Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Rain stop play
Wet enough to deter me from going to the allotment. Wet enough to push the grass in the exclosure and the paths up good and fast.
The broad beans were in full flower last time I looked, despite their only being a foot or so high, and were being serviced by what looked like small bumble bees. Lots of them, so we ought to get some beans. Must finish off the hoeing and keep an eye on the black fly - who like the damp if not the cold.
On the other hand, some of the carrots which were starting to show have vanished and the cabbage and leek seedlings are hardly moving at all. Is it the cold or am I doing something wrong?
The shed pumpkins have been attacked by slugs. Putting the trays out in the sun collected half a dozen of the things underneath, who then came out on the rampage when in the privacy of the darkened shed that evening. Lost two seedlings and two more looking a bit peaky. Fortunately they don't seem to have got to the incubator pumpkins now being hardened off - outside during most of the day and in the shed at night. Should get them out on the allotment in a day or so - where they will have to take their chances with the slugs there. Some years they seem to be a problem and some not - this without using any form of deterrent - organic, mechanical or otherwise.
By way of a postscript on the recent compost mining, the stuff was almost worm free - when sometimes one comes across writhing layers of the things. Presumably they serve in some particular phase of the process and then move on. On the other hand the compost was very warm so it must have been alive with something.
On the home front, the force with with the BH, so when she had intoned "chain saw" the appropriate number of times, the yew tree across the fence in the garden of the absentee landlord became considerably smaller than it was. The stuff shoots like crazy, a lot of the branches I was taking off being furry with leaf, so hopefully my attempts at sensitive butchery will pay off and in a year or so it will have acquired a respectable shape. Next stop the rather ugly bay tree in the same place. Only catch is that the green waste disposal area at the bottom of the garden is starting to get rather full. Might be reduced to using the waste transfer station.
The broad beans were in full flower last time I looked, despite their only being a foot or so high, and were being serviced by what looked like small bumble bees. Lots of them, so we ought to get some beans. Must finish off the hoeing and keep an eye on the black fly - who like the damp if not the cold.
On the other hand, some of the carrots which were starting to show have vanished and the cabbage and leek seedlings are hardly moving at all. Is it the cold or am I doing something wrong?
The shed pumpkins have been attacked by slugs. Putting the trays out in the sun collected half a dozen of the things underneath, who then came out on the rampage when in the privacy of the darkened shed that evening. Lost two seedlings and two more looking a bit peaky. Fortunately they don't seem to have got to the incubator pumpkins now being hardened off - outside during most of the day and in the shed at night. Should get them out on the allotment in a day or so - where they will have to take their chances with the slugs there. Some years they seem to be a problem and some not - this without using any form of deterrent - organic, mechanical or otherwise.
By way of a postscript on the recent compost mining, the stuff was almost worm free - when sometimes one comes across writhing layers of the things. Presumably they serve in some particular phase of the process and then move on. On the other hand the compost was very warm so it must have been alive with something.
On the home front, the force with with the BH, so when she had intoned "chain saw" the appropriate number of times, the yew tree across the fence in the garden of the absentee landlord became considerably smaller than it was. The stuff shoots like crazy, a lot of the branches I was taking off being furry with leaf, so hopefully my attempts at sensitive butchery will pay off and in a year or so it will have acquired a respectable shape. Next stop the rather ugly bay tree in the same place. Only catch is that the green waste disposal area at the bottom of the garden is starting to get rather full. Might be reduced to using the waste transfer station.
# posted by Jim @ 4:00 AM 
