How not to pick apples in lock-down

There was a lady who was picking her apples off her tree, and doing very well with a good crop. However, to get the last of the apples off the top of the tree, a ladder was needed.

There  was a pair of small step ladders in the garage, so the lady went to fetch them. It was differcult to get the ladders to the garden because of the tiwst and turns of the path, with doorways and high walls etc.

However, the lady managed it only to find that when she got to the tree; she had picked up her ironing board instead of her ladders!  

 

onions

 The idea of sowing onion seeds in August is a very good one, because it is a known fact that seeds sown at this time of year are not affected by onion fly.

However it is not always possible to do so because some land might be exposed to cold north or easterly winds which will prevent the seeds from taking off.

There will be, of cause some sites that are fortunate enough to have fairly light soil and some protection from the cold wind.

The main advantage of this is that the onion is more resultant to disease and the bulbs are larger.

Many growers sow in drills nine inches apart, however you will find that it is better to sow at twelve inches or more apart. The reason is that it is easier to use the every important hoe, in the wider row. Make sure that you do not sow deeper than half an inch.

The most important thing to do and remember, is to use the hoe frequently. This give you healthy and strong growth of the seedling during September and October. Slightly thin the seedlings in order to avoid the danger of having your crop becoming bottle-necked in the following summer.

Summer Treatment of Onions:

Here we will be looking at the transplanting of seedlings from August-sown beds, and also those coming from January sowing under glass.

As far as the preparation of the soil is concerned, all that has been said about this applies in this case. Apart from the fact that more space will be needed between the rows. You must allow at least eighteen inches in between the rows and ten inches from plant to plant in the row itself.

Seedlings that have over wintered can now be moved to a permanent site. This can be done as early as March. Do not transplant seedlings that are growing under glass until the soil as warmed up; that is until the danger of frost has past. Plant them firmly but not too deep.

During the summer feed the rows with a liquid manure however do not continue this after late July, the reason is that plants fed after that time will not keep well in the store.

Continue hoeing, but make sure you do not disturb the roots of the plant. Good onions grow in firm soil ( do not hoe too deep ) and by hoeing you secure a loose surface tilth which will act as a mulching to conserve moisture.

When the crop is approaching maturity, turn the tops over. by doing this you will direct energy from the roots into increasing the size of the onion rather than developing useless top growth.

Harvesting Your Onions.

A common mistake is to leave the onions in the soil when they have finished growing. If you do this, a secondary growth will start and the onions will not store well.

Lift the crop carefully and spread then in the sun for a few weeks so that they can thoroughly dry and ripen. Then take them to a dry, airy and light place, lay them on trays and use them as you need them.

You may of noticed that I made no mention of varieties. My advice is to grow what your neighbours grow because onions are funny things and do not like moving from north to south.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10286467

Protecting Your lettuce from the weather..

Where you live in the world will depend on what sort of weather you will have.

Rain

Snow

Hail

Sun

Wind

Each of the above will bring their own joys, which you can do something about for the most part.

I use horticultural fleeces and netting over all of my crops and find that for the most part that will allow me to produce lettuce all the year round.

I also have a small polly tunnel and cold frame for winter lettuce. These are very useful because at some point we always get snow or frost here in the UK.

Last winter, my plot was plot was flooded for 73 days. I still grow lettuce. I had sowed some seeds in containers (really big ones) and kept these on a plant bench 4 feet off the ground, only trouble was getting to them for the flood was 25 inches deep.

I have noticed that pest and diseases are far worse on crops and gardens that are not looked after.

One of the secrets of plant protection is to have healthy soil that is well prepared and plants with vigour.

 The big guys that want your Lettuce.

As well as bugs and disease, your lettuce may well be troubled with larger animals.

The number of large animals that are after your crops will depend on where in the world you live.

Here in the UK we have a small range of animal pests;

Rabbits

Squirrels

Birds

Foxes

Cats

Dogs

Deer

Badgers

Mice and all such furry creatures.

It is only the rabbit, mice, and the deer that are going to eat your lettuce. The rest of them will root around, jump on, or dig up your crop.

