Wednesday 24 September 2014

Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness

August is a fabulously relaxing month in the garden. The tall grasses glint and shimmer in the languid air the bees buzz lazily from flower to flower catching a nap on the Cirsium when so full of nectar the can go no further.  The sun shone and okay the rain rained too but we so needed it. 

The summer holidays coming to an end and we spend more afternoons at the allotment, harvesting beans of all sorts, lettuce, patti pans, cucumbers, tomatoes.
But along with the harvest came some unwelcome visitors. I donned my marigolds and I squashed a lot and I mean a lot of insects and bugs.  

My favourite to squish was the asparagus beetles and larvae. I squashed so many that I even ended up sqooshing them without my marigolds. Slugs got chopped in half with spades and caterpillars trampled under foot (but not while my girls were about, thanks a lot Eric Carle!)

But it wasn't contained to the little beasties above ground. I had holey potatoes and nibbled carrots. 

I think that the potatoes had eelworm, apparently it is quite common in allotments and especially recently cleared allotments. Having done some research it can last in the ground up to 4 years even if no potatoes are grown!  A little more research and I found this article. http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/article.aspx?id=4807&h=Using-radish-to-control-cyst-eelworm
Apparently the larvae see the radish as a host but once feeding on it can only turn into male worms! It can reduce the population by 95% and is a green manure. I shall be trying this next year. And only planting early potatoes (the worms are active after they have been harvested). 

As for my carrots they shall be surrounded by marigolds. (Carrot flies can't fly that high)



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