So What's Been Going On Then?

Well hello there!

First of all, my apologies for ignoring the blog and you lovely bloggy people for so long but life has been getting in the way and… well, to be honest, I haven’t really had much I’ve felt like writing about. It’s not that there hasn’t been anything to write about, I just haven’t felt like writing it.

I’m starting to feel as though I’m getting on top of things again now though and life is getting back to some kind of normality. Well, MY normality, anyway. But then I guess everybody’s normality is different.

Now that spring’s here I’ve a host of jobs to do around the house. The garden looks the pits and will definitely need sorting out. I’ve written before that I’d ideally like somebody to come in and give it a complete overhaul that would make it easy maintenance but the funeral associated outgoings sucked up a huge chunk of my savings and then a few others things have needed paying for so that idea is a long way off in the future again. Even my new kitchen, which I finally thought I was going to get this summer after 3 years of saving has had to be put on hold. The money just isn’t there anymore. Oh well… back to the drawing board. Worse things have happened at sea, as they say. The least I can do is tidy the bloody garden though, so it looks….hmmm…. I was going to say presentable but it’ll never be quite that - I can get it looking as if somebody care a bit about it though. At the moment it’s full of broken pots, old barbeques, bits of tree net and other odd bits of rubbish. The table and chairs are covered in a rather unattractive green mould and the plants are all overgrown. As for the weeds… I know no matter what I do I’m never going to keep them down; the garden chock-a-block with them.

Then there’s the bedrooms. Paul will be moving back this summer but before that can happen I need to do a bedroom reshuffle. I’m moving into LM’s old bedroom (she moved out while I was in London… yes, it was all happening at once), Paul is going in mine and the little room will become a guest room. The thing is, they all desperately need decorating first. LM’s old room is black and cream and as nice as it looked when she did it, I’m not sleeping in a black room. The room that’ll be Paul’s hasn’t been decorated in yonks and has a carpet that I’m utterly ashamed of, and the little room….well, I actually think that can stay as it is at a push but I’d like to have it painted before I make it into a guest room. All this costs money and as I can’t do the work myself, I have to pay somebody to come in and do it. It has to be done though, like it or not.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress (and maybe even post some before and after photos, assuming I remember to take them) but until my daughter actually gets the rest of her ‘crap’ out of her old bedroom, I can’t do a darned thing.

In the meantime I’ll enjoy the sunshine we’re having and hope that it lasts.

Sharon J xx

Blooming Marvellous

Are there daffodils blooming in your garden now? Or along country lanes, in parks, or maybe in your neighbour's front garden?

There are a good few beautiful golden blooms smiling at me from the garden these days and the miniature daffodils in the front are budded and ready to go any day now.

I don't think there's anything that lifts my spirits quite as much as seeing the daffodils bloom in spring. To me, it's the first major sign that the rebirth of nature has started and soon everything else will start to follow. The birds will be singing their crazy love songs, the trees will be budding and the insects will start to crawl out from their winter hideaways. Badgers, hedgehogs and other hibernating creatures will emerge from their long period of winter sleep and the sun will just keep getting stronger.

What a difference a daff can make.

Sharon J xx

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Allotment Gardening Builds Community

My name is Gavin from the blog The Greening of Gavin. Sharon has asked me to write a post while she is away on holidays so here goes.

I live in a town called Melton West, Victoria, Australia. In our town you will be surprised to learn that there are no garden allotments like you have in the UK, which is quite a shame. I think the main reason behind it is that most houses are built on at least 500 square metres of land, and the local council sees no need in providing vegetable patch spaces when everyone has land to spare. The ironic thing is that at least 40% of the town folk rent their accommodation, so are loathed to develop a veggie patch in their landlords back yard for no compensation.

