My eco solution to rat problems

[soapdragon]

I've decided to only grow runners this year. Our soil is heavy clay so I use pots, troughs and old recycling bins. Compost is needed to grow any veg so I am going with 'expensive' veg in order to get my money's worth!

[Beantree]

You might have a success with French beans @soapdragon, because they grow well in poor soil. The packet i bought said don't plant in recently composted soil and the ones we have grown before have always been given the worst beds which were heavy clay. The high temperatures wrecked last years crop, followed by some 'creatures'.

Having put 1200 litres of soil conditioner on our clay beds they have improved dramatically, but only to spade depth. The plan is to add even more as the potatoes are lifted which will get it deeper without any extra digging.

[mullethunter]

I’m going to be late with just about everything this year because I’m going on holiday for nearly 2 weeks this week so I couldn’t have any seedlings over this time. I have tomatoes doing quite well which will just stay in the greenhouse with door and roof window open, and onions are already outside. Everything else will have to wait until I’m home.

[Daphne]

Well I hope you are having a lovely time MH!  I am also not growing much this year because I will be away in the summer, plus last year was such a disaster, so its going to be tomatoes and that's pretty much it.  Right this minute things are looking good with the greens still going and some strawberries in flower, plus the garlic looks fine but you never can tell till you pull it.  The plum tree has been super-laden with blossom so after last year's plum drought for everyone round here I am hoping we get a bumper crop.  Its still a tad early for the apple, but the peach blossom has looked OK if not briliant.

 

 

[Beantree]

Having read today that onions are frost resistant, particularly when older, preferable growing temperatures of 12C- 23C and daylight hours of between 12 and 15 we've decided to plant ours out three weeks earlier than previous years. If we do get a frost the instructions are to cover with a mulch, of which we have plenty. If we don't try we will never know and of course water is plentiful at the moment.

[Daphne]

Bon chance!  A good friend of mine was super concerned about her ability to buy onions during the worst days of Brexit if they became short in supply, she said she's wasn't sure how she'd cope as virtually all her cooking involves them.  I've always thought they must be pretty bomb proof given they grow so well in the UK, as well as France, Spain and here.  My mother on the other hand, could probably live quite happily never eating another onion in her life, although she would miss leeks.  I am realising that although it was torrential never ending rain for 2 months last autumn, its been pretty dry this spring, its beginning to be slightly worrisome, and I have started collecting water in the house already.

[Beantree]

I can assure you that onions are not 'bomb proof' @Daphne. Too hot and they stop growing, so when the leaves wilt and it's time to lift them they are only half the size they should be. Half of ours last year either died or were so small they went to compost. They do need a lot of water and I hope the soil conditioner added to the beds will ensure they don't dry out. A friend in England has 12 full water butts, but only 2000 lites in total, so he's worried about Summer as well. It used to rain all the time there, but since we left things have changed as they have here. Over only 10 years and it's a very different climate and a big problem. The climate here used to be like central Africa I read, but the Canal de la Neste built by Napoleon 3rd taking snow mel*****er from the Pyrenees changed all that. But now the population and farming demands have increased and to make it worse the snowfall and rainfall is 30% down, so where we go from here is anyone's guess?

Have some leek seeds to go in before they are past their date but it may soon be too hot for germination? Who knows, it's a lottery?

[soapdragon]

On 3/21/2023 at 8:48 PM, mullethunter said:

I’m going to be late with just about everything this year because I’m going on holiday for nearly 2 weeks this week so I couldn’t have any seedlings over this time. I have tomatoes doing quite well which will just stay in the greenhouse with door and roof window open, and onions are already outside. Everything else will have to wait until I’m home.

Enjoy your holiday MH!

 

[Beantree]

Bit of luck. Just swapped half a dozen eggs for 3 beef and one cherry tomato, plus two butternut squash plants. We were going to buy these from the market, so €6 saved.

Just put fleece over the early potatoes; hopefully the last time this year. Onions are loving the early planting with moderate temperatures and not too much sun. I am fed up with watering already. Dread to think how many cans full will be used this season?

[Daphne]

I know what you mean, I feel the same.  Its been so dry, and the amount of effort to carry the watering cans soon mounts up.  My cherry toms have been in about 10 days, lets see how we both do, mine always seem to take an age to fruit.  I can use a hose pipe but its not a good idea yet.  Its going to be 29 over the weekend.  On the plus side I have broad beans ready to pick, and the first time ever I got a good display of tulips this Spring.  Cherry blossom has been in full display this week, so when we walk there are just clouds of it as there are orchards everywhere.  Its just beginning to go over and no rain is forecast, so I think there will be a good harvest this year.  The grape leaves are very slow to unfurl though.

