All newly planted containers have been watered this morning. Slugs and snails have been removed.... 

Anyone else being plagued by garden ants?

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/black-garden-ant

You can imagine how welcome these are to a sticky beekeeper!

Roger

Very harsh conditions for all the newly transplanted plants around the country today!

With the loss of our Sycamore trees I'm expecting a very different year in the garden with a lot of extra light and the loss of most all of the aphids!

I'm expected a lot of benefits from the diffuse light now that it isn't just useless green being reflected back!

Very harsh conditions for all the newly transplanted plants around the country today!

With the loss of our Sycamore trees I'm expecting a very different year in the garden with a lot of extra light and the loss of most all of the aphids!

I'm expected a lot of benefits from the diffuse light now that it isn't just useless green being reflected back!

I expect aphids will find you somehow, GW - and quickly - given their approach to reproduction.....

R.

Have been squiging white fly on the rose this morning. Shall give them a squirt with some diluted washing up liquid. 

The hawthorn leaves are at their most delicious right now. Should've posted this on wild food but it's been neutralised. 

Have been squiging white fly on the rose this morning. Shall give them a squirt with some diluted washing up liquid. 

Tut! Tut! Washing up liquid has not been approved for use as an insecticide

That means home-made solutions, made from substances such as washing up liquid, are technically illegal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/today_in_your_garden/ethical_chemicals.shtml 

The hawthorn leaves are at their most delicious right now. Should've posted this on wild food but it's been neutralised. 

Please remind me, Bert - wasn't there a "folk name" for this hedgerow food? Bread and Butter or Bread and Cheese?

Roger

 

Please remind me, Bert - wasn't there a "folk name" for this hedgerow food? Bread and Butter or Bread and Cheese?

Roger

Bread and cheese Roger. Tastes more like bitter-sweet beech nuts though- opinion.

 Bread and cheese Roger. Tastes more like bitter-sweet beech nuts though- opinion.

I tasted a bit on our morning walk, Bert. Not bad.

We were looking at possible early elderflowers as we are on our last bottle of last year's cordial.

Roger

 

Tut! Tut! Washing up liquid has not been approved for use as an insecticide

That means home-made solutions, made from substances such as washing up liquid, are technically illegal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/today_in_your_garden/ethical_chemicals.shtml 

Good job I only have one rose bush.  Shall wait for the ladybirds to come along if any greenfly appear ....

I am certainly regretting not buying some nematodes earlier. I had noticed some of my perennials suffering. I suspected slugs. So late yesterday evening I decided to go to war with them! I picked about 60 slugs in a narrow bed approximately 6 metres in length. I dumped them in a field about 50 metred away. Apparently, they can home so you have to dump them a distance away! I only found 20 or so tonight so that's progress I suppose. I have now ordered nematodes but they take a while to take effect so I'll be busy for a little while yet . 

I am certainly regretting not buying some nematodes earlier. I had noticed some of my perennials suffering. I suspected slugs. So late yesterday evening I decided to go to war with them! I picked about 60 slugs in a narrow bed approximately 6 metres in length. I dumped them in a field about 50 metred away. Apparently, they can home so you have to dump them a distance away! I only found 20 or so tonight so that's progress I suppose. I have now ordered nematodes but they take a while to take effect so I'll be busy for a little while yet . 

At a previous address I used to teach slugs and snails how to fly. I think our neighbour also tried the same thing...

Nocturnal walks with a bucket of salty water are effective if you don't have a hedgehog in your garden. The extra large slugs certainly have huge appetites and I clearly remember the monster I found making a meal of a dead mouse on the nursery I ran at the time. Yuck.

We have plenty of snails in the back garden, my wife hates them and always calls for me to dispose of them. A couple of evenings ago there was a large one crawling up the glass back door. After a shout from my wife I walked up to it and gently tapped it`s shell with my fingernail. It actually turned to look at me before swiftly retreating into it`s shell. So i launched it over the garden fence as far away as possible.

The temp fell to 4c last night night, so we were lucky to escape a frost and I too have put some bedding plants in.  I usually follow the rule of not planting out until the beginning of June but the recent good weather and output tempted me.  

I think I said last year that supermarkets sell cheap bedding plants far too early in Spring.  Although they’re not daft, if you bed them out too early and frost kills them, you’ll buy again and pay twice.  It’s always safer to wait until local garden centres start selling them because they’re the experts and their plants will be hardened off as well, unlike supermarket ones.

Erm!  I gambled and got some bargains at Aldi!   

Have bought some trays of plant from Lidl and Co-open but they are in my TWO growing frames .Geraniums are doing well after being planted in basket and containers. More to look at today. Got the runners , sweet corn and sugar snaps ready for sowing.

The temp fell to 4c last night night, so we were lucky to escape a frost and I too have put some bedding plants in.  I usually follow the rule of not planting out until the beginning of June but the recent good weather and output tempted me.  

I think I said last year that supermarkets sell cheap bedding plants far too early in Spring.  Although they’re not daft, if you bed them out too early and frost kills them, you’ll buy again and pay twice.  It’s always safer to wait until local garden centres start selling them because they’re the experts and their plants will be hardened off as well, unlike supermarket ones.

Erm!  I gambled and got some bargains at Aldi!   

Dropped to 3.3c here though the few bedding plants I have look ok and sun is out again

Dropped to 3.3c here though the few bedding plants I have look ok and sun is out again

A few low night temps won’t kill them if they’re hardened off, although it might check their growth slightly, but I can live with that for the sake of giving them an early start in the borders.  

Good Sunny afternoon folks .  Six tomato plants have been basking in the sun.  Bought them this morning at Radstock Co-op. Will proceed to the arched frame growing room  later. The large growbag of compost is already there. Waiting to plant them Sunday when the night  times will be a little warmer.

We got lucky again last night with temps getting no lower than 4c so my bedding plants survived and the forecast for the coming week is for milder nights.