Now while I agree that they might not receive any form of monetary compensation for making a vegetable patch in the back yard, I really think that they are missing the point. I have found that you don't need to spend very much money at all to get a vegetable garden up and running. You only have to sheet mulch the area that you intend to plant out and then make some borders out of anything you can lay your hands on (there are heaps of old railway sleepers besides the railway tracks), and voila, you have a garden bed. Just whack on some manure from wherever you can get it (farmers will give it to you for $2 a bag over here), then add a mulch, even grass clippings will do, and bung in your seeds. They will grow with a bit of water and TLC, and before you know it, you have free food. Now if I was in a rental situation, free food sounds like a good proposition. Even growing vegetables in pots is a good idea. The money you save on healthy, organic produce can be put towards the deposit for your own home, or anything you like really. You could even buy a chook tractor, and keep chickens in the back yard. Free eggs from kitchen scraps and a bit of seed also is a good deal as far as I am concerned.

Earlier I said that it is a shame that we do not have allotments. The reason I say that is that this town lacks a community spirit outside of joining a sporting club. No everyone are sporting types, and most are armchair spectators (watch it on telly). For keen gardeners, it is hard to find like minded people, and I think that a community allotment would go a long way to achieving that. I believe that when gardeners get together, there is always a keen sense of competition about their how they grow their produce. Who can grow the biggest tomatoes, who's squash is the tastiest and largest, who can grow the most potatoes. You get the idea. By having this meeting place for gardeners, who all share ideas, and tips and tricks, growing your own food is a practice that is kept alive and well in the community. A great sense of pride is also kept alive and well. It is a sense of pride that also build a healthy and thriving local community.

Do you know how I know all of this? Well, I am married to Kim who originally comes from Southampton, Hampshire and that city has a huge allocation of allotments. When I lived in the UK for 6 months, I used to walk past them quite often, and there were always people tending their patches and talking to one another about this and that. It warmed my heart to see people who probably don't even know their neighbours, and taking the time to talk to fellow gardeners. That is how communities get built and towns with a sense of community thrive in troubled times like these and are much more resilient. People who talk to each other, learn more about each others lifestyle, and therefore look out for one and another.

So, don't let anyone take these wonderful meeting places away from you in the UK. If your council thinks they can get rid of the community allotment space, let them know that you care about your part of the world.

Gavin

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Image Credit: Catfunt

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Mourning The Worms

Can any of you remember me saying that I’d bought a wormery? It was back in February, although the only reason I remember when it was is because I posted about it here.

Anyway, said wormery is no more. Well, the wormery itself is still there but what’s inside resembles a toxic wasteland more than a group of happy worms going about their business of turning veg and fruit, paper and other stuff into compost and fertilizer.

So what happened? Well, somehow or another the rain got in. Lots of it. The wormery has a tight plastic lid that doesn’t blow off and although it has ventilation holes, these are tiny. And yet when I went out there to feed them a few days ago, the lid was half way up the garden and the wormery was half filled with water. Yes, that much.

The worms, for the most part, were dead. The few I managed to save were thrown into what barely passes as a flower bed but there's soil there and soil needs worms. The wormery itself has been left abandoned; it’s too heavy for me to carry and empty and I don’t want to just tip it out where it is. The job of emptying it by bucket would be too much for me too, so it’s just going to have to stay as it is for the time being until I figure out what to do about it.

Such a shame. It was coming along so well, too! I just can’t help wondering how that lid got off.

Sharon J xx

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How to Get Rid of Slugs and Snails

Image Source

Slugs and snails! Just the thought of them munching their way through my favourite hostas and nibbling the tender shoots of my emerging perennials is enough to have me declare death and destruction on what is, essentially, just another of nature’s creations.

I wouldn’t like to see them disappear entirely – that wouldn’t be good for the birds, hedgehogs and frogs that enjoy making a meal of them. A few in the compost heap can be useful but a whole platoon of them munching their way through the vegetable patch isn’t. But like any other pest, it’s only when the balance is wrong that they drive you insane.

So now that we’ve determined that too many of the blighters can turn them into ‘the enemy’, let’s look at what deterrents there are.

