Love bug housing

You may remember a while back that I received a gift from Prezzybox.com to review and it wasn't to my taste - flower grenades, that looked a little too much like grenades for me.. Well the lovely people at Prezzy box read my review and were slightly horrified to learn I had been offended. Dear love them, after sincere apologies they offered me anything else from their gardening range to review and I choose this insect house :)

Now this is more my thing and it was utterly delightful to receive, to make and soon I will have the pleasure of putting it up in the lottie. Plus I get a cute little tin to keep essentials in like plasters and antiseptic wipes or maybe all  the labels and pencils etc... It's a great wee gift and this, my friends I would recommend. :)

Look how cute the tin alone is and the contents are laid out so prettily too. I got stuck into building my Bug House right away and it was delightfully easy and I'm super pleased with the results and the 2 ladybirds that came with it = adorable!!

Ok, I am quite sure bugs aren't that fussed on how beautiful their homes are but darn it I'll try anything to welcome on board and help us fight the enemies...

I'm in a love bug mood these past few weeks since I started to clear up the embarrassing messy parts for the plots. We are seriously lacking in helpful bugs and though I made a makeshift bug house years ago and purposely put lots of grass and stones under our shed for bugs - we seem to have counted 4 ladybirds between us, 2 frogs (yay!!), lots of bees but not much more than that :( I want more good bugs! (Who ever thought I'd say that!!) The leatherbacks and those damned New Zealand flatworms of the past 2 years have destroyed the lovely balance.

So here is my Bangor Blue slate hotel which also has lots of dead and decaying leaves in and around it since I took this photo. On the other side of the wee fence is this pile of rotting wood and an old pipe where a frog has been living.

Plus we have a ready rotten log over on 14b where our other frog lives and lots of woodlice etc and I have been leaving the artichokes to flower to try and encourage butterflies and bees etc. Next year there shall be sunflowers too (I forgot them this year) and more echinacea and black eyed susans etc. Yes 2 frogs *happy dance* and you know why I'm so happy -  they eat loads of insects and nasty creatures and the ultimate enemy, Slugs and Snails!!!!!! Hurrah

Is it just me or are the slugs much bigger this year??

The RHS answers the question about who might check into your bug hotel.....

"A surprisingly wide variety of invertebrates including nesting mason bees and leafcutter bees, woodlice hiding from the sun – and woodlice spiders hunting woodlice, earwigs hiding their babies from predators, ladybirds and lacewings hibernating over winter, beetle larvae feeding on the dead wood, funnel web spiders spinning their traps and centipedes hunting down their prey."

Good stuff I say :)

Thank you Prezzy box for increasing our chances of more friendly, useful bugs on the plots and as for the flower grenades - well I have taken the seed out of the clay containers and shall be scattering them this weekend over by the field boundary.

Hugs and best wishes to all
Namaste

Petite Brunette seeks free (organic) weedkiller, bug killer and blow torches!!!

I didn't order this weather!! What the heck is going on? It's raining, grey, blowy and darn right miserable out there, plus I have a blanket wrapped round me to help me feel cosy, it's JUNE! I have been trying to figure out what the word is that I have been looking for and I have it now....I am irked, blasted well irked.

So in the vain of this irk-y feeling I am going to moan, oh yes my friend, it is time to get something off my chest.

As I shared (with fanfare), we are now into our 5th season on the Lottie and all is going quiet well for the Gaults. But there is something that has been annoying me for quite some time now, something that has been getting up my nose, under my skin and rubbing me up the wrong way... THIS! >> There are so many people that have seemingly become bored with their soil 'toy' after so long and have let their plots go to gardening Hell!! To be honest I am fuming, really rather red in the face and though a non-violent person I could happily smack some butts!

Look at these examples, only the ones that surround our own plot! There is a waiting list for crying out loud and people have these in this state! ARRRGHHHHH. I know that any reader of my blog will be angry too and I thank you for your collective empathy for my present state.

We are naturally getting all the weeds of the day on our plots because of these plots and my hayfever (which up til now has been in check) is going mad with all this grass that has just been left to go to seed. I feel like getting tape from the Police and cordoning off these plots as crime scenes!

