Six on Saturday: 23.01.21 Cats, Compost, Garlic, Tumeric, Projects etc.

The temperatures this week are back to ‘winter’ normal so I can pack away my thermal underwear and stand down from fire duty. Remembering to feed the fire with logs all day to keep us warm, is a time-consuming and a labour of love.

1. Cats %&G&$$, CATS! – How Do You Deter Them?

This week we spent hours preparing the raised vegetable area by digging in last year’s home-produced compost, organic processed horse manure and blood, fish and bonemeal. Today we noticed some of the earth had been scratched up into a neat pile to cover a poop dump. Apart from covering the complete area with plastic crates, or getting a dog, what else can we do to deter cats from using the area as a toilet?

2. Strawberry Bed Revamp – Complete!

A few months ago we removed all the strawberry plants, cleaned the roots, removed dead leaves and stalks and repotted in individual pots while we revamped the strawberry bed. Normally I would go to the market and buy new plants, but this year, thanks to COVID restrictions, it was not an option.

We removed lots of roots (no idea where they came from), turned over the soil and fertilized with processed horse manure and blood fish and bonemeal. The area was then covered with a membrane before replanting the strawberries and installing an independent drip irrigation system. (apparently, you should not use spray irrigation on strawberries as it encourages strawberry blight) Let’s hope we are rewarded with lots of strawberries this year.

The rocks hold the pipe down until we can get to the shop to buy some more pegs.

3. Growing Garlic in Containers

Once again I had to be creative and use normal garlic instead of seed garlic. Fortunately, this garlic is organic and grown locally so they should be fine.

As an experiment, I planted garlic on the 5th January, in a large pot between the leeks. Both take about six months before ready for harvesting so they should make good bed companions. We will see.

I also planted these this week in a platic crate.

4. Compost?

When I looked at The Propagators blog and Twitter feed, I noticed he also utilizes packing boxes as a ‘brown layer’. I had considered this but I am concerned the ‘glue’ holding the corrugated layer is not bio-friendly. Am I being over-cautious?

My Gnome made me this three bin composter from old pallets. It even has removable sections at the front for ease of access.

5. Carrots

I planted these Zanahoria carrot seeds on the Jan 5th. It said on the packet sow from February but to be honest, our January temperatures probably equals March/April in the UK, so I took the view one size, in this case: one does not fit all.

I did cover with a plastic cloche.

6. Growing Tumeric – Advice Please

A friend bought me a piece of fresh turmeric root back in April and I completely forgot about it until I discovered it lurking in an old shopping bag. It was sprouting, I planted it a pot on 25th July.

By October 23rd

Jan 23rd. I think it fell victim to the frost …

I dug down into the pot and found these?

I’ve never grown Tumeric before so I am not sure if I should let them dry out and they are now edible, or dry out and replant as they are not fully developed? Any advice, appreciated, thanks.

Fellow Blogger FrogendDweller gave me the heads-up re a Good Housekeeping article: How to Grow Tumeric

I now know the tumeric rhizomes takes ten months to grow so I should be replanting in February, in small pots in a warm position. Don’t repot in veg area until the spring.

That’s my Six on Saturday for this week. Now I am off to Mr P’s blog to check out other Six on Saturday bloggers.