One of our members who is particularly adept at growing prize winning vegetables has experiemented this year with changes to the growing media for some calabrese 'Marathon' seedlings with interesting results:

Here at Glenlea

I''ve borrowed the title from Monty Don! Have you noticed how he loves saying " Here at Long Meadow!"

Rec ent ga s main replacement i n Glenlea Road has shown tha t we are on pure sand with the resul t that any wa ter goes straight through. This coupled with a south facing garden is a lethal combination ! The eastern border of the garden I call "Death Row!" To combat this I use raised bed and container growing. In the same vein I sow all seeds in nodules or pots and not directly into beds. This Ifeel gives them a better start.

Pat and David (Pippenall Allotment  Shop) mentioned a few weeks ago that they had in stock some new seaweed pellets so I thought I would do a trial. I had eight Calabrese "Mara thon" plants ready for potting on which I did using Rosedale Multipurpose compost  (from the shop). To three I added the seaweed pellets, to another three I added chicken pellets and the last two were just in the Rosedale multipurpose compost.

So far there doesn't seem to be any difference between the three that had the seaweed pellets added and the three that had the chicken pellets added .The big difference is that the two that didn't have anything added got badly attacked by aphids and had to be sprayed with Provado bug killer. The six that had the pellets added (three w ith chicken pellets and three with seaweed pellets) were completely untouched .This would indicate that their immune system was stronger.

All eight have now been planted in the raised beds and I will see how they grow. The two that were attacked by the aphids have recovered but they are way behind the other six!