If that wasn't bad enough the green fly and aphids have returned in force. Yes I could squish them betwixt my fingers but seriously, with this many on one rose, it would be a green goo bath and I am just not strong enough in the tummy for that. Plus, there are no worms, none and only a smattering of ladybirds - they have abandoned us, left us to fight for ourselves and oh, woe is me!!

the Honeysuckle was sprayed with something - look how pretty it is now though!

There I feel much lighter for getting all that off my chest. I have so much to tell you about or wonderful plants that I could burst but patience my darlings, patience....For now let me show you the baby potatoes I dug up on Monday. These came from a couple of left over plants we had plonked in the ground whilst we waited for the Strawberries to come; now they're here was Goodbye spud plants and Hello tummy :)

Boiled and crushed with added homegrown garlic and peas - yummy!

pink flamingos

I live with the perpetual sense that I am just not good enough, ever. I fight it every single hour of every single day. But the 'me' who is fighting to just be okay with myself never wins. I never win. And now this......


The allotment has gooseberry sawfly, aphids, slugs (and millions of slug eggs), snails, mildew, big red moth pupae, cabbage white caterpillars, wireworms, flippin' pigeons and the bast*rding leatherjackets (and there's probably other stuff too, like flatworms - we had them last year). Plus hayfever has returned. What?! the whole world of sentient beings have turned their evil hatred against me now - is that how the game is being played??  

f-ing leatherjeacket that destroyed one of our asparagus crowns

Andrew is not a happy gardener - he talks in terms of EVERYTHING is crap and what's the point. The wind is so bloody annoying and the weather is just unpredictable and unhelpful. So there - today I just want to blasted well concrete over everything and put down plastic turf, fake flowers, a tramopline and some deck chairs, pink flamingos and some very stylish gnomes.

pink flamingos — aug 23, a photo by theogeo on Flickr.

Deep breath - I shall resume normal lottie based blogging next time and not be such a grump xx

Pride goes before a fall (well, I hope not!)

Oh, I know the old saying but I truly am proud of what Andrew and I achieved last week. You may even be jealous...we made a Patio at the lottie!

For a long time we have wanted an area outside the shed to be able to sit and work on without the wet soil and grass making it all uncomfortable. Plus in the winter this area turns into a little quagmire and we needed to get it sorted before the blasted season returned once more. Further to that, I wanted somewhere I could walk safer (a flatter surface) and which we could put a bed for Maggie on without it getting terribly damp from the bottom up.

We had dilly dallied about this for a while and so finally it came to the crunch and we set to work, it helped greatly that we had free recycled patio slabs from a friend's brother and that pink granite stones were buy 3 bags, get one free at the local nursery. You know, we aren't made of money!!

This is what our patio area around the shed looked like before.....

(Way back in April - damp but some little slabs here and there)

Slabs lifted - work begins

After the above hard work (2 blisters on my hand!, don't go thinking I'm a lady who lets her man do all the hard grafting) - skimming off the turf (= blisters), cutting and laying weed membrane (I did that bit all alone), putting down wooden joists to hold it all together (Andrew's job), placing the slabs and spreading the granite, this is what we ended up with.

I am, as I have said, very proud. I believe it to be delightful and invite you all to come have a cup of tea on our extensive social area. It took Maggie a while but she now likes it too, the pebbles I like to think, remind her of the beach - she's a beach babe, she loves the sea side. I have also installed a new and improved bug hotel on the site and hope for many residents in the winter to come. It is a cosy little establishment and much superior to last years backpackers' hostel.

A Stranger in the Village

Scene One (the only actual scene..)

Time ~ Sunday 24th May 2009, early morning
Location ~ Eden Allotment Gardens, a balmy day in Plot A24a...

[Enter 'Phil' stage left]

Phil -Have you seen them?
Carrie -What?
Phil - The New Zealand Flatworms!
Carrie - No..what do they look like?

Phil - Here, look. [ shows shiny flat black wormy thing to Me] They're Nasties, they eat our Earthworms!!

Carrie- No!!!!!!! [screams in desperation towards the heavens]

[Enter Andrew, stage right]

Andrew - Oh I think I saw a funny shiny black egg thing under the mint pot. Here look...[they look at the bottom of the pot] That must be one of it's eggs.

[Scared silence]

End of scene

Yes my friends, we have been invaded. Albeit by a total of (by the end of the day between Phil's plot and ours) 4 flatworms and an egg, but that's just how a revolution starts. Slowly, innocuously, innocently....Well, we're on to you now! Thank goodness for Phil and is knowledge of bugs.