If you scout around the Interweb you’ll find quite a few. Some work better than others and some just don’t work at all. Some I’d be happy to try, others I wouldn’t. Which you ultimately choose to try isn’t up to me though, so I’ll just pass on the knowledge I have and leave it to you to make your decisions.

PELLETS
Pellets contain ‘metaldehyde’ which causes the slugs to produce enormous amounts of mucus that will quickly lead to dehydration and death. Unfortunately, metaldehyde can also harm other wildlife and our pets. Even worse, if children become too curious, they can be harmful to them, too. Being blue, which is a non-food colour, they‘re not immediately attractive to wildlife and pets, however, that doesn’t mean they’ll never get inside them and young children are hardly likely to be deterred by the colour. According to the RSPB, pellets aren’t harmful to birds but that still leaves the ‘bird eats snail, cat eats bird’ problem.

I’ve used them in the past and they do work but I’d much rather manage without them.

BARK CHIPPINGS
I’ve been advised to cover my beds in bark chippings as they don’t like moving over it. Poppycock! It doesn’t work. They simply slither underneath it instead.

BROKEN EGG SHELLS
When scattered around vulnerable plants broken eggshells work for a short while but considering the amount of egg shells you’d need for there to be any real value in it, this isn’t a particularly viable idea. It’s ok for protecting one or two favourite plants but make sure the majority of shell pieces have their sharp sides up.

CRUSHED SEA SHELLS
Some garden centres sell these and I’ve been told by those who’ve tried them that they work better than egg shells as they don‘t crush down to powder anywhere near as easily and won‘t disappear in heavy rain. Useful in pots but, as with egg shells, you’d need far too many for them to be of any use as protection for plants in the ground. They’d look pretty good in a garden with a seaside theme, though.

COFFEE GROUNDS
Apparently molluscs don’t like the caffeine so coffee grounds sprinkled in a circle around target plants should stop them crossing. I’ve tried it with some success but it washes away very quickly and needs to be re-applied often. What does worry me though, is what it might be doing to other creatures like earthworms, beetles etc. If it’s so effective against slugs then could it be having some other adverse effects?

LIQUID COFFEE
Very strong liquid coffee (about the equivalent of 30 spoonfuls to a mug) sprayed on plants is said to stop slugs and snails from munching them. Well if coffee grounds work I’ve no doubt that this will have some sort of effect too but what might it do to the plants? It’s all well and good getting excited about methods of slug control but until we know that it won’t have any negative side-effects, I’d rather steer clear.

GRAVEL
Because of their thin skin, molluscs don’t like crawling over anything sharp and is the reason broken egg shells work to an extent. Part of our garden is laid to gravel with plants around the edges and while this area definitely appears to be less attractive to the slimy visitors, a few do cross it. However, so far the hosta in the gravel is still intact whereas those in the beds have been munched so it’s definitely an improvement.

VASELINE ON RIMS OF POTS
If you’re trying to save your hostas then this one’s useless. The leaves hang down over the edges of the pots, the slugs climb on and, without ever touching the Vaseline, they’re enjoying a slap up meal. It could be useful for veg in pots though, as long as they grow upright, although not having tried it myself, I can’t say whether it’d work or not.

BEER TRAPS
A tin can filled with beer and placed in the ground should attract slugs to it that will then fall in and die through being submerged in alcohol. It does work but isn’t really useful in a garden with a big slug problem because you’d need too many traps that have to be emptied and refilled every day. If the problem’s small-scare it could be worth trying, though.

AN ORANGE OR GRAPEFRUIT
Remove the fruit from an orange or grapefruit and place upside down in your beds. Molluscs will be attracted to them and then, in the morning, you simply pick them up and dispose of them. As with beer traps, the method’s ok if you don’t have much of a slug problem but no good if you’re trying to control a whole army of munchers because you’d need to use an awful lot of fruit.

CARDBOARD STRIPS
Rather than wasting money on beer and fruit, place 6” x 12” strips of cardboard amongst your plants to make hideaways for slugs then just go out in the morning, turn them over, pick the slugs off, drop them into a container and dispose of.

