Nah, it's a ratsnake, I was thinking of sending it to tamsin....

That'd be good. Suddenly I don't mind the neighbours cats being in the garden so much either.

Waiting for my landlords go ahead on getting the exterminators in. I just know its going to be some bloke that turns up and says something like "So, its one rat, in your garden and you freaked out. Why are you wasting my time?"

But we'll see...

I am realy struggling with ants in my lawns this year. There seem to be nests everywhere. Does anyone have any advice on getting rid of them all in a systematic fashion? Thank you.

My husband read somewhere that termites won't nest where there are black ants. Since then he's been remarkably friendly toward the black ants! I do spray across door and windowsills every now and then though, and find that's enough to keep them out of my house.

As for exterminators, I was nearly run over by a Rentokil van once. Gave me pause for thought...

Hello - new here and didn't expect to find a gardening thread Has anyone else had a really disappointing fruit season? I've got two plum trees and one greengage - dripping with fruit last year, but a grand total of 3 fruits between them this year.

We paint the greenhouse glass in late spring with white stuff that you get at garden centres, and then wash it off at the end of the summer - that's good for preventing scorch if your greenhouse is in full sun.

don't know if it has been mentioned on here..
how do you get rid of moles that are destroying the lawn?

Hiya,
Does anyone know a good way of 'putting slugs off' eating my lovely veggie plants without killing them?? Every time I ask someone this they say 1) slug pellets 2) salt 3) beer and I have to say "yes but that does kill the slugs doesn't it!" . The response to the beer idea when I said this was "yes, but at least they have a very pleasant death"
I'm thinking of getting some material impregnated with copper that you sort of put around the plant - has anyone found that this works/doesn't? Any ideas? I don't really think I can be a veggie and then go around killing vast amounts of slugs .
Oh, and how about ideas for plants that I can put nearby that they might like more... would that work?
ta.

How about Slug ######s?

I've not used it, only found out it existed today, but I might give it a go (I've been using nematodes successfully, that does kill the slugs but at least they go underground to die and you don't have to see all the dead slugs).

Oh, I wonder if it will censor the product name...just in case, it's called Slug Bug - gers, as in (I assume), something that Bugs a Slug!

Edit: Haha, not only did it sensor the product name, it censored the URL! So here's a different URL without the naughty word in it so the link will work: http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodS...ers/GPC-567.htm

You need to watch Jasper Carrot's sketch on "The Mole", hilarious.
Bev.

Oh, YES - one of my favourites!

Slugs don't like: Sand, coffee grounds, grit, gravel, copper wire; as it hurts them to crawl over it.
I suppose you could have sacrificial Hostas !

I was emailed a newsletter the other day about slug repellents, by a mail order company I'd previously bought music from

All you keen gardeners here probably know all about slug repellents already but for what it's worth, here's the link to lots of devices to deter or get rid of sluggy things...


http://www.selections.com/garden-products/pest-repellers/

Brilliant! I shall try a combination of sharp gravel and copper ringy type deterants - at this rate I might actually get to eat some of the courgettes etc! I came across one slug the other evening, looking as if he was on the slug equivalent of a pub crawl for juicy plants! ha ha ha - put him out in the alley to go eat the weeds and stuff. I'll have to make sure they can't get on the plants from any other direction than from the bottom up though, otherwise my plans will be scuppered.

My studio is in a small, old Welsh cottage in our village. A few years ago I chipped off the old grey pebble-dashed front to reveal the lovely stonework beneath, and I have the only stone fronted cottage here now. The others have had theirs re-dashed ( Is this a word? It is now!) over the years. This summer I decided to add window boxes and hanging baskets and to tidy up the rose beds at the front and it does look rather good. So much so that now people are coming round to take photos of it!!! Fame at last!

I'm sure I read somewhere that snails have a 2 mile homing instinct, so relocating them (or throwing them into your neighbours immaculate ( ) garden) doesn't necessarily work.

Anyone fancy painting nail varnish on a few snail shells and giving them a lift elsewhere to see if they make it back? (Though then you might not have the heart to kill the little critters.)

You could always eat the snails......

You must all be in the garden...

I wish...recently I've been given both a bitter gourd (winter melon) and a bottle gourd plant, and am itching to get them into their permanent places, but busy with work for another day. Temperatures in the mid-30s with killer humidity...swelter, swelter...

