Black Venus's secret garden 2022

[Black Venus]

Hello folks! It's been a few years since I did a diary on here. I'm a garden and greenhouse person and do everything outdoors, and all organic. To cut a long story short, I had a spot of bother with the neighbours in 2017 and decided to keep my head down for a little while. Since then I've been relying on what I have in the jars (when I can remember where I hid them) and just growing a few small plants. Last year I grew nothing at all, after the twat at the far end of my garden cut some trees down and compromised my privacy. But this year I've decided to go for it and do a proper grow.

 

My strategy for this year has to revolve around trying not to piss the neighbours off. I'm doing both autos and photos, hoping to stagger the harvests a bit so that I haven't got too many things in smelly flower at the same time.

 

I started my seeds off at the beginning of May, which may seem fairly late, but the idea is to keep the plants to a manageable size. While most people are striving to grow the biggest plants they can, I'm going the other way and trying to keep mine modest, because smaller plants are easier to hide. By sowing a bit later, the plants have less veg time and don't get a chance to grow too big before the solstice. Otherwise, when they go into flower they're over the top of a six foot fence in no time. 

 

 

I like to start my seeds off in Rootrainers, including the autos, which will be in here for two weeks before being planted into their final positions/pots. I didn't want to use a whole tray's worth of Rootrainers so I just put a couple of 'books' together with rubber bands and string and stuck them in a reused container from some unhealthy but tasty potato product, and wedged them in place with chips of polystyrene. I admit they are a bit of a faff, especially when you're filling them up and it feels like you're chucking endless amounts of compost into a bottomless pit, but that deep root run makes a huge difference in getting them off to a good start. These are filled with John Innes Seed Compost blended with coco. I wouldn't have chosen John Innes because it's like fucking cement, but it was all they had in stock at the local garden centre so it'll have to do. And actually with the coco in there to lighten it up it's working really well and the plants (which have come through since this photo was taken) are really happy. I water from the bottom to encourage those roots to delve right down to reach the moisture.

 

What you see here in the back row are five autos from Real Gorilla Seeds and Dutch Passion. In the front row are two fems from Real Gorilla and three of my own seeds, which are not feminised, from a variety I call Red Sticks. This is a lovely big lanky sativa which smells of pear drops and finishes at the end of September.

 

And here (below) are four more feminised varieties from Real Gorilla. These went into normal modules because I couldn't be arsed with the Rootrainers, but they're in the same compost.

 

[BilgePump]

Love a cheeky garden grow , I'll pull up a chair if that's okay 

 

I'm well overlooked in my garden but still managed to pull a lb plant once , that was a squeaky bum summer!! 

 

Best of luck with the season ahead! 

 

[popespliff]

As a novice iv done everything wrong . forgot after 40 years of forced non growing of cannabis plants ( no not time inside) I Forgot how large these monsters can get . My tallest durban poison has just reached 1.75m . Started it at end March and have left it to go natural .  

Root trainers look like a good idea . i will follow your diary for further good ideas and direction .

 

Cheers PS

[Alys]

Good luck!  All we need now is some decent sunny weather.  I would love to grow in my garden as it is south facing - but I have 3 neighbours overlooking me.  I hope you have an uneventful summer and I shall follow along with interest. 

[CustardVape]

May the sun shine for us all. Happy gardening buddy. Great choice of seeds btw

Edited May 19, 2022 by CustardVape
my spelling is shit

[Black Venus]

On 19/05/2022 at 8:52 AM, popespliff said:

As a novice iv done everything wrong . forgot after 40 years of forced non growing of cannabis plants ( no not time inside) I Forgot how large these monsters can get . My tallest durban poison has just reached 1.75m . Started it at end March and have left it to go natural .  

 

 

Well, there's no shame in that, @popespliff, I've done the same thing over and over again. When the plants are happy they just keep on growing, and I've had some that grow so fast I've literally had to go out there every single day and bend the tops down, and ended up with branches all zigzag shaped. All part of the fun.

[popespliff]

AS we share the same latitude 51 it wont belong before you will see mine from over your garden fence

[Black Venus]

Haha, I'll look forward to that.  Durban Poison is lovely stuff.

 

Yes, I forgot to mention that I'm at Lat 51.

[Black Venus]

Welcome to the diary, @BilgePump.

 

And thank you @Alys ... great to see another woman on here. I really hope the day will come when you can grow a beautiful crop in your lovely south-facing garden.

 

And welcome @CustardVape. I'll be watching your plants coming along too, they look great so far.

[Alys]

I’m Lat 51 too    

 

[Black Venus]

So, while the seedlings are getting their act together, it's time to prepare the greenhouse.

 

I've got quite a good sized garden, and the greenhouse is down the end. It's getting a little bit treacherous on the path to it, because my cat is quite elderly and starting to lose control of his bowels. I've also got spectacularly nosey neighbours. Not at all unusual for him to put a ladder up against the fence, stick his head up and have a gander. He's not looking for cannabis, he's just nosey. I'm currently growing some honeysuckle up the side of the greenhouse on that side, and it's already up to the roof windows and trying to get in.

