Off-topic: Manchester's public transport on a budget

This is a one-off posting for the benefit of anyone that needs information about Manchester's public transport. There's a wealth of information out there that seems to confuse a lot of people.. hopefully this might help. :)

Cheapest

Buses are cheap, sometimes get stuck in traffic, and some routes run at night. Most places in the Manchester region will have a direct bus heading to the city centre, but if you're travelling from one suburb to another, you might have to change buses. Have a look at the GM Public Transport website for maps and timetables.

If you're doing lots of bus travel in South Manchester (Stockport, Chorlton, Didsbury, Airport, etc.) then you're best off getting a Dayrider on the bus, which is £3.50 for a day's bus travel on Stagecoach buses. They also work at night up to about 4am. If you're staying longer than a few days, then get a weekly Megarider pass for £11.. buy on the bus.

If you'll be heading around North Manchester/Salford/Cheshire too, best spend £4.30 on an any-bus ticket - this will cover pretty much any bus (Arriva, First, and most of the little companies.) You can also buy bus/local train/tram passes for a little more - this scheme is run by System One Travel, and their website lists all the current ticket prices.

Quickest

Train or tram. Both stop running after about 11pm at night, after which you'll be on buses or taxis. Trains you can buy a ticket on-board, but trams incur a hefty fine if you do this, so make sure you get a ticket before you board. Trams are unbearable at commuting times, and trains aren't pleasant then either. You can check tram times/prices on the Manchester Metrolink website.

For trains, if you're travelling locally (up to around a 40 minute journey), then it's not worth booking in advance. For longer journeys it's worth checking in advance to see if you can get a good deal buy buying ahead of travel: check times and prices on www.thetrainline.com.

London and elsewhere

It's always worth checking to see if Megabus have any cheap seats available. If you book early enough in advance, it's not unusual to get a return to London for £3. Fares increase the closer you get to the travel date, so book as early as possible.

Failing that, there's also National Express coaches if they have good offers on, or trains if you're in a hurry.

If you need accommodation

For conventional hotels, then between Laterooms.com, Premier Inn and Travelodge, you should be able to find somewhere reasonably good for less than £40 a room. There's only one hostel, Hatters. Obviously I'd recommend Couchsurfing, as there's a big CS community here.

Anything I've missed? Add a comment and I'll include it.

(Details correct as of March 2010.)

Things I learnt on my holidays: the Dominican Republic

Having finally sorted through our holiday snaps, here are the horticultural highlights of our little Caribbean adventure...


Bourgainvilla looks pretty spectacular growing wild.. reminds me a bit of hawthorn from a distance.











Mother-in-law's-tongue makes a pretty good fedge (fence/hedge).












I really need this Alocasia/Colocasia that grows everywhere around the El Choco National Park.











..and I liked these horizontal trellises that squash plants were being grown upon. Looks like a very good idea to me.

Plants for next year: unusual kiwi fruits

I've grown kiwi vines (Actinidia deliciosa) from shop-bought fruit's seeds before, and they're incredibly easy and quick to grow. They're not reliably hardy here in the north-west (possibly zone 8a), though my mother has a vine in her Cheshire garden that gets cut back by frosts every winter and it bounces back to play with a golden hop and potato vine every spring. I've not been too optimistic about producing fruit; I've been happy enough with the red-tinged furry leaves and the rambling jungle effect.. until now.

Having read a brilliant article in this month's The Garden magazine, I'm determined to try Actinidia kolomikta and Actinidia arguta. They're both hardier and tastier than A. deliciosa, and there are now some cultivars that have been bred with fruit in mind: A. arguta 'Jumbo' and A. kolomikta 'Tomoko' are the ones I have my eye on, though I suspect seeds will be hard to come by. We shall see..

In Praise of Cosmos bipinnatus

One of the most underrated plants has to be Cosmos. It's never the super-trendy feature of a show garden. And yet when the garden's looking a little shabby at the start of September, and when the mid-summer blooms have gone, and the snails have eaten all your dahlias, the Cosmos is only just getting going. It's also super-easy to grow from seed; even if you end up with wimpy leggy seedlings, you can rescue them by repotting as deep as possible and moving them somewhere cooler.

Admittedly it does spend half the year bulking up its feathery foliage, but once it gets flowering, it's non-stop until the frosts hit. My favourite has to be 'Candy Stripe' as it makes an excellent cut flower, but next year I'll be branching out into the red shades.

Seriously, try it next year. It's lovely.

Chorlton Plant Swap / Manchester Food festival

For those that are local to Manchester, we're doing a little autumnal plant swapping on Saturday.

When: Saturday 10 October 2009, 11am to 2:30pm
Where: Outside Chorlton Library on Manchester Road
Swapping:
- plants, please stick a label on them
- seeds, pop them in a labelled envelope
- bulbs
- produce
More info: Chorlton Plant Swap

By the way, it’s Chorlton Food & Drink Festival this week: we've timed our swap to coincide with the Roots & Fruits Competition in the library.

Review: The £20 Plastic Walk-in Greenhouse

These get slated regularly on garden forums, but I'm terribly fond of mine as I wouldn't be able to plonk a proper metal/glass greenhouse in our rented garden. It needs to be looked at as more of a disposable greenhouse, though - don't expect it to survive longer than a year. I opted for a 3' x 6' walk-in one: it has oodles of shelving, plus space up the back wall to grow a decent amount of cucumbers.

Pros:

• The shelving is brilliant.

• It's really cheap, and easy enough to assemble.

• It's meant that I've been able to grow a decent crop of tomatoes and cucumbers this year, plus plenty of summer ornamentals from seed.

• Daytime temperatures are reliably 5/10 degrees warmer than outside.

Cons:

• It needs tying to something fixed. Really really. The guy-ropes aren't good enough, and weighting it down with pots won't work. Trust me: you really don't want to be found weeping into a pile of broken greenhouse and dead plants.

• The plastic will disintegrate, so you'll find new air-vents occasionally.

• The zip will inevitably break after a few months.

• It doesn't keep frosts out, even with the door zipped up. Also, temperatures can soar to over 40 degrees in summer.

Review: Tomatoes of the year

I'm really pleased with my tomato successes this year. Apparently sowing at the correct time, prompt repotting and regular watering does wonders for the things. Who knew? Maybe next year I'll get around to feeding them better, as this year I only had slow-release granular feed to hand.

Best

Red Alert
Early, prolific and delicious. Lovely deep red, juicy, and decent-sized.

Black Plum
Possibly the tastiest tomato I've ever eaten, produced in decent quantities. Really pleased with these.

San Marzano
Tasty, juicy and big. The plants were happy to grow outdoors, even though we had a miserable summer.

Worst

Gartenperle (or Garden Pearl)
I just can't get over their weird pinky colour, and the flavour doesn't impress me, either. I'll be going back to Tumbler next year.