Whilst in BnQ yesterday she managed to talk me into buying some seeds (though secretly i wanted to do it too but shhhh, dont tell her :).
Anyway, what we got was sweetcorn, carrots, lettuce and lettuce mixed salad.
Now ive planted the sweetcorn. Perhaps 80 ,arge seeds and it said to put
3 in each hole 30cm apart. No problem.
However the rest also say 30cm apart but theres literally hundreds of them. ive got a reasonably sized garden but 1 seed that far apart id need next doors garden too.
Is it literally 1 seed a hole again or is it more, say 50 in each hole (joke).
Any advice chaps.
Also, i turned over the soil then mixed in some compost (BnQ) again and also a couple of handfuls of perlite. is this the right thing to do?
K: How much wood ash should you use in your garden? The late Bernard G. Wesenberg, a former Washington State University Extension horticulturist, recommended using one gallon of ashes per square yard on loam to clay-loam soil, and half as much on sandier soils.
Cover with sheets of newspaper
Cover newspaper with 3" to 4" alfalfa (lucerne)
Hose the beds with water
Wait 4 - 6 weeks and plant with seedlings (This allows newsprint a chance to break down. You can plant right away but make sure water gets to your plants. I use drip irrigation.). Use a dibble, ideally the pointy (sharpened) end of an old shovel handle, to make the planting holes.
For seeding directly to the soil Rake in the amendments, Seed, add mulch as plants grow.
Mulch can act as cover for pill bugs, silver fish, and other insects that can eat the very tender eaves of sprouting plants. Mulching will also keep soil temp. down by a few degrees. Otherwise, mulch feeds the soil (1st principal of organic gardening), and helps retain moisture in the soil. As you can see, it is a balancing act, and it is up to you to determine which course will benefit you best.
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As Charlie Underlog often recites,"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet Kilburn Phillips.
A damn good observation that seems to have become a cottage industry with everyone quoting it, but Ms. Phillips seems to be unfamiliar with chemical fertilizers.
Real gardeners grow soil as well as plants. Jobes tomato spikes and Miracle Grow aren't healthy for your soil and they are a MISTAKE. It's cheaper and more eco-friendly to get ORGANIC fish emulsion (the seas have been polluted too: copper, lead, mercury, arsenic, PCBs, and PBDEs) or manure for your plants. You don't even have to dig it in. Just cover amendments with newspaper as described above, just below the ratings for manure, or sprinkle it around your plants as a side dressing (18 lb/100 sq.ft., chicken manure). Don't water again until the top inch of the soil is dry. Over feeding will encourage the plant to vegetate, instead of setting and maturing fruit.
3 per hole is exceedingly generous, what are you going to do when all three sprout in most of them, whcih will happen if the seed is good? i would normally plant corn in a block (not in rows) one per hole and put up with the odd one that doesn't germinate.
The lettuce and lettuce salad will do best if started in a seed tray and then transplanted when about 7-10 cm high. Plant them about 15 cm apart. The carrots you sow direct in a row about 3-6cm apart (or several rows about
20 cm between rows). You will thin them later to about 15-20cm spacing depending on the size. You need to keep the seeds damp until they germinate which is not as easy as it seems as they are so small. Both have rather small seeds so don't plant them too deep, a few mm will do.
No
It wouldn't harm but not knowing the quality of your soil I cannot say if it is sufficient. Corn is a heavy feeder so it will probably need more fertiliser. The others don't need much fertiliser and carrots will bifurcate if over fertilised.
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