Preparing for the next planting season

[Gemonimo]

Hello Sweets... The DDE is the Direction Départmentale de l'Equipment who are the guys who build and maintain the roads in France.  Sorry about my 'fossé' - it's a ditch (I suppose that's the word) running alongside a road.  I didn' put any fertilizer on my rather pathetic little plot as it didn't cross my mind! The dirt from the ditch must have had all sorts of good stuff in it[+o(] as my vegetable just went beserk. This year I plan on putting some horse poo on it but the horse poo man doesn't deliver and I only have a little Fiat..........!!  As gardeners go I'm a bit of a novice but I had fabulous courgettes and very deformed parsnips. Jen

[mint]

Jo

No pm from you, hope you got mine.  Please email if it's important and you'd like me to know.

Jen

Thanks for the info.  Sorry, laptop seems not to realise I am on mains and keeps saying my battery is running low.

Just rushing to post this before the damn thing gives up the ghost!

[johnnyboy]

Hi all,just a couple of things about previous posts.

Firstly, not a good idea to add fertiliser/manure to beds for parsnips/carrots or other root veg,the roots tend to go for the richer parts of soil and will therefore be deformed easily.Manure (well rotted) can be added to beds for brassicas etc and then use crop rotation methods.

Horse manure,remember the neighbours almost coming to blows over the milk cart horses droppings years go.[:D](shows my age!!)

Not that good if that fresh though as its full of weeds and seeds!!My dad reckons cow manure is best as it is "double digested" and therefore the seed/weed problem not so acute.

Can add manure to compost  heap to help prevent the weed problems as the temperature should kill most of the unwanted seeds etc.

If all else fails,you can always do what I do and get hold of some books and read up on it all.(Glass of wine esssential for this )[;-)]

The one thing I need to find out is how the seasons vary between the South of England and Haute Vienne,from the little I've been able to understand from our neighbour I reckon its approx 3 - 4 weeks in advance in H Vienne.

Any advance on that anyone please?

BTW. We have covered the proposed veg garden area with black plastic DPM to kill off the weeds (idea from FPN article) after cutting down as much as possible.Will update on that next year when we see the results!!

Just some thoughts to share on a grotty winters evening.Feel the need for a beer coming on now so will sign off.

Johnnyboy.