Archive for countrytalkandtips.myfreeforum.org ........................ smallholding, crafts and country life ................................................... IN IRELAND .......................................................
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wayland
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So whats going on in your garden?Dont you jus luv this time of year?  . From my terrible rocky soil I now see Peas, Beans, Spuds, Carrots, Brassicas, Swedes, Sweetcorn, Parsnips, Marrows, Beetroot, Spinage, Parsley, Saladin's, Toms, Watercress, Rhubarb, Horseradish and a few seed trays with ??? lost labels  Luv it!. What is not so good is the soft fruit which has been decimated by vine weevil  Our newly planted orchard looks pretty with the blossoms but it will be a good few years before we get any kind of crop from the trees and bushes. So whats happening with you guys?
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blowin
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Sounds fantastic .
Pity about the vine weavil . Are you sure that is what it is ?
The soft fruit we planted last year is cropping but the bushes haven't got as well established as I had hoped . The topsoil is shallow so I think they need a huge amount of mulch .
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quarryman
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Despite the lack of rain, the garden is doing very well but a lot of the seeds planted outside are now only starting to germinate. Spuds, Onions, Cabbage and herbs are well advanced but the rest are lagging behind.
Work on the "polyshed" is well advanced so we will have a full range of winter veg this year.
Thankfully we have had no strong winds so the blossom on the fruit trees has stayed in place, so fingers crossed.
Anyone know a raindance, the water butts are empty and the well is low !!!
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greentree
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You should get some rain today!
BTW - Did you plant onion sets or from seed?
Mick
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quarryman
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Sets. They give me a really good headstart.
YES !!!! It's raining. [please never quote me on this again  ]
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wayland
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It was vine weevil on the fruit. The bushes were all in pots last year waiting for the move. Dozens of them. The showed a slow start this spring and quite a few had died. On tipping out the pots the little blighters were plain to see.  The chooks had a feast though. . We cleaned the soil off and pruned the top growth. Most of them are now showing signs of recovery but no crop this year. I have another problem. My lettuces are damping off. One by one they are keeling over. I gave them a spray with Murphy's copper spray but they are still in trouble. Perhaps I should mix up the stuff in a water can and give the soil a good dowsing. Any advice please.
Cheers.
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blowin
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That is really bad luck . I have never come across Vine Weevil in large numbers . Am I right in thinking that the grubs look like smallish maggots ?
I once had an extremely embarassing experience , tho' .
I had bought some plants from the garden centre and when I knocked them out of their pots I saw lots of round , light brown balls about the size of those coloured plastic pin-heads . Or a bit bigger than a big slug's egg , if you prefer . They were firm but had what seemed to be a thick pale liquid inside . I assumed they were Vine Weevil eggs and had a right old rant at the shop . Yer man told me that thay are in fact granules of slow-release fertilser !  
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wayland
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ROFL . I knew what was coming as I had the same opinion last week. Back to sadder things I got another problem with this veg plot. Some of my brassicas are developing fat stalks and squat leaves . I thought it may be club root but the young roots look fine. If I did not know better I would say that I am growing Kole rabi if that is how its spelt. I am not surprised that this plot is in trouble as it is almost 100 % subsoil. I was just relying on fertiliser to get a crop off it. Ho hum. Still the peas and onions look ok. Fingers crossed 
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Camile
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Hello,
There is plenty in the tunnel, but not much outside yet ....
IN the tunnel there is tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, peppers (sweet and chillis),
calabrese (we had a few heads allready),
peas (ate plenty while working, harvested 3 kilos with the pods thursday, froze 1,2 kilos of podded peas, and launched a gallon of pea pod wine
broad beans, are forming nice pods,
beans -> runners, climbing, climbing kentucky (yellow pods) and dwarf cupidon
lettuces
radishes,
carrots
5 cucumbers plants
5 melons
bulb fennel forming well
harvested plenty of strawberries (keeping in mind that they are only planted this year) in the gutters,
various flowers and feverfew ...
2 gerkhins
plenty of herbs of all types
then there is plenty waiting/ready to go outside -> corn, onions from seeds, leeks, globe artichoke, courgettes, pumpkins, beans
outside the blueberries, and various currents are cropping well ...
fruits trees doing well too ..
onionsfrom sets going strong, leeks from last year, strawberries in bloom, witloof from 2 years ago still going strong,
so plenty of work !
Camile
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admin
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I wonder what happens to Frenchmen if you plant them upside down
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Graney
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Most excited about my strawberry bed. Had a motley collection of old plants with quite a lot of runners that hadn't done very well where they were so dug them all up and guess what I found? Loads of vine weevil larvae (yes, they are like creamy white maggots curled in a crescent shape usually with a brown head)
Cleaned all the roots thoroughly and got rid of all the vine weevil larvae. It's surprising how satisfying it is popping them between your thumb and forefinger.
Replanted them in a new bed and they've just gone mad. Loads of flowers and now half formed fruit. Had loads of wood shavings and have used this as a mulch to keep the fruit off the soil and hopefully deter the slugs. Seems to be working well so far.
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admin
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Thanks for posting that pic . They aren't quite what I thought they were .
We've had a great crop of strawbs this year -- just come to and end .
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wayland
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It has been a busy time here. The extension now looks like an extension and part of the veg plot looks good. Well about a quarter of an acre does anyway. The Tates are in serious growing mode and I am tempted to start digging them, but the locals tell me to wait until the second week in July . While in Rome etc. The Japanese Onions and Garlic have been pulled and a reasonable crop too. I could have let them go a bit longer but I needed the space. The brassicas are now doing ok after a slow start and we have had our first crop of Broccoli. The spring greens are also fit . We also have growing. Runner Beans, Peas, Swedes, Sweet Corn, French Beans, Marrows, Spinage, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Beetroot, and Main crop Onions, In the orchard we have Raspberries, Gooseberries, Tayberries, Loganberries, Red and Blackcurrants, Blueberries. Apple, Pears and Plumbs, The fruit are a longer term investment as the dreaded vine adger has done a serious number on the bushes and the trees are too small to allow to crop this year but all in all it is nice to see some growth on this very poor ground. What is the greatest challenge is to try to knock the remaining half acre into production Loads of dung and a good ploughing this autumn is the plan. Once I have mended the plough of course. Over the next few weeks I have a neighbors paddock to cut and make hay with. looking forward to this I am. It will have to be done by hand . Well nearly as I do have an aged Allen Scythe but the hay will have to be turned by hand and squeezed into those large builders bags and hung up in the barn. That's about it. So whats happening in your neck "O" the woods?.
Cheers.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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keithrawlins
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its starting to look good this year i planted 6 strawberrys last year took all the flowers of so they would set runeres and at the final count last night we had 78 plants
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Graney
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Really pleased with the wood shavings mulch under the strawberries. Despite conditions that must be ideal for slugs, we've had virtually no damage from slugs on what has been a pretty good strawberry crop from our replants.
We're just seeing the first problems of grey mould on the fruit - hardly surprising with the weather we've been having.
Flaming June ..... pah !!!!
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