You can easily kill them by heartlessly throwing them into a jar of salted water, which we did. But they had already done obvious damage. The one I found in the new flower bed in 14b had a circumference of about 30 cms around it devoid of Earthworms. That, in a bed which was coming down with the things. So much so that I really was getting rather upset at the amount of worms I seemed to be cutting in half with very spade dig. I hate chopping them, my Grandfather once told me (I was in tears at the time..) that I had just made 2 worms out of one and all was fine. But, HE LIED. I now know (though mostly choose not the believe) that if you're lucky one half will live and regenerate the part you so callously detached from it, but no, you don't make 2 (yes you do, there, there Carrie, don't cry....).

Well, damn it. It's war now. No one and nothing devours my garden allies indiscriminately (apart from cute Robins and such, as that it the proper way of things). WHO invited this Flatworm to our Lotties; how did it afford the plane tickets from New Zealand? Eyes open my friends and do not be afraid to kill.

Here is a write up of the new enemy, study and go forth with salt water and a clear conscious...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_flatworm

Booze, Bloody Battles, Beans, a BBQ and Bugs

I'm not coping very well with reality at the moment (though a nice Merlot is helping). Today has been one big sleep, with some awake breaks for water and phone calls. Yes, as Andrew says I am better than I was when we came back from Italy but I am taking a lot of medication and pushing myself so hard everyday that I'm exhausted and as a side effect am too tried to think. When I have a minute alone it has to be filled with something and apart from reading incessantly that is generally sleep.

But now Andrew is home and we're just in front of the TV (after checking on the Lottie but the weather, oh god, do not mention the weather - horrendous!), he's watching some historic-drama thing and I can't be bothered so I have turned to my blog, which I feel has been neglected rather and am going to tell you about our (quite impressive) progress from last week/weekend.

First though ~ RHS Chelsea!!!! Other Bloggers will be covering it wonderfully so I'll leave to them, however a quick note - It's so Fabulous! I am in awe of all those 'proper' gardeners and that guy from Top Gear (with the flowing locks) and his Plasticine garden piece. I'd love to visit one day, though the crowds are daunting looking, I'd need a wee behind the scenes tour before opening time. Maybe in the delightful company of Joe Swift or Mr Titchmarsh, now that would be nice. Darn it, all those amazing RHS shows are in England and Wales, what about us poor Northern Irish folk?!

Goodness this TV show is bloody and gruesome, going to have Andy to turn it down a little!

The sky is uninterrupted blue and the wind seems to gone, it's lovely; Mother Nature can be a b*tch sometimes. Why now, why have good weather now when the Lottie day is over? We've been suffering from poor weather for weeks now and our plants look rather sorry for themselves. The French Beans in particular are sulking, I don't blame them, I certainly wouldn't enjoy having my feet buried in cold wet soil and being blown about all over the show. I hope they cope, can plants have nervous breakdowns?!

So to the work we've been up to, there are a couple of stories that will make wee bloggettes in the next few days, but here's some bits and bobs...

A Barbecue!!!

We had a lovely evening on the 12th May (Okay so Mother Nature isn't that nasty); a super wee BBQ on the plot. Sausages and baps and a mixed bean salad. YUM! Other's around us were jealous, which (admit it yourself) made it all the more enjoyable, hehe. We did offer some around but luckily everyone had had dinner already, shame. Oh and we had a beer with it; living the dream alright!

I suppose it was only fair after my cheek, that we found the redcurrant was infested with greenfly. Horrible, gross little beings. Andrew got in there with his fingers and squished them, I prefer the soapy water spray technique myself. But on the up side another insect turned up that was lovely, some sort of fab Beetle. I like to think it's a goody, anyway Andrew deemed it fit to live. Plus, not our fault, but the shed has 3 dead cabbage white butterflies inside it by the window. If it's any consolation to you animal lovers out there I was eaten by lots of midges so in a way nature got her own back. I'm still itchy all over my scalp and now that I've thought about it, I'm scratching away, damn it.

I think I'll leave it there for tonight, I could go on and write a book the way my mind has become engaged in this but I don't think you'd be interested, I've probably lost you already, ha.

I shall leave you with this lovely pic of a rhubarb leaf, I think the colour is amazing, too good to cut and eat! Plus ~ tomorrow WILL be better x

green manure and a bug b&b

You know, the words aren't coming easily today, bare with me....

