"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
The message from mewthree contains these

what is best to feed it with, since i didn't prepare the ground with
manure?

I've never had to feed rhubarb in my life, and I've been gardening (woman
and child) for over 60 years!

Good grief! I'm pea green with envy! You must have good soil. My stuff
(soil is nto what you could have called it) was so sick when I started here
that it's a constant round of soil improvement. I might be able to stop
doing that in about 5 years time as I now have worms which I didn't when I
started.

I never harvest rhubarb after the end of May, and what growth it makes
after that will, eventually, rot down...this feeds the plant.

This seems to be a very different thing than is done here in Aus. Your May,
would be equivalent to our October here, yet I've just stewed a batch for
tomorrows breakfast cereal a full 4+ months after you would have stopped
harvesting. Why isn't it usual to crop for a longer time in the UK?

Short term, for this year only, since you didn't do any initial
preparation,
I'd throw some general purpose fertiliser at it... it all depends what
your
soil was like to start with, really.

Wanna swap? I'll give you my Australian dirt first ever cleared of trees
and put to rough pasture in the 1960s for your soil which I'd like to think
has been under cultivation for at least the last thousand years. I pine for
good soil and a gentle temperate climate and that long Autumn productive
light you mob have over there.

On 10 Mar, 09:34, Martin wrote:
... Rusty recommended planting dead animals and carpets.

)) Sweet man. The seeds he sent me were great - even though a batch
was old and he had no clue how long he had them. His honesty seeds
live on, in my garden and in the gardens of 2 neighbours!

I've never buried a dead animal prior to planting rhubarb.... nor do I
mulch with carpet. I use cardboards, lots of it around fruit bushes. I
use lots of straw as well. I divide the rhubarb to give away - I don't
have the room for keeping it all. I don't feed beside mulching with
comfrey leaves and om and I don't grow rhubarb in pots. If Rusty was
here, I think he'd have said the same ...

On 10 Mar, 00:30, Anne Jackson wrote:
Surely it is better to offer no advice at all, than to tell someone
something which is, at best, misleading?

I think you're confusing 'misleading' with one own experience. You
said rhubarb can grow in a pot because you have one growing on your
compost heap. There's a difference. I ddin't criticise you for it, but
it's obvious you are not understanding the difference.

My experiences are only there to be shared, not to be scrutinised word
for word. When you go down the thread, you end up reading more or less
what I have said in the first place. Why is that I cannot say what I
think even though it's the same thing you, and others, are going to
say?

No-one that I know is an expert with knowledge of _everything_ to do
with gardening. The people with the most knowledge tend to be the
most modest.

If everybody was as modest as you think they are or should be, there
wouldn't be a gardening forum to start with. This place is to share
and give advice. I don't feel I give professional advice, I feel that
I give my experiences based on the way I grow food stuff. I don't post
in thread for machinery, nursery grown flowers nor glass houses
because I don't have experiences in them.

I live in the UK, not in Australia. I live in Greater Manchester, not
in Scotland. I think we should all bear in mind where we are and
therefore the different ways of growing things.

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:30:32 +0000, Anne Jackson wrote
(in article ):

snip

Surely it is better to offer no advice at all, than to tell someone
something which is, at best, misleading?

No-one that I know is an expert with knowledge of _everything_ to do
with gardening. The people with the most knowledge tend to be the
most modest.


What wise words, Anne! Whilst I understand that someone may wish to offer
advice from their own experience although it is advice contrary to the
received wisdom of experts, I have never understood why someone should be so
eager to give a response to just about everything that they rush to Google,
phone and email their friends, etc, just to be able to answer practically
every query. It seems to imply a pathetic eagerness. I have seen exactly
the same pattern on other groups in the past.





--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 09:25:23 GMT, Anne Jackson wrote:

The message from Martin contains these words:
On Fri, 9 Mar 2007 23:30:26 GMT, Anne Jackson wrote:
The message from mewthree contains these words:

what is best to feed it with, since i didn't prepare the ground
with manure?

