Anthocyanin must be disagreeable to their tastebuds. I have noticed that cabbage whites are less likely to lay their eggs on purple cabbage, but I put that down to camouflage...
Anthocyanin must be disagreeable to their tastebuds. I have noticed that cabbage whites are less likely to lay their eggs on purple cabbage, but I put that down to camouflage...
Summer is done. Time to plan for next year and dream about the bounteous pest-free crops that I'm going to grow. I'm cutting the hedging back to allow more sunlight in and I've hired a chipper/shredder to help with pre-digestion.
The stars this year were broad beans, courgettes and aubergines. French beans did fine, tomatoes meh and squash very disappointing. Leeks looked splendid until about 3 weeks ago when the allium leaf miners started shredding them. I have pulled them all up, squashed all the bugs I could find and used what was usable. I'll skip a year and try to design some protective cover for future crops...
But nobody told the weatherman. It's been a slow cool spring, but at least there's been some rain and everything is green and lush. The night-time temperature is hovering around 7°this week so I'm keeping tomato plants in the greenhouse for a while yet.
The broad beans I sowed late November are blooming and look splendid...
I planted out 10 asparagus crowns today in a trench along one side of the 'hugelkultur'.
And whilst doing so I unearthed (and reburied) a massive stag beetle. Maybe because I usually see female ones, this one seemed particularly enormous. Was he a wee grub when I entombed the dead wood six years ago? Anyway, I'm hoping he wasn't too discombobulated by the experience ...
Seeds sown March 12th growing on in the greenhouse. Cabbage Savoy 'Violacea di Verona', 'Rodynda', 'Green Acre', Lettuce 'Devil's Tongue' and 'Radichetta', Mustard 'Red Frills', Beetroot 'Formanova' and 'Touchstone Gold', Celeriac 'Giant Prague' and Swede 'Best of All' and Leeks 'Monstrueux de Carentan' in the background ...
My experiment on the greenhouse this year - meh. I guess they needed a longer season, but then, as they don't store as well as potatoes, and we have to eat them up sharpish ... mayhaps it's as well there isn't a heap. Lots of little squiggles that I suppose would have fattened up if the weather were to stay warm for another month. And they have been slightly neglected in the water department since the hosepipe ban ...
I didn't think they would survive the drought, but only a few days after last Wednesday's rain life began to emerge ...
This little brimstone has taken up winter quarters in the greenhouse. I tried putting him out, but when he just sat and stared for a day and a half I brought him back into warmer environs.
Sowed broad beans 'Aquadulce Longpod' yesterday and continued garden clear-up in sunny 16°. Also liberated the seed from 'Lady Godiva' squash. Not a very impressive take at 2/3 of a pint ...
Yesterday I dealt with some of my cucumber overload - 5 x 1 litre jars of sweet and sour ...
"Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean."
And as days of pandemic inspired incarceration have stretched to weary weeks and now six months, I feel ever more kinship with the ancient mariner and more and more strongly that we have indeed, collectively, shot the albatross.
The Richard Burton/John Neville reading of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner happily showed up on ResonanceFM's 'Voices on Record' about a decade ago and is still available as a podcast! I grew up with the Gustave Dore illustrated text - a facsimile edition that my mother gave me for a teen birthday. But scouting around now I see that there is another take by the wonderful Hunt Emerson. In fact I have just ordered two T-shirts, one for me and one for him indoors.