All About Herbs

22/07/2025

Gardening Post - With the usual disclaimer as follows:
I am in no way a professional gardener and the list below isn't exhaustive, it just covers a few things that can be done to various parts of the garden within that particular month. Enjoy anyway, and I hope it encourages you to get out and play in your space; whatever that space might actually consist of.
VEGETABLES
If you haven’t managed to start yet, or your first sowings and plantings are not as bountiful as you would prefer, there is still time to sow more. Soil has warmed up and direct sowings should be more successful.
What to sow outdoors in July
The below list are plants which do not like root disturbance, so plant in either module trays or their final growing spot.
Beetroot – early and main crop
Calabrese
Cauliflower – mini varieties
Chinese cabbage
Khol rabi
Lettuce – Loose leaf, Cos, Crisp and Butter. In hot weather, sow into modules or seed trays and shade from the sun.
Pak Choi
Spinach perpetual
Rainbow or Swiss Chard
These plants do not mind root disturbance, so they are fine to transplant later:
Carrots – early
Chicory – Pain di Zucchero, harvest in October
Chicory – red and sugarloaf
French beans
Kale
Parsley
Peas – main crop, mangetout and sugarsnap
Radish – mooli, winter
Turnip
Beware of carrot fly when thinning carrots; the scent releases from the bruised foliage will attract the pests, use very fine mesh barrier to protect plants. The same mesh will protect brassicas from cabbage white butterfly and peas and pea moth.
If dealing wit aphids, remember washing up liquid id not soap, it is a powerful detergent designed to degrease a frying pan. Plant’s tender new growth can be severely damaged if sprayed with a solution. It is better to squish them by hand instead, use gloves if squeamish.
Potato blight spores will wash down from the leaves into the soil. Protect tubers by earthing up plants, or mulching them with a thick layer of straw or leaf mould. If foliage is severely affected, it is better to defoliate completely to clear away the spores.

19/07/2025

18/07/2025

Ha!

This is accurate😳

17/07/2025

I can't disagree....

03/07/2025

So pleased.....

11/06/2025

I think I have a lot of cherries this year.....

30/05/2025

Gardening Post - With the usual disclaimer as follows:
I am in no way a professional gardener and the list below isn't exhaustive, it just covers a few things that can be done to various parts of the garden within that particular month. Enjoy anyway, and I hope it encourages you to get out and play in your space; whatever that space might actually consist of.
As the soil warms up, plant out some of the more tender crops. Some can be sown directly.
Use last year’s compost to mulch on top of the soil around plants; always add mulch after rain to help keep moisture in.
Hoe regularly to keep down weeds. Chickweed will produce 2000 seeds per plant per season if left untouched.
Fill any empty gaps awaiting vegetables with a fast-growing cover crop of green manures. Buckwheat, mustard, phacelia or trefoil can all be sown in May if the ground is moist enough.
Slug control - use all available methods to protect your new young plants. It is often worth starting new plants in pots or modules, and planting out only vigorous transplants.
Carrot fly – create a fleece barrier from sowing until mid or late June.
Blackfly - check broad bean plants regularly and squash any blackfly seen. If the plants are flowering, pinch out the top couple of inches, blackfly and all, and bury them in the compost heap.
Protect leek seedlings from the allium leaf miner or leek moth where either of these pests are endemic.
When planting brassicas, use a collar on the ground to protect stems. Also erect a mesh barrier to cover plants completely to keep cabbage white butterflies from laying their eggs on leaves. Squash or pick off any you see.
Flea beetles are also pests of brassicas (the cabbage family), and radish, rocket, mustard and other related plants. They are particularly damaging to young seedlings, especially during dry weather.
Check very carefully before either squashing or spraying. There will be beneficial creatures around, munching happily on pests on the undersides of leaves. Insecticidal soap is just as damaging to them as it is to the pests.
Hoverfly larvae can be mistaken for pests. If in doubt, leave well alone. They are voracious aphid eaters, so will be found in the middle of an aphid cluster.

23/05/2025

Gardening Post - With the usual disclaimer as follows:
I am in no way a professional gardener and the list below isn't exhaustive, it just covers a few things that can be done to various parts of the garden within that particular month. Enjoy anyway, and I hope it encourages you to get out and play in your space; whatever that space might actually consist of.
Keep fleece handy to protect blossoms from late frost. Including strawberry plants. Remove during the day to let pollinating insects in.
Keep at least 1 square metre of ground weed-free around all fruit trees and bushes - particularly young ones. This prevents grass and weeds competing for nutrients. However, established fruit trees on vigorous rootstocks will not be affected by grass growing right up to the trunk.
Water all recently planted fruit trees - thoroughly once or twice a week rather than little and often; varieties on dwarfing rootstocks and wall-trained fruit may continue to need watering in dry weather for several years.
Use a mulch (straw, grass cuttings etc) on moist soil round trees and soft fruit to retain moisture and deter weeds.
Net strawberries to deter birds, once fruits start swelling and ripening. Ensure netting is pegged down to prevent birds getting trapped or tangled up.
Inspect fruit bushes and plants regularly for aphids. Where possible, squish off with your fingers.
Grow plants nearby such as Limnanthes douglasii (poached egg plant) or fennel, to attract beneficial aphid-eating insects such as ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies.
If you use an insecticidal soap spray, it must be sprayed directly on to the aphids to be effective.
Pick off and destroy emerging larvae of apple and plum sawfly at petal fall. You need to catch them before they start tunnelling into fruit. Look for creamy white larvae, about 15mm long, around the fruiting spurs.
inspect gooseberry bushes twice-weekly for gooseberry sawfly larvae. Eggs are laid under leaves in the centre of the bush, and pinprick sized holes are the very first signs of larval damage. Pick off and destroy the tiny larvae.
Check very carefully before either squashing or spraying. There will be beneficial creatures around, munching happily on pests on the undersides of leaves. Insecticidal soap is just as damaging to them as it is to the pests.
Hoverfly larvae can be mistaken for pests. If in doubt, leave well alone. They are voracious aphid eaters, so will be found in the middle of an aphid cluster.
When choosing a new mower, why not go for a 'mulching' or 'recycling' mower? These machines chop up mowings very finely, then spread them evenly over the lawn. This will provide around 70% of the lawn's nitrogen needs.
Remember, grass is a drought survivor. Even a lawn that has turned brown, and looks wrecked, will revive once temperatures drop and rain returns in autumn.
As birds will be nesting in hedges now, wait until later in the year before undertaking any major hedge trimming.

29/02/2024

Wow

Exoskeleton