I've never had to feed rhubarb in my life, and I've been gardening (woman
and child) for over 60 years!

I never harvest rhubarb after the end of May, and what growth it makes
after that will, eventually, rot down...this feeds the plant.

Every time I've moved a rhubarb patch (and I try do that every five years
or so), I find that the ground is much improved, compared to what it was
when the rhubarb was planted initially.

Short term, for this year only, since you didn't do any initial
preparation,
I'd throw some general purpose fertiliser at it... it all depends what your
soil was like to start with, really.

What about the much recommended dead sheep and old carpet?

I've never had recourse to either...

... Rusty recommended planting dead animals and carpets.
I thought that was for fig trees?
--
June Hughes

On 10 Mar, 10:08, Sally Thompson
wrote:
What wise words, Anne! Whilst I understand that someone may wish to offer
advice from their own experience although it is advice contrary to the
received wisdom of experts,

So who are those experts on rhubarb here exactly? Anne? Fran? Your
good self? How can you tell an experts from an amateur? If you look at
Mike's posts, he is an amateur but with years of experience. Why then
is he being labelled as 'not a gardener'. What makes a gardener but
someone who gardens. And enjoy gardening with a passion.

I have never understood why someone should be so
eager to give a response to just about everything that they rush to Google,
phone and email their friends, etc, just to be able to answer practically
every query. It seems to imply a pathetic eagerness. I have seen exactly
the same pattern on other groups in the past.

There's no rush to Google but visibly you know what you are talking
about. As for ringing friends and emailing them, I don't even need to
do this - they're there, around me at home and at work. And what is it
of your business if one does this? Sacha is forever ringing around,
emailing, asking her husband .... You are quite bias when it comes to
your 'opinions' or perhaps you just don't think.

When it's about to identifying a plant, then it is indeed a rush to
find out. This is called interest, this is called enjoyment of finding
out. It's fascinating. You learn so much as you go along - sometimes
you get totally diverted. It's part of the learning process Sally.
Perhaps not everybody like you just runs a b&b and enjoy a bit of
gardening and leave it at that. Others are eager to know, to share, to
read others and if there's something to find out, you bet we're going
to find out!! We all have our passion - plants happen to be one of
mine. I also love food, but I don't post in the food forum. I love the
countryside, but I don't post in a specific forum to this. I just post
here and in one other gardening forum (a french one), a literature
forum (another french one) and in a forum of a town I used to live in.
I lurk in others but don't post.

Now if you have something to say to me Sally, just say it and let it
then be. I have no agro with you whatesoever. But do stop pocking at
me. It's like having a draft at the back of my neck. It's getting very
annoying now. Ta.

"Martin" wrote in message
On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 09:25:23 GMT, Anne Jackson
wrote:
The message from Martin contains these words:
On Fri, 9 Mar 2007 23:30:26 GMT, Anne Jackson
wrote:
The message from mewthree contains these
words:

what is best to feed it with, since i didn't prepare the ground
with manure?

I've never had to feed rhubarb in my life, and I've been gardening
(woman
and child) for over 60 years!

I never harvest rhubarb after the end of May, and what growth it makes
after that will, eventually, rot down...this feeds the plant.

Every time I've moved a rhubarb patch (and I try do that every five
years
or so), I find that the ground is much improved, compared to what it
was
when the rhubarb was planted initially.

Short term, for this year only, since you didn't do any initial
preparation,
I'd throw some general purpose fertiliser at it... it all depends what
your
soil was like to start with, really.

What about the much recommended dead sheep and old carpet?

I've never had recourse to either...

... Rusty recommended planting dead animals and carpets.

If you ever decide to plant a passionfruit, plant it on top of a bovine
liver.

On 10 Mar, 10:43, Anne Jackson wrote:
I did NOT say that rhubarb would grow in a pot, although someone
else did! I said that there was enough sustenance in compose,
to enable rhubarb to grow in it...your powers of comprehension
leave much to be desired!