 

Last year in the greenhouse border I had a bit of an infestation of ants. It's not surprising I suppose when the soil has been left dry over the winter and they can make their little tunnels everywhere. I try to be tolerant of the insect life in the garden as far as possible, and I figured that they weren't really doing me any harm, so I just left them to get on with it. I was only growing chillies and tomatoes in there last year anyway. This year though, there's been some urban sprawl under there and the whole greenhouse border is now a giant ant citadel. There's a huge labyrinth under the soil in every spot where my plants are going.

 

 

I was looking for some way to make them bugger off without hurting them, and I recently read a post on here which said you can sprinkle hot chilli powder over their nest. So I had a look in the cupboard and found an old Schwartz jar with a best before date of 1996! I am terrible at clearing cupboards out. I had a taste of it and it still has a kick to it. So I sprinkled a load of that on the soil where their little entrance holes are. I didn't want to use up the whole jar though, just in case it turns out that chilli is like fine wine and gets better with age.

 

 

I'm not sure how long it takes to scare away the ants but so far they're not taking a blind bit of notice. Not to worry, I can probably tolerate them for another year.

[popespliff]

31 minutes ago, Alys said:

I’m Lat 51 too    

 

What is it about Lat 51 that makes it a good habitat for us growers ?  I used to live at latitude 50 . that's just mist , drizzle and wind .

[CustardVape]

31 minutes ago, Black Venus said:

So, while the seedlings are getting their act together, it's time to prepare the greenhouse.

 

I've got quite a good sized garden, and the greenhouse is down the end. It's getting a little bit treacherous on the path to it, because my cat is quite elderly and starting to lose control of his bowels. I've also got spectacularly nosey neighbours. Not at all unusual for him to put a ladder up against the fence, stick his head up and have a gander. He's not looking for cannabis, he's just nosey. I'm currently growing some honeysuckle up the side of the greenhouse on that side, and it's already up to the roof windows and trying to get in.

 

Last year in the greenhouse border I had a bit of an infestation of ants. It's not surprising I suppose when the soil has been left dry over the winter and they can make their little tunnels everywhere. I try to be tolerant of the insect life in the garden as far as possible, and I figured that they weren't really doing me any harm, so I just left them to get on with it. I was only growing chillies and tomatoes in there last year anyway. This year though, there's been some urban sprawl under there and the whole greenhouse border is now a giant ant citadel. There's a huge labyrinth under the soil in every spot where my plants are going.

 

 

I was looking for some way to make them bugger off without hurting them, and I recently read a post on here which said you can sprinkle hot chilli powder over their nest. So I had a look in the cupboard and found an old Schwartz jar with a best before date of 1996! I am terrible at clearing cupboards out. I had a taste of it and it still has a kick to it. So I sprinkled a load of that on the soil where their little entrance holes are. I didn't want to use up the whole jar though, just in case it turns out that chilli is like fine wine and gets better with age.

 

 

I'm not sure how long it takes to scare away the ants but so far they're not taking a blind bit of notice. Not to worry, I can probably tolerate them for another year.

 

Ants can be a real pain. I usually just lay a few traps to take care of them. The main problem I have is slugs and snails. Especially on a damp morning, I can find several of the slimy buggers...

[Black Venus]

I've been preparing the soil for this year's grow, because a bit of effort put in at this stage pays dividends for the rest of the season – getting the plants off to a good start makes all the difference!

 

For the greenhouse border I use comfrey meal, seaweed meal, wormcasts and a sprinkle of neem meal. I don't dig it very much, just bung it on the surface and then water it every day (or every other day) to keep it moist until planting time. The seaweed meal breaks down quickly and makes the greenhouse smell like the seaside.

 

Comfrey meal is home-made, using the welly method. All you have to do is cut down some comfrey tops, roughly chop them, and leave them in a plastic bucket to dry out. When they're completely dry, you place a welly-clad foot in the bucket and stamp them to buggery. Job's a good 'un!

 

 

My other bits and bobs have been bought in though. I'm trying out some products from Living Soils, a company I haven't tried before. I just found them on the internet, and decided to give them a go. They make pre-mixed blends of organic nutrients for both autos and photoperiod plants, and also sell bags of pure seaweed meal, neem etc. I'm getting good vibes from the company so far. All their packaging is sustainable and there's a sachet of silica gel inside each bag to keep the contents from going manky. They also stamp the date on the bag when they pack it, to make it easier to keep track of how old it is.

 

 

I bought a pack of their Auto Grow mix (for veg stage) and Auto Bloom (for flowering, obviously) to try out. I have four 12-15 litre pots which will have autos planted in them shortly. I mixed a couple of scoops of Auto Grow into the medium in the pots and watered it in – now it has to be left for two weeks to activate it. The potting medium is Jack's Magic mixed with coco.

 

[flee420]

Wishing you good luck on grow!

Love the old chilli powder! Chilli seems to be working on moving the ants away from my greenhouse this year, they can be so persistent specially later on in season, when they are preparing the males for there numptial flights, was picking off a few dead male ants from sticky buds one season haha, also attracts the sparrows they seem to love to eat them as they make there way up my greenhouse frame, sometimes they get stuck in the greenhouse on hot days fly into plants!