weeding, slugs and garden opening

[Alison]

I haven't been posting, as I have been fully occupied trying to get our garden back into proper order after the chaos of last year, since we are opening it under the NGS next Sunday, June 24 2-6pm, if anyone is interested,and Teas are available! Web ref: http://www.ngs.org.uk/gen/gardenfinder/ ... ?gid=20288

We opened our garden for the NGS in London, but that was 150ft by 50ft and now we have 5 acres, including 90ft walled kitchen garden, and only the two of us to do it, and the NGS organiser said could we reduce the number of weeds as customers wouldn't like to see so many!! But either the ground is baked hard, so you can't get the weeds out, or else there has been lots of rain and the weeds grow inches overnight including where you weeded the day before. I just hope people will be kind to us! I usually don't bother too much about weeds, as I reckon they are a sort of green manure anyway, and keep the surface of the ground in better condition than if it was bare, so the odd swoe round seems adequate generally. But it is amazing what a spur it is, knowing that around 200 people will probably come and be noting the fat hen, the clover, the grass, the docks, the willowherb.....

As for slugs - I have watered with nematodes and we have little houses for toads round the garden. We have masses of toads, but even they don't seem able to make a dent in the slugs, and the early potatoes have holes in, which is a lot earlier than I remember from previous years. I am trying something in a biodynamic book, which is that you put the slugs in a bottle of water, and let them all drown, and keep it several days, shaking the bottle daily, then you put scoopfuls in a watering can and water it on the garden, and it will reduce the slugs. Um. Not sure I believe this, but I am so churned up about the slugs, it is actually quite fun posting them into the bottle of water.
Alison.

[alan refail]

Welcome back. Hope all gets sorted.

Alan

[Bren]

Alison
Best of luck with the open garden next Sunday and hope the weather will be kind to you. I am sure most people will ignore the weeds, if they have gardens of their own they wiil know its impossible to keep all weeds down especially with all the rain we are having.
We went to a village open gardens up at Barton under Needlewood last Sunday and they weren't manicured, yet I didn't hear any one pass remarks on the weeds.

Bren

[Clive.]

Hello Alison,

"My" garden at work is also open for the same cause on 24th June...

I can certainly sympathise with the difficult wet conditions at the moment...it seems that by afternoon it nearly gets dry enough to get on...then we get another half inch rain at night.
It's a good job we are on the drier side of the country....I hate to think how wet it could be on the wetter side.

All the best with your open day..

Clive.

[alan refail]

Hi Clive

It's a good job we are on the drier side of the country....I hate to think how wet it could be on the wetter side.

Actually it's been very dry on the whole in this part of the West.

Alan