compost and nick-knacks for onions-long carrots-stump carrots

Spent a few enjoyable hours on sunday with my son at the nurseries whare i get my gardening assessories. I decided not to change my way of growing so i got the following .
3 60ltr bags of vitax multipupose compost with q4.
2 bags of dried kiln sand.
I did make enquiries re to 6x manure but was told it will not be in stock for a week so i have ordered 1 bag which i will collect next sunday. The reason why i use 6x is because it is very highly concentrated and it saves a lot of back breaking work which unfortunetly i just cannot do these days and the reason for dried kiln sand is it has been sterilized so there is no fear of any germs or bacteria that also applies to the 6x. One thing i did forget is ground lime but i can get that when i get my bag of 6x. I have got all the rest that i need even for the sowing of onions so all i need to do now is get cracking and decide how to go about getting things done.

long carrots grown in tubes- stump carrots grown in pop bottles

here is a photo of the 2 types of carrots grown this year. I must say that i am quite pleased with the results but i do think there is still room for improvement. I think next year i will have to pay a bit more attention to how i prepare the growing mix to get a better structured carrot both in the tubes-pop bottles. In my last blogg i did say the mix that i use is a simple one but after giving it a lot of thought i do think i can improve it a bit better.

stump carrots grown in pop bottles

Above is a photo of the stump carrots that i grew in pop bottles this year. The type was sweet candle. As you will see they were not grown in sand but a very good make of compost which i have found to be excellent for many years. Like all gardeners they have there own litttle secrets on the way they use there growing mixtures but as i just mentioned they were not grown in any sort of sand which is used in drums ware drill holes are to be made for the growing mixture. I must admit i was not in a position during there growing period to give the attention re to watering and also checking for carrot fly which i have been very lucky by not having that problem. As to the water i did use water gel which i mixed with the growing mixture i use.

TIME TO THINK ABOUT 2012

My results on the garden for 2011 has not been very good and it is put down to ill health, any how i did manage to achieve a couple of good results with the carrots runner beans and tomatoes i am afraid my onions did not get the attention that they should have got there for i did not get a decent one that i can talk about. I have in the past mentioned that i do grow stump carrots in pop bottles and this year i grew them again with what i call reasonable results. the name is well known (sweet candle). As to the long carrots i grew them in 5" water pipes which were 4ft-6" long and again with reasonable results.(red intermediate) My method of growing is quite simple, i have mentioned what i grow the carrots in so i will now tell you what the mixture is. vitax multipurpose Q4 compost sieved and fish -blood -bone- meal. I the bottom of the pipes i do add water gell.

This is the first time i have inserted a picture . more to follow.