Garden Team's Blog - June 2008
The latest from the Garden Team, headed up by Simon Hansford, HQ Head Gardener.
The weather over the past few weeks has been very varied – as I write this I’m sitting in the potting shed wearing my shorts, listening to the rain on the roof (well it was sunny this morning!)– but it is providing ideal growing conditions (warm and damp) for much of the veg we’ve been busy sowing and transplanting. Unfortunately, it’s also the ideal conditions for the weeds to grow - but then a weed is just a plant in the wrong place!
The other problem that this weather is bringing is an increase in slug damage (right). The little blighters have been busy eating just about everything we’ve been planting.
We are hoping in the next couple of days to start getting our own back by using the biological control Phasmarhabditis. This is a microscopic nematode that will prey upon the slugs and eat them from the inside (although this sounds rather macabre it is a very effective organic method for controlling slugs). If any you have any other methods of slug control I would love to hear about them – what method do you find is ideal?
The French bean ‘Barlotto Di Fuoco’ that we planted last month as part of the members seed project have germinated well and have put on plenty of growth (left). We are hoping to get these planted out in the kitchen garden later this week, to allow them to grow up the hazel poles already in position.
When I first started out as a gardener many years ago, an old boy who worked with us always used to grow his beans up a ‘X’ frame rather than the more traditional wigwam or ‘A’ frame. This means that the beans hang down the outside of the poles making it an awful lot easier to find and pick them – and that is the way that I’ve grown my beans ever since!
The ‘Marina Di Chioggia’ squash have also grown away well and again we are hoping (slug permitting) to get them planted out this week (left). How are your seeds growing? Have you got the plants all out in the garden yet? Please let us know how you are getting on.
Hope you have a good growing month!
Simon and the Garden Team