It's that time of year again. I don't really think you should have to buy gifts for grown-ups, but if you have to find something for a gardening friend, or if you will have to give someone a few pointers for you or risk ending up with something totally wasteful, this might be for you.… Continue reading Christmas gifts for gardeners
Category: General
can slugs see in colour?
This is a serious question : can slugs see in colour? All summer, the tomatoes have been growing well and just as the green tomatoes start to ripen, the slugs have attacked! How do they know when the tomatoes have ripened? They showed absolutely no interest for months until now. I suppose they might be… Continue reading can slugs see in colour?
Mutant Limnanthes?
I'm pretty sure I was told that there is only one type of Limnanthes douglasii and it is the cheerful poached-egg plant, with a very open flower and good for attracting insects. This is what most of the ones I have in my garden look like: Standard poached-eggs However, I seem to also have a… Continue reading Mutant Limnanthes?
Spots on the Butterwort….
I had moved the two carnivorous Butterworts I obtained to control fungus gnats outside because the weather has been warmer. They also had not been catching so much dinner since I had moved my other plants outside and I felt that they needed a good feed. They had both been looking really lovely and yellow,… Continue reading Spots on the Butterwort….
Helix tosta
I have been trying for the last couple of years to control the number of slugs (and snails) in my garden, using various methods (https://wordpress.com/post/rhslevel2studies.home.blog/553.) They seem to have virtually no natural predators at all in this built-up suburban area and when they start eating supposedly slug-proof plants, you know you have a problem. The… Continue reading Helix tosta
Mwahahahaha!!!
Following a couple of recommendations in the comments of the Fungus Gnat post, I got myself two butterworts or Pinguicula from Hampshire Carnivorous Plants I thought that perhaps they were still dormant as the leaves didn't seem that shiny or sticky but it's only taken a couple of days for them to prove me wrong.… Continue reading Mwahahahaha!!!
Box blight??
I glanced out of a window a week or so ago and noticed a brown patch in my box hedge. It looked just as if someone had put a hot saucepan on top of it - an almost perfectly round burn. On closer inspection, the leaves had turned brown and fallen off, with some of… Continue reading Box blight??
Finally – I passed!
It's taken a long time (longer than expected due to Covid) but I finally got my RHS level 2 certificates - yay!!! What's baffling though, is that there are 5 in total! There is a certificate for the practical part, and then one each for the two theory parts. Then, there is an additional certificate… Continue reading Finally – I passed!
DIY flypaper – experiment
In my last post, I might have mentioned the issues I've been having recently with fungus gnats or sciarid flies. As the yellow sticky traps have become covered with them, I thought I'd try making my own sticky traps to see whether they worked. I roughly followed the instructions here: https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-make-fly-paper-1389064, substituting golden syrup for… Continue reading DIY flypaper – experiment
Fungus gnats or Sciarid flies
Difficult to photograph, the photo shown above was the best that I could do. Fungus gnats or Sciarid flies live in damp compost and only really are a problem indoors, living in your houseplants and flying around your home. The one in the photo is about 2mm long. Apparently, they do no damage to the… Continue reading Fungus gnats or Sciarid flies
Gardening studies 