So, all the remaining Leeks are now either in our tummys or the fridge now; they really did us proud, we'll definitely be growing more 'Musselburgh' this year. The bed they where in only had leeks and green manure in it ~ the green manure was ready to be cut back, so Andrew did that and though it still needs dug in, it is great to see the new season taking shape on the plot.

I took on the bigger, full bed of Green Manure (B1) where the potatoes where last year but after cutting it all back, I couldn't face digging it in too. I had hurt my leg earlier in the week and the kneeling down was sore enough without getting to work with a spade! So all that will need doing the next time we're down (I now have a 'ladies spade'), so I've no excuses!

After cutting all that back I found an easy job to do ~ picking all the dead leaves off the Strawberry plants. And lo and behold who did I meet?? Mr/s Ladybird!!

This lead to a flurry of activity from me ~ I cut up lots of Bamboo canes and hollowed out the left over ends of the raspberry canes Andrew had just cut back and handed to me. And I made an insect hotel. Well, mine is more a Budget B&B for the student-y insect perhaps. It certainly is not anything like Donald's 4* Hotel and Spa in Field B, but I can work on it. Here it is both in all it's architectural glory and in-situ, under the shed. I hope to have some residents someday but I won't hold my breath ~ there are lots of bugs under the shed already though, we put loads of stones under there and saw lots of other ladybirds around that area in the Autumn.

The Adventures of Carrie

So to more of Saturday.

I dandered off on my rounds of moseying around other peoples plots. Of course I took the camera and made my way over to Field B, as I missed it out last week. On the way I noticed this excellent little cabbage patch, James' flourishing green manure and Bobby's Adorable shed and water butts etc all painted and looking lovely.

Into Field B then and what should I see but Uncle Jim's Greenhouse, broken, dead, in a pile on the floor - R.I.P. The storms during the week had sent it on a holiday across the plots before ending its short life. I don't think it ever even got to grow anything within it. Sad.

Elsewhere, things were looking quite good (if you know where to look, that is). Donald/Douglas (only joking!) has an insect hotel (5* if you ask me) and I went over to take a picture. Very inspiring, I hope he gets the array of helpful friends he is accommodating for and that frog he wants so much. It's an adorable set up, don't you agree?

This is pretty much my favourite shed on the whole site. It belongs to Ricky and he built it himself. It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie or something and I love those over sized roof tiles. I think it may even have a little stove inside, going by the chimney. I just love it and its little picket fence panels.

Elsewhere there was evidence of fresh soil cultivation, plot tidy ups and last-of-the-season crops. Even the died back corn stalks looked pretty in the late afternoon light.

On the way back to our own Lottie I fell. Yes, me, who goes on and on about being safe and taking it slow on the mucky paths. I fell. Luckily, it was only one leg that went from under me but boy was it a shock and the cold wet mud was stinky and took ages to dry in the cold, damp day. Something in it smelt great to Maggie though, she ran over to me and couldn't stop sniffing my knee and even licked it!

Anyway, back at good old A24a (and after a coffee, de-caff) Andrew and I decided the time had come to tackle the old turf stack and to get our harvest in - but that's for tomorrow.....

Composting - we LOVE it

Sunday saw the completion of the trinity of compost bins on our plot! We brought round the 3rd one from the back garden, which hadn't been used since we got the lottie anyway.

We visited Mamma G before we started to fill up this one. There is a very large, huge tree in her back garden which drops a tonne of leaves every autumn. This is the last year of its life - it's really not well at all any more and the wall beside it is falling down too. I got to gather up the fallen leaves and was enjoying doing it, but the excitement went up a major notch when i was presented with the leaf sucker-upper/shredder machine! I love boys toys so much. I gathered up 2 big black bags of shredded leaves for the plot.

Back at the lottie, Andrew got straight to work - he was rather excited, how cute. He had lots of leaves, garden/kitchen waste, cow poo and that bag of shredded paper. Remember the last time I spoke about 'Grow Our Own' compost? - well it was the same idea. Layers of each material were put on top of one another in a vast sponge cake type fashion. Leaves - g/k waste -paper -cow-poo, and repeat until bin is full. Eh Viola! another bin of (soon-to-be) Black Gold.

