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Post by tigerlily on Apr 7, 2009 14:30:04 GMT
I am ever so excited!
Just been to Lidl to pick up a few odds and ends of things (there's always something I decide we 'need' in between big shops), and they were selling bags of onion sets!
Anyway, I was reading an article earlier (triggered by Fi's Corsican mint link), on companion planting.
I've a pot of basil in the kitchen, and just bought a pot of chives - they're going out in the garden, I have decided. And the onions will get planted in amongst the carrots, although as they haven't yet sprouted over much I can't precisely remember where they are!
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Post by Suzy R Sopham on Apr 7, 2009 17:02:04 GMT
You can plant the onions 'around' the carrots to keep pests away. They don't need to be inbetween them all.
I plant a row of carrots and a row of parsnips then a row of leeks on one outside edge and onions on the other outside edge. That seems to work!
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Post by tigerlily on Apr 7, 2009 17:15:40 GMT
I bought a couple of Starblaze pepper plants this evening!
Went out for potting compost and tomato plants - they'd sold out of tomato plants at the Hornbach, but I think I spotted some at another place closer to home.
I also picked up some Aquilegia bulbs - very excited about that! There were loads of them all over the place in Crossflatts, planted by the previous owner, and they would just pop up where you least expected. I really like them!
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Post by Glen B Ogle on Apr 13, 2009 16:19:51 GMT
My brother plans to experiment with "Three Sisters" planting this year. Apparently it's based on a native american technique.
You plant sweetcorn and a bean side-by-side so that the bean will climb up the stalk of the corn. For each block of 9 corn plants you plant a squash, to grow as ground cover around the others.
The corn supports the beans, and shades the squash, the beans fix nitrogen for the other 2, and the squash supresses weed growth!
We'll see how it goes!
Glen
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Post by tigerlily on Apr 13, 2009 17:16:06 GMT
I've heard about the Three Sisters technique, too!
I haven't tried growing corn this year - there are some gert big trees that throw a lot of shade over the one side of the back garden, so if possible I'd like later in the year to get someone in to cut them back a bit. There's a fir out there that is higher than the house, and an ornamental cherry that is competing with it and all mixed up in the back of it.
I don't want to get rid of either of them, necessarily, just want them to be a bit more manageable.
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Post by smiffy on Apr 14, 2009 5:23:59 GMT
I grew corn this year. It was going great guns till we had three days of scorching weather. Nothing survived! The corns were dried in the husks. My herb pot became a pot of dried herbs! Watering and shading wouldnt have saved them, they air dried.
The best companion planting I have done was accidental. I have two fuschias, and this year there was a self set tomato amongst them. I didnt think it would come to much, but left it anyhow. Best crop of tomatos I have ever had! I didnt string them up, I left them to ramble.
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Post by clarevoyant on Apr 14, 2009 19:10:33 GMT
I find a combination of Lavender and strawberries works well, seems to keep the birds away but the bees right were you need them.
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Post by tigerlily on Apr 14, 2009 20:08:43 GMT
There's handy - I've a lavender plant in one of the planters right above the strawberry bed!
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Post by rosemarytheherb on Apr 28, 2009 20:32:20 GMT
Thanks now I know where to put my strawberry planter. Rose x
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