Wednesday, April 01, 2009
From mid-spring onwards the colours in the garden start to hot up. Who can't help but enjoy the warmer colour as the first of those silken petalled tulips show off bold, almost brazen blooms?
I have most of mine in containers at the moment as I find that way they can show themselves off better and parked on the front steps, those pots seem to glow in the spring sunshine. If you don't have any tulips, treat yourself to a pot or two from your local garden centre, then come the autumn you can get planting for an even better display next year.
Everything is now coming to life, even the more shy herbaceous perennials are putting on growth, and I for one find it very hard not to spend every spare moment in the garden : yes, the gardening year has well and truly got its boots on and is ready to leap in to action!
Hardy annuals put on a fantastic show and are so easy - just sow the seeds direct in to the soil now and in a few months time you will have your own flowerbed, all for very little cost and very little effort. But there is just one problem. Cats. The local moggy population moves in and tries to use the seed bed as a litter tray. Now much as I love cats, and indeed now have two of my own, I admit that they can be a pest. Try placing a 'cage' of chicken wire over the area until the seedlings are a decent size, or use netting on canes if you prefer. Most gardeners find that the proprietary repellents seem to have little effect, but many have suggested I try using the decongestant 'Olbas Oil'. They say that a few drops sprinkled on used teabags works well. Scattered around the newly sown seed it seems that the tea bag once impregnated with the pungent oil, sends the furry excavators off at speed. I might just be off to the chemist!
Best Beer for Traps for Slugs and Snails
Baited with beer, slug traps really do work. I also find that milk is just as effective, and add a sprinkling of porridge oats to either and they seem to love it even more! Plastic beakers make the perfect trap if plunged in to the soil in slug and snail-prone areas, but they may also end up trapping and killing a lot of ground beetles. These black, scuttling critters are fantastic allies, preying upon many pests including snails and vine weevils, so we should preserve them at all costs. If you ensure that the rim of the beaker protrudes about 2cm above soil level, the beetles are unlikely to fall in.....but not so the slug and snail menaces! A few years ago on 'Gardeners' Question Time' I carried out a comparison trial using different types of beer and lager, the hot favourite was Guinness, and guess what? Alcohol free lager just didn't seem to attract them at all ! !
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