Just Bits and Bobs

Nothing very regimented happened over the weekend till now, just lots of different things got done here and there, plus a few things to show you all.

On Saturday morning some kids with wheelbarrows came by selling freshly picked fruits from their uncle’s field. The prices were great at £1.50 a punnet of strawberries and £2.50 for a punnet of blackberries.

Later that day we had family and friends over on, so lots of food and laughter was had by all. With my perpetual spinach, carrots and sweet peppers I made a baked dish to accompany the other dishes which went down well.

Because the doors and window were left open till our guest left some time after midnight, there was a plethora of medium sized moths in the house. I couldn’t resist taking the photos.

Garden Carpet 'Xanthorhoe fluctuata'

Square-spot Rustic

Plume moth 'Amblyptilia acanthadactyla' a migrant species.

Single Dotted Wave

Scalloped Oak, this is a real beauty my photographic skills didn't do it justice.

Silver Y 'Autographa gamma' I found this one today while inspecting the tomato plants.

Sunday found me pottering outside in the veg patch and later in the greenhouse.

The tomato tasks of tying in, pinching out and removing suspect diseased foliage was done and I found that the ‘Broad Ripple Yellow Current’ was sending out new growing tips from the end of some of its earlier trusses and since there were opened flowers already on them I decided to add a couple of 5ft canes to the bed and tied them in. I removed a lot of the surrounding foliage to stop the area becoming too congested and to maintain good airflow. I have also pinched out the tips of these new shoots and any others forming on trusses. The parent plant’s growing tips were also pinched out as it has reached the top of its cane, the variety ‘Galina’ has also reached the top of its cane and so its tip was also pinched out.

One of the other jobs I got done was in the greenhouse where I pricked out into bigger cells the second crop brassicus seedlings of kale, pakchoi, mizuna, turnips, Chinese leaves and kohl rabi. I am also trying an experiment with the little garlic pips/ cloves I got off of the stems of some of the harvested garlic. I have popped them into what looks like empty soil filled cells, when the have rooted I’ll pot them up further into window boxes and pots to grow on through the winter. I want to see if I’ll get decent bulbs off of them and if the crop will also be earlier or maybe I’ll just use them as ‘wet garlic’ in the late spring months.

Today on inspection I have found the first female sweet corn flower on show.

Following from some research I did last night on when to harvest grain amaranth http://www.realseeds.co.uk/amaranthprocessing.html I did the rub test and some of the plants flower heads appear to have ripe seed ready to harvest. I did think this was the case as I had noticed over the last few days of last week that the flower spikes had become droopy as though heavy with seed. Since the days weather appears to be building up to rain later I thought it would be a good idea to harvest what seemed ready today, so as to not lose any by the rain and wind knocking them out.

And I can’t leave with out my flower and critter shots, so here they are:

24-spot ‘Subcoccinella 24-punctata’

Gatekeeper, still tons of these about.

Didn’t know what the heck this was but research has revealed it to be a Thick-headed Fly 'Sicus ferrugineus', it sure loved the water mint flowers.

The kids morning glories are still producing flowers.

This sunflower greeted me this morning, the seed was given to me by my neighbour, and I’m afraid I don’t know the name of the variety but I assume it is grown more for cut flowers as its not an overly tall variety about four feet in height. The flower is about 5” in diameter.

Thankfully This Week Was Much Calmer :)

Yes a much calmer week was had by all and even got some gardening done, not as much as I would have liked as the beginning of the week was wet and the later part of the week I had house guests but life was much more relaxed.

Tuesday I spent a lovely half an hour with my youngest gathering ladybugs and their larva approx sixteen in all (including a few mating pairs) and transporting them to the runner beans which are being infested by black fly.






Wednesday was wet, wet, wet, which was very welcomed as it meant I didn’t have to get the hose out and the ponds and the water butts got a top up as well. The heavy showers truly saturated the ground and during a break in the showers I sowed two lots of French climbing beans a yellow and green varieties.

Thursday my house guest arrived with her three year old niece in tow much to my youngest delight and so spent the most of the day catching up, etc. there was more heavy rainfall overnight, so Friday I sowed my second lot of spring onions and beetroot (two varieties, the regular red sort and a yellow type).

Saturday I spent the majority of the day out with my eldest as she was in her stagecoach drama production which marked the end of their school year till September. The rest of the family joined us for the show and later we spent the rest of the day relaxing at home with my friends. The rained returned again quite heavily Saturday night.

Sunday the sun was out and I spent near on an hour collecting more ladybugs approx thirty in all (including about eight mating pairs) and moving them to the runner bean plants. I think it has already begun to make a difference as the infestation is not as bad as I thought it should be by now, also there are signs that the mating pairs I put previously have laid eggs as there are very young larva already on the plants doing their stuff.

I have noticed this year there are not only the record numbers of harlequin in all their guises but also quite a lot of the native two spot ladybugs. I was lamenting to myself earlier in the day that thus far I was yet to see a native seven spot ladybug and much later in the day when I was inspecting some of my potted plants guess what I found but a lovely native seven spot ladybug.

I had planned to sow some seeds in the lovely moist soil but spent a few hours finally potting up some of the rooted tomato cuttings, potting up the lime basil, Greek basil, Vietnamese coriander and the sweet potato plants into bigger pots.









I still have rooted tomato cuttings and some herbs surplus to my needs which I have listed on my local freecycle and they are going like hot cakes.

Here are a few pictures of other things seen this week.

Harvests over the week:

Tuesday - the first courgette and a bumper crop of mangetout (all that extra watering gave a really good result).


Thursday - first harvest of this year's sown rainbow chard and
the last of the first early potatoes.

And of things to come:

Ying Yang dwarf french beans which I'm growing to harvest the dried beans.

Galina tomatoes starting to change colour.


The one and only ochro plant to survive produced a flowers bud which never opened and is now appearing to grow an ochro, I have also noted how all of a sudden its starting to leaf up a lot more so its a wait and see what will be .....???????

The amaranth plants that made it to the planting out stage where planted out quite late and are now in full flower at only a foot to eighteen inches high (they are suppose to get to about 5ft). Any crop I get will be quite small I imagine but I look forward to them any way.

Pond Life:

Equisetum hyemale (Horse tail)

A water snail

Flowers to enjoy:

My mini meadow has only reproduced one flower this year the corncockle, with to very sad looking poppy plants. there are lots of grasses growing in odd clumps so lots of bare soil still exposed to allow me to sow more seeds this autumn and in the early spring. From bird seed I sprinkled in the spring the meadow is also sporting -

an oats plant

and a wheat plant

These blood red self sown poppies (the photo is not doing the colour justice) from where I don't know as I never grew them before are beautiful. I'll be saving seed to sow into the mini meadow area.

Red Valarien (though this one is pink)

The second sunflower to open but at half the height and a fraction of the size of the first.

Some variegated lemon thyme I planted out a few weeks ago.

Still a few opium poppies about.

Another self sown poppy but with double petals gotta to save seed and hope for a repeat next year.

The garden's Mini Beast:

The wild yarrow plants a proving very popular with the flying insects.

Newly hatched shield bugs.

Pyronia tithonus - 'Gatekeeper' its been around all week.

A leaf cutter bee.

A cabbage white checking out the new sunflower.