Winter Greens:

Winter Greens: 

Continue to plant out Winter Greens, always affording Brussels sprouts and Winter Broccoli separate sites and at least thirty inches apart each way between plants. On the other hand, Kales and Sprouting Broccoli may well be accommodated between rows of second early Potatoes.

 If your Fruit trees are troubled by ants. Paint a think line of Stock-Home tar round the lower trunk to prevent them climbing into the tree.   

  

If it is damp in your area and snails are a problem, here is what you can do: Snails are particularly fond of bran ; if a little 

is spread on the ground, and covered over with a few cabbage leaves or tiles, they will gather under them in great numbers, and by looking at your trap every morning, and destroying them, the numbers will be greatly reduced.

Stop cutting Asparagus.

Stop cutting Asparagus.

Those who continue to cut Asparagus after this date will be seriously weakening the crowns, and will not help next years crop. Weed the bed thoroughly, and if you have light soil give a top dressing of feed to help the grow strong again.

Although it is too early to practice ordinary summer pruning, it will help to shorten side growths of Sweet Cherries growing on walls to within five leaves of their bases. By doing this many aphis are removed, and sun and air can get among the ripening fruit.

Tomatoes plants must be restricted to one main shoot by the removal of all side shoots. This should be done every week to stop the side shoots growing to big and taking over the main plant.

American Blight:

Strawberry Plants.

If it is your intended to work up a stock of Strawberry plants for forcing purpose, it is not too early to start layering the runners. To receive the layers, fill small pots with good soil and arrange them in colonies around the selected plants. Do not layer more than three runners from any one plant, to encourage quick rooting, also do not forget to water them from time to time.

We can assume risk of frost has passed, and so you  can plant out tender vegetables like courgettes , squash and sweet corn.

Keep looking after your Tomatoes. Now is the  time to plant tomatoes outside if you have not done that already.To get them ready to maximise their fruit you must pinch out  new side shoots to help direct the plants energy into fruit growing on the main stem and  do tie up your plants onto canes as your plants will grow to about six foot and can get very heavy with fruit.

American Blight:

American Blight, know as Woolly Aphis, because of it’s snowy covering—- is easily distinguished on young fruit trees this time of year, and if a little patience is exercised many of the pest can be got rid of. By just lightly painting them with a brush that has been dipped in methylated spirits, their demise can be brought about.

It is  time to earth up your main crop potatoes. Before doing this, reduce the soil to a fine tilth by hoeing. A light dressing may also be given on poor soil. I use dried chicken manure fo this job. 

  This is the time of Year when ants might beginning to become a pest. Here are some old man ideas of how to get rid of them:

Lime-water poured freely into the nests and burrows will cause them to move house if it does not kill them outright.

The most effectual remedy is to mix arsenic into a solution of sugar and water, which they will devour greedily, but care must be taken 

that no other animal gets to it. Cover the saucer with a slate, and a stone on the top of it, having a couple of pegs between the saucer and slate, to let the ants in freely.

Boiling water poured on the nests, is another remedy; if the nest be in a pot amongst the roots of a plant, the best way is to immerse the pot and plant in water for five or six hours, in which time the ants will be drowned, and their eggs destroyed. 

Another effect way is, to pour over the nest at night, a strong decoction of elder leaves. 

To trap them, smear the inside of a garden pot with 

honey, invert it over the nest, they will get stuck in the honey and if you use a big enough pot you may well get the whole nest trapped.