Catching Up - 8th to 14th of June

Well this week was spent tidying the house for my OH 40th birthday party at the weekend so the loofah, melon and chili plants were finally moved out of the conservatory and into the tidied greenhouse.

Melon and Loofah plants in the greenhouse (they have settled in well, all the wilting they were prone too in the conservatory has stopped).

Whats begining to flower:

Feverfew.




St. John's Wort.


Water Lily (the poor thing lives in a deep bucket all alone - I really need to work on completing the big pond in the autumn).




First tomato one of five variety 'Galina'.




All that ladybird action a few weeks ago on the infested willow bench has paid off and its now covered in young ladybug larva. Which I have begun to move onto my greenfly infested loofah and chili plants, with great success. The trick is to move them when they are relatively small and young so the last at least a week plus before going into their pupa stage if you move mainly big ones onto a heavily infested plant they gorge themselves and within 24 - 48 hrs start to pupate which renders them out of eating action for at least a week to ten days, giving the aphids/ blackflies time to increase their numbers to pandemic proportions.



When they do turn into adults they quickly eat, mate and lay eggs in the rich food source before moving on, so I hope this means I would have a continuous population of larva in my greenhouse.


Nematus pavidus - Lesser Willow Sawfly (found on one very low branch on the willow bench, it was due for pruning out anyway, so it was).


This is my living willow bench in all its glory, it had its main pruning and shaping back in early February as per normal and on Friday it had its final tidy up to open up the seating area for well deserved summer sit downs.


The first ripening strawberry, I wonder who'll get it first me or the kids??