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Over the years, Gerry has answered more than 5,000 of your gardening questions. His knowledge is based in science and practical experience, and by working on radio and television.
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do you recomend chicken feed see them alot in garden centres
Hi Gerry, I've been trying to get an answer to this for ages, but nobody can tell me for definite: How safe is food grown near a busy road? I'm thinking of my local community garden (on the SCR, Dublin 8) and my own back garden (on a main road in Dublin 12).
My box hedge which surrounds the vegetable patch has recently been infected with blight. i am treating it and hoping for the best. However I am wondering if it is safe to grow potatoes in this area. I realise the two blights are caused by different fungi but am concerned that it will increase the likelihood of blight in the potato crop. could you please advise?
I want to start a vegetable plot, my garden had 10ins of soil on top of hard compacted stones and yellow subsoil and poor drainage,i scraped off the soil with a digger and removed 12 ins deep of subsoil i put back the soil and then filled in with new topsoil i tested the new soil and found it was alkaline is there anything i can do to remedy or improve the soil for vegetable growing,the garden is 24 ft x 14 ft any help appreciated.
I have a new raised veg bed this year that is producing very well. However I used railway sleepers at the front and sides of the bed without really thinking about the danger involved from wood preservative leaking into the soil. Do you know if the veg will be contaminated and what I could do to rectify this now?
New house nearly ready and we are putting gravel provisionally around most of house. 0.25 acre site. I want to start growing veg. Should i just get greenhouse ? or leave some ground as is for a tunnell ? or just leave some ground and grow direct in that. Aim is to grow kale / potatoes / onions - just enough for small family. Hopefully strawberries etc in greenhouse. Want to get this right cos if i get gravel all over then i might regret it or can i do everything i need in a greenhouse?
My veg garden gas been going for 9 years and is now tired and performing poorly. I am not really able to dig it anymore, nor have I farmyard manure to dig in.I see you're not really a fan of raised beds but I had intended to put them in to avoid digging and make it easier to renew the soil. My soil has moderate drainage. What do you think? I see you recommend red deal. Would cheaper white deal be ok and what about using treatments to avoid rotting?
My sister in Scotland had a soil lab test done for her veg garden recently. The results showed the soil had only 1.01% Boran and 0.03% Molybdenum. The lab reccomended levels of 2.1% and 0.6% respectively. All other elements were OK. How does she increase her levels. Are there any propritiary brand products available ? What should she do ?
Most newspapers now use coloured ink. Is it still OK to use them in compost or for mulching?
I have just bought Gallup Blograde 360 which I am going to use to kill off all the grass and weeds that have grown on my vegetable patch over the winter. I am not sure that I have bought the correct product and if so I can always return it to the shop and exchange it for something else. I intend to kill the weeds and then rotovate the ground before starting to plant my vegetables for this year. How long would I need to leave it after spraying and before I rotovate it. Also how long after spraying do I leave it before planting vegetables. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if I have bought the correct product as I am wondering if The Irish Organic Weedkiller would be better. I do not want to do anything that will affect my vegetables later in the season. Thanks
Rather than throwing ashes in the bin can I use them to grow vegetables in a raised bed? The ashes are those derived from burning dry wood cuttings (raspberry canes, pruned branches etc.) How deep should the raised bed be? Can I use a base of 8 cm polystyrene sheets to build it up to a convenient height?
I have a small north facing garden and I'm wondering if you can grow fruit and veg in it.
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