REMOVING LARGE STONES, LOG PILES ETC
I’ve often heard people recommend this as slugs and snails like to hide in moist, dark places but I refuse to recommend it. Sure, you’d be removing their hidey holes but you’d also be removing the natural hiding places of beneficial creatures and having them inhabit your garden will do far more for your personal battle against slugs and snails than removing a few stones, etc. ever will.

NIGHT-TIME PATROL
Once darkness falls, go outside with a torch and hand pick the little beggars off your plants. I’m squeamish and just can’t touch slimy slugs so I usually cover my hand with a plastic bag (a previously used one, preferably) before picking them up.

If you’re vigilant with this for 3-4 nights you’ll notice the amount you find start to decline quite drastically. Once you feel you’ve got them under reasonable control, you’ll no longer have to go out every night. Once or twice a week will be enough and eventually maybe even once a fortnight. Don’t ever stop though or their numbers will be back up again before you can spit three times.

SALT
Sprinkling salt on slugs will literally dissolve them. I’m no slug lover but I have to admit that this is just too agonising to watch. Ok, so they munch my plants but they’re only doing what comes naturally to them. Do they really deserve such a tortuous death? To make any real impact on their numbers you’ll have to do as recommended above and go out every night for 3-4 nights with the salt pot at the ready. I’ve seen it work but only you know whether or not you can do it.

FIGHT NATURE WITH NATURE
The introduction of natural predators in the garden is by far the best solution, especially if combined with the night-time patrol method. If you can entice beneficial creatures like frogs, hedgehogs and thrushes into the garden, they’ll be of tremendous help.

Once you’ve got the number of molluscs under control through picking them off and disposing of them, the other creatures will ensure that those remaining are kept under control. We’ve had a family of baby blackbirds in our garden this year and believe me, the number of slugs I’ve found has been hardly worth talking about compared to a ‘normal’ year.

To make your garden attractive to them there has to be a good supply of food and water along with places for them to shelter. Hence my not advising you remove log piles, etc. Don’t expect your garden to become slug free though because your garden friendly visitors will need a food supply. It’s all about striking a balance. You put up with some slugs and the other creatures will make sure they don’t become too much of a problem.

You‘ve probably got an ample supply of food for them because, after all, it’s their food that caused the problem in the first place. Mind you, hedgehogs, frogs and thrushes are no different to you and me when it comes to getting fed up with the same old meal every day, even if the main course is juicy and mouth-watering, but most gardens have enough diversity to keep them happy. That’s assuming you haven’t been attacking every bug in sight with your chemical weapons, of course.

A wildlife pond is the best magnet for attracting beneficial creatures into the garden. It doesn’t have to be huge; just a place where frogs and newts can lay their spawn and from which other creatures can drink. An old washing up bowl sunk into the ground can be enough in a small garden.

Collecting tadpoles from natural ponds is, contrary to what some people believe, not illegal and neither is the removal of frogs and smooth newts as long as they‘re transferred to another pond and not for profit. Great crested newts are protected and mustn’t be removed from their natural habitat under any circumstances, unless under licence. So, to get your wildlife pond started, why not pop down to a local pond and fish out some taddies? Perhaps a little late now but certainly something to think of for next year. Watching tadpoles turn into tiny froglets is both fun and educational for children, too.

NEMATODES
Another natural method is the introduction of nematodes (Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita) to the garden. These are microscopic worms sold under the name of “Nemaslug”. Once in the ground, nematodes will seek out slugs and aggressively attack them so as to use their body as a place of reproduction. As sick as this sounds, they actually enter the slug’s body through a hole in its head (it’s what slugs use to breathe through) and once in residence, they release a bacteria that stop the slugs for being able to eat. They then lay their eggs and within 7-10 days the slug’s a gonner! The newly hatched nematodes will continue to feed on the dead slug’s body until they’re ready to go into the ground alone, seeking out new slugs to attack and reproduce in.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an ever continuing cycle as the nematodes are only active in the soil for about 6 weeks. Long enough, however, to protect emerging plants whilst at their most vulnerable during spring.