Ok. I'm sorry. I'll leave it at that.

"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
The message from "FarmI" ask@itshall be given contains these words:
"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
The message from mewthree contains these

what is best to feed it with, since i didn't prepare the ground
with manure?

I've never had to feed rhubarb in my life, and I've been gardening
woman and child) for over 60 years!

Good grief! I'm pea green with envy! You must have good soil. My stuff
(soil is not what you could have called it) was so sick when I started
here
that it's a constant round of soil improvement. I might be able to stop
doing that in about 5 years time as I now have worms which I didn't when
I
started.

We lost all out earthworms a few years ago, when New Zealand flatworms
appeared over here.

I've read about NZ flatworms being a problem in the UK, but since I wouldn't
know one if it bit me on the nose, I'd be interested in what they do/don't
do in a garden. All the articles I've read (which were in UK mags) seemed
to assume that readers would know what the problem is.

That was when I bought my wormery, and we're about
back to notmal now...haven't seen a flatworm in last past couple of years.

How do they look different to a "normal" earthworm? Flat????

I still leave black polythene bags with garden rubbish dotted about the
place though, just in case! G Well, that's _my_ excuse!

To drop the flatworms into???????

I never harvest rhubarb after the end of May, and what growth it makes
after that will, eventually, rot down...this feeds the plant.

This seems to be a very different thing than is done here in Aus. Your
May would be equivalent to our October here, yet I've just stewed a batch
for tomorrows breakfast cereal a full 4+ months after you would have
stopped
harvesting. Why isn't it usual to crop for a longer time in the UK?

I had never stopped to think about it, but I suppose that by June other
fruit would be available, and the rhubarb would be getting tough and
stringy?

I'd have to say that I've not noticed any difference between the early
spring rhubarb and later autumn (now) rhubarb. Mind you, we don't have the
early forced rhubarb that you can get in the UK. Here it's always been
garden (or open field) grown.

Thinking about it, I tend to pick it when it's growing strongly so perhaps
it's either always tough and stringy and it's just what we grew up with or
it's always edible and acceptable (manky stalks excluded of course).
Interesting one.


Short term, for this year only, since you didn't do any initial
preparation, I'd throw some general purpose fertiliser at it...
it all depends what your soil was like to start with, really.

Wanna swap? I'll give you my Australian dirt first ever cleared of trees
and put to rough pasture in the 1960s for your soil which I'd like to
think
has been under cultivation for at least the last thousand years. I
pine for
good soil and a gentle temperate climate and that long Autumn productive
light you mob have over there.

This scheme (housing estate) was built in 1948, on what was a rough
grazing
hillside. The folk who had the house for the first 20 years didn't even
cut
the grass...we inherited some pretty awful, if virgin, soil. I've spent
years improving it, but it's still pretty stony and 'claggy-clay' in
parts.
The best parts are where the children's sand-pit used to be, and the area
where I used to keep the bins for the ashes from the fire...not
surprisingly.

Swop? No thanks! I've put too much work into this garden... ;-)

Yeah, I've probably done too much in mine too.

On 10 Mar, 10:57, "La Puce" wrote:
On 10 Mar, 10:43, Anne Jackson wrote:

I did NOT say that rhubarb would grow in a pot, although someone
else did! I said that there was enough sustenance in compose,
to enable rhubarb to grow in it...your powers of comprehension
leave much to be desired!

Ok. I'm sorry. I'll leave it at that.

I think that if one was to print off all the postings to URG in the
last 10 days between them there would be enough Bull Shit to grow
Rhubarb or anything else in pots for years to come with enough over
foe a good size garden.
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries

On 10 Mar, 12:48, "Dave Hill" wrote:
I think that if one was to print off all the postings to URG in the
last 10 days between them there would be enough Bull Shit to grow
Rhubarb or anything else in pots for years to come with enough over
foe a good size garden.

