Penellype's 2016 Garden Diary

[craftymarie]

Wasps are not meant to like the scent of either eucalyptus or mint so if you can put either of those plants or scents right near the strawberries it could help deter the wasps.

[Penellype]

Thanks for the suggestions. Its hard to move things as pretty much everywhere is full. The perpetuals are at the back of the garden near the leylandii hedge (which is where I think the wasps are coming from, possibly from a nest in or under it or in next door's garden). The late fruiting Malwina are more of a problem as they are right next to the garden door, but they were already getting badly damaged by whatever the maggots are, and they are nearly finished so they shouldn't be too much of a problem for long.

I may invest in a mint plant - I don't eat mint but quite like the smell, and I could put it in amongst the perpetuals and see if it makes any difference.

[Penellype]

Thanks for the mint suggestion - initial results are promising.



Wasp damage to Malwina - I have given up trying with these as I can't get at them at all.



Wasps feasting on the last 2 Honeoye fruits (sorry the pic isn't very clear - I don't like wasps!)



Buddy, with mint nearby - no wasps (yet)

[craftymarie]

That is good news.

[Penellype]

This weekend:
At my friend's
Plenty of weeding and watering.
Cut down most of a large clump of ornamental grass which was in completely the wrong place. I still have this job to finish but completely ran out of time.
Removed sideshoots from tomatoes and tied them in again. I'm trying to train the greenhouse ones towards the apex of the roof, with rather more success than last year.
Banished the melons to one of the outdoor beds covered with a plastic cloche. For the 2nd year running they have no flowers, not even a bud, and the leaves are not looking great.
Harvested a few beans, Sarpo Mira potatoes (disappointing yield), a couple of yellow courgettes, some slug damaged half ripe tomatoes and a decent cucumber.

At home
Lots of deadheading, weeding and watering, removing tomato sideshoots and tying in.
Harvested one of the buckets of Sarpo Mira potatoes which appeared to be getting blackleg. 3 very decent sized potatoes in amongst the smaller ones, for a total yield of 1.2kg. Not as good as last year's sarpo, but much the best so far this year.
Trimmed the remaining strawberries now that the wasps have finished eating them
Cut lots of mildewed leaves off the courgettes, which are looking very sorry for themselves.
Sowed cabbages, chinese celery, mizuna and namenia
Harvested peas, beans, lettuces, the first of the Sungold tomatoes, calabrese courgettes and a few blueberries.

Just spent the last 1/2 hour watering the garden and we now have an absolute deluge!

I'm puzzled by the mint. It so far seems to be keeping the wasps off the perpetual strawberries (Buddy) but I am not sure this isn't because they are not quite ripe. I cut a couple of shoots off and put them in a jar of water near the Honeoye, and noticed the wasps were pushing past the mint to drink from the water in the jar! Time will tell I suppose.

[Penellype]

Mint Update.

The Buddy strawberries are starting to ripen, and even with the mint right in the middle of them they are being carved up and eaten by wasps. I have decided that since allowing wasps and other insects near them is going to result in zero yield, the best thing to do is cover them with insect mesh and put up with no further pollination. This way I will hopefully get a few ripe strawberries that I can actually eat.

[craftymarie]

It is such a shame the wasps are destroying the strawberries. They seem so determined to get the ripe fruit. Maybe next year will be better.

[Penellype]

Yes, each year is different. My fruit cage has evolved from the standard bird netting to insect mesh precisely because a few years ago I had a problem with wasps eating the blueberries. The difference with the perpetual strawberries is the need for pollination even when some of the fruit are ripening. I got rid of the autumn fruiting raspberries last year because I couldn't pick them due to the presence of wasps, so its clearly an ongoing issue in this garden.

[Jungle Jane]

Have you tried following them to find the nest? They nest close to where they know they can be fed every year? I was reading about people hanging ziplock bags 3/4 full of water with 6 shiny pennies in the bag,it's said to disorientate them,or use traps with a tiny entrance hole & then they drown in apple juice,they choose to go in there though so you're not really harming anything.

[Penellype]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I think the nest is in, under or the other side of the leylandii hedge at the back of the garden. On my side there is a brick wall at the bottom, so it is impossible to see what is there, and I am fairly sure that the hedge belongs to the neighbour at the back.

I'm slightly concerned about having disorientated wasps wandering about the garden and I don't like trapping things in liquids as it gives me a disposal problem. I'm considering options for the strawberries at the moment as I also have the maggot problem to solve.

[Penellype]

This weekend:
At my friend's
Weeding, watering and tying in etc.
Cut down a bit more of the ornamental grass
Spent most of the time chopping up a large bag of assorted garden rubbish to go in the compost bin. A shredder would have been useful, bit I'm a bit scared of them anyway so secateurs and lawn edging shears did the job instead!

