Saturday 30 April 2022

Gardening Tips

I can hear you all saying to yourselves "Oh the hubris of the woman, she's only been at it a year!!" But for what it's worth here are a few tips I would like to share. You probably know these things already...

Tip #1 -About 35 years ago, a friend gave me a bulb planter and a bag of daffodil bulbs. I have just realised that this gadget is ideal for planting runner beans. I've grown them in loo roll tubes, as per Huw's guidance. This will make a perfect hole of the right depth

- I can pop the tube in, without disturbing roots etc, then fill up round the sides with compost.I now have 7 little bean plants and 2 larger ones round my teepee.


Tip #2 - walking to the Village Post Office before Christmas, I noticed a child's fireguard going begging. I had fancy ideas about a "fruit cage" and raspberries etc. I dismantled the panels so it would store tidily - but I have found another use for the narrow side panels. This makes a lovely little trellis for my new jasmine to climb. This sweet smelling plant was a birthday gift from my neighbour, who is encouraging my gardening endeavours, and wants to broaden my interest beyond vegetables!

Tip #3 - from my wonderful SIL Denise. I started my broad beans on the kitchen windowsill, then I moved them out to the greenhouse. But they seemed beset by little flies.

"Help!" I cried. She suggested that rather than spray the actual seedlings, I should put some flyspray onto a few cotton wool balls and leave them on the shelf between the plants. Brilliant - within 24 hours the flies had all goner, and they never came back! Thanks Denise.

Finally a NON tip, if there is such a thing...In March, Bob spotted a wasp in the carriage house [the side of the Lathe Palace where the Skoda is parked] A couple of days later, he noticed the tiny beginnings of a wasp nest.

We did some internet research, and discovered we needed to spray and remove the next before it got any bigger. A number of sites said "You can deter wasps by putting old fashioned mothballs in places where they are flying"

So he sprayed the nest, then removed it [it was tiny, smaller than an orange] and lined up mothballs all round the inner edge of the roofspace. Bob has been vigilant in checking, and last week he spotted another tiny nest - and what is worse, a couple of wasps flying around up there, and actually landing on the mothballs!

We have concluded that this tip about them being a deterrent is "a load of old cobblers" if you'll pardon the vulgar expression.











18 comments:

  1. I hate tiny bugs and flies, so I grow French Marigolds for pots for the greenhouse - it keeps bugs off the tomatoes, then there's garlic for roses. Companion planting is a great thing, a subject in itself.

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    1. I must read up about companion planting - I like the idea of French Marigolds among my tomatoes

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  2. Thanks for the tip about wasps. A quick internet search seems to indicate that they don’t like peppermint or cloves either so I will try that in the loft as they creep in there from time to time. Not put my runner beans out yet as they don’t like cold winds. We get a lot of east wind here.

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    1. Presumably that is peppermint oil - I am not going to string polo mints round the place!

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  3. All excellent tips!! Hmmm, where do I get a bulb planter? Must plant my beans!!!!

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  4. Unfortunately wasps and yellow jackets are determined and much of what you find on the internet about natural ways to get rid of them don't work. They are pests! I was sitting outside on my patio the other day and two yellow jackets kept hovering and going under the table and trying to start a nest. The problem with them is that they are mean and will sting you just for looking at them! The hazards of warm weather. :-)

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    1. The Internet has all sorts of strange ideas, we need to be quite savvy these days

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  5. Tip #3 is excellent as we have some wee flying annoyances that like computer scree light and other light sources. Just a nuscinence.
    Oh, I cannot see what I'm typing, so there will be typos. Sorry!

    Hugs - Barbara Anne

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    1. Typos all excused! Little bugs can be so irritating

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  6. A wasps nest is such a beautiful piece of work, but they pinch so much wood from fences etc while making it.

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    1. I agree - they are stunning to look at, and beautifully created. However, as you say, they damage wood to create them, and their stings are unpleasant

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  7. If anyone does know how to deter wasps from building nests, I'd love to know! The fake wasp nests that you hang up to deter them, are quite useless. We have also often had to remove tiny ones before they grow. We even found one on the underside of the patio umbrella. It seems wasp nests are sent to try us!

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  8. Great tips, Angela; sometimes, new gardeners have better, more up to date tips than old gardeners do. I'd never have thought of the bulb planter - not that I have one!

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  9. I'll follow up the tip about the little flies. I've been picking aphids off my sweet pea seedlings every morning for days; wonder if flyspray will deter them too!

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  10. I wish I had seen the tip about the fireguard before spending a fortune on the trellis (though very happy with ours!). There are a lot of very misleading hints around.

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    1. I'm sure your trellis is very attractive! Yes, the internet is not always reliable

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