Nematodes find clay soil difficult to move in (which is why I’m not able to use them in this garden) and cost about £8.95 to treat an area of 40 sq metres or £18.95 for 100 sq meters from Unwins.

KEEP CHICKENS
Apparently, chickens see slugs as a delicacy to be devoured with pleasure so keeping them should help keep the numbers down. Mind you, the chickens will probably walk all over your garden beds and leave their droppings on your patio so y’know, weigh one against the other and make your own decision. All I can say is that slugs don’t lay eggs suitable for human consumption.

Any chicken keepers out their like to tell us whether this works?

YOU’VE CAUGHT ‘EM, NOW DISPOSE OF THEM

If there’s one thing that really riles me, it’s reading a magazine that contains some tip or another for catching slugs but ends with “…and then dispose of them by your preferred means”. Unless somebody tells you how to dispose of them, how can you possibly have a preferred means?

Here are some ideas that could become your ‘preferred means’.

STAMP ON THEM
Yukk! Sorry, but I hate doing this. I can handle stamping on the odd one now and then but if I’ve just picked up a piece of cardboard with 20 dirty great slugs stuck to it, I’m not about to squidge them all over my garden path! No way! It works, there’s no doubt about that, and as it’s quick it’s also a humane way of dealing with them, but it isn’t for me. You may feel differently. Do as you wish.

THROW SNAILS AT A WALL OR OTHER HARD, RIGID SURFACE
This is Richard’s preferred means of disposal. He reckons aiming them at a tree is great target practice for cricket! Oh well, each to their own, eh? I’d imagine a cricket ball weighs considerably more than snail, though. Anyway, this method doesn’t kill them outright but they will die of moisture loss, assuming they don’t become bird food, first. Speaking of which, you could always pick up the crushed snails once you’ve finished lobbing them and put them on the bird table.

FREEZE THEM
Put them in Tupperware type container in the freezer. Being cold blooded they’ll slow down and become torpid in the cold, rather like being anaesthetised before dying. Ok, slugs and snails in the freezer may not sound very nice but fishermen have been keeping maggots in the fridge for years. Freezing’s undoubtedly the most humane way of killing them if you don‘t like the stamping method but whatever you do, DON’T use a small plastic bag tied with a knot. Slugs are incredibly muscular creatures and 20-30 of them in a bag, all struggling to get out will probably cause the bag to burst with the result being… well, not very pretty!

The slimy corpses can be disposed of by dumping them in the compost heap (assuming you have one) where they’ll do as nature intended and replenish the ground once they’ve become part of the ready compost. Failing that, you’ll just have to put them in the bin I suppose.

DUMP THEM ELSEWHERE
For those who don’t like the idea of killing anything, even slugs and snails, it’s possible to gather them in a lidded bucket (do make sure it’s tight, though - they’ll lift the lid and crawl out, otherwise) and transport them to another place where they’ll again be able to enjoy their freedom.

Don’t go thinking you can just chuck ‘em over next door’s garden, though. Molluscs have a homing instinct (no, I’m not having a laugh). If you don’t believe me, try putting some nail varnish on the shells of a few snails, drop them over the wall and see how long it takes before you find them in your garden again. Evidently, to be certain that they won’t find their way home, you’ll need to transport them at least 5 miles away. Quite honestly, I can’t believe you’d need to dump them THAT far away. I mean, they’re hardly marathon runners, are they? And if there’s a busy road between you and them, well… need I say more?

For some reason people tend to dislike slugs more than snails (I’m one of them) even though they’re essentially the same creatures. It’s said that snails were an attempt by a well-meaning angel to cover up the fact that God wasn’t paying proper attention when he created slugs. The angel said “let’s give snails a little house and then everybody’ll think they’re cute and love them”. I wouldn’t go as far as to say love them but they definitely have something that slugs lack. I mean, would Brian of Magic Roundabout fame have been so popular had he been a slug?

