The Veg Plot.

[Seeker]

My 4 ft tall thistle is now flowering and the bees have found it. It's fascinating to watch them dig in. I also discovered that a miscellaneous plant that appeared this year, at the front, is a common ragwort which is slightly poisonous but since I don't graze any horses, I should be ok Most of the colour in my front and back gardens (they're both small) has not been from anything I've done, birds/foxes/wind? I consider it serendipity gardening.

I thought I'd dug out my one potato plant but apparently not, so I've harvested a few spuds too, another fortunate accident.

[redtrummy]

Got a bumble bees nest in my garage next to the work bench - its a bit disconcerting trying to do a job with buzzing in the left and right ear at the same time! One interesting snippet is they fly in and out by the same route e.g the keyhole on the side door! Trouble was they arrived back from collecting pollen and were then too fat to get back in. The door slides so there is an inch gap they can get through without any trouble. I have now fitted a cover over the keyhole.
I would strongly recommend not letting the ragwort go to seed its a devil to get rid of once its established without resorting to chemicals. If you get the Cinnabar moths caterpillars to colonise your ragwort its quite spectacularly coloured, yellow/black like a wasp (to warn predators that its concentrated the ragwort's poison in its body.)
Years ago my cousin ended up seeing the Doc after an extensive strimming session on his small holding cutting Ragwort

I do like your gardening style!

[garynortheast]

it seems that everything on the veg plot has suddenly got going! Over the last couple of days I've been picking peas, runner beans, french beans, broad beans, cucumbers, courgettes, chard, and beetroot. I also ate some of the ripe boysenberries on the new, small vine in a pot on the yard. Very tasty!

[svenrico]

Decent few raspberries, but my neighbour pointed out my apple tree has fluffy aphids which will kill the tree if not treated. Can anybody recommend a good treatment ?

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by svenrico

Decent few raspberries, but my neighbour pointed out my apple tree has fluffy aphids which will kill the tree if not treated. Can anybody recommend a good treatment ?

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=724

[Seeker]

Two facts that I didn't know were connected.

1) We had hundreds of gulls circling this afternoon
2) Ants were swarming again.

Gulls, apparently, like to eat flying ants (I googled it).

[garynortheast]

There we go then, nature balancing itself.

[redtrummy]

I had woolly aphid on a cooking apple tree a few years ago for a couple of years. I seem to remember using a blow torch over the affected areas. It then just disappeared. It seemed to get established on scars where I had cut branches off. Gave it a scrub then used bitumen paint to seal the scars.
Some advice on here
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=724

[svenrico]

Thanks for the replies. Range of pesticides is confusing, don't want to do anything that harms bees though .

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

I had woolly aphid on a cooking apple tree a few years ago for a couple of years. I seem to remember using a blow torch over the affected areas. It then just disappeared. It seemed to get established on scars where I had cut branches off. Gave it a scrub then used bitumen paint to seal the scars.
Some advice on here
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=724

I like the blow torch idea, I could use my gas flamed weed killer.