Early Summer Bits and Bobs.

[Westi]

Same here Tiger! Back garden absolutely covered in leaves & branches as it was just one gusty period too many & emptied all the leaves & stuff stuck in the branch joins of the trees. Fortunately not bird breeding season as lots use these platforms for nesting, & these trees are in a corner & nothing grows underneath them. Just about filled the brown council bin & that's with cutting them up.

On the local news the IOW & neighbouring mainland RNLI were out all night with boats in distress & crew injured from broken masts & the like going around the island. I didn't get a weather warning & as professional sailors got caught out I think it snuck under the radar - literally!

[Geoff]

Finishing the day at 64.5mm but amazingly there is the glimmer of a sunset so perhaps tomorrow will be better.

PS : Final total for the day was 65.3mm bringing the month to date up to 188.2mm (almost 7½"). Sunny for now.

[Primrose]

Luckily our bean and tomato poles are always located right in front of a 6 foot high fence which has protected them from the worst of the winds. Thinking back over the years this has proved an ideal spot for them, especially when autumn winds would otherwise have wrecked or damaged late maturing crops.

Over 40 years of growing in the same location doesn,t adhere to crop rotation recommendations but I do alternate the position of beans and tomstoes every year and keep the ground well fertilised.

[Westi]

Finally finished cutting down the summer raspberry canes today. Their bed was invaded by some Autumn ones & it was so congested in there even all the rain didn't reach some areas. Took longer than expected as I was also digging some of the invaders up. Have the appropriate scratches, mosquito bits & leaves down the back of my T Shirt, but done.

Anyway I wanted to ask whether anyone repurposes the spent summer canes for something. Some are really thick & strong & were a right struggle to cut with the secreters.

[Clive.]

Raspberry canes here are one of the fillers of the green bin.

I always feel that the cutting out and tying in of new canes is the start of the new gardening year.

Lovely sunshine here tonight ..that's better, after a rather wet weekend....

C.

[Primrose]

I suspect raspberry canes are probably too brutal on the hand to repurpose but if you were desperate and had some thick gardening gloves qi suppose they could be used as peas tick supports if you were desperate. Mine were generally cut up into small pieces and consigned to the compost heap. Not a pleasant task though.

[tigerburnie]

I've used some old autumn canes as pea sticks this year.

[Westi]

I think I will keep some for stakes to support the smaller plants. They don't need it regularly but a big blow does upset them so I do try to stick something in if I get a weather warning, so might as well use some of these. Leaving them a long length makes them too flexible to be off any use.

I had a nice result today when checking things. My swede were one of the sulkers this year & as slow growers I thought they would be too small to be off any use. I had one green netted hoop thing not in use, so put that over them & a wee seaweed feed, but bed was prepped enough. Today I took it off to check as a fine weave is hard to see through. They were full of leaves & some edging tennis ball size, so that worked. All tidied, weeded & trimmed & on their own now, but will give them a mesh higher cover tomorrow as note the cabbage whites are out but still not as many as normal still.

[retropants]

Westi, regarding cabbage whites….I have meshed all my brassicas, but I am still picking off green caterpillars and the leaves are looking a bit Lacey. I have been feeding them to our Robin who has a feisty chick constantly chirping.

[Westi]

Retropants, the little gits can get through anywhere; at times I wonder if they can tunnel under! I'm also surprised that they continue on their quest to lay even when drizzling, but apparently they only live 3 weeks so definitely on a tight schedule to reproduce.

A little blackbird flew out from under the blackberry wrapped around the side of the shed today & was not happy so wonder if she was potentially nesting? I had decided to leave the rest of the picking anyway as the wasps have found them & they really don't like to share & play nice! Fortunately their not interested in the freebie one that just popped up on the other plot which is later so I still have loads.

[Primrose]

,ve noticed a large reduction in cabbage whites this year.in our garden. Don't know if that,s partly because our main veg patch which used to contain all the green leafy veg has now been grassed over or whether it,s general weather/climate conditions.

[tigerburnie]

We have very few butterflies this year, bees we have loads.

[retropants]

I've seen commas, peacocks, cabbage whites, small blues, meadow browns and more in my little west london suburban garden. Plus there's the usual red admiral which likes to sit on dh's van roof. There's one every year.

[retropants]

Oh, and a jersey tiger moth the other day, usually get a couple of those each year.

[Colin2016]

I spray Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) on brassicas plants to get rid of caterpillars.