Plot 36 - a little lottie update

I brought the camera down to the lottie yesterday and took some snaps of how things are coming along so far.

To the left are some of my asparagus plants, in total there are16 plants in a double row and all are growing well now. The bed still needs building up further as the roots of these plants are under about 5 inches of soil, they eventually need to be under at least 8 inches. These are all between 1 and 2 ft high and looking all frilly and fern-ish and whippy so I shored them up with short lengths of bamboo.

Above is one of my little courgette plants which is just starting to grow it's first fruits. I also have a couple of cucumber plants growing too, the flowers and leaves look similar but in comparison the cucumber plants petals are tiny.

Top right is a snap of my brassica bed, there is a mixture of purple sprouting broccoli, savoy cabbages and a few kohl rabi in there. I've netted the whole area to keep the pigeons off, they are a bit of a pest on the lottie. To the right are a couple of my little gem lettuce.

This is my main crop potato bed, there are quite a few little white flowers showing. I've been feeding these 20 plants  with Comfrey tea and have high hopes for them seeing as my Charlottes came out so well. I'm keeping my eye out for blight as summer goes on.

Last couple of pictures to show you now, on the right my runners are starting to put out these vivid red flowers. In the pic below you can see that I have planted up the early potato bed with rainbow chard and peas. Not ideal as far as perfect crop rotation goes but the peas seem to be coming along nicely.



Have a lovely sunny weekend, Jolene xx

Plot 36 - slugs and snails

I have been rising edible plants from seed at home for the past couple of months in a walk in greenhouse that my partner gave me for my Mother's day present. Some of them have become juicy and delicious enough to be considered a fine buffet by something slimy in my garden. As you can see a little beastie went to town on this runner bean plant. It made me realise that though I have been digging, weeding and planting potatoes, I've been reluctant to take any of my precious wee plants down the lottie (daft...because that is what I'm raising them for!!) because I don't know how to keep them safe from pests. I read about copper tape that  slugs do not like to cross which inspired me to make little rings for the stems of my runners to keep the slugs at bay in the walk in greenhouse. They seem to have done the trick.

Luckily for me I have a secret weapon, his name is Roger and he is frankly brilliant. One of the lovely lass's on CP (Craft Pimp Forum) has put me in touch with her Dad who worked an Organic Kitchen garden for a living for 54 years before retiring not very long ago. I'm absolutely privileged to be able to pick his brain and our most recent chat has been all about slugs and snails. Roger told me that the simplest way to controls slugs is to use pellet's, there are ones readily available that are child and pet safe and environmentally safe. One of these is called Growing Success. 

Roger also recommended grit/sharp sand used around individual plants like squashes and courgettes as gastropods do not like to travel over it. Another great tip was to try is to lure them into the shade of slates, tiles or upside down pots so that they can be removed by hand even using half Grapefruit and Orange skins as bait.

 I will definitely be trying out all of these things and reporting back on progress!

Jolene x