Here it is: the mother, father, grandmother and great-aunt-twice-removed of all weeds. Bindweed has to be the absolutely most detested weed of them all. My own garden is riddled with it, and it seems the moment I turn my back (usually still aching from the last two-hour session of forking out bindweed roots) it’s slithering up from [...]
Archive for the ‘Rogues' Gallery’ Category
Rogues’ gallery: Bindweed
Posted in Allotments, Rogues' Gallery, tagged weeds, bindweed on July 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Rogues’ gallery: Blackfly
Posted in Allotments, Rogues' Gallery, tagged beans, pests, greenfly, blackfly on July 3, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I have a confession to make. I have been Less Than Vigilant. Actually, I’ve been downright lacksadaisical in my approach to veg gardening: a quick swish round with the watering can, dig up a few spuds for tonight’s tea, and then dash off to my desk to fit in the twenty thousand urgent tasks I [...]
Rogues’ gallery: Greenfly
Posted in Greenhouse growing, Rogues' Gallery, tagged aphids, coriander, greenfly, pests, virus on May 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
My greenhouse is fragrant with the scent of coriander at the moment. Each time I open the door a waft of spicy, peppery perfume drifts out on the warmed air from the long trough of young plants parked just inside, waiting for the frosts to pass so they can move to just outside my back door. [...]
Rogues’ Gallery: Ground elder
Posted in Allotments, Rogues' Gallery, tagged ground elder, weeds on March 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Aaaaargh! Nooooo! It’s spring! This may be the season all things begin to sprout and burgeon and generally leap into life, but to the gardener’s disgust that means the weeds are revving up for action too. In my front garden, where vegetables like chard, kale and leeks are woven in among my ornamental plants, there is a nasty menace [...]
Rogues’ Gallery: Rats
Posted in Allotments, Harvesting, Rogues' Gallery, tagged pests, rats, sweetcorn on January 11, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Shhh – say it quietly. Nobody ever mentions the r-word: but every vegetable garden has them. They say no-one, anywhere, is more than six metres from the nearest Rattus norvegicus (that’s the brown rat – the black rat, Rattus rattus, is apparently almost extinct nowadays despite its notoriety as the cause of the Black Plague. Black rats have pink, hairless [...]
Rogues’ Gallery: Mealy cabbage aphid
Posted in Allotments, Rogues' Gallery, tagged aphids, brassicas, kale, pests on November 14, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I was happily cutting the first young leaves from my beautifully healthy-looking curly kale for supper the other day, when a little white fly flew up in my face. ‘Ah-ha!’ I thought, and began rummaging around for further signs of cabbage whitefly – an annoyingly common pest which I’ll go on about at greater length [...]
Rogues’ gallery: Slugs
Posted in Rogues' Gallery, tagged baby leaf salads, courgettes, salads, slugs on October 27, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I was rootling about in the garden the other day and turned over a plank of wood – and look what I found. Sorry if you’re eating while reading this: but you knew it wasn’t going to be long before the slimy things turned up. This has to be the most hated creature in the [...]
Rogues’ Gallery: Mildew
Posted in Allotments, Fruit, Rogues' Gallery, tagged courgettes, cucumbers, gooseberries, mildew on September 27, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Leaves of beech trees and blueberries may be getting ready to turn fetching shades of red and orange at this time of year: but those on my courgette plants turn white. Mildew is as regular a sign of autumn as mists and mellow fruitfulness (and people quoting Keats at each other). It’s a fungus which seems to go off and do something else [...]
Rogues’ Gallery: Caterpillars
Posted in Rogues' Gallery, tagged caterpillars, chickens, pests on August 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Look what I found on my calabrese plants. Actually, I should say my ex-calabrese plants. These are going down on the list of abject failures for this year; their leaves are reduced to lacy doilies and several have succumbed altogether. It’s been a good year for butterflies. Now normally this would fill my soul with [...]
Rogues’ gallery: Couch grass
Posted in Rogues' Gallery, tagged couch grass, weeds on July 29, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Couch grass is right up there in the top 5 most hated weeds in the country. People have driven themselves crazy trying to get rid of it. It has the tenacity of Dale Winton on the tail of a daytime quiz show and is about as entertaining if you find it in your garden. But actually, I don’t [...]
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