Since my last Six on Saturday post there has been a huge change (and loss) in the Dizzy house, my beautiful daughter and her OH who have been staying with us for a couple of months since all their belongings headed north back to England finally followed said belongings, taking with them the crazy granddogs and “bump” our future granddaughter who is due in mid December. It’s suddenly very quiet and to say I’m missing them is a huge understatement!
Other than that, the days are much the same, it’s still scorching hot and the gardens are still desperate for their waterings but we have fruits ripening (and being eaten by various bugs), flowers still blooming and a hope that it’ll soon cool down a little as the nights are drawing in and it’s dark by 20.00hrs now.
Anyway, here are my six for this week and if you want to join in pop over to
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/21/six-on-saturday-28-09-2019/
see what others are posting and contribute yourself, you can also comment and leave a link here.
Hope you enjoy mine this week!
1. A friend in the garden: I startled this poor little guy whilst watering dahlias in pots at work, he jumped from the pot onto my chest, ran down my arm and came to a halt on my hand where he was happy to just sit. My no.2 fraggle is bug and animal mad and was desperate to have him/her on his hand, Monsieur Gecko seemed happy to oblige.
2. Someone is having a feast on this rose! This rose is hidden amongst the agapanthus in one of our work gardens so it tends to get overlooked, but I noticed it had a case of blackspot on it, I took my neem oil in so I could make up a spray only to find that there wasn’t much in the way of leaves left as they had been eaten. I have no idea what’s eating it there aren’t any bugs visible, a gardening friend on Twitter suggested leaf cutter bees, he has a similar nibble pattern on his roses and was lucky enough to get video evidence, but the lack of a visible culprit here is frustrating.
3. Talking of bugs, I don’t mind sharing my fruit, veg. and flowers with the bugs, just as long as they play nice and actually let me enjoy some of the fruits of my labour (pun intended). This year is not one of those where the bugs are playing nice, both the peaches in a client’s garden and the peaches in my garden have been completely ruined and not one has been edible. It makes me so cross, especially after I went to so much effort to successfully prevent peach leaf curl this year, next year I’ll have to think of a bird friendly way of protecting the fruit after pollination; pesticides are a no-no as I garden organically.
4. Campsis Grandiflora (Chinese trumpet vine), Not the best picture but I love this plant and see it everywhere here, I think this one in a client’s garden has been cut back a bit harshly as it was a bare twig when we took the garden on 12 months ago and has struggled to put on any growth, it’s now shooting well and has flowered (sort of) but it needs to be fed, sadly I can’t get to the base of it to feed it as it’s coming up through a wood/iron walkway and I don’t know exactly where under the walkway it is!
5. Ripening fruits, I absolutely love watching the progress of fruit ripening! Pictured are a few of the things currently ripening; limes (other citrus we have are lemons, clementines, oranges and grapefruits, along with a few kumquats as we’ve not long since finished picking those), pomegranates and figs. Lots of the figs have ripened but there are still loads coming.
6. Visitors, these little guys were in my plant pot storage spot under a table in the garden but clearly thought being inside with us (me, my OH, 2 grown up and very noisy fraggles, our very large German Shepherd, my daughter and her OH along with their collie and Rhodesian ridgeback X) and all our noise was a better option. Three dogs and not one showed any inclination to chase or catch them even when they trotted across the floor in broad daylight!
It took several days of them getting the food I left in the little traps without getting shut in before I finally wedged cheddar at the top of the clip so they had to pull to get any. The first little chap we caught on his own on Saturday night and I stuck bedding, food and water in with him as I knew we weren’t going to the woods where I planned to let him go until Monday morning, I chatted to him when I was in the kitchen and he took food from me quite happily (confirming the OH’s hunch that I am in fact bonkers). On Sunday night the other trap I’d set went off whilst we were watching TV and the other two had gone in together! They too were given bedding, food and water for the night then on Monday morning we took them a few miles away and let them out in the woods so they could find new shelter during daylight hours. I was quite sad to see them go off but on the other hand glad not to have them running riot around the house going through my cupboards. Letting them go some distance away ensured they wouldn’t find their way back.
I exclaimed ‘ good heavens’ several times reading this Dorinda. Your poor peaches! You need some of that very fine insect netting. I use it on my brassicas and the butterflies can’t get through. What pretty bugs through, and so many! And the mouse..or is it a .eek! Rat. I catch lots of mice and voles in my humane traps and let them go in the dry ditch by our small wood. They have every right to live as much as we do. I just don’t want them in the potting shed with me! Have a great week. Karen
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, the peaches covered in bugs were in the work garden and were completely bug free on the Friday evening when we left, the clients’ son was down for a week or so with friends so I left the peaches as they were still a bit too firm to pick and thought by the Monday they’d be firm enough so I could pick them and put them in the kitchen for him. I have to admit to feeling quite sick when I saw the writhing mass of bugs, they’re all quite beautiful to look at but not a gardener’s friend, the green iridescent ones are Chrysolina Americana, commonly known as the Rosemary beetle, the brownish ones with the white spots are my garden nemesis here, Oxythyrea funesta aka the white spotted rose beetle or Mediterranean spotted chafer. The latter have done immense damage to the roses over the last couple of years since I first noticed them but they seem to be partial to most flowers. The only way I’ve found of controlling them is to squish them, not something I enjoy but they decimate the rose beds if left and one rose flower an have as many as six or seven eating it from the inside. I’m not sure what caused the damage on my peaches at home, obviously quite small though. We’re moving back to the U.K. in a month and the peach tree will be staying here as it’s in the ground and too big to take, I do plan to bring all my citrus trees, apple trees, and other fruiting plants with me as they’re all in large pots, I’m busy at the moment trying to find the best way of transporting them without soil. The fine netting you mentioned will be a priority as things like the Lycium barbarum (goji berry plant) are quickly stripped of berries by birds and the citrus are a favourite with whitefly who lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves.
DeleteThe little furries in the cages are mice, the one in the cage by itself was a friendly little chap and was happy to take food from my hand! I wouldn’t have been as calm to have rats finding their way in 😱 The mice live outside most of the year but when it turns colder they seek out warmth and shelter from the rains, I’m happy to share my garden with them but they do too much damage and make a lot of mess when they get inside, I make sure we take them at least a couple of miles away before releasing them, I think if it’s anything under one mile they can find their way back.
Take care, and have a good week.
Dorinda