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Night shades

July 21, 2014

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Night shades

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April's Simple Pleasures of Growing

If you're like us, which I suspect a number of people that read this blog are, you're sowing and growing plants at this time of year, ad infinitum (well for these spring months anyway). And as we go through the cycle of sowing and growing plants for the year ahead, the inevitable happens - we run out of space. Well, this saturation point has happened here, and with the spring being so wet and windy, the end is not quite yet in sight for this conundrum. So there has been discussions and tentative actions on hardening off plants, as they transition from the growhouses to outside, protecting from those nighttime cold winds and frosts, and of course to maximising the limited space we have here for doing this. The reality is that if plants were to be moved straight out this month, with nighttime temperatures between zero and five or seven degrees Celsius, the plants would not last, particularly the more tender ones, or seedlings, that have not yet been har

Vine weevil and the evils of ...

Well, I could be accused of being childish with blog title like that. However, before you start singing 'all creatures great and small to me', I have plenty of experience of loss to justify my abhorrence of vine weevil, otherwise known as Otiorhynchus sulcatus. In actual fact, for these little lady's (and yes, they're all female ...), who was practically unknown here 30 years ago, there is a lot of information published on them. So rather than ranting about my own experiences and wailing about my losses, I've decided to do some research on them, which I've shared with you below. I've covered their life cycle, some information about their adult and larvae forms, and of course, what to do. While most of the information has been quoted from other sites, the pictures of vine weevil, unfortunately, are my own. Enjoy ... Vine weevil is an insect that can infest a wide range of ornamental plants and fruits, especially those grown in containers. Adult vine

Repotting Wisteria in spring

As you may know, if you follow my blog, I've been busy repotting plants in preparation for the year ahead. One of these, is a very neglected looking Wisteria, which provides amazing mid spring colour. So the opportunity arose to repot it today. It's a simple process really. Remove it from its old pot and place it into a bucked to soak (the rootball was dry-ish). Next step is to get a suitable size pot, in this case I had a nice glazed container, and use some old cookery at the base for drainage. I teased way some of the old compost, removed any weeds & their roots ... ... and repot it using my soil mix, which is primarily good sieved (apparently sterile) topsoil, some well rotted manure and about 20% bought compost & grit. Next step is to firm the plant in place and provide water. In this case I included a touch of early spring colour in the guise of some Muscari I had. Et viola ... Looking forwa

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