Not me, although I do have various fruit trees: apple, pear, plum, cherry, as well as raspberries and lots (and lots) of blackberries. The birds are currently having a bit of barney over the cherries... it's rare that any survive to be eaten by me!

Originally Posted by: Retron 

We've been for a walk through local fields today. In several locations where land is scheduled for development, it has been left fallow and is covered with a profusion of poppies and other flowers. We realised as we walked that there were no bees evident and looking and listening carefully revealed few insects of any description. On a warm day like today, I'd expect to be able to hear the insects in such places as much as I could see them. Silence.
 

Originally Posted by: Ulric 

Three pictures of interest, all from the wild part of the garden.

1 - a profusion of daisy-like flowers, I've forgotten what they're called. There are masses of them this year.
2 - barley, not usually found in a domestic garden. The nearest farmland is 500 feet away, so that's quite some going!
3 - taken at my eye level (5ft 8 ) - another of those massive spear thistles. 1.5m max, as per that other site - hah!

https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/g1.jpg? 


https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/g2.jpg? 


https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/g3.jpg? 

Originally Posted by: Retron 

We had a composting class here a couple of years back Martin. I think this might have been the nudge to get you going on your own system? If I remember, it went something along the lines of adding an accelerant to the top of the heap. Did you do this?

Reading your latest predicament, it seems you have a good mix of materials.
But the roots issue is one I haven't heard of before. But I guess it is possible.
I would plan/hope on removing last year's additions about a year later. You can do it faster. This would mean there is less opportunity for roots to move upwards into the container.

How is your plastic lawn? You mention grass clippings. Does this mean you have forgone this plastic monstrosity? Congratulations if so.
Removing dog poo from a plastic lawn is not the easiest task, which is one reason I've heard people remove fake grass.
Especially with some of the rich doggie diets they have today. 🐶

Before giving up on the compost heap, a cup of chamomile tisane (tea) might reduce the stress or if you have a headache feverfew certainly helps. DEW is right. Make sure it is feverfew though.

Oh, and chipboard might not the best material for a base. It probably contains formaldehyde which is an anti-bacterial agent.
Nick

Originally Posted by: NMA 

"Chamber Lees" - that's the secret! [Lincolnshire Dialect] Good for onions I'm told. 😁

Originally Posted by: Roger Parsons 

I've not got the hang of this composting.

Had a bin for about 3 years. Contents are mostly a mix of 50% veg trimmings/peelings (no spuds), 25% grass cuttings, 20% garden leaves/soft prunings, 5% plain cardboard (mostly recycled egg boxes)

I initially had a problem with it being too dry (so I now water it sporadically), but it still seems to be a home for a colony of ants and woodlice.

I got it to full and it's all composted down (the bottom has been composting for 2+ years - is that too long?).

The problem is, when I've gone to take the compost from the hatch at the bottom, I've found the compost is full of roots. Roots which have grown upwards from the ground, from the trees that are near it. As well as making the compost difficult to extract (and having to remove dozens of roots from it), those roots will have been nicking all the nutrients in the compost. 

Has anyone had a similar problem? 

I nearly canned the whole thing and took the bin to the tip but, after calming down a little, I've tried a fix by tipping out all the compost onto a tarp and removing the larger roots. I've put an old piece of chipboard down and placed the bin on top of that, then re-filled the bin with the remaining compost. 

I get that this is going to block access to to worms burrowing up from underneath and these are vital to successful composting (if I see any in the garden, I'm going to relocate them into the bin!), but the alternative is to have tree roots continue to invade from the bottom.

 

Originally Posted by: Saint Snow 

We sowed seeds from last year’s Halloween pumpkins and planted three in the border under the beans. I think that might be two too many because they’ve taken over. No fruits yet but lots of flower buds.  WRT composting, I remember my biology teacher telling us he’d send his little boys out to pee in their compost heap to activate it.  I sent my little boy out to do the same and even when grown up, despite us having three loos, he’d still disappear round the compost heap.  We don’t have one now though. 

Originally Posted by: Caz 

We have been looking at our runner beans today with concern. They are flowering well, but no sign on any pods forming. As this ties in with low numbers of insects in the garden generally, we are concerned that they may not have been pollinated. Our French beans are about to flower, so were are watching them to compare. We have a lawn covered in clover with barely half a dozen bumblebees interested. 😬

Originally Posted by: Roger Parsons 

We had loads of pollinators around early in the year, but as elsewhere this windy spell has diminished their numbers just as the beans are coming into flower.

Originally Posted by: StoneCroze 

I was out around the lake over the weekend and noticed the lack of bees and so on. The insects of note this year are the dragonflies and damselflies. The garden much the same with few insects.

Originally Posted by: NMA 

In the garden in our wild area yesterday, one Blue Damselfly male, one small bumblebee, a day-flying micromoth and a Small White butterfly. Many of my correspondents report a similar shortage of insects. No honeybees.

Originally Posted by: Roger Parsons 

Thought I'd pop out just now to see what was around - it's unseasonably windy, but the ever-present small flies were around the entrance to the "wild area" of my garden. They never seem to do much, just flit around the same area all summer long. Not much else to see, due to the wind, but the fuchsia by the patio had a wasp (first one I've seen this year), some sort of bee I'd not seen before (not honey or the normal bumble types)... and I was followed indoors by a very loud buzzing, which turned out to be a medium-sized brown beetle.

Wasps are the biggest things to have all but vanished here, I still get bees, butterflies, dragonflies (thanks to my pond), moths etc. 

Originally Posted by: Retron 

I am having the garden make over on 16th September as they guys gave me the date, not my choice but being in September is more reliable to be warmer and dryer than this current poor summer.  Will have large patio with new lawn and along my fence soil beddings.  Will not plant any as it too late but watching for next year if SSW attack again will install plastic sheeting around it to plant vegs and keep the aggressive cold rain, cold and winds out.   I rather water them myself as I completely resent this modern poor climate and plastic roofing sheetings can be easily remove during prolonged warm to hot periods and thunderstorm rains get in.   I remember in the past 90's storms we used to take out our house plants to outside during the thunderstorms it was completely washed off dust and plants look so happy fresh from the warm heavy rain.  Want to grow tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, onions, garlic and chilli peppers.  Those plastic sheets can be easily slot in and out so plants stay warm, moist and proteced from winds.  Don't need a green house if i do that set-up mini green house along the fence plant beddings.

Originally Posted by: Jiries