Meanwhile, I saw the gardener who used to look after our trees casting a baleful eye on them (previous owners of our house moved over the road, and he comes to do their tiny trees once or twice a year, and disapproves of my neglect of our trained pine tree). So we've invited him to come and carry on the good work, and get that pine tree tied to splints and have its tufts thinned to the regulation 3-5 per branchlet and what not! Poor old thing won't know itself...

I found a hedgehog in my garden early this morning. I do hope he'll stay - apparently they can eat their bodyweight in slugs in one night.

I am not sure why so many of you are so sentimental about slugs and snails. They eat my hostas and other things I chop them in half very quickly witht the trowel and chuck them on the lawn for the birds to eat so nothing gets wasted
Now you will all think I am a monster
Bev.

I'm definelty not sentimental about them- death to slugs and snails !
(and blackfly and ants, woodlice are pretty harmless though)

There are supposed to be good and bad slugs, but I'm afraid I don't give them the benefit of the doubt. .I also toss them, and the snails, into the middle of the garden and the blackbirds come down for them.

No sign of my adult hedgehog this morning, but three young ones have appeared. They all seem to be living under the (raised) rabbit hutch. Two of them obviously understand that they're nocturnal, because they were sound asleep, but they haven't quite got the hang of going to bed and were just curled up asleep in the middle of the lawn.

My first broad beans are almost ready, and although my carrots haven't been entirely successful, I did pull up three this morning - well, it's one each, as my husband doesn't like them! French and runner beans have not been entirely successful either this year, but some of them are flowering at last.
.



That sounds beautiful

I grew my french beans in modules in a plastic greenhouse and then planted them out last week and they are doing fine.
My carrots have been particularly rubbish this year, as have onions.

I'll try that next year. Sorry about the other veg!

The first tomatoes are about ripe- could do with a bit more sun really

I hope to be adding to its fame soon. At last the family venture west enough I may get to visit Petra.

All quiet in here again !

The pumpkins are coming along nicely- now about the size of melons. (This time last week they were the size of apples)

My lilies have finished flowering, and the crepe myrtle must be just about ready to flower - the buds are still tight, but bees are hovering around the unopened buds in anticipation!

Snake beans are racing up their trellis, neck and neck with the moonflower.

Passionfruit vine dropped all its fruit early and shows no signs of further flowering.

I've been putting herbs on our morning cheese toast...that is, until I noticed that my brother in law was piling strawberry jam on top of the cheese and oregano, in an attempt to drown out the herb flavour!

Strawberry and cheese....Yum !

Yes, but strawberry and oregano...

Anybody else enjoy chrsyanthemums? I'm busy being hard-hearted and nipping out terminal buds so that there will be lots of smaller flowers come autumn.

My courgettes are just not trying hard enough this year... again

Two years ago I had a bumper crop which lasted all summer. I've only got three flowers so far this year.

Mine are only just flowering




Mine are misbehaving too, but the cucumbers are looking good

My greenhouse is doing nothing this year. 2 tomato plants (I have one tomato so far), 2 cucumber plants (a few tiny cucumbers), 2 pepper plants (doing nothing), 2 chilli plants (covered in flowers ), one aubergine (deceased - the slugs came in and ate it).
I think a lot of it is down to neglect from me I didn't do enough watering earlier in the year and now it looks like it is too late for everything to catch up. But, on balance, what I was doing instead of looking after my greenhouse was fun too...next year I'll pay everything an even amount of attention!

On the other hand, the outside vegetables have done well - onions galore and a dozen celeriac and tonnes of cabbage.

Yet again my tomatoes and raspberries were all blown over this weekend.

My french beans are just becoming ready to eat Yum !

Anybody else having problems with hordes of caterpillars ?
On saturday I had a row of healthy cauliflowers, by Sunday morning all the green leaves were gone-eaten by about a hundred cabbage white catterpillars.

Yes! We had cool, damp weather for about a fortnight, and there they are - black caterpillars on the basil, thin green ones on the perilla, stripey ones on the parsley...and all chewing as hard as they can!

However, I'm very glad that we haven't had pine caterpillars this year. Occasionally they reach plague proportions, and as the hairs are poisonous, it is horrible when they drop on me out of the tree over our front door. I believe that once in Korea they were so bad that they ate almost everything else once the pine trees had been decimated, and in desperation, the people roasted them on sticks and ate them (cunningly peeling off the poisonous skin).



So just remind any caterpillars you see of what awaits them if they get too big for their boots.

love it!

I haven't noticed a particular problem with caterpillars, but there are several cabbage whites around, so I'll be vigilant.

