Gardening Tips

We hope this will be a growing section as members send us their own gardening tips (and corrections to our tips!). We are looking for ideas that people have tried and that really work for gardeners here. There is a list of fruit and vegetable varieties that work well here, as well as some that don’t.

• Good Varieties for Hollin Lane
  Here are some vegetable varieties that do well here. Please give us your own favourites with a few words saying why you like them.
• Not So Good Varieties for Hollin Lane
  Some fruit and vegetable varieties just don’t work here. Please give us your own experience with a few words about what the problem was.

• Bean Squeezing
  When are they ready to pick?
• Borlotti Beans
  I struggle to find things that work on my plot, but French beans Borlotti beans are my favourite…
• Compost Heaps
  Gillian North’s recipe for success!
• Disposing of Weeds
  Even couch grass and bindweed roots can be composted if you know how.
• Eating Nasturtiums
  Yes, really!
• Exhibiting Vegetables and Fruit
  Tips for showing veg and fruit.
• Make Your Own Seed and Potting Compost
  Make your own seed and potting composts …
• Making Compost
  Here are the slides from the talk on Making Compost from the 2011 AGM.
• Mini Root Cellar
  Simple way to keep root crops fresh and safe through the winter.
• Onion Sets
  Gillian’s tip for getting the most from your onions and garlic.
• Pea and Bean Weevil
  The pea and bean weevil is hard to spot, but its damage to peas and beans is easy to see …
• Peat Free Composts
  A report by Rosie Hall for Hollin Lane Allotment Association
• Potato Blight
  Blight usually hits our potatoes in warm, damp weather in August.
• Potatoes
  Extend the season for earlies and avoid blight on maincrops…
• Rats
  Some professional advice
• Rats, Squirrels Eating Sweet Corn
  I noticed about that squirrels (probably) were starting to eat my ripening sweetcorn …
• Slug Slime on Fingers
  Next time you get slug slime on your fingers try this…
• Sowing Seeds
  Gillian’s ‘three for one’ planting tip…
• Summer Pruning: Apples and Pears
  When and how to do it.