filling a space... and sawfly

[4390evans]

I've got a sq space of about 6 by 6 foot, Ive just took onions out of it but want to put something in there till next April (when my peas will be going in.

Any ideas? I cant put carrots or long growing root veg in there as there is not much depth and it is in half shade. I was thinking I could sow a bit fennel in there but what else?

Also I have had sawfly obliterate the foliage on my gooseberries, does anyone know of any natural remedies to deter and get rid? I don't use any chemicals on my food.

thanks guys

[bario1]

Spring greens?

[BUFFS]

pak choi (them Chinese cabbage) do well started around now, or some late beetroot, lovely , small, sweet, spring onions and some lettuce types will be okay, stump rooted carrots would be okay, so there is plenty to choose from. if you look on the back of the seed packets they tell you when you can sow, all that matters is they will whatever you pick be a wee bit smaller due to shorter growing time.. and for sawfly look over on the fruit page...

[Scoot]

PSB, Kale, Durham early cabbage?

[Penellype]

If you like celery, Chinese celery can be planted now and will stand over the winter. The stems are smaller than standard celery, but you can eat the whole thing and it is MUCH easier to grow than celery. Simply cut some stems for soup, stews, salads etc and leave it to "come again".

This was my solution to my gooseberry bush being defoliated by sawfly last year:



The other plant is a blackcurrant bush.

The whole thing is the tall net at the back of this photo:



It is made of fine insect mesh, draped over the frame of a blowaway greenhouse and sewed up one side. The other side is folded over several times and clipped to the frame. So far, touching all available wood, I haven't had a problem with sawfly this year. However, I do only have 1 gooseberry, which could be due to the bush being young (2 years old), defoliated last year, aggressively transplanted, grown in total shade or covered with insect mesh making pollination difficult - or any combination of these things! The blackcurrant has no fruit at all, but it is only a year old.

However, you need to be aware that sawfly pupate in the soil. My gooseberry is in a pot and I repotted it, having washed off all the soil before I put the net up.

[4390evans]

I've got three bushes and it only went for this one? It's about two years old too.

I went out this morning and cleared the earth round it then give it a good shake, all these tiny caterpillars fell down I crushed every single one! I couldn't see them before for some reason. I can't cover it like the ones showed in the pic as it's trained up a wall. I was thinking of moving it later this year to be with the rest of my gooseberries but now I'm wonderingif I should bin it?

Would the leaves grow back next year ok?

[Penellype]

The leaves on mine grew back this year, but I doubt it does the bush any good to be completely defoliated every year.

[4390evans]

You know.... I think it wasnt sawfly �� I just looked up the larve and Google shows black caterpillars where as the blighters I squashed were bright acid green and about 5mm?

Or do they change colour as they get bigger?

[purplekat]

They are bright green when small http://toutunmondedansmonjardin.pers...es/A4662_w.jpg, I used to try and hand pick them off but found they didn't affect cordon grown gooseberries anywhere near as much. Traditional advice is to open the bush up as much as possible, by pruning out the inward facing shoots. When trained up a wall, the protection from the wind provided may mean you get problems anyway.

[Dalrimple]

mines been striped bare this year again and it's trained in a fan on a wall and on the hottest day last week all the berries where cooked ! so iv'e bush with loads of rotten fruit and no leaves ,there's only me that eats them so I may dig it up in October and replant it in a hedgerow near where I live then others can sare its fruits.
can peas be planted now ? atb Dal