At home
Deadheading, weeding and watering
Attempted to sort out the wasp problem on the strawberries by covering them with insect mesh. I will need to try to pollinate any new flowers.
Potted up the Terrain peas into 2 buckets. Hopefully they will perform better than the late sowing of Meteor (sown mid June) which has been woeful planted in the soil.
Sowed chinese celery, spring cabbage and lettuce
Pulled out the finished Hurst Greenshaft peas (these have been superb) and replaced them with 2 saladgrow planters of autumn/winter salads (spinach, mizuna, namenia and pak choi), netted of course, and the 2 newly planted buckets of peas.
Moved some of the late potatoes into a slightly sunnier position on the hedge path.
Lots of thinking and planning for next year and also for the next shuffle of pots which is going to be needed soon as some of the brassicas are outgrowing their nets.
Picked beans, peas, tomatoes, lettuces, peppers, courgettes and blueberries and the first of the onions to die down, which are always the smallest ones.

Potatoes
Harvested some replanted Lady C potatoes - I originally harvested these from one of the quadgrow pots at the end of June, but here were a load of tiny ones still attached so I shoved them in a bucket and put it in a dark corner (the only available place). Originally they produced 0.45kg from 2 small seed potatoes. This time there were another 0.2kg small potatoes. This finishes off the comparison experiment:
4 quadgrow pots 18 litres each, 3 with 1 seed potato and 1 with 2 small seed potatoes. Total yield = 3.1kg which is 0.62kg per seed potato. Plants from 3 of the pots were replanted after initial harvest and the additional potatoes are included in the total. One of the plants got blackleg some time after replanting.
4 buckets with 3 seed potatoes each yielded a total of 3.5kg, just 0.29kg per seed potato. At least one plant in each bucket got blackleg and they could not be replanted after harvesting.

Also harvested a bucket of Desiree as the tops had completely died down. This bucket produced 1.7kg from 3 seed potatoes, which is vastly better than any of the other varieties grown in buckets so far this year and on a par with the harvests of Desiree from last year.

[Penellype]

A very busy week with not much time for gardening, followed by a wet and windy day yesterday. At least today was nice.

At my friend's
Finished cutting down the ornamental grass. It is now possible to walk between the raised bed and the border again - until the damn thing grows back.
Planted out some swedes that I have grown in paper rolls at home. These have gone into a 30 litre bucket with copper tape round as the slugs are still devouring everything that goes into the soil.
Lifted a few of the onions that had died down and put them under cover to dry off. These have been mulched with the contents of last year's hotbed (pure horse muck) and some of them are huge.
Tied in the tomatoes again and removed some of the sideshoots. Losing this battle, as usual!
Noticed that the first couple of tomatoes on the Sungold plant in the greenhouse are turning orange. This plant was one that was very yellow when young and smaller than the others, and it is therefore behind the ones growing outside at home.
Weeding, watering and feeding.
Harvested a bucket of Sarpo Mira potatoes for a disappointing 0.95kg from 3 seed potatoes.
Also harvested calabrese, runner beans, french beans, red cabbage, cucumbers, Shirley tomatoes and a carrier bag full of courgettes, some of which are huge!

At home
Removed the Meteor peas as they were not producing anything worth eating.
Potted up some cabbages which will go to my friend's when they are big enough to survive the slugs.
Shuffled some pots around - moved 2 of the brokali to the back of the carrot cage as they were getting too big for their previous home under the strawberries. Moved the carrots to the front where they are easier to get to. moved one pot of carrots to the fruit cage for harvest - these were the Eskimo which for some reason are starting to go yellow. Apart from the odd bolted one the actual carrots are fine. Moved the calabrese plants that have been harvested out of the way under the strawberries where they can grow sideshoots if they want to.
Sowed winter spinach.
Removed the leucothoe plant which has been living in the pot on the north facing garage wall for the last 5 or 6 years but recently died. Nothing (apart from ferns and hostas) survives here for more than a few years, and I will have to think of something else now.
Weeding, watering and deadheading.
Ordered some more seeds - pak choi and carrot Marion as I had run out, purple basil for microgreens and chinese cabbage, which I have not grown before.
Also ordered slug and vine weevil nematodes and a Hozelock self watering planter which I am going to try growing strawberries in for next year.

[Penellype]

Another busy week, with the nearest I get to a "holiday" - a 1 day visit to my sister. The weather hasn't been particularly helpful, with yesterday a complete write-off and today rather limited due to everything being wet through.

The main job was to move 3 pots of Christmas potatoes, which were threatening to block the path behind the fruit cage. This was supposed to be simple as they would go where the meteor peas were, but this was right next to 2 buckets of Sarpo Mira, which have spotty leaves, so I didn't want them next to each other. So the Sarpo were moved onto the lawn, the Charlotte to where the Sarpo and peas were, and the Sarpo then went where the Charlotte had been. Their foliage is dying down so it will not block the path.
Dug up about half the onions and put them to dry on racks on the lawn then into the garage.
Moved the 2 buckets of Terrain peas to where the onions had been, which gets more sun in autumn.
Extended the netting that covers the 2 saladgrows of brassicas and spinach to make more space, using bits of the cloches for supports. Added a self watering tray with copper tape round, for putting brassica seedlings on. The cabbages I potted up last week went on here:


Cut down the white daisies which have finished flowering as a 2nd flush of flowers looks likely.
Trimmed the indoor tomatoes as some of the main shoots have now finished fruiting.
Constructed a mesh cover for a bucket of calabrese as the green fleece jacket it was wearing wasn't letting in much light. While changing things around to do this I found a small brown toad - a rarity in my garden but very welcome.
Potted up lettuce and spring cabbage.
Sowed pak choi and chinese cabbage.

