Wednesday 6 June 2018

Scourge




Looking out of my dining room window early yesterday morning I saw that my courgettes were drooping - one especially - and needed watering.   Out I went with the watering can but when I got to the plants I found that there was only one droopy one - in fact for 'droopy' read 'dead'.   Either a slug or a snail had made its way carefully over the bark mulch, mounted the grow bag and nibbled away at the very heart of the little plant - not an outside leaf but the extreme, succulent central stem.

I have put slug bait around them all, and around my hostas.   I hate doing so but there really is no alternative if I want to eat any  beans or courgettes.

The same applies to weedkiller and the tiny little weeds with deep, stubborn roots, which make their way up through the cracks in the concrete of my drive.  They are much too deep rooted for me to pull up - so weedkiller it has to be. 

And speaking of weedkiller, the specialist stuff to spray my Marestail has arrived ' to be sprayed on a totally still day when no rain is forecast'.   The bed is now empty apart from the pernicious weed - later on, when I return from lunch out - I will go and take a photograph to show you just how it has taken over.

Today is the anniversary of D Day - the 74th anniversary if I remember it correctly.   I certainly remember it very well - I was twelve at the time and by that time my brother was in REME, who did not go over in the first wave, so my parents were not quite so worried, or so it seemed to me.   By this time I was much more aware of what was going on than I had been at Dunkirk and I think there was a feeling everywhere that this was the beginning of the end of the war and that we were going to win it.

***I had intended to put on photographs of my garden and of the marestail.  I have taken the photos but since putting on my last lot the system for transferring them seems to have changed and I can't do it.   I shall have to wait for a superior brain to call and show me how. 

Managed to do the photographs myself but they have come out at the top rather than at the bottom of the post.   The top two are of the marestail (second one close up) the next of the bottom tier of the garden I have planted and finally the next tier - the rockery.   You will see that it is gradually taking shape.   I now await my gardener coming to apply the specialist weed killer to the marestail - then time will tell.

15 comments:

Rachel Phillips said...

Never a dull moment in gardening.

Liz said...

If you want to cut down on pesticides Bob Flowerdew recommends, after you make a cup of tea, pouring any remaining boiling water in the kettle over weeds between paving slabs. It's quite effective, if you keep on doing it.

It must be a lot of fun (and work) making your new garden.

Heather said...

I had to use slug pellets for some plants and weedkiller at times. I think you need a huge garden to be able to go completely organic.
I was three when the war started and was kept blissfully unaware of what was going on. As an adult I wondered why I didn't take an interest in current affairs, until I realised that I had been actively discouraged from reading newspapers or listening to the news. My mother was very protective and didn't want me to hear of all the dreadful things going on everywhere. I now feel quite guilty that I led such a charmed childhood while others suffered so much.

Joanne Noragon said...

I was born in 43, so that war meant nothing to me at the time. I knew the Korean war was happening, though! We use vinegar, epsom salts and detergent for week killer. Like anything, you must keep at it.

angryparsnip said...

Weeds do not give me too much trouble as the critters eat any new green shoots unless they taste really bad.

cheers, parsnip

liparifam said...

I believe it is the 73rd anniversary? 6/6/1945. May we all remember with gratitude...

Amanda said...

My mother was a civilian working at Rome (New York)Army Base (where she met my father). She told the story how in the wee hours of the morning, a soldier woke all the clerks up and herded them up to the radio shack. The base's Commanding Officer was there beside the radio that transmitted to Europe. The radio was on, and they could hear all kinds of noise and racket coming over it. They listened for a moment, then the CO very solemnly told them "We are invading Europe." Mom was so shaken, even as a good Irish Catholic girl, she couldn't even think to pray till she got back to quarters.

Rachel Phillips said...

6/6/44 - We need another year to go out and finish them off.

hart said...

I had my whole cucumber vine taken down by something chewing through the stem. You might try "diatomaceous earth," not poisonous, is labeled food-grade, just keeps soft-bodied pests away (or maybe kills them, but they were eating my plants.)You sprinkle it around the roots on top of the soil.

Sheila said...

Yes, diatomaceous earth works very well on slugs and snails. I believe it has millions of tiny shards which work their way into the pests' skin. Made into a paste, it's what silver polish cream is made of. Buy your gardener a small blow torch and have him burn the weeds in the driveway. No noxious weed killer needed.

Tom Stephenson said...

I was about to make a silly joke about my drooping courgette until you mentioned D Day.

Cro Magnon said...

If I didn't use Slug Pellets, I'd have no vegs. I use a 'wildlife friendly' version, which is expensive but efficient.

Cro Magnon said...

p.s I always put the photo at the top!

Heather said...

Your garden is taking shape so well and will look beautiful when everything has filled out a little. It must give you so much pleasure.

liparifam said...

Yep, you're right :)