Compost: don't include triffid in the mix!

This is a cautionary compost tale. In theory almost everything of plant extraction should be possible to compost. But not Parrot's Feather Myriophyllum.

I cleared a lot out of the pond last summer as it tends to overwhelm the surface and cause the aquatic oxygenaters to die back. I mixed it in with chicken straw and grass as the bottom layer of the new heap I was making, thinking that a year underneath a hundred-weight of hot, actively steaming muck would kill it off. Wrong. When I came to harvest this heap earlier in the summer, the bottom layer was still full of wiry, strongly-rooted stems that looked far from dead. It was impossible to use in this state, so I left it. Within a week, the stems had started to grow and produce fresh green leaves. This plant does not need water, it can grow in fairly dry soil like any other. It is truly a pest. I have now treated with glyphosate, which has wilted it a little, but I'm still not sure that I can just compost over it again. I think I'll have to dig it out and destroy some other way.

The Elderflower Wine

Well, the cup is coming home again this year. Having not made any this year, and not even having gotten round to bottling last years, an eleventh hour effort last night paid off. Now we just need to rememer to start drinking it, having got out of the habit somewhat in the last few years.

One of the many

Just to illustrate the problem, there are probably half a dozen toads per square yard in the vegetable garden. Nestling under leaves and boards, finding their way deeper into the soil via cracks or mole/mouse tunnels. All ready to be trodden on, spiked or bisected by a spade at any point. It has made gardening really difficult. Only a tiny percentage have been harmed by gardening directly, but it's very upsetting when it happens. One jumped under my foot as I walked down the path this week. On the other, hand it's obviously a fantastic habitat for them. I can't say I've ever noticed any benefit from the presence in terms of reduced slug numbers though. Both are present in plague proportions!

Potato Rooster

Decided to lift the 'Roosters' today. In previous years I've left them far too late, and lost an awful lot to the hole burrowers.

A good yield, about 10 kgs in total. Not bad from 7 small seed potatoes in 2 rather cramped rows. Less scabby than last year too, the sulphur had done a reasonable job, though hadn't eradicated it completely. Certainly not enough for exhibition standard, though the Nicolas were perfectly clean, and took first prize in their category today.

Best of all, no toads spiked. Putting the straw down was an excellent idea. It stopped any blight spores affecting the tubers, prevented any greening and discouraged the toads from burrowing into the soil. Most were just nestling under the straw, and were easily brushed off with it. I will leave it down until spring and hope the same applies when I come to dig then.

Autumn musings

Superb autumn sunshine again today. I feel I should be doing something, but the ground is too hard to dig at the moment. Digging when the soil is in this condition creates too many fissures which quickly attract sheltering toads and toadlets, which will probably end up on the tine of my fork at a later stage. I'd rather wait until the soil condition is right.

I could have cleared out the 'tomoato tardis', but he blighted tomatoes are still yielding the odd fruit. Instead I spent a while photographing the abundant insect life. Lots of seven spot ladybirds, so nice to see after the influx of harlequin ones in previous years. This one was feeding on a fennel flower. The self-seeded borage was attracting multitudes of honey and bumble bees, lots of different species.

A good picking!

I couldn't resist posting a photo of today's pickings

Butternut Avalon

First picking of winter squash. I decided to cut the large ones to encourage the smaller ones to swell to a decent size in the last couple of good growing weeks. These are whoppers, haven't weighed them yet but much larger than any butternuts I've grown before, more like the over-sized ones available at the supermarket, weighing in at about 1.5 kg each. So much for being 'compact' as described in the catalogue! Not perfectly matched for exhibition purposes, but I suspect I might enter them in the village show anyway.

The stalks were quite compact, I hope they are a good keeping variety.