[Beantree]

We've just planted a Japanese Flowering Cherry @Daphne. It's in a spot where there must have been a large tree years ago and with the slope of the land it will catch some rainwater. About 60cm high now, but should reach 8 metres eventually (but not in our lifetime).

Tomatoes can't go in before 3 week of May because of frosts. Once again the courgettes, as well as the butternut squash, will be planted in a compost heap which will be lifted and the area grass seeded in September. But this heap catches the slightest frost, so perhaps wait until June? It's the end of the roving heaps now. Two new permanent compost bays will be built soon (the wood was incredibly expensive).

Our grapes are still inactive, so can't see where to prune, but we know some branches are dead

[Daphne]

Ah yes, I forget you can get a late frost, its not something I have to worry about luckily.  Some of my grape branches look dead as well, I think I must have pruned too hard (having thought it was impossible to be too severe with grapes).   There is another vineyard for sale close to our olive grove, I have to keep telling myself its a bad idea even to be tempted!

[Beantree]

I think I have posted this before @Daphne, but here is you have over 100 vines you are classed as a business and must register and then pay (of course). The reasoning is each vine produces one bottle and more than 100 bottles a year consumption for the family of the house is considered excessive, so to be discouraged. So if you want more you go to the supermarket? Only France could have a stupid rule like that (been here 10 years and getting a grip on the place).

[Beantree]

Put in about 80 French beans taken from last years crop and every single one came up, but something started eating them. Not slugs or snails so guessed at a lizard. Surrounded the row with wood shavings from cutting logs for the fire. Seems to have worked as no more have been eaten.

Onions are a problem though. We have two beds. One had soil conditioner and our compost dug in and they are doing fine but growing slowly. The other bed had a 40 litre bag of bought compost dug in and in that bed the onions are growing twice as fast but the leaves are all twisted and some are rotting. There has been some slug damage, but not much. Two possibilities are 'eel worm' or over feeding or even both? Eel worm can only be seen with magnification and I will look at that when I've finished repairing more broken stuff. If it is eel worm it came in with the bought compost and we may lose the entire bed (86 bulbs) and use of that bed for three years? Anyone any experience of this?

[Valkyrie]

I've had aminopyralid issues with contorted bean growth, but I've not had that problem with onions.  Here is more wet, wet, wet, windy, stormy wet.  For weeks.  Not been able to do much, just managed to get the spuds in - all are doing OK except for one that is AWOL.  Trouble is the monsoons have prevented me from earthing up - or weeding!  Nice days arrive and it is tackle the duck pens.  At least it looks like a good year for hay!  I'm well behind with the sowings in the greenhouse, biting the bullet and getting some bought in peppers.  Tomatoes will be fine a bit late.  Haven't done the parsnips - only one grew last year, all others chomped by slugs and that looked weedy when I unearthed it. But if we have some dry, warm weather I hope to get some in at least.  Maybe get some nematodes.  

At least I've done working on the fruit - except the grass has gone crazy around the new raspberries.  I've never seen comfrey struggle before - but it is here and some have rusty leaves.  Garlic "looks" strong enough, but time will tell.

Still waiting to get some help with the polytunnel.

Can't believe the solstice isn't too far off and we've had such bad weather that it seems like autumn and winter hasn't ended.  Although last week had a couple of reasonable days and today was belting hot - mowing the duck pens and strimming (new strimmer, last one kaput) and it floored us!  Continuing tomorrow weather permitting and then we'll do the veg patch.

[Daphne]

And possibly I shouldn't post this, but we still have beautiful warmth, and everything edible or ornamental has been forward compared to usual.  Yesterday I saw GW and it seemed a lifetime ago, with tulips and other Spring flowers, everything like that here is already over and I've had roses in bloom for months, poppies are out, I've even seen agapanthus in flower, although not in my garden.  However, I know the summer will be too hot, and we will be too dry for the 2nd year in a row so I'm glad I only have a few toms to nurse through.

On the plus side I had my first cherries earlier in the week, absolutely perfect.  I've never grown so many strawberries, although they aren't the best for flavour, so some of them end up in ice-cream or just smashed about a bit with other fruit.  Most of the hundreds of plumlets have fallen, so I will have my usual few pounds for jam, but we do have respectable loquats.  As an aside, OH is in Italy and picked a loquat today and gave it to a friend who had never had one before.  The apricots have been a disaster, not sure what is wrong, I probably need to take the tree in hand, its huge.  On the other hand, the peaches are ripening and I think will be edible in a fortnight or so.

I'm sorry I can't offer onion advice, but could the bean damage be voles/mice?  I had to look up aminopyralid, I see its a weedkiller.  I know a very keen gardener who once lost everything for a season because she'd bought in some horse manure and it was contaminated with something.  On a nicer note, I saw photos of our old UK house taken 40 years ago, long before our time.  The back garden was very small, but the side garden was planted up with veg and the owners seemed to have spread guerilla gardening style into the field beyond!  A plot over the road, which used to belong to our house, was also full of veg, it was a different world compared to now and made me think of Percy Thrower.

