Keeping the slugs and snails at bay

The kohlrabi is doing well this year and it looks as though we'll have a good crop of  both leaves and roots. I am growing both Luna (the greenish white variety) and the purple skinned Azure.

I've not had much of a problem with cabbage whites this year, although I have seen them fluttering around the garden. There have been a few patches of eggs on the leaves but I check morning and evening and rub off any that appear. More of an issue are the tiny snails that seem to have taken a liking to the brassica leaves, more of which later.

Keeping them well watered during the recent hot weather was a challenge as the bed is on a slope. I'm slowing creating a raised bed that will level off the surface but for the time being the water flows towards the lower end of the bed. Also, in hot weather the water evaporates and doesn't really get down to the roots where it is needed.

The method I've used over the last few years is the old water wizard and plastic drinks bottle trick. I received the green plastic, conical water wizards many years ago free of charge along with some hanging flower pouches from Thompson and Morgan. You can purchase them separately if you wish (http://www.thompson-morgan.com/garden-supplies/watering-and-irrigation/water-wizard/p9800TM). They are marketed as a means of ensuring that hanging baskets and containers are thoroughly watered. They work just as well, though, in the main part of the garden. Simply cut the bottom off the plastic bottle and screw the top on to the water wizard. Then push the water wizard into the ground and fill the plastic bottle with water. The water then slowly flows through the holes in the wizard into the surrounding earth. A lot of people have found, though, that you don't need to use a water wizard. Just bury the neck of the bottle in the ground. 

A bonus of this technique is that there is far less surface water that could encourage slugs and snails onto the vegetables. There have been very few slugs this year and I put this down to having used Nemaslug last year. The main problem is that of snails. Crushed egg shells around the plants don't work and I try and use slug pellets as little as possible, even the iron phosphate ones. So I am currently trying out a combination of beer traps and garlic wash.

Garlic wash is supposed to deter slugs and snails and the recipe is very simple, if disgustingly smelly (and I like garlic!). Crush two bulbs of garlic and boil in two pints of water for about five minutes. Strain the mixture and top up to two pints. Leave to cool and bottle. Add one tablespoon of the concentrate to one gallon of water and apply to the plants you want to protect. I pour the mix into a hand spray so that I can easily cover both sides of the leaves. It is recommended that you reapply the wash every two weeks.

The trouble is that I'm not really going to learn which mollusc deterrent works best as I am deploying several at once. I will know, though, if none of them work!

Update: I'm beginning to think that the eggshells do deter the molluscs as I have one group of plants where I have not used any other method and there has been minimal damage to the leaves. It could be, though, that some of the local bird population have been treating the area as a restaurant!

Invasion of the mint moths

At least a dozen of these gorgeous little moths were on the oregano flowers by our garden shed. I didn't notice them at first as I was looking at the more obvious bees that were buzzing around the same plants, but once I had spotted one a lot more came into focus. These little beauties fly both at night and during the day.

The mint moth (Pyrausta aurata) has a wing span of just 10-15 millimetres and feeds off mint, lemon balm, marjoram and oregano. They really are gorgeous and worth looking out for.

Lunch from the garden

After a soggy start to the gardening year and a few weeks of very hot, dry weather the garden is now flourishing.

Yesterday's lunch was gathered mostly from our garden. Apart from the flour, eggs and cheese the only two vegetables that were not home grown were the red cabbage and the asparagus. (Both were heavily reduced in a local shop and I couldn't resist!).

Yesterday's menu was:

• flan containing yellow and green courgettes, onions, asparagus, swiss chard, spinach, garlic, cheese, eggs, chives
• potato and spring onion salad
• cucumber and herb fennel
• tomato, onion and basil salad
• red cabbage and celeriac leaves
• courgette, feta cheese, rocket, mustard leaves and mint

The potatoes in particular have been fantastic this year. All have been growing or are still growing in containers of one sort or another and taste infinitely better than shop bought ones. We are, though, suffering from a surfeit of courgettes so I shall have to get creative with the recipes this week.  

Ooops!