Sharon J

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Wormery Update

Way back in February I wrote about my new wormery and promised to let you know how things went. Well I’m pleased to report that after an initial set back, the worms are now fat, happy and munching their way through my kitchen waste.

Unfortunately, the first lot of worms died. I think that was due to a combination of factors. One was that it was cold and they just didn’t have enough compost to get warm and cosy in, and the second was that I over fed them. By putting too much waste in the wormery before they’d got themselves properly established, I suffocated the poor things. Putting too much of one kind of food in didn’t help matters either. They had far too many potato peelings to deal with.

I removed much of the food and left things to see how they went. When it got the point where I could only find two living worms, I decided it was time to top up. Two worms do not a wormery make.

A trip to the local fishing supply store turned up a lovely tub of 50 beautiful wrigglers that were just right for the job and these were duly introduced to their new home. I could almost hear the sigh of relief when they realised they were going to be enjoying life in a cosy wormery being fed all sorts of goodies rather than ending life on a fisherman’s hook. Mind you, should I ever decide to do a spot of fishing later, I may well pick a few out again but isn’t that life? You just don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring!

I’ve eased up on the feeding this time and when I checked them a few days ago, a whole bunch of them made a beeline for the lower layers (they don’t like the light) so it appears they’re thriving. A good portion of the food is being turned into compost, too.

Fingers crossed that I’ve cracked it this time.

Sharon J xx

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Garden Plants to Use in Salads

Photo: jciv

Bored with the same old salad? Why not take a look in the garden and see if there’s anything there you can add to make it a bit more interesting?

Here’s a list of stuff that you can use:

• Chickweed: Grow profusely in most gardens, especially if the soil’s moist. The leaves are tasty and definitely add interest to the salad.

• Chives: Sew some seeds in a pot and you’ll soon have enough to add to salads all summer. These have an onion like taste.

• Clover: Who doesn’t have that growing in the lawn? Both the leaves and the flowers can be used in salads and taste vaguely of honey.

• Nasturtiums: Again, use both the flowers and the leaves. Have a peppery taste.

• Pansies: Yes, the flowers are edible! And they certainly add colour to the salad as well as being a talking point.

• Wild Garlic: Use fresh, young leaves.

• Dandelion: Only use the young leaves – mature leaves are bitter! Dandelion leaves will actually help flush out toxins in the body.
  

There are probably more but they’re the ones I know about. Maybe you know of more?

Not only will they make your salad more interesting, they’re also as frugal as you can get… FREE!

Sharon J

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AWOL and Tweets

My apologies for the recent inactivity here but a hospital stay made it impossible to post. I’m sort of sorted now although another bout as an in-patient wouldn’t surprise me. Fingers crossed that won’t happen.

Anyway, in the interim, a black bird has built her nest in the clematis outside our kitchen window, amongst an abundance of blue flowers. It’s a bit too high up to take a look inside without climbing onto a patio chair but as she spends most of her time there, there are no doubt eggs inside. Once she becomes more active, I’ll try to take a look to see how many chicks she has. Hopefully there will be many and they’ll keep the slugs and snails down this summer.

She's hidden herself so well that you'll probably need to click the picture to see a larger version

There’s also a bird nesting in the eaves but I’ve no idea what as I only ever see her as she flies past my window. She certainly makes enough noise up there though.

It’s lovely to see spring in the garden. I’m just looking forward to having enough strength to start making some improvements out there. Still, the birds obviously like it and that’s definitely a good thing.

Sharon J xx

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How Green is Your Lawn?

Photo: Caribb

Late March is generally the time when most gardeners start giving their lawns some extra attention and no doubt many will be out now, during the Easter break, tidying up and getting things ready for the coming seasons. They'll rake, aerate, weed and feed as they look forward to a summer where they can enjoy the lush, green carpet laid out before them. But just how green are our lawns? Environmentally green, that is.