)

In message .com, Dave
Hill writes
On 10 Mar, 10:57, "La Puce" wrote:
On 10 Mar, 10:43, Anne Jackson wrote:

I did NOT say that rhubarb would grow in a pot, although someone
else did! I said that there was enough sustenance in compose,
to enable rhubarb to grow in it...your powers of comprehension
leave much to be desired!

Ok. I'm sorry. I'll leave it at that.

I think that if one was to print off all the postings to URG in the
last 10 days between them there would be enough Bull Shit to grow
Rhubarb or anything else in pots for years to come with enough over
foe a good size garden.
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries

Yes. I had rhubarb over our drainage pit in Hatfield Heath and it
grew like mad. When I came here, 22 years ago, there was a small patch
of rhubarb, which gave a reasonable crop every year. When I had been
here a couple of years it died. I still can't believe it. I have no
idea why that happened. No-one had done anything to it and it had
obviously been there for many years. Strangely, the peony next to it
died also. Neither has been replaced.
--
June Hughes

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 12:48:17 +0000, Dave Hill wrote
(in article .com):

On 10 Mar, 10:57, "La Puce" wrote:
On 10 Mar, 10:43, Anne Jackson wrote:

I did NOT say that rhubarb would grow in a pot, although someone
else did! I said that there was enough sustenance in compose,
to enable rhubarb to grow in it...your powers of comprehension
leave much to be desired!

Ok. I'm sorry. I'll leave it at that.

I think that if one was to print off all the postings to URG in the
last 10 days between them there would be enough Bull Shit to grow
Rhubarb or anything else in pots for years to come with enough over
foe a good size garden.


gRather like the comment from someone in another group referring to
*adopting a scientific tone of voice while talking bullshit*. I thought it
a lovely phrase and kept it (apologies to dorayme who won't be on this NG for
quoting without permission).




--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

Anne Jackson writes
The message from "FarmI" ask@itshall be given contains these words:
"Anne Jackson" wrote in message

We lost all out earthworms a few years ago, when New Zealand flatworms
appeared over here. That was when I bought my wormery, and we're about
back to notmal now...haven't seen a flatworm in last past couple of years.

UK earthworms had no difficulty in establishing themselves in NZ despite
the presumable presence of the flatworms, so it seems logical that your
earthworm population should have settled

I never harvest rhubarb after the end of May, and what growth it makes
after that will, eventually, rot down...this feeds the plant.

This seems to be a very different thing than is done here in Aus. Your
May would be equivalent to our October here, yet I've just stewed a batch
for tomorrows breakfast cereal a full 4+ months after you would have
stopped
harvesting. Why isn't it usual to crop for a longer time in the UK?

I had never stopped to think about it, but I suppose that by June other
fruit would be available, and the rhubarb would be getting tough and stringy?

I think in the UK it's usual to crop till mid June. That gives about
three months growth to build up strength for the following year. (And,
of course, by June the strawberries are coming in, making rhubarb seem
less attractive.) Your March is our September - by then, my rhubarb is
no longer pushing out new leaves with any enthusiasm and by October it's
dying down for the winter.

I don't think rhubarb gets tough and stringy, but it is supposed to
build up higher oxalic acid levels, which is not good for the joints.


--
Kay

Sally Thompson writes

Whilst I understand that someone may wish to offer
advice from their own experience although it is advice contrary to the
received wisdom of experts,
Snip

The strength of this group is that people give advice from their own
experience - that enables us, as a group, to push forward our knowledge
beyond the limits of book advice. So if person A quotes the book advice
'this plant needs a damp spot in the shade' and person B says 'I'm
growing it on sand in full sun', a discussion follows to find out what
it is about B's situation that allows the plant to grow somewhere where
the conventional advice says it shouldn't. If it wasn't for this sort
of discussion, we might as well all simply pull out our gardening books
and never talk to another gardener!


--
Kay