Seriously, I must be getting old??

You're probably right, pete. But, as you know I don't use pure compost for containers, pots, or for potting on but use a mixture of sand, grit, and compost. But, again, I don't leave it at that but do regular feeds of all pots and containers in the Spring and throughout the growing season while also doing weekly feeding of the Roses, Peonies in the ground and anything else that I think needs it.
Which reminds me, that tomorrow I need to pick up 3 sacks of sacks and 3 sacks of grit ready for when the new Iris arrive.

 

I have all those huge barrels to fill as well as pots, and I also am going to add a lot to my planting area too as the soil there needs a bit of a boost (basically two years running almost wild, so the soil isn't great) - any left over I will use to repair the huge patch of bareness that I am going to have to re-seed with grass seed later in the year (too late to sow it now I reckon)

 

Well, there are over 60 of the Bearded Iris pots alone, pete, and I would estimate nearly twice that of other plants in pots of various sizes and that not counting the Nursery of plants that I'm bringing on.. I use the garden hose to water them once a day but use the half dozen 10 litre Watering cans for the feeding. As crazy as it sounds I like feeding the plants on a schedule and lugging the watering cans around the garden

 

I was in B&Q just the other day and they had the 125 litre bags.

We've only bought just over 4,000 litres of MPC so far this year. About 1,000 litres of it was 100% peat. Apart from mixing the peat in with some of it we never get around to adding anything else or any feed. A large proportion of it is just used for sowing and growing on for plants that will eventually be planted in people's gardens. For ourselves we only feed the chillies and tomatoes.

Last week and this week we will have sold over 400 runner bean plants. Those get sown at the rate of two per 3" (I think they are) pots. Ten days ago someone phoned and asked if we had any butternut squash plants, so I asked the boss. She said we haven't grown any this year but we shall have some ready in a week. She had just cut open a squash ready for cooking. So she sowed the seeds before starting cooking the squash. Seven days later we sold a dozen of them as 3" plants for £6. They only took two days to germinate in the heated propagator.

 

@shiney - are you doing your Shiney Hybrid Chilli plants this year? Not sure when I will be allowed out of the house and not really thinking of this year, but was wondering if you could save me a few seeds (or pre-order me a couple of plants) for next year?

 

Oooh, actually whilst we are gabbing away on things like this - how well do brugmansia take to having their feet covered up a bit more? I have four that I have overwintered (very kindly gifted by our @noisette47) but I am thinking they want their pots topped off and then a bit later treated to some fish, blood and bone?

 

If they lift the lockdown sufficiently for Michael to be going in to work I might be able to send a couple of plants in with him. We didn't start them off early enough so they are not anywhere near the size they normally are at this time of year. If that doesn't work out I can post you some seeds towards the end of the year.

 

I am such a nasty, horrible boss that I have him working from home at the moment. I really don't want any of my staff travelling on public transport when we can work quite effectively remotely, and to be honest even if he did get to the office, I won't - I am out, officially, until mid-July at the very earliest and it could even be into the Autumn! If you could even hold me a couple of seeds, I'd be grateful - no doubt when we are a bit more free, I will be up to see you at some stage.

 

I have them in the largest pots I currently have, so think they are OK that way, but the compost level seems low to me. I was going to lob some chicken poo pellets at them now that they are starting to romp away (one is sulking a bit, but it was slow last year - doesn't seem to like the cooler temps here in the UK maybe) - I didn't want to burn them with chicken poo for a lack of compost though. I'll have a better look at the weekend, and be a bit careful how I proceed

 

I'll keep a couple of plants for you as I can't see them fruiting until July at least - unless they suddenly go mad. When you feel safe enough you can then pop up. It's now allowed under this week's rules as you're not family (only an honorary family member ).

 

70mm! Blimey, we haven't had a drop where I am.

 

My apologies to both of you as B&Q are still selling the 125 litre Verve Peat added compost but when I went into the Plant area at Northwich they'd placed all the 100 litre bales into where the sign was for the larger one. There were no 125 bales except for one basically destroyed one in the isle. I asked a member of staff where the 125 bales were and she just shrugged and said "dunno, love, I think they stopped them" Anyway, I've opened one of the 100 litre bales and, to be honest, I can't see any difference to the open 125 litre bale that is next to it. The Lady was obviously wrong but I've got enough compost now, 2020 litres stacked against the garage wall.