An average back garden lawn is actually one of the biggest culprits when it comes to the environmental damage we do whilst at home. In our quest for the perfect lawn, we use vast amounts of water, artificial fertilisers, pesticides and weed killers. Then there’s the energy used every time it’s mowed with an electric mower. Some still even use petrol driven lawn mowers!

A well-manicured lawn also offers very little to help sustain our wildlife.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that our towns and cities would be far less pleasing without any lawns but do they have to be so perfect? Does it matter that there’s clover growing amongst the grass, giving bees plenty of sweet nectar to drink? Will the odd dandelion really make a huge difference? If you cut their heads off as they appear, they won’t seed and spread so shouldn’t cause too much of a problem. And daisies look lovely in a lawn. In fact, my mum mentioned just the other day that you rarely see daisies growing in lawns anymore whereas when she was young…

When it comes to mowing, did you know that just one hour with a petrol driven mower is the equivalent of a 100 mile car trip? Although the energy usage from a small electric mower is negligible it all mounts up over time, and there’s no denying the noise pollution they create. If your lawn is small, why not switch to a manual lawn mower - you’ll be harming the environment less, saving money on energy bills, getting exercise outdoors, and you won’t be disturbing your neighbours as they try to relax in their own gardens. That’s gotta be good, surely?

Weed and Feed style fertilisers are harmful to the environment and really shouldn’t be used (I’ll be disposing of mine); there’s been enough publicity about herbicides and pesticides that we should all know the consequences of them and weed and feeds are no exception. A balanced, natural lawn fertilizer and no weed killers is the answer if you want a ‘green’ lawn.

Photo: Nutmeg66

But let’s say you really can’t stand those dandelions. Well digging them up won’t work. Just a tiny piece of root needs to be left for it to grow again and if you break the root in two, you’ll actually be propagating it. If only the plants we want in the garden were that hardy! Putting salt in the middle of the leaf rosette kills them but it has to be done before the plant starts developing its flower stem. Other than that, it seems we’ll just have to live with them. They’re actually quite beautiful when you stop thinking of them as weeds, and bees and ladybirds love them for their pollen.

Then there’s water. Apparently a modern lawn of average size accounts for a massive 30% of domestic water usage during the summer months. That’s a LOT of water!! Drinking water! If you must have a lawn, at least install a waterbutt so that you’re not depleting our precious water supply quite as much.

Thankfully I only have a very small front lawn and have no intention of ever having a well manicured lawn at the back. Until I can afford to pay somebody to come in and landscape my garden (mud pit), I’ll just chuck a load of grass seeds out there, mix in some wild flower seeds and let it do its thing. With some shrubs along the fences and a few climbers, preferably native ones, I think it’ll be okay. Who knows, it may even stay that way :-)

Sharon J

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Would You Miss The Buzz?

Photo: Andreas

Albert Einstein is rumoured to have once said:

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Whether or not he actually did say it, we don’t know. The jury’s still out.

Now I can’t be absolutely certain that it would only take four years as I’m neither a bee, nor or bee-keeper, nor a person who’s studied bees. I have, however, always known that we’re dependent on them to pollinate our crops. That’s our fruit, veg, corn etc. Yes, science is making lots of progress when it comes to self-pollinating crops, but is that really the answer? Wouldn’t we miss the gentle buzz of bees during summer? What was that you said? You hate them because they sting? Noooo! Just leave them to get on with their business without swatting at them and you'll be fine.

Anyway, back to the point in hand.

Apparently we could be facing a bit of a bee disaster this year. According to Scotland’s Sunday Herald, thanks to the extreme mild temperatures that February brought with it, queen bees were emerging early this year. That’s two months too early!

When the article was written there was fear that these Queens would be killed off should temperatures drop during March, which they have done. I don’t know about where you live but here in South Cheshire we’ve had some very nippy nights. LM (that’s DD2) had to keep scraping ice from her car windscreen in the mornings!

