Allotment pests and prettiness
This is not plot 201. This is the allotment of somebody with a developed aesthetic sense and a rightful focus on beauty as well as productivity.201 has an arch too. Or rather, it has two blue metal shop fittings that are supposed to be the uprights of an arch, when we bury them either side of the path and sling some plastic trellis over the top to make the ‘arch’ bit. For the past eight months or so, they have been moved around the site, from place to place, with people constantly falling over, or into, them and then cursing and kicking them and moving them somewhere else.
The net result of our ‘feed the masses’ ethic is eleven cucumbers in the fridge and no arch. I think we’ve got our priorities a little bit wrong somewhere, but there never seems to be time to stop and work on non-food-crop related things now.
To start with, we have whitefly on everything, but mainly on the brassicas that aren’t in the brassica cage. And while whitefly are said to be more a nuisance than a pest, we still have to wash them off all our seedling plants every few days. The distinction between ‘nuisance’ and ‘pest’ seems to be that nuisances annoy and make work harder, while pests simply destroy and make work fruitless (or cropless, if you prefer). The tomatoes seem to insist on being tied up every ten minutes, the beans don’t seem to be flowering as fast or as much as himself would wish (and the runner beans are attacked by blackfly) and the celeriac can’t get enough water. With all that going on, who has time to stop and consider a rustic arch?
But I didn’t get an allotment just to have kilos of crops that have to be blanched or dried or pickled or given away. I got an allotment to have scope to express myself in plants as well as in words – but on the current evidence I have about as much ‘green’ creativity as the average bus timetable. I think my autumn focus needs to be on beauty …
Labels: allotment-arch, allotment-beans, allotment-brassicas, allotment-celeriac, allotment-cucumber
Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Friday, July 10, 2009
My Little Plot
Stay up to date with the latest Allotment Blogger posts by subscribing to our RSS feed.
Allotment Gardener RSS Feed
Latest Posts
- Allotment new potatoes and running repairs in the ...
- Allotment winter crops and summer preparation
- Allotment gluts and failed experiments
- Tomatoes and tomato blight
- Allotment improvements and longest days
- Mid-June Allotment Harvest
- Allotment structures: the brassica cage
- Allotment diversity and evictions and rock gardens...
- Allotment Sweetcorn: a new growing experience
- New allotment tasks: finding room for beans and he...
Get in touch
Have a question? Send it to:
allotmentblogger [at] gmail.com
Browse the archive
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
Links
- Gardening Shop
- Composting Instructions
- At Last I've got my Plot
- Down on the Allotment
- Cottage Smallholder
- Vegmonkey and the Mrs.
5 Comments:
To start with, we have whitefly on everything, but mainly on the brassicas that aren’t in the brassica cage. And while whitefly are said to be more a nuisance than a pest, we still have to wash them off all our seedling plants every few days. The distinction between ‘nuisance’ and ‘pest’ seems to be that nuisances annoy and make work harder, while pests simply destroy and make work fruitless....
From that, two questions.
1) 'Wash off'? You mean just spray them with a garden hose?
2) I assumed my brassicas had been eaten by whitefly, but from this I take it something different. The strange thing is, despite much of the leaves on my Brussel Sprouts being decimated, my plants are still growing sprouts, and now it is so cold here, there seem to be no pests yet. So I'm wondering if I was on completely the wrong path using Derris Dust (which killed all my beets, silver beet, and spinach?
I don't bother about the whites fly on the brassicas..although i hate it getting in my face. I have been pretty lucky not getting black fly this year too!!
Don't worry about your brussel leaves too much Mark.....mine were all eaten off last year by caterpillars but I still got brussels on the plants!!
Oh, I LONG for an arch. When I visualise my plot in years to come the arch is the first thing I see. But this year I haven't got any flowers apart from some self-seeded californian poppies left over from last year. We are in the same pest-and-weed fighting morass - I sympathise with you.
Mark - yup, just wash them off with the hose, or with a sprayer with 1 teaspoon of washing-up liquid to 2 litres of water which destroys the coating on their skins and kills them as it does black fly.
Your sprouts should survive almost anything up to and including hurricanes (for which they need staking!) so don't despair. Heat can make them miserable but they will get through it and pick up in cold weather.
Personally I would never use Derris, it can do more harm than good, especially on broad leaved plants like spinach.
Tanya - I hate that too, whitefly and carrot fly just mob into your hair don't they? Especially in early evening for some reason ....
Thank you ladies.
Post a Comment
<< Home