All right, one ripe and one almost ripe tomato, but it still counts. Endless weeks of rain have turned the new garden into a spawning pit for slugs and snails though, so it's amazing anything has survived.
An early decision to place the compost bin almost directly outside the back door had to be rethought after clouds of flies starting invading on a regular basis, setting the radio to their favourite stations and demanding cups of tea. So it got relocated to the end of the garden, and I built a second tip out of leftover bits of wood and brick thusly:
And I'm finally getting round to taking apart that futon base I've been lugging from house to house for fifteen years and turning it into a raised seed bed (very raised, I'm going to prop it up on a couple of old tea chests, so theoretically I can do gardening without any back-breaking bending down at all).
And with the aid of Jane Perrone's Allotment Keeper's Handbook, I'm going to put the finished bed out in September, which is when the Cornish weather traditionally turns radiant and lovely. Just after all the holiday makers go home. Sorry about that.
11 comments:
stop being so handy, you're scaring me...
Next week: the loft conversion.
(probably not, actually)
Ah - homegrown, outdoor tomatoes. The very best kind. Far superior to those grown in a greenhouse (just in case one of those was next on the list).
"...September, which is when the Cornish weather traditionally turns radiant and lovely."
That's funny, the same thing happens in Edinburgh.
Ahhh fruit flies - aren't they just lovely little pets to have storming your kitchen.
However, if you want to kill the little darlings before they send you insane, here's how:-
Chop the bottom off a large plastic bottle, bung in some bits of banana and cover over with a plastic sandwich bag to make a lid, sealing the whole lot with lots of sellotape. Then (and this is the fun bit) punch about 10 holes with a sharp object into the top and then sit back and watch your fruit flies make their way into your banana trap and then discover that they can't get back out.
See I'm an expert when it comes to fruit flies, just don't ask me how they can't get out the same way they got in.
Sadly unlike Cornawall and Edinburgh, Bishops Stortford has no tourists as such (perhaps the odd lost traveller from Stansted airport - but the migrant Polish population tend to eat them) allowing our weather loads of time to concentrate on being rubbish all year round.
Three means to dispose of slugs and stuff:
A ring of salt and crushed eggshells round vulnerable plants;
Orange and grapefruit skins. Cut the fruit in half, eat the flesh, then put the hollow skins on the earth (skin-side up). Pick them up early in the morning and you'll find slugs attached underneath;
Beer traps. Bury yogurt pots in the earth, so the rims are flush with ground level. Pour a little beer in the pots. I'm not sure if it's drowning or cirrhosis that takes the fuckers out, but it works.
My parents did the beer trap thing. Worked a treat. Up until it rains lots.
Waves hello to Backlog as I live in Bishops Stortford, but I'm not Polish. Would you like some dead fruitflies?
BlackLOG waves back rather too enthusiastically to Imo - (Sorry James for Hi-jacking your comments section. This is quite a historical event two people admitting that they live in Bishops Stortford in the same Blog comments section). Imo does your fruit fly trap work for Polish people? Next time you are in the vicinity why not drop in and say hello. http://the-blacklog.blogspot.com/ I'll put the virtual kettle on.....
Been a weird "Summer" for gardening; we had more strawberries, mange tout and bean than we could eat, but our squashes & courgettes have done nothing but fed the slugs, which this year are about the size of small houses.
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