Considering there’s already been a decline in the numbers of bees in this country over recent years – thanks to destruction of their natural habitats and chemical pesticides etc - this isn’t good news at all.

This is something I think we all need to take action on.

• Instead of planting flowering plants that have little or no nectar at all, find nectar rich - preferably native – plants for the bees to feed on instead.
  
  
• Let the clover grow in your lawn. It’s an excellent source of food for bees whereas lawn grass offers nothing at all. The scent of clover also entices them into the garden, as does cat mint (nip).
  
  
• Make sure there are safe and warm places for them to spend the winter. Special bee houses can be bought but I’ve seen some simple home-made versions that have worked just as well. A pile of old dried logs can be useful too, but remember they like to nest up relatively high.
  
  
• Unless you have a pond or bird bath, put out a tray of water so that the bees can quench their thirst.
  
  
• And for goodness sake stop using chemical pesticides in your garden. A ‘perfect’ garden without insect life just isn’t worth the environmental risks that go along with it.

Photo: Andreas

Plants that are good for bees include:

• Heather
• Primroses
• Snowdrops
• Crocuses
• Poppies
• Borage
• Thyme
• Foxgloves
• Cornflowers
• Marigolds
• Sunflowers
  
• Honesty
• Aquilegia
• Lupins
• Hollyhocks
• Campanulas
• Lavender
• Salvia
• Old fashioned roses
• Honeysuckle
• Jasmine
• Any flowering berries and fruits

Before you go dashing off to the garden centre, one thing to bear in mind is to avoid double flowering varieties. They may look pretty but they’re far less useful to the bees. In fact, some aren’t of any use at all because the nice, plump bees just can’t get far enough in.

I’m definitely going back to a wildlife friendly garden. One day, my mud pit will be transformed, until then I shall put out plenty of pots and plant a new honeysuckle. Oh, and I do plan to throw a packet of grass seed around, mixed in with some wild meadow flower seed. It's gotta be better than it is now :)

Sharon J

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What's In The Freezer?

Photo: jeffreywithtworf

Once upon a time I had a freezer full of food but absolutely no idea what was in there. Then I decided enough was enough. It was time to empty it out and get organised.

I found food in there that I really didn’t know we had. I think they may have been there since OH actually lived here in the house with us because I can’t remember ever buying them. A half full bag of pilau rice; a bag and a half of ‘smiley faces’; a bag of mixed veg of the kind we don’t eat and a few more things. There were also several half eaten tubs of ice-cream, several half used bags of oven chips and an apple pie that must have been there at least a couple of years. Disgraceful!

As this was before the wormery was even considered, most of the unwanted and outdated stuff had to be binned. It always seems such sacrilege to throw away food when there are starving people in this world but I could hardly just kick it around until it disappeared, could I?

Anyway, as I put the remaining contents back I made a note of everything that went in. Two mince and onions pies, a full bag of oven chips, 500g steak mince, 1 fillet steak, 12 meatballs, 1 meal of leftover chilli etc etc. I tried to be as precise as I could but without being finicky and weighing everything.

I then found an old ring-binder and a few plastic sleeves and popped the list inside. Now, whenever I use something from the freezer, or add to it, the list gets updated and I know exactly what I have. Things are so much easier that way. I no longer double up on freezer supplies and don’t have to delve through to see what I have that I can make a meal out of.

The folder is also used to keep recipes from the net, notes of any household tips and tricks that I pick up, my list of gifts that I need to make, and all sorts of other bits and pieces.

Once I have the energy I’ll start sorting out the rest of the food supplies and listing them, too.

Organisation really does simplify life. If only I could be as organised in the rest of my house. One day…

Sharon J

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Cross Cabbages

Just a quickie that I thought might be useful for the veggie gardeners amongst you.

If you grow cabbages, make a cross in the stalk that’s left in the ground and new, small cabbages will spring up from it.

I don’t grow them myself but my mum said my granddad always did that when he grew his own vegetables during the war, and the little cabbages were often better than the big one.

It must be worth a try, at least.

Sharon J

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