Like many others, we are continually trying to reduce our environmental impact.
Our pot cleaning has moved on from hand washing; we now submerge the pots for 10 minutes in hot water (60°C) and this new method has not only resulted in a noticeable decline in weeds and pests but also allows us to re-use our pots.
The winter of 2010/2011 caused many plant losses and thus a lot of pots of compost needed recycling. These have been used to grow vegetables in our “pallet beds” (see article below) or forked into the new borders at the end of the twin tunnel. These borders will be planted with stock plants so you can see more growing, as they should, in the garden.
With growing so many primulas, vine weevil could have been a real problem: “Vi-nil”, a very safe and effective material we added to our compost, was taken off the market. Early last season, a new product came onto the market – “Metarhizium anisopline”, better known as Met52. It is a naturally-occurring “good” fungus, containing an insect parasite and has been used in Europe for over 2 years. At last, this country’s bureaucrats have decided that we can use this safe, environmentally friendly product against vine weevil: let’s hope that it is soon available for amateur use as well.
We have increased the amount of bark we use in our compost and have reduced the amount of peat. We will change to a peat-free compost once there is one available that is reasonably priced and will give the constant results we get from our present compost mix.
| Nursery Opening Times |
March
1st to October 15th: 9am-5pm daily.
Closed Sundays
All other times by appointment. |
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