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Pests, Exploration and a New Toy

The pest battle intensifies and I make some fantastic discoveries in the garden.

It seems that now my plants are established and consistently yielding lots of great tasting produce that the bugs of the garden have noticed too.  I’m pretty sure it’s snails or slugs that have been having a go at my oriental vegetables. The vindictive portion of my brain is considering putting a ring of salt around the bottom of my pots but I know in my hear t of hearts that my conscience wouldn’t allow indiscriminate gastropod murder. I have resolved to pick any up that I see and relocate them to the hedge. The radishes too are a little on the holey side but I’m not sure what’s eating those. I think I will be asking agony plant again. 

I have transplanted the one bean that survived my clumsy attempts at sowing to the wine box that it was originally supposed to inhabit. I am pretty sure I won’t get any beans off of it this year but it was at least a useful learning experience. Also it has highlighted that I really ought to go out and get a few basic gardening tools. I can’t keep transplanting things with spoons.

Further exploration of the garden has yielded some incredible discoveries though. I have discovered a compost pile, two apple trees and a bumper crop of blackberries. Unfortunately the blackberries are located about 9 feet up at the back of the hedge so some ingenuity will be required to get most of them down. However the few I did manage to acquire made a delicious crumble. 

Also, due to the tragic demise of my old camera (It unfortunately took an almost unbelievable dive from the arm of the sofa into a pint of water) I have finally invested in a brand new camera which I must say is utterly glorious. Also on the technological front, don’t forget you can follow me on twitter @GreenSideUpEle

Happy Gardening,

Ele

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Back from the Fringe…

Managing my pots after a week away.

Back from Edinburgh at an ungodly hour I still had just enough energy to wonder what had become of my plants. And, joy of joys, I have beans! Ok, so I have two bean plants from the large handful of seeds I sowed and one of them is still quite weedy but still, it’s something. The tub on the windowsill was pretty dry and I decided that if any more beans were going to germinate they would have done so by now so I watered the ones that have come up. 

After my first good night’s sleep in a week I couldn’t wait to get back to the garden. Firstly, I placed the bean container outside. I think I will bring it in again if it rains heavily since the box has no holes in the bottom and I am concerned about drainage. There were also a lot of little flies crawling on the soil, they don’t seem to be bothering my beans but I thought I might take advantage of the avian pest control service available in my garden. When the beans get a little bigger I will transplant them into a bigger pot and leave them outside permanently.

In other news my herbs are huge! I have an ample supply of all the soft herbs I use on a daily basis apart from mint. Warned about its vigorousness I planted it in a tube to restrict its growth but the other herbs seem to have stolen so much of its light that it never really got going. I have resolved that, when I harvest, I will pick the herb leaves that are closest to the mint as a form of pruning in the hope of giving the mint some more room. 

Unlike the beans the radishes have germinated with incredible success so I have thinned them quite considerably. When I was deciding how many to take out I considered the size of the average radish and tried to leave each plant enough room to reach that size. The spinach is starting to go to seed so I will be nipping out the tops the next time I need some (expect a delicious spinach recipe in the next few days). I am also ready with my perpetual spinach seeds so it’s not to disastrous if I only get a few more weeks’ worth of greens off these plants. 

My oriental veg pot is also looking incredible. It is definitely ready for harvesting. Something, I think a pigeon, has taken a few chunks out of some of the more tender leaves but it appears to be thriving in spite of this so I am not too upset. It appears planting a whole mini pack in one pot has gone just fine since the plants all seem to till have enough space.  

I will be planting my rainbow chard soon (can’t wait) and, following some conversations with neighbours, I will also be considering what I can plant in the boarders since everyone seems to think it’s a fabulous idea to have some vegetables in the garden. Thank heavens for nice neighbours. That’s all for now folks. Happy gardening, Ele.