course (1), meaning I either have to make sacrifices (which I hate doing) or spend 4 times as long (very) carefully separating!

Sunny (but windy) here, very warm (currently at 19C)  Rain due at about 3pm though..

(1) except for those where I only planted one seed...

Raised beds with decking boards

Hi Lorraine, That is an old article.  You can no longer buy pressure-treated wood containing arsenic and chromium as they have been banned for such use.  It doesn't help that authors of articles on the web rarely put a date on them!  Here's a more up to date one:

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infptforraisedgardens.html

Just about everyone (including me) uses pressure-treated softwood timber for building raised beds and planters as untreated wood will rot in very short order, unless it is one of the more rot-resistant hardwoods, such as oak, cedar or redwood etc.  Those are all prohibitively expensive for many of us though.

Your idea of lining it with polythene is a good one.  I would also recommend painting it with a water-based wood treatment such as fence paint.  Look for a waterproof one as that will help seal it against any possible leaching of the miniscule amounts of copper which are used in the pressure treatment.

Growing Under Plastic Sheeting

I agree, nutcutlet.  It is useful to help with the initial clearing of a badly weed infested patch, but hand-weeding will always be necessary and is the best way.  I especially don't agree with the permanent laying of membrane as some councils and builders do as it just goes against nature, ruining the soil and natural soil ecosystem (eg starving worms for a start.)  I much prefer using a good depth of mulch as this suppresses weed seedling germination and the perennial weeds are easy to see so can be removed as soon as they poke their heads through.  A mulch will also feed the soil with little need to provide any extra feed. Win-Win.

Bee spotting

New deliveries

Flower ID

Oh no, lily beetles are back!