I picked my first outdoor cucumber this afternoon - looking rather like a spikey caterpillar itself, and some lovely Blauhilde french beans - gorgeous purple flowers and then the pods are purple too, turning green when cooked. The garden ran riot while I was in Cornwall and it's going to take some serious resolution on my part to get it back under control.

The sweet peas are lovely this year - very fragrant.

I've seen an amazing runner bean here which has scarlet and white pods...sadly, they cook up to ordinary old green...

I have some Prince french beans- they are purple but also go green when cooked. I also have Yellow Teepee which are (not suprisingly) yellow, and stay yellow when cooked- thankfully caterpillars don't eat the bean plants too, my main losses are from accidentally standing on them !

Beautiful beans!

I got out into the garden properly today for the first time in over 3 weeks and it's run away without me, not surprisingly. Weeded, tied up and generally tidied the veg. Dug up all my bolted salad and found a handful of lovely carrots.

In the rest of the garden - blackspot. Horrible, horrible blackspot. I need to collect every infected leaf I can find and it's going to take hours. I love roses but I'm seriously considering taking most of them out. I'll probably feel better about it tomorrow Spent about 3 hours out there altogether, but there's so much to do. My younger son came out for a while and dead-headed all the big daisies. It's always so much better when someone else is doing something too

The pond water level is a bit low, but lots of fish including tiny new ones.

Spent saturday pulling up leafless Kale, Caulis and Rocket- bloomin caterpillars !

Only useful for small gardens...chopsticks (old gungy ones of course) are great for grabbing caterpillars off plants.

Any tips for miniature roses/patio roses? My non-gardening husband has gradually become more interested in plants, and recently a small flower shop opened up near his office. Every few weeks, they put their "old" miniature roses out at 100 yen each, when they start to look a bit sad. Husband can't stand to see them looking so neglected, so home they come...

I don't have the heart to tell him that I avoid growing roses in Japan's hot, humid climate, so any hints for keeping pests and diseases at bay most welcome!

My garden's been terrible this year. The roses have barely appeared at all. I have a normally fabulous hydrangea bush which is usually laden with blooms but they've been very sparse this year. I've got another hydrangea bush which hasn't bloomed at all And my lilac tree, which didn't bloom in the spring, doesn't seem to have grown any new leaves either. Even my pyracantha (Mozart variety ) hasn't got as many berries as it usually has I'm planning to uproot the roses (they've always been a bit yucky even when they've bloomed) and put in a rockery instead.

Caterpillars have got the brassicas and the tomatoes are dying of blight- the pumpkins are still going strong though !

Most of my flowering shrubs seem to have done ok this year.

Weigelas, berberis, potentillas, spireas and buddleia have all looked good at varying times. Just now the big sedums (ice-plant) are looking marvellous. Not as much bloom on the abelia as usual around now, maybe I need to prune it harder / less / not at all. Pale blue caryopteris is looking really pretty - I wish they were longer lived. Hardy fuschias are still blooming and seem to keep going whatever.

Our local council started garden rubbish collections earlier this year, so now that I have a guaranteed way of moving the stuff on, I've perhaps done a bit more dead-heading than other years - not sure if that has helped.

I haven't done veg this year - commiserations to those who've grown tomatoes.

Well? What's under the snow in your gardens, waiting for spring?

It's nearly time for my plum trees to bloom, and once that happens, it will be time to plant the peas that I should have planted last autumn .

After our road frontage was wiped out by a drunk driver last year, I lost most of my pot plants...but after several trips to the dollar shop for planters, the new fence now sports several types of thyme and sage, a rambling miniature pansy, dianthus, and various other roadside freebies.

I'm reviving my compost bucket this year. I did it years ago, using a Japanese system called bokashi composting. The idea is to use starter cultures to encourage rapid composting, using microbes that don't smell too bad...the only way to make compost in crowded housing conditions!

My snowdrops are coming up
Also, all this cold weather will have killed some of the garden bugs off..........yipee, frozen slugs and greenfly.
Bev

I've got one small bunch of snowdrops - I think a squirrel dug up the rest. I've noticed some daffodil and crocus shoots and two of my camellias have got buds but not, alas, the camellia I've had for years. It was pot-bound, so I planted it out, and it hasn't flowered for 4 years I know that my soil is too neutral for it, but I do give it Miracid, and the dregs from the coffee pot.

I didn't get round to pruning my roses in the autumn and I daren't do it yet with the frosts, so they probably won't get done at all this year.