I planted some onion sets in the tub that had cucumbers growing in it earlier in the year. The onion sets are doing well but I had forgotten about the daffodils that were already established in the tub and which are now also doing well :-( I'l leave the tub alone and see what happens.



I suspect that the onion sets will lose.

Mmmmmmm comfrey

"Mmmmmmm comfrey" to quote Allan Shepherd from his "The Little Book of Compost"(1)

"... picture me at my desk with a glazed look in my eye and a cascade of dribble sliding over my chin towards QWERTY. Comfrey to Allan the composter is donut with double caramel topping to Homer the fridge raider. This is a mouth-watering treat of a plant. It's easy to grow, perfect to compost and great to turn into a liquid feed"

The beauty of this - let's be honest - rather ugly plant is that it sucks up nutrients hidden deep in the ground and accumulates them in their leaves. These can be composted or turned into a liquid feed for other plants in the garden. There is more information on comfrey in Allan Shepherd's book and at Comfrey http://www.allotment.org.uk/grow-your-own/comfrey. Allotment.org.uk describes the comfrey in water method for making liquid feed, which has the disadvantage of smelling "like an open sewer when finished". Allan Shepherd favours the less smelly, dry, holed bucket approach one version of which is shown in this YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRbHqz1m7kk.

A big disadvantage of comfrey as a plant in the garden is that the original, wild version is invasive. If you don't want to spend time pulling up plants that keep popping up where you don't want them you need a variety called Bocking 14.  I discovered that one of my permaculture friends on Facebook had some in her garden but if you are not so lucky the Organic Gardening Catalogue at http://www.organiccatalogue.com/ is one source in the UK that stocks it.

The comfrey roots from my friend are now overwintering in pots surrounded by leaf mulch. I shall be working on a holed bucket for the fertiliser generation in the spring.

(1) The Little Book of Compost: Recipes for a healthy garden and happy planet  Allan Shepherd. Collins (5 Nov 2007). ISBN-13: 978-0-00-726727-9

Logs and leaves

This autumn I was busy pruning back some of the bushes at the bottom of the garden and hacking back some of the branches on the overhanging sycamores. I've kept many of the small branches and larger twigs for pea sticks and supporting canes for the coming year but what to do with the thicker branches? I decided to stack them up against the back fence while I thought about it and the initial log pile was somewhat modest.



It then occurred to me that they could serve a useful purpose over the winter as a hibernaculum, so I carried on adding logs and branches and then some of the fallen sycamore leaves that usually cover the garden at this time of year. It now looks quite impressive.



Am I am going to do anything else with it next year? Possibly. As I was finishing the log and leaf pile I came across an article on building a Hugekultur bed (How to Build Irrigation-Free Raised Beds with Hugelkultur http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-agriculture/how-build-irrigation-free-raised-beds-hugelkultur.html). Hugelkultur beds can be as large or as small as you want (How to Build Hugelkultur Irrigation-Free Raised Bed Gardens (Video)   http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/how-to-build-hugelkultur-irrigation-free-raised-bed-gardens-video.html). This looks as though it could be the perfect solution to the problem of disposing of the wood and to making a small problem area of my garden suitable for planting.

Construction is planned for late spring. In the meantime any wild life that would like to use the log and leaf pile as a snug, hideaway over winter are more than welcome. Perhaps I should put up a sign: Winter hidey-holes available -  rent free!

Runner bean success - permaculture (possible) fail

This year I've been looking at how we can use our garden more effectively using permaculture principles and experimenting with vegetable plantings. We have an ancient shed, apparently built around the 1940s, and in front of one part of it is a raised bed in which we grow herbs. I wondered if we could grow runner beans against the side of the shed with the help of canes and some netting. Apart from slugs and snails nibbling away at two of the plants it was a great success.



But there was a slight problem. In order to pick the beans I had to trample on the bed to get to them. Permaculture fail, I'm afraid.



I then remembered that the ground immediately in front of  the beans was already trampled on by the local cats who use it as a thoroughfare. So perhaps that is a "path", albeit a very narrow one, I can use to harvest my crop. Maybe not such a permaculture fail as I first thought.