Up at the Big House

As expected Amonopyralid Herbicides have been re licensed for use in the UK by our Government.
Of course all users will now follow the instructions on the packet to the letter, they will not give any to their mates for use on their land, no horses will ever eat treated grass and absolutely no residue will now get into the Manure or Organic Compost chain.

Cant find a picture of a flying pig. Have one of Gordon instead.

I quote in full the response from No.10 to the petition which I received yesterday.

The Government acknowledges the difficulties that the use of manure containing traces of aminopyralid has caused some gardeners and allotment holders. In issuing approvals for two new products, it carefully considered the advice of the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP).

If, despite these additional controls and safeguards, significant problems arise in future, the Government’s position will be reviewed again.

Green Lane Allotments were affected in the past and keep up with the developments too.

http://www.glallotments.btik.com/home.ikml

Yes it's me again. Reporting a very successful season for crops this year. Despite almost total neglect for 2 months. We are perfecting the, plant and sow and go, technique which means we come back from our 2month trip to fruit and vegetables galore.
My poor 'under gardener' didn't even get a ripe Tomato whilst we were away. Did I get the timings right? well, I was picking 3 days after our return.

Now we have the cold Autumn winds which will maybe end all the Runner Beans, we picked a good few 2 days ago.

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli, which last year was decimated by caterpillars, had its attacks this year bur the damage was minimal. Hence the plants now are tall and proud with a huge 'wingspan'. Just right for the winds to knock them flat. This one was laying on the ground this morning. No harm done, they rarely break they just gracefully yield to the wind, the roots moving in the wet soil.

Visitors to my blog have mentioned the Tomato Moth this year.
It seems we may have to be very vigilant this season, I have never seen so many of the Caterpillars. If you want to be Organic, vigilance is the only thing I know of to beat this stealth fiend.

Looking at the photograph below (Right Click and select View Image for full size) several holes can be seen in the leaves, some no more than pin holes.

The felons who created the holes are just hatched and no more than 1mm long, its an easy job to rub them between leaf and finger to destroy them. If left to develop they would devastate the plants completely.

There are those who consider my blog a place for free advertising, I have stopped some, some are more persistent, just like the Pests we get in the Garden.
So let us use them to negatively advertise their cheap counterfeit junk.
Boycott counterfeit goods. People involved have been found to be linked to crime and the drug trade.

http://www.thewholesaler.co.uk/html/yorkshire_police_link_fake_goo.html

The Great Tits that nested in the usual box close to the house had their baby leave home today.

Right Click on Picture and select View Image for full size.

Baby? well there were 5 Eggs, 5 Hatchlings, I removed one dead a few days ago, then there were 3 alive, one of those was weak. That's nature.
The little fellow who made it sat at the hole in the nestbox looking round, I fetched my camera and focused, that was his signal to fly so the picture is of him sitting on a cross bar on the fence, his first flight was strong with a fine landing.

Next away will be the Tree Sparrows. Their domed nest is tight against the house wall in a tall Pyracantha. We have seen 3 wide open mouths through the entrance hole. It was difficult to get the light right for the photograph. The most visible mouth almost fills the entrance. What a demanding site for the parents.

Right Click on Picture and select View Image for full size.

Next an update on the Purple Sprouting Broccoli which was devastated by caterpillars, now scrapped and on the Compost Heap.

Right Click on Picture and select View Image for full size.

The bricks in the photograph give an idea of the final size. The crop was down but keeping the plants and feeding them well was a good move in comparison to destroying them.

There are those who consider my blog a place for free advertising, I have stopped some, some are more persistent, just like the Pests we get in the Garden.
So let us use them to negatively advertise their cheap counterfeit junk.
Boycott counterfeit goods. People involved have been found to be linked to crime and the drug trade.

http://www.thewholesaler.co.uk/html/yorkshire_police_link_fake_goo.html

The Blackbirds nest which had the hatchlings stolen was well and truly abandoned. I needed to trim the shrub so I removed the nest.

Right Click on Picture and select View Image for full size.

It was time to check the Teabag construction. I counted them as I dismantled the nest, at least 60 bags.

As for the thief who ate the chicks, I often see a Magpie around. Yesterday I spotted something odd on my shed roof. It looks as if the egg (a hens egg) was pierced at one end in order to carry it away for consumption.

There are those who consider my blog a place for free advertising, I have stopped some, some are more persistent, just like the Pests we get in the Garden.
So let us use them to negatively advertise their cheap counterfeit junk.
Boycott counterfeit goods. People involved have been found to be linked to crime and the drug trade.

http://www.thewholesaler.co.uk/html/yorkshire_police_link_fake_goo.html

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
This is the end
Of Solomon Grundy.

I was trimming some shrubs on Tuesday and spotted a Blackbirds nest deep inside one, naturally I curtailed the trimming.
It was difficult to see inside the nest on Wednesday when I took the picture.
On Thursday I could tell there were 4 maybe 5 eggs.
On Friday in the morning a chick had hatched, by afternoon it was several. Also in the afternoon I disturbed a Magpie on the fence nearby.
On Saturday morning the nest was empty.

