Gardening in Lockdown

More time to grow things but in need of rain now.  Are gardeners ever happy?

I’m still trying to keep slugs at bay in the greenhouse.  I’ve been given some lettuce seedlings (compensation for all the tiny seedlings germinated but who have now lost their lives to the relentless munching of slugs).  Knowing that it would be embarrassing ton admit that they’d all disappeared in the night, I set up beer traps using home brew nobody fancied drinking.  These have caught several including one really fat juicy one. The lettuces seemed unscathed. Phew.

It’s not slug clear yet though.  Several were found lurking under old seed trays (fed immediately to eager hungry hens)  and under plant pots.   On the other side of the greenhouse I’d been outwitted.  I realised this as I stared at three leafless stalks of what were three healthy kale plants.

 

It’s a long battle! In fact. ..quarter to eleven..I’m going out now to check.

The hotel has guests who have just moved in!

After reading Dave Goulson’s excellent book The Garden Jungle , and being enthused about solitary bees which are probably roaming our garden looking for homes, a bee hotel was knocked up by drilling holes of varying sizes into a block of old ash tree wood.

within three weeks there is about 33% occupancy!  Here is the new hotel on April 6th…

And here on April 22nd – just 16 days later

Some of the smaller holes as well as the larger ones have been occupied and the ‘cement to block up the holes after the eggs have been laid differs too.  I’m not sure who has moved in yet. We’ll have to wait until the newborns emerge. 🙂

Trying to tame the pond

How long have we been here now?  Ooh over 27 years now.  When we moved in the garden was semi wild but certainly not over manicured. A pond and rockery containing huge rocks of conglomerate had been dug and set in before we arrived and had some plants, such as two highly scented azaleas. The main problem though was an overbearing growth of butter bur and this hasn’t changed since then!  The plants have umberella shaped leaves which successfully smother other plants trying to succeed. Their root systems, pencil thickness successfully boring through the soil pop up effortlessly around the rest of the area and beyond.

I’ve tried systematically working through one by one, pulling put the plant and as much root as I can be determined the get the better of me, the plant gaily carries on regardless.

One weapon I have tried using is to plant something that I do want which can block out the steady progression of the butter bur.  Heather for instance worked quite well in this respect but in time it too spread too extensively and had to be cut back too.

Two years ago I planted some daffodil bulbs around the rockery surrounding the pond which have flowered quite well this year but now the butter bur has fought back with vengeance.     Last summer I sowed a tray of mixed colour and white foxgloves.  I quite like foxgloves, their long funnel shaped flowers which bees crawl down in search of nectar. They also have long fleshy leaves which could theoretically blot out the weeds, ground alder being another problem. I have planted them around the perimeter of the rockery in the hope that they will gracefully hover over the rockery from above, keeping the weeds at bay.  We’ll see!

Within the pond – new liner put in last year, newts jumped straight back in – I collected some flag irises and other marsh loving plants from our land down the road, being persuaded that local natural plants growing in the vicinity would fare better than expensive garden centre plants imported.

Inspiration

For Christmas my sister sent me an interesting looking book – The Garden Jungle by Dave Goulson, biology Prof at University of Sussex. From the first page I was hooked.  Not only is it written well and simply put, it is full of fascinating facts and figures about insects, creatures and the state of our food production in Britain today. As somebody who has recently started looking at small insects and trying to identify them, he has opened my eyes to the small and helpful living things that lurk in the soil and hidden away in secretive places.

His pages on Twitterand FaceBookare worth following too.  It was on such pages that I came across the bee fly – not a bee as the name suggests.  I think in the past I’ve assumed these bumble shaped creatures were bees but when one began buzzing in amongst the seeding spicy lettuce (so slug free!)  in the greenhouse I spotted its ridiculously long proboscis seeking out nectar.

Late March and it seems there are many about.

My next insect I found in the lawn outside the greenhouse.  It looked like a bee but not like the usual solitary or bumble bees buzzing  about.  After trying to capture a photograph good enough for identification and having found it difficult to ID from the pages of bee types in the insect book, I posted it on Dave Goulson’s Twitter page.  Shortly afterwards the answer was returned (via another bee expert, Steve Falk) – it was an Ashy Mining bee, commonly found in the barer patches of lawns, the female mining into the lighter soil for a home.

Earlier, enthused with urges to build a bee house by the bee community one was made, from an old chunk of a fallen ash tree.  Not by me!  Thanks Andy

Dave Goulson’s advice was to drill holes of varying sizes, around the 8mm diameter figure. He argued that if some of the holes are too small, other insects will find them.

Back in the greenhouse slugs continue to evade my notice.  Look at this one!

Hidden under a trough of carrot seedlings which have all but disappeared.  What did I do with it?  Well marched over to the hen run and it was gobbled up in no time.  I’ll enjoy the slug enriched eggs later!