Sweetcorn - check ! ... now safely planted - the ones at the front have been in plastic cups and have grown much bigger than the ones in root trainers - so note to self for next season ... plastic cups are the future. Following my commercial sweetcorn snooping, I've planted them much closer this season - will be interesting to see if it makes any difference whatsoever.
After yet another trip to B&Q to get yet more canes (where do they go every year !!) I finally manged to finish planting out my beans - these are purple (such attention to labelling I hear you cry). I planted them out today, in the gale force wind !!! The beans I planted out yesterday have been battered completely and lost most of their leaves ... hope they pull through. Sigh
The recent sunshine and rain have seen my potatoes recovering well from their frost bite - just hope with the mix of weather we've had lately that the dreaded blight doesn't appear. Hopefully it's still a bit early in the season.
No where on earth are my leeks going to go !! I've just about run out of space - still got 99 million leeks, 6 courgettes, couple more squashes, 5 globe artichokes and about another 15 potatoes to find a home for
Here's my last hope LOL. I've also got my brick bed - maybe the leeks will go there and the small space in front of the greenhouse ... maybe my courgettes will squeeze in there. That means artichokes will be going here. Hmm !!
Drastic times call for drastic measures - so I've decided to try vertical integration again for my squashes in an effort to plant them all. Do I think it will work ? no, not at all - but it's always good to have an optimistic outlook on life right ?
Having failed miserably on the manure front I had a brainwave this morning .... why not plant my squashes in compost from my compost heap ! Brilliant idea. After filling a barrow full I noticed a bee - that quickly turned into a few ... seems I have bees nesting in my compost heap !!! blummin' typical - guess that's the end of the heap until winter. Unfortunately I also have bees nesting in my kitchen roof at home - any ideas how to get rid of them without just filling in the hole and killing them ?
Anyway, the little compost I got looks great, well I thought it did:
The greenhouse is now fully planted up with cucumbers, melon, tomatoes & sacrificial flowers - I've been enjoying strawberries for the last week or so - yum ! It's pretty hot in their during the day, but the temperatures are still dropping at night, so the door will remain shut for now:
My apple tree is dripping ... but sadly I have forgotten to buy it a tree stake, so it is currently doubled over and suffering greatly with the wind ! Note to self - must try harder ...
Bees, you just have to remind yourself it's good to have them around really. I was tidying the back garden the other day and came across them underground, so finished my gardening very quickly! Sadly the cats know where they are and have been trying to dig them out, catch them, eat them, etc.
ReplyDeletemmm but do I want them in my wall ??
ReplyDeleteWe always plant our sweetcorn fairly close together with no problem.
ReplyDeleteWe had a bee nest in the straw covering some plants and so have left it be(e)
Are they bumble bees or masonry bees? I don't think they will cause any real harm so why not wait til they leave and then block the hole. If they are masonry been and the mortar is soft it may need scraping out and repointing with some harder mortar.
We had a swarm of bees (honey) nesting in our compostbin (dalek type) last year and while some people said it would be good for pollination, I needed to get my compost heap back. Besides, although I didn't think they would, they made me nervous because they were so loud and buzzy (I don't mind them individually). So I was advised to open the lid and wet the compost and they would move on. Which they did.
ReplyDeleteAfter they had gone, I felt a little sad, but I really hadn't liked them there.
A lot of the stuff I planted suffered in the high winds but, ever the optimist, I'm hoping they'll recover!
ReplyDeleteI was looking at my sweetcorn earlier today and thinking I should probably have planted it closer together :)