Another tidy up

Had a right good, and yet another, tidy up this weekend.

The brassica end of the garden had become overgrown with weeds, which had grown to the same height as the brassica's, unfortunately not putting off the Cabbage white butterflies, who flew in earnest and dogged determination to find their 'prey'.  So we set about pulling out the weeds and eventually saw the fruits of our labours in some fabulous looking brassicas.  We were delighted.  We won't starve this winter.

Unfortunately they haven't survived the onslaught from the cabbage white's so at least another hour or so was spent squashing newly hatched caterpillars and smothering yellow clutches of eggs.

The next task was tidying up the tomatoes in the polytunnel, again.  I seem to be forever in there!  I don't think I'd remembered how labour intensive tomatoes can be.  The plants are overflowing with fruit and as a result getting tremendously heavy,  the stems are really struggling to cope.  I waded in with yet more canes and copious amounts of string, taking off unwanted leaves and side shoots as I went.  Due also to the amount of fruit on them I took off the tops to stop them producing any more. At least half of the plants had completely fallen over, the existing canes either snapped at soil level or just not man enough to cope with the weight.  Emerging two hours later, the polytunnel was tidy and happy again; I on the other hand needed to take a scrubbing brush to my hands!

Well pleased with the toms this year though, looking forward to eating them!  Have also declared I am no longer eating supermarket tomatoes, they are expensive and tasteless, rather just have a green salad.

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 13

Sales -

1 dozen eggs £1.80

2 x Cucumbers £1.20

Expenses -

Nil

Look what they've done now!

The little blighters, not content with decimating my winter cabbages they've been on my spring cabbages aswell.

That's two trays nearly all eaten.  It was only by chance that I noticed them.  I was watering them yesterday and wondered what was going on, happened to take a closer look and noticed what looked like caterpillar poo on the leaves, near where the leaves joined the stems on the upper surface, and didn't believe my eyes.

I swept my hand gently across the top of them and lo and behold did the little blighters fall off onto the compost in front of my eyes!  So I did it again until I found them all, and took great delight in squashing them. I'm hoping they aren't too far gone and will re-grow.  I had planned to plant two more trays, as we can sell them once pricked out and plant some here to for sale next year; looks like that job has just been added to my list for tomorrow.  Oh well that's gardening for you.

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 11

Sales -
1 & 1/2 dozen eggs £2.50
1 x 500g Tomatoes £2.00
1 x 500g Carrots £0.75
2 x Geranium plants £3.00

Expenses -
Nil

The attack of the Cabbage White Flutterby's

When I see a Cabbage white butterfly in the veg garden a loud groan emits from my mouth.  It's that time of year again, when vigilance is a virtue.

The pesky things have wrecked crops in my garden in previous years to a devastating proportion, but this year I'm already on the case.  Their numbers seem to have increased this year, by a large amount, I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, have they?  Only last weekend I saw twelve in one go around the veg garden.

A few notes on The Cabbage White, for those of you who are lucky not to encounter these wee beasties!

This is what it looks like -

There are two sorts experienced by UK gardeners the Small white and the Large white, extensively feeding on brassica's including swede's and turnips.  The cabbage moth causes even more damage by burrowing into cabbage hearts, whereas the butterflies tend to stay on outer leaves and cause damage like this -

The above plant had an early infestation of caterpillars which Michael spotted, I then took great delight in picking off the offenders and feeding as a treat to the chickens - they love em!  Which is one of the controlling ways you get rid of them.  Inspect your plants regularly for clusters of yellow eggs, if found pick them off and destroy.  If they hatch the caterpillars have a voracious appetite and will strip the leaves in double quick time leaving just the internal leaf stalks.  As you can see from the above picture plants can recover if caught early and will grow new leaves, but it is a battle to keep on top of them.

There is biological control available but I haven't used it, so can't comment on its effectiveness.  You can also cover your brassica plants with fine mesh to stop the butterflies being able to land and lay their eggs.  I tend to stick with the finger and thumb method, my chickens wholeheartedly agree!

Stats today (sorry I forgot yesterday's) -

Sales -
2 dozen eggs

Expenses -
Nil

How to make Pigeon scarers

We have dreadful trouble with pigeons here, and despite my husband's best efforts with his shotgun, we still get them eating our brassica's, in fact the air is often blue above our smallholding here!

I dreamt these up and, touch wood, they seem to work just fine, and cheap to make too.

You will need -
Canes
String/twine
Aluminium foil plates or pie dishes

I bought our foil dishes from the local £1 type shop, I think there was about ten in a pack.  I started off by cutting them in half - this cuts the cost down even further.  Then in the middle of one side I poked a small hole, just big enough to push a small piece of string.  Don't poke the hole too near the edge of the dish as the action of the wind, will rip the hole bigger and possibly tear the hole through.

The string I used was builder's line string (the only string I could find at the time), although this isn't the ideal as it twists and wraps itself around the cane.  I am in the process of transferring them over to baler twine, and will let you know if that is better.

The canes I used were 4ft long standard garden canes, pushed about 1ft into the soil.  I then tied the string tightly to the top of the canes.  They instantly began to flutter in the breeze and bash against the cane, giving off quite a loud noise.

The noise and the sun's reflection was enough to keep the pigeon's off for about a week, until one brave soul determined to get a meal, dared to get underneath them, but even he has now gone looking elsewhere.

It is a time consuming process, but the advantage of the the pie dishes is that they are cheap and do flutter in even the slightest of breezes.

I tried using the ring pull lids from tin cans, but they are a bit too heavy and therefore don't blow in the breeze.  And the pie dishes are better than CD's as they make a noise.

I'd be interested in what you do to keep off the birds and if you decide to try out my scarer's to know how you fared.

Mine in action!

From tomorrow I shall be away for the weekend, attending two re-unions!  So I won't be able to post - apologies.  Normal service will be resumed again from Monday.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your garden this weekend
Angela

Stats today -

Sales -
1/2 dozen eggs = £0.90

Expenses -
Nil