The nest was built using many composted tea bags of course. This episode adds evidence that the species balance is distorted. There are far too many Crows and Magpies encouraged by copious feeding in some gardens. They sit on the chimneys and watch the activities of the garden species.

We still have a Sparrows nest under construction and the Tits have been back to the nest they seemed to have completed a month ago.

The Mason Bee Video does not give a good clear view of the creatures, the picture here shows a Male taking a rest between seeing off others and the occasional fight.

I not sure of the species maybe Black Mason. They are not terrible Bee like and could easily be mistaken for flies.

The warm weather has brought out the Masonry Bees with mating on the mind of the Males.

I think the brown re-cycling bins have done the birds no favours. Every little twig and leaf can now be tidied up and placed out of sight and access to our feathered friends then taken far away. Thus now at nest building time I have a range of birds collecting building material in my garden at the same time.

My garden is the favourite because of my compost heap. They don't steal material off it they are meticulously tidying the surface of the ground of composted material that was applied last season.
Last year I found a Blackbirds nest in an Escallonia Hedge, it was built using many Tea Bags. I compost the bags from the numerous cuppa's consumed here daily, the bags are slow to break down, once they have been through the composting process they finally turn up on the soils surface.

I have had as many as 12 crows at one time collecting Tea Bags first thing in the morning. I watched to see where they were taking them. Not too far was the answer, some houses around 100m away have become favourite sitting places for them. From there they can watch for food placed out by a neighbour. The Crows have somehow blocked the Chimney Pots on these houses and the Tea Bags are being used to line the nests they are building in them.

The well meaning feeding of birds I consider is distorting the balance of species around the houses. The Crows and Pigeons drive out the smaller species, Magpies we have in abundance and these will steal the eggs of the smaller birds.
The food put out attracts Mice and Rats, one neighbour who has multiple feeders keeps a sack of Peanuts in his Greenhouse. When I mentioned that I was catching Mice which had tunnelled through near my house he confirmed that he thought there was a mouse taking the nuts from the sack and burying them.
Another imbalance of nature introduced, that was not a mouse I have now caught 29 of them. My Peas sown in the Greenhouse were being taken by them, little holes in the compost being evidence of attack. Later when the Peas were up the shoots were eaten off at ground level and the seed taken, this is the sort of damage often blamed on birds.

Fortunately Blue Tits have nested again in my box, I spotted no building material going in but the male is now working hard early in the morning, he collects food from the trees around and is feeding the sitting female I assume.

The Peas survived the onslaught. The bank Holiday rain will do them good.

Likewise the Broad Beans also raised under glass.

Last year I grew a number of varieties of Shallots, they will gradually lessen as the most favourable ones to our climate dominate. The Grey, Frogs Legs did not at all well and there are none in these rows. They get one more chance in another spot, it may have been a bad year last year but I think it most likely that they will not do well in these parts.

Do you remember the caterpillar savaged Purple Sprouting Broccoli from last year that looked like a skeleton. There are pictures just back a little in the blog. As promised they have been fed, tended and nursed to see if a worthwhile crop could be rescued. Yesterday we had a meal from them. The film star is a later developer and has not yet produced a head. This is a characteristic of PSB, no two plants are genetically the same from a packet of seeds. The picture is of the same plant from the previous postings, whilst only around half as tall it would be if it wasn't butchered in the summer it is not a bad plant. The ground has not been needed for anything else so I consider it well worth leaving them to produce what they will.

Finally the blossom is beautiful now this is my Conference Pear tree cordon trained against a fence

Well I have been so busy with techy stuff. Computing, radio construction and blogging, I have fitted in some work on the house and planted the seeds in the garden. This has lead to a bit of neglect of this blog.

So here we are with catch up time. First the Standard Fuchsia that I started, the cutting came from my friend's garden in France. It was triploid, ideal for a standard if the head was balanced, it wasn't, it got worse, so it was off with its head. I cut it down to a lower node, it set it back well, but it worked.

Maybe now this will turn out to be a nice plant. The set back means it has been beaten into flower by another variety of fuchsia from the same garden in France.

If you think Fuchsia cuttings are difficult at home try rooting them on tour in a Motor Home. The cuttings started in a plastic glove, the ones you get at filling stations, one cutting per finger. Some water was put in the glove then shaken out, inflated with breath then tied up at the wrist. This cows udder poly tunnel was tossed around and given a reasonable growing spot when ever possible. When it came to potting on, an empty terracotta candle holder with no drain hole was pressed into use, I didn't have compost so I stole a hand full of sharp shell laden building sand. They had sea air, temperatures of 30C, heavy rain and wind, golly I have surprised myself.

Last week Gardeners Question Time covered the Toxic Muck topic again. A representative of Dow Agro Chemical was allowed to speak and no one else from any organisation was represented.

I was prompted by a comment on last my years postings to have my say.

Much of the Dow comments were backside covering stuff and I thought, 'yes you would say that.'
I personally consider all Muck and 'Organic' Compost as being potentially toxic still.

How can any animal keeper be sure that bought in feed or bedding is not contaminated. If a farmer in the chain has acted irresponsibly he is hardly likely to own up.

The most disturbing news is that Dow are trying to get their product back on the market. The most satisfying thing I read on the subject was "Banned for use in New York State" in Dow's literature.