Pests | Grandad's Blog

‘pests’ Category

Sod’s Law

01/05/2013 by grandad

Towards the end of last year I noticed my clematis had shrivelled & died, cause unknown, thus last week I bought a replacement from Morrison’s, pot grown Mrs N Thompson for £5. And a nice looking plant it is, here’s it’s picture

Clematis Mrs N Thompson

I have been hardening it off over the past few days, and today I was checking it’s planting location, when I spotted fresh clematis shoots ! It seems my “dead” clematis has risen from the dead and lives again, now I have a dilemma, do I plant the new one & let them both mingle? I do not know the variety of the old one, a mystery from Lidl

Here is the Lazarus shoot, there are a couple of others now I look closely

Cleamatis new shoots from “dead” plant

Whist out generally checking plants over I noticed my potted strawberries have all succumbed to vine weevil – Booo

I have never really had much success with strawberries, given the effort & space required, so doubtful I will bother again, just concentrate on the other easier soft fruit

Here are the poor old nibbled strawberries

strawberries chewed by vine weevils

strawberry root chewed by vine weevils

And to end on a positive note, now hardening off the Runners & French beans, all looking well in their loo roll innards

Runners & French beans -April-2013

Category clematis, Flowers, French beans, pests, runner beans, Strawberry, Vegetables | Tags: | 2 Comments
Agghhh, Lily beetles

14/04/2013 by grandad

Today the sun is out, and so are the bloody lily beetles. But I think the cold weather has beaten them, my lilies are only just starting to poke through the soil surface, thus they had nowhere to hide

Size 10 put paid to the 2 I found

Also potted up my new fig bought, reduced, from Wilkinson’s

Category fig, Flowers, pests, weather | Tags: | 3 Comments
figgy fings

14/08/2012 by grandad

The new fig I bought from Wilkinson’s this year is going well in the conservatory, so well in fact that it now has two embryo figs on it. I know outside I would remove these overwinter, but I am tempted to see how they do overwintered in the conservatory

Here is a pic

My new fig, already with small fruits

Another new addition this year is my Thornless blackberry, from Blackmoor. As I posted last time the fruits are now ripening, not enough for a pie, but certainly enough for a good taste in few weeks

Thornless blackberry ripening August 2012

And, yet again, my Stargazer lilies have come up trumps and fill the air with scent every evening, plus bees / hoverflies love them

Stargazer lily Aug-2012

But all is not good, poor old Lady Di runner beans have been munched by slugs & snails. I have had a few meals off the beans, but no more to come unless the weather holds & more flowers appear. I have murdered the slugs etc with pellets, but as we all know this year was a good year for them

Category blackberry, Conservatory, fig, Flowers, Fruit, pests, runner beans | Tags: blackberry,blackmoor,conservatory,fig,lily,runner beans,slugs,snails,wilkinson's | 2 Comments
I have a bean

25/07/2012 by grandad

Just back from a few days away, and the garden has leapt ahead with all the recent rain & now the warm sun.

However all too late for my strawberries, a very poor year, again. Slugs, mould & birds took their toll. But seems better news on the gooseberry scene, I took the precaution of covering my bush with fleece, which seems to not only have kept the birds off but the sawfly as well, and now they are ready for a crumble later in the week

My Autumn raspberries are just starting to ripen now, but seem a bit watery & tasteless so far

Lady Di runners are starting to crop, well if you can call two beans a crop that is. I only have 6 plants as I have no need for huge crops, may cook them later just for a taster

Lady-Di-runner bean July-2012

Lady Di runner beans crop to come July 2012

Category Fruit, gooseberry, pests, raspberry, runner beans, Strawberry, Vegetables, weather | Tags: autumn gold,fruit,lady di,runner beans,strawberry,weather | 1 Comment
Spiders galore

12/04/2012 by grandad

Had bit of a surprise this morning, found my tomato seedlings on the window sill had gained a herd of baby spiders, guess some eggs may have been in the compost.

Not that I mind spiders, but do not want loads of garden spiders trampling around my lounge when they grow up. I have moved the spiders outside onto the grapefruit, which is in a fairly sheltered position so they should be OK. Still have a few escapees to round up later

spiders

spiders on tomato seedlings

Category pests, tomato | Tags: spiders,tomato | 2 Comments
Weather is so nice the sowing cycle starts

26/03/2012 by grandad

Down here the sun, daffs & blossom are all out

Men wearing shorts have also appeared, maybe tomorrow is t*t Tuesday?

Anyway decided to get in and sow some beans & sunflowers. My bean choice is

Runner – Lady Di

French climbing – Cobra

I have grown Cobra before, a good & reliable climbing French.

Runner Lady Di is a new to me. After last years poor performance by St George, and half price seed offer from Wilkinson’s, I have decided to give it a go, but may yet revert to Wisley Magic in 2013

Also have sown some of other Wilkinson’s 75% off impulse buys from last year, sunflowers

Little Leo & Black Magic

Not really for me, but my son has a corner, adjacent to public footpath, that is crying out for some “impact” and hopefully they will provide this

Beans were sown in loo roll middles, sunflowers in seed modules

Completely of topic, also saw a huge queen hornet taking advantage of the nectar on my gooseberry flowers

Category Flowers, French beans, Fruit, gooseberry, pests, runner beans, Seeds, Vegetables, weather | Tags: daffodil,flower,French beans,runner bean,runner beans,St George,wilkinson's | No Comments
Loo roll saving time

21/01/2012 by grandad

Listening to yesterday afternoon’s Gardeners Question Time on radio 4 there was a visit to Spalding, and one of the items was about peas & beans, which jogged my memory to start saving loo roll middles to sow my Runners into in a couple of months time

I do this every year, I sow in the loo rolls, indoors a bit earlier. Which gives me earlier, more even & controlled germination, and more importantly stops mice, slugs & anything else eating the beans before they have got going

This year it is going to be Lady Di I think, due to last year’s poor performance of St George. I have since read St George are RHS awarded, so maybe it was the 2011 weather and not the variety

Category pests, Seeds, Vegetables | Tags: loo rolls,runner beans,seeds,St George | 1 Comment
Peaches ripening now

25/08/2011 by grandad

A couple of years back I decided to forgo “run of the mill” fruit growing, in the main because my garden is too small to fit even a mini orchard in
So I decided to grow more “exotic” fruits, the sort that never cheap to buy, luckily I live in south Hants, so weather is not much of a problem for this

All the above explains why I now have my first peaches ripening, and being eaten as well.

My first ripe peach

I bought a 2 year old, bare root, patio peach “Bonananza” in Autumn 2009, from Blackmoor nursery, potted it up and cosseted it a bit in my unheated, plastic, greenhouse

Last year was nothing, but 2011 has bought me a bonananza, about a dozen peaches ripening

Trouble is, never have grown a peach before I was unaware they also can have pests, a few have been nibbled by little green caterpillars, and ruined

Peaches ruined by caterpillars

Category Fruit, pests | Tags: blackmoor,bonananza,caterpillar,peach | No Comments

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