To protect your lettuce is straightforward with these pests. A good fence or barrier of some sort will do the job of keeping them out.

Smaller mammals can be trapped and if the dog is yours then it is up to you to train the beast.

If you have a cat then there is nothing you can do about it…just live with it. 

A word here about cats and dogs as a health risk.

There are two parasites affecting dogs and cats that can affect humans.

Worms and a parasite called Toxopasma gondii. The risk is low but best is not to let faeces lay about your garden; remove it to a safe place.

As we know, birds are not kept out with fences, however if you have trouble with them; use netting. In the main, birds will always go for a yellow colour in preference to any thing else. 

Therefore, if you grow many yellow flowers in your garden they will feed off them and not bother your lettuce.

An Aside By Richard Rohr

 

Some simple but urgent guidance to get us through these next months.

I awoke on Saturday, September 19, with three sources in my mind for guidance: Etty Hillesum (1914 – 1943), the young Jewish woman who suffered much more injustice in the concentration camp than we are suffering now; Psalm 62, which must have been written in a time of a major oppression of the Jewish people; and the Irish Poet, W.B.Yeats (1965 – 1939), who wrote his “Second Coming” during the horrors of the World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic. 

These three sources form the core of my invitation. Read each one slowly as your first practice. Let us begin with Etty:

There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too … And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves.

—Etty Hillesum, Westerbork transit camp

Note her second-person usage, talking to “You, God” quite directly and personally. There is a Presence with her, even as she is surrounded by so much suffering.

Then, the perennial classic wisdom of the Psalms:

In God alone is my soul at rest.
God is the source of my hope.
In God I find shelter, my rock, and my safety.
Men are but a puff of wind,
Men who think themselves important are a delusion.
Put them on a scale,
They are gone in a puff of wind.

—Psalm 62:5–9

What could it mean to find rest like this in a world such as ours? Every day more and more people are facing the catastrophe of extreme weather. The neurotic news cycle is increasingly driven by a single narcissistic leader whose words and deeds incite hatred, sow discord, and amplify the daily chaos. The pandemic that seems to be returning in waves continues to wreak suffering and disorder with no end in sight, and there is no guarantee of the future in an economy designed to protect the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and those subsisting at the margins of society. 

It’s no wonder the mental and emotional health among a large portion of the American population is in tangible decline! We have wholesale abandoned any sense of truth, objectivity, science or religion in civil conversation; we now recognize we are living with the catastrophic results of several centuries of what philosophers call nihilism or post-modernism (nothing means anything, there are no universal patterns).

We are without doubt in an apocalyptic time (the Latin word apocalypsis refers to an urgent unveiling of an ultimate state of affairs). Yeats’ oft-quoted poem “The Second Coming” then feels like a direct prophecy. See if you do not agree:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Somehow our occupation and vocation as believers in this sad time must be to first restore the Divine Center by holding it and fully occupying it ourselves. If contemplation means anything, it means that we can “safeguard that little piece of You, God,” as Etty Hillesum describes it. What other power do we have now? All else is tearing us apart, inside and out, no matter who wins the election or who is on the Supreme Court. We cannot abide in such a place for any length of time or it will become our prison.

God cannot abide with us in a place of fear.
God cannot abide with us in a place of ill will or hatred.
God cannot abide with us inside a nonstop volley of claim and counterclaim.
God cannot abide with us in an endless flow of online punditry and analysis.
God cannot speak inside of so much angry noise and conscious deceit.
God cannot be found when all sides are so far from “the Falconer.”
God cannot be born except in a womb of Love.
So offer God that womb.

Stand as a sentry at the door of your senses for these coming months, so “the blood-dimmed tide” cannot make its way into your soul.

If you allow it for too long, it will become who you are, and you will no longer have natural access to the “really deep well” that Etty Hillesum returned to so often and that held so much vitality and freedom for her.