My general walk around and check highlighted a few problems:
The Sungold tomato in the quadgrow planter has some brown patches on its leaves which I think originate from being allowed to dry out once by mistake. After yesterday's deluge (nearly an inch of rain here) the brown areas had started to go mouldy so I cut them off.
One of the Roma tomatoes has pretty much died, so I harvested the 4 small tomatoes (still mostly green) and removed it. The plant next to it, also Roma, is fine, as are the Ferline behind.


Noticed that some of the weigela shoots are dying back as well as one quite large stem, which I cut down to ground level as it was completely dead. This is worrying as the weigela is the only decent sized shrub in the garden and will leave a huge hole if it dies. Most of it still looks fine, so I think I will leave it until spring and see what happens, but I am very aware that it is only a few feet from where the acer tree that died was growing, and I have no idea what was wrong with it.

Today's tomato harvest:


At the top left, Sungold from the plant that has the mouldy leaves, including one green fruit that appears to be affected (the calyx had gone brown). Below these, the Roma from the dead plant, Shirley from indoor plants and Balconi Yellow from the growhouse.
On the right, Sungold from the 4 plants near the fence.

[Penellype]

This weekend:

At my friend's
Only Saturday morning this week, as it rained very heavily on Saturday afternoon and evening, adding to already saturated ground and making doing anything on Sunday extremely difficult.
The main job this time was harvesting a large tub of Charlotte potatoes. This was planted in March, outside, with 5 seed potatoes that were spare, on the basis that they would be better planted outdoors than thrown away. Like my Charlottes at home, despite being covered with fleece these were damaged by the frost we had at the end of April. I'd used homemade compost which included a lot of perennial weed roots, so I wasn't expecting a great deal. To my surprise there were hardly any perennial weeds and I got a reasonable 1.15kg of potatoes from this pot.
Also did weeding, watering in the greenhouse and tying in. The sweet potato I am growing in a bucket in the greenhouse has nearly reached the eaves and is making a takeover bid. The tomatoes I am trying in the quadgrow have huge trusses and are just starting to turn red (these were planted late).
Harvested tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes, beans and the first beetroot for my friend.

At home
Little chance to do very much because of the weather.
Found some dodgy looking brown marks on the Desiree potatoes and a couple on the Christmas Charlottes. I don't think this is blight, but I cut them off anyway, and harvested the bucket of Desiree which had died down the most, as insurance. 1kg potatoes from 3 seed potatoes in this bucket.
Harvested all the Sungold tomatoes that were starting to turn orange, just in case.
Also harvested runner beans, carrots, courgettes, cucumbers, lettuce, mizuna, namenia, blueberries and a couple of perpetual strawberries that have managed to ripen now the wasps are excluded. The strawberries hadn't much flavour, which was disappointing as last year's Buddy (from 1 plant) were really nice.

Sunday morning was dismal and damp, so I went to Wyevale and bought some plants in an attempt to brighten up the shady area near the north facing garage wall. I had 2 vacant pots, one on the path that had contained a leucothoe, which gradually died and the other containing a sad and straggly hebe. I bought a couple of fuchsias in flower and a heuchera, and spent the rest of the morning trying to get the hebe out of its pot, which has an annoying lip. I'd also cleverly mulched it with gravel, which was now covered with a layer of moss. Being from Yorkshire, I painstakingly separated off as much of the gravel as I could for re-use before hacking out the root ball. I potted up one of the fuchsias into a plastic pot and put this inside the pot with the lip, to avoid similar problems in future. The fuchsias look nice in their new homes, but I'm not so taken with the heuchera. Maybe it will grow on me, although most things I try to grow on that shaded path die fairly quickly - only the hostas seem to really like it there.

[Penellype]

Not what wanted to see on my morning walk around the garden:





These are my Sungold plants. In the first picture a small black spot has appeared next to where I have pinched out a sideshoot. In the 2nd picture a few very tiny black specks on this stem, near to a dodgy looking leaf.

We have had 4 days recently with Smith conditions but no actual Smith period, but yesterday morning it was foggy for a while and everything was wet through - perfect conditions for moulds.

I think this is the start of blight. I'm not going to panic and cut the plants down yet, but I have picked all the fruit that is turning orange and I am going to harvest at least some of the remaining 3 buckets of Desiree potatoes today. Not a great deal I can do about the Christmas Charlottes which won't be anywhere near ready yet.

At least if it is blight it will be a good test of my blight resistant Mountain Magic and Ferline! Always look on the bright side...