[Valkyrie]

It sounds lovely Daphne.  Can't wait for strawberry season here, probably a bit delayed but something to look forward to.  Mine are in the greenhouse, I did buy bare root plants, 3 different varieties.  They are only just beginning to stabilise, but the worst bit is having to pick off the flowers so that the plants put more growth into being sturdier plants.  But some bigger strawb pots are covered with flowers.  Those blooming voles had better keep out!  The cats are doing their best to keep them under control.  I often see Merlin running along with a furry sausage in his mouth.  I wish he'd go further into the veg patch!  Saw the kestrel sitting on the electricity cable above the veg patch the other day.  Yayyy!

[Beantree]

Don't think we have any voles left. The veg plot has been mown all round the outside, the dog hasn't brought any in for weeks and the barn owls have moved away. Plenty of lizards though.

Taken a sample of onion and can't see any sign of eelworms with 2x, 5x and 50x magnification. No damage to the centre of the bulb, just the outer leaves are curled and rotting. It may just be because it is so wet; the wettest Spring since we have been here? Put soil conditioner in and of course that holds the water, which is what we wanted. The onion roots are perfect. Might be that the compost I put on that one bed is holding more water than the other, or because of the rapid growth rate it is making them more susceptible to rot? We'll see what happens when the weather dries up. Have seen some tiny flies in the leaves though. Might be weed killer as well, but that washes out in a season, or so I've read.

[Valkyrie]

Thrips maybe?  They are a pain in the btm.  

[Beantree]

I saw two possible 'thrips' @Valkyrie, but after going out to look at them again the onions are not getting any worse. It's due to turn dryer later in the week and even colder, but no frost. This is the coldest, wettest May I can remember since being here. Instead of putting the aircon unit on I'll be lighting a fire! We've decided to leave all the onions in but bin any weeds taken out. If we have to put a membrane over the bed and leave it for three years unused, we will do. It's only 4 metres of 70.

[Valkyrie]

Fingers crossed!  

[Beantree]

Another look today and still no further damage to the onions. Haven't lost any more beans either.

Tomatoes growing so fast now they were pot-bound and had to be planted out. First truss showing on the beef, second on the cherry. Courgettes are not far behind going out. Must be doubling in size every two days now. More rain due in the next week and season normal temperatures, so it may be a good year?

[Valkyrie]

Sounds like the bad run is over for you Beannie!  I still haven't done anything in the greenhouse but we are earthing up the spuds - it's a long process and we still have a lot to do along with the weeding.  At least the maincrop ones are done and one of the Charlottes.  Transferring soil to the beds is hard work, but thankfully husband is doing the barrow  wheeling while I keep hacking away at the topsoil mound and filling the barrow when he comes back.  

Next up the onions to go in.  Winter ones in already, but the maincrop is in the greenhouse taking root in cells.  I may have overdone the onions too, but we eat a lot!

Today we've been dismantling the old chicken/duck run.  The space is huuuge now that the frame has gone.  One of the ducks has been a broody monkey for ages - finally found she is only sitting on 2 eggs - one of which is a dud.  Poor girl.  Other than that the crows have been after the eggs in both the field and ducken runs, so the duckens stay in the lean-to on the barn until they've finished laying and we close up the field ones.  No more thieving now.

The swallows are back in the barn I love seeing them - I don't know who jumps more - me on my way out or the swallow doing a u-turn in my face!  LOL!

[Beantree]

The bad run wasn't quite over @Valkyrie. A pan fell off the hook in the wall and landed on the electric kettle which fell onto the tiled floor and smashed. Carefully swept up all the fragments of glass so that Portia (the TNN house chicken with the amputated toe) doesn't get injured during her wanderings. Ordered a new one and have a spare until it arrives.

Great weather for the newly transplanted tomatoes; dull ,cool (had another fire) with occasional showers. Rain forecast until Thursday at least, which is great, but they are saying the chance of a even hotter Summer than previous records is a whopping 98%. Tasted the globe radishes; very hot.

[Daphne]

I went out this morning intending to go to the big city (aka a moderate size town) but when I got down the hill I saw a huge pall of smoke.  Went home but couldn't find the source online, until I saw a story in a UK newspaper about a huge fire in Spain, so I think that was it.

BT - Are the radishes hotter than normal? I wonder why, I always think hot weather concentrates the flavour but you've been having a lot of wet.

Val - is a ducken literally a cross?  If so is it a drake/hen or cockeral/duck or can it be either?  Or is it just an affectionate term?