The Butterfly Count started today - ends 7th August. All you need do is sit for 15 minutes and count butterflies and moths.
More info in the link about what to do next!
Posted by: JJB - 13-07-2022, 09:35 AM
- Replies (6)
Anyone got any remedies for blackfly on dahlias and beans. I'm resorting to squishing. The ants are having a lovely time farming them. I'm thinking of sprinkling some semolina on the ground beneath the plants, supposedly the ants take it as food and when it gets eaten it swells in their tummies. I'm not sure I believe it but if the ants aren't farming it might reduce the blackfly. Then again at least the ants put the blackfly all on one place ready for squishing so I might be making matters worse.
I'm going to convert a wired enclosure (the old pond) into a fruit cage.
Can't give you measurements but it quite big and high.
My question is, if you were starting a new fruit bed for soft fruit, what plants would you grow in it and how many of each. Not cherries!!!
I aim to get it converted and planted over winter and to be picking fruit, safe from the birds, next summer.
Do you ever come across a saying (or make it up) that is meaningful, perhaps motivates you to do or think about things differently.
For example, I read that "Nothing is waste until its thrown away".
So those plastic pots that are reused every year are not waste until they're cracked and useless. If they're thrown away immediately after purchase, they are definitely waste. Made me feel better about hoarding them.
Another one, when I was in the garden and didn't know where to start weeding. Everywhere I looked there were docks that needed to be dug up. The more I thought about which ones to start with, the less time I had to get on and do it. Then a thought came into my mind:- "Every journey starts with a single step" so I grabbed the nearest dock and pulled it up. There was no stopping me then because, it just didn't matter which ones came up first as long as some did.
Since our council stopped taking food waste to the anaerobic digester (it all has to go in the black bin which goes to the incinerator instead), we had a few small recycling bins sitting around doing nothing. Over the last few years I've become last enamoured about growing in containers, particularly plants which have high watering requirements, as they dry out too easily. So I was looking at designs for self-watering containers to see if I could make some easily, then came across this chap's YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qIlyMco40k .
In that video he makes a wicking container with a big tub and plastic bottles. You basically create a reservoir of water at the bottom of the container, making sure to arrange the height of the holes so that there is always about 1 inch of air between the top of the water and the potting mix to avoid anaerobic conditions. All I did was drill a small overflow hole in the side of a recycling bin, poked some holes in the top and bottom of 330ml drinks cans, put them upside down at the bottom of the bin, cut a diagonal at one end of a bit of PVC pipe and stuck that cut end in to the bottom of the bin, then filled with potting mix. If that's confusing, I've added a drawing as an attachment.
I've never grown such healthy tomatoes in containers before and don't think I'll grow them in normal pots again. All I do is top the reservoir up with water once a day until water runs out of the overflow hole. My neighbour has two more spare recycling bins which I hope to pinch. Next year I'm also going to convert the bigger, rectangular bottle recycling bins which we grow cucumbers, celery and tomatoes in by lining them with plastic sheeting to create a 6 inch holeless sump.
This is one of the best bunches of carrots I’ve ever harvested. Best bit is this is just this morning’s thinning out!
I can’t wait to see the size of the grown ups when I harvest them . I’m guessing they’re not called giant red for nothing…….. apart from their not red .
I usually grow about 8 or 9 gherkin plants and that gives us enough for a year's supply of cornichons plus a few jars to give away/inflict on the innocent. This year I have 10 plants (over two sowings), but the first three are really productive and have already produced a year's supply of pickles.
It seems wrong to compost the rest of the plants before they've even produced a gherkin, but I don't want to spend any more money on vinegar for pickling, either.
Should I keep on pickling and reckon to not grow any next year (and possibly the year after!) or just be hard-hearted, compost the lot and use the space for something else?!
In the words of Henry Kelly. Please can someone identify this flower. It has appeared in one of my beds and I don't recognise it. The leaf in focus just under the flower is the leaf associated with the flower.
so I might be making matters worse.
Best ever
. I’m guessing they’re not called giant red for nothing…….. apart from their not red 
Composting Productive Plants