While Andrew finished that up I took more pictures - this is my favourite one and one of the main reasons why I'd like lots of sunflowers next year. The birds obviously love this!

By the way - you know this - now's a great time to look after our little bug and birdie friends. Nuts and seeds for the birds (just think of poor, starving Robin Red Breasts) and hidey-holes for ladybirds etc - piles of bamboo canes and old logs etc are the way to go.

A new friend in Field B

During my wanderings at the weekend I came across a very hard working gentleman in Field B. Forgive me, as I have a head like a sieve - but I believe his name was Douglas. I somewhat crept up behind him in order to get my photo, not the nicest thing to do - I'd hate it if someone did it to me - but he heard me anyway and I got this lovely, smiley face welcoming me to its owner's plot.

Douglas' plot is excellent. He hadn't been down in a few weeks but the place looked great. Granted he had been working hard all day. Like us, he has gone fot the raised bed system and it's working well for him, though he also has indulged in a lovely patio area and an orchard is on the way in another section. This is a man with plans, with ideas and with passion - he exudes it.

Just before I arrived over there he had cleared out his potato bed, a job he hadn't been looking forward to - due to the blight we all got over the wet summer. I guess he was expecting some mushing, stinky crops, but like us he had cut off the foilage at the 1st signs of blight and thus had a wee surprise. Happy, healthy little potatoes to take home for dinner. (I laugh at the Tesco bag).

That wasn't all. He decided to lift some carrots to let me have a look at the difference between sowing in situ and planting out seedlings. My, the ones which had been moved were weird! All the roots had tangled up around each other and one carrot was actually 3 twisted together. The other ones however were glorious. Perfect. Funny though, just after lifting this one, Douglas noticed a beetroot, he'd forgotten about. Goodness lifting it was a very pleasant surprise - it was huge! Look at his face.

Being very much into eco-friendly allotmenteering I was intrigued my the little turf wall all around the plot. I thought it was covered in weeds, however it was actually lovely little alpines, planted into the overturned sods! They were all taking and some were even in flower, what a lovely idea - to look at and for insects to feed upon. In another corner there was an elorabate bug house - logs with many holes drilled in them and stacked under a thigh-high stone doorway, in front of which lay a little pool for (hopefully) frogs etc.

Well done Douglas. Inspirational, even with some very bad drainage issues around his field and in his own plot in one quarter. It's somewhere I'll be nosey-ing around again.

Bugs, Chilli and Parsley

The weather was bright and cold on Sunday, our favourite, even though we both had the cold. We took lunch with us and after a good looking at, we started to work on the plot. Andrew did more composting - our 2nd bin is now full to the brim, I guess that means the 3rd one (that's in the back garden) will have to brought round soon.

I 'worked' on weeding and general poking about (did you know 1 hour of weeding burns off 300 calories!) . I noticed that there were a few interesting bugs about and with my trusty camera, I took photos. Firstly, Chrysalis watch! Plus 'Chrysalis Watch Too'. This second one is obviously very new, he is up on the shed door lintel too (popular place) and is still technically a caterpillar. Not sure what those yellow egg things are - they better not be evil Spider babies; all Buddhist tendencies will go out the window, I will squish them (or get Andrew to do it; that's more realistic)! Look at that lovely sky as well.

Then I saw this beauty. I've been informed that it' a 'STINK BUG', a horrible name for something so pretty. I can't believe I think that, in the past I would have run a mile in the opposite direction when confronted with bugs, now, with camera in hand (and Maggie near by - she's got my back!) I find them wonderful. Which is just right, they are wonderful and look how colourful and shiny this one is... But why, why Stink Bug, who names these things?

So apart from that I dismantled the mini greenhouse over the chilli plants. (NB. Rusty water isn't the easiest thing to get off your fingers and nails.) The Jalapeano wasn't doing anything and had a fungus just developing at the very base. The Hungarian Hot Wax has quite a few fruits and I just lifted the whole plant and now it's hanging up-side-down in the shed. The ground under the chillies was then dug over and improved with our own compost. The circle of life.

All that's left in this bed is the lovely Spinach, one lonely lettuce and Robert's windmill.

Lastly there is our Parsley, not necessarily the most exciting of plants on the plot but it is doing very well indeed. Any success makes me proud and is therefore worthy of note. Two of them have their own Cloches made from old Water bottles - big ones from Andrew's office in work.