Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

We are into Spring and there is a plethora of jobs that we can be getting on with in the garden over the next few weeks. By now you will have begun mowing the lawn and may have noticed some bare or damages patches. Now is a great time to sow grass seed to fill those gaps before summer.    Remember to check your plants for Aphids such as Greenfly and Blackfly and rub off any you find before they become an infestation. There are hundreds of products on the market to deal with Aphids but the easiest, quickest and most environmentally friendly answer to the problem is to squash them by running your finger and thumb along the stem of the plant. On my Runner Beans each year, which will get attacked by Blackfly you can be sure, I find blasting them off with the hose works nicely as well. For wildlife friendly pest control you are actually best to let Mother Nature get on with it as much as possible. By not using sprays you will be amazed by the number of friendly little beasties that will ar

The weather being kind and the forecast mild(ish) I was able to get a good few hours in on the plot this weekend and get some seeds sown and seedlings into the Vegetable Patch.  The Runner Bean seedlings that had been hardening off in the Greenhouse and then the Wood Store are now planted in their bed. Many will say it's too early but they are looking fine and with little threat of frost in the forecast I am confident they will begin to romp away in the warmer days ahead. The second sowing remain in the Conservatory for now but will be moved to the Wood Store to harden off in the near future before joining the others in the Bean Bed.  The Leek seedlings have also been planted out in a couple of rows. A simple task as the seeds were sown in fibre pots so they were just dropped into a dibbed hole, pot and all, before the soil filled in back around them. Being a little old fashioned the lines are plumb line straight and all being well I have have two perfect lines of big fat Leeks c

We had just about every type of weather known to man at my plot on Friday last week. A little snow shower to start the day, wind and rain, a lovely sunny lunchtime followed by a little more snow and then hailstones!  I have held off from sowing any seeds or planting out any seedlings as yet and that decision has proved to be the correct one with temperatures below freezing over the weekend. I have said it before, it is very easy to get caught out by Fools Spring and the last couple of weeks has just confirmed that, beautiful sunny and warm weather for a few days followed by wintery cold conditions almost changing over night. I have seen a few posts on Social Media of young plants decimated by frosts and snow, it so easily done, I have certainly done it in the past, but sometimes you have to fight that desire to plant and sow and wait for Mother Nature.  Space in the Conservatory and Greenhouse is at a premium with so many seedlings waiting to go out onto the plot. The forecast for this

The  six  C hrysanthemum Silver Princess  bare roots have arrived and will be planted over the weekend into what is becoming, slowly but surely, the White Border.  I often have a fair few seeds sown by this time of year and it feels a little strange having clear window sills and space in the Conservatory, there is usually a number of pots dotted about indoors by late January. I have been a little surprised by the lack of fibre pots (I will not use peat pots anymore) available in the major DIY and Garden Centres. I had a delivery just this morning from B&Q of a couple of new terracotta pots and saucers plus four bags of Soil Improver Manure but they had not a single fibre pot option available online. The local Horticultural Guild Trading Huts don't open until later in February so I have ordered some off a company called Nutleys Kitchen Garden found online. It's a small online operation that  was founded in 2008 by grow-your-own enthusiast Jo Nutley apparently . They have so