A messy polytunnel.

I shamefully left tidying up my polytunnel until December this season, just been too busy and too unwell and too stressed to get around to it.

Then of course DEFRA dictated that the hens had to be kept undercover so the Seramas, rather than just being housed in there at night and free ranging during the day, are now shut in all the time.

This means it's a tip in there.

I am going to have to get on and sort it out as soon as I am well enough, even with the Seramas in situ. 

I don't grow much in the polytunnel in winter, I have some herbs and a few different salad leaves on the go but we tend not to eat much salad stuff in winter! I DO use my poly tunnel to overwinter various pots of herbs and patio plants, and also as a sheltered place to put the Serama runs and houses to keep them warm at night.

I know the protection order is in force until at least 28 Feb 2017. I do hope it doesn't go on much longer, as I need the polytunnel in March to start  growing on my pepper and tomato plants for sale and for our use.

We don't dig peat - do we?

The chair of the government’s Sustainable Growing Media Task Force (SGMTF), Dr Alan Knight, has recently published his chair’s report and draft ‘road map’, Towards Sustainable Growing Media.

I must admit I do wonder exactly why we need a "road map" about a move towards sustainable growing when, as John Walker has so eloquently written about on his blog  a growing number of gardeners have already found their way to using reliable and consistent peat-free composts with growing success.

But, regardless, this is the interesting bit.

“The Chairman is inviting feedback from all interested parties, whether Task Force members or not, by 30 September 2012. He would like your views on any part or all of the report and would particularly welcome details of specific actions that individuals or organisations would be willing to undertake that can be added to the roadmap. There are no specific questions to be answered and this is not a Government consultation.”
Feedback should be sent by email to the Secretariat: growingmedia@defra.gsi.gov.uk
I am not quite sure if this was the intention, but effectively this is an open invitation for we gardeners and growers to have our say on the issue of peat free growing.

So, if you are one of the many gardeners who grow beautiful flowers and veg without the use of peat, or just don't agree with the destruction of peat bog eco systems to provide peat as a growing medium, perhaps you would consider telling them so?

Just a thought