Bug off !

Weeds of the Sea.

I noticed in spring that one of my neighboring allotments had mulched their patch with some of this bladder seaweed. Their patch looks like they have wonderful soil and strong healthy plants and I am wondering if it has anything to do with mulching with this stuff. I thought I might pop some on my lotti too. It certainly adheres to my natural approach to gardening, although I was a wee bit concerned that the salt on it would not be so beneficial to the soil so I put it in a large bag and submerged it in fresh clean water first.  Now all it needs is a good few days of dry weather and it goes brittle very quickly and can be crushed into the soil ( that might not happen till spring now). I also used leaves off of the comfrey and the dock plant to do a bit of mulching with as I believe is good for the soil also. As you can see in the picture below, the marigolds are still vibrant and producing flowers.  

Am happy to report that I  have had a few raspberries from my ravaged plants and am pleased to say that although the were near annihilated by the deer they did continue to grow and produced flowers on their baldy stems. That’s a good sign that they will not only survive into next years season but may even thrive! 

Ok so they are not the biggest rasps I have ever seen but a small beginning  . . . . . . .

I have now almost lifted all my potatoes from the raised bed that I had made. Given that I did not ‘earth up’ as they grew, I feel I got a fair amount of return from what I put in.

Mortley Crew of potatoes . . . . .

Scrubbed Up.

You can’t really see on this picture but once scrubbed up I noticed that the larger potatoes all had somewhere on them a hole or two. Once I started to peel them the devastation that lay inside became apparent. This horrible slug like bug had burrowed into just about every one of my potatoes and eaten it from the inside out  . . . . . . . am not sure what the bug is but it was not eel worms as a friend suggested because it was more slug like than worm like. I would have taken a picture of the said mini beast but i hate slugs and could not face getting close up and personal with it! This has never happened to me before and I have always had a good result from growing tatties, I thought they were bullet proof . . . . . . . . . . .

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