If you will allow, I recommend for your spiritual practice for the next four months that you impose a moratorium on exactly how much news you are subject to—hopefully not more than an hour a day of television, social media, internet news, magazine and newspaper commentary, and/or political discussions. It will only tear you apart and pull you into the dualistic world of opinion and counter-opinion, not Divine Truth, which is always found in a bigger place.

Instead, I suggest that you use this time for some form of public service, volunteerism, mystical reading from the masters, prayer—or, preferably, all of the above.

        You have much to gain now and nothing to lose. Nothing at all. 
        And the world—with you as a stable center—has nothing to lose.
        And everything to gain. 

Richard Rohr, September 19, 2020

 

 

 

Slugs and snails: how we love them and how they love our lettuce!

 

They will go for the lettuce right from the moment the seed burst from the ground further more it has been estimated that there are 50 slugs for every squire meter of your garden.

You will know that you have them because you will either see them or see the chewed leaves of your lettuce.

Solution: As growers we have a big problem here because slugs and snails thrive when protected from frost, drought, wind just like lettuce, so in a way we are creating the right environment for them.

However, what we can do is make it as unpleasant as possible for them. Keep our beds tidy with fine raked soil, the reason for this is that the slugs will have no where to hide and the birds can get them.

As far as I am aware there are no lettuce slug resistant varieties, so no help there

Make sure that your bed is well drained and that you have a good soil structure.

Encourage natural slug predators.

 This is a bit of a two edged sword because if you make your bed friendly to beneficial creatures by not using harmful sprays and providing habitats for them your are also helping the slugs survive. Just hope that there are more predators then slugs.

This is the main method of getting rid of the slug; Hand picking. Go out in the evening and early morning pick them up and chuck them in a bucket.

Snails and slugs love the smell of beer; so you can put out a shallow container of beer and the slugs will drown in it. Check the trap out every morning and empty the dead slugs, refill and wait for the next lot.

Another good lure to attract slugs is to place comfrey leaves around you bed.

 The idea here is to get the slugs to feed on the comfrey leaves and not you lettuce. The comfrey leaves will need checking every now and then because the slugs will hide under them; you can just put them in your ‘slug bucket’ and await the next lot.

Barriers have always been a good method to deter slugs and they consist of different types. Grit or sand around your plant/bottle cloches; remove the bottom half of a clear plastic bottle and place around your lettuce/ You can buy slug collars which are a plastic ring with a sort of lip put around your plant to make it difficult for the slug to get to your lettuce.

Give the slugs a meal of Bran in a bowel near your lettuce. This fills them up and they will not trouble your plants.

A word about slug pellets: 

There are two types:

Ferric phosphate pellets: The idea here is that the pellet is eaten by the slug and the slug will die and another other creature that eats the dead slug will not be harmed. They are only successful up to a point; I assume that not all slugs are attracted to them.

Metaldehyde pellets: These pellets are 100% sure way of killing off any snail or slug that eats them, however they will also kill off any creature that eats the dead slug.

LETTUCE PEST

 Lettuce Pest

There really are too many pests to mention each and every one, so I will just look at a few.

Aphids, slugs, snails are by far the most common and the most serious pest of lettuce (as well as other garden crops)

1. Aphids: Symptoms of damage is yellow mottling of the lettuce leaf and distortion.

2. They really are a nasty beast to have around.

3. They feed on the sap of the plant.

4. Shed their skin a number of times, this leaves a sticky mess on the lettuce.

5. On top of that, Aphids give birth to pregnant females that means they will rapidly increase in number.

Solution:

1. Grow resistant varieties of lettuce; Avon crisp, Lakeland, little gem and sylvesta to name but a few of them.

2. Because Aphids prefer soft young leaves, it is best not to grow or use any form of artificial fertilizers, which encourages raped soft growth.

3. Aphids are also attracted by single planting of lettuce it is a good idea to mix and match your plants. Lettuce among onions or mint, for instance.

4. Cover your lettuce with a horticultural fleece, these are most effected.

5. You may be surprised to learn that you can buy ladybirds for use as a form of biological control. Aphids have their problems too, for ants capture them and herd them like we do cattle. Ants are even known to have ‘herds’ of dairy aphids.