Wednesday 24 October 2018

New Season Out of the Sun

Winter's a Coming

Wild cyclamens
Clumps of pink cyclamens decorate the sides of the roads



25 Snails

A friend told me recently that ash from the fireplace keeps away snails.  What a load of codswallop.  Our garden gets liberal dosings of wood ash every winter.  This winter we have an infestation of snails, along with the usual oxalis/clover/sorrel.  I uprooted the basil in this pot and there were 25 snails hidng inside.  Everywhere, EVERYWHERE, there are hordes of snails. We won't go hungry this winter, if I could be bothered collecting them.  I don't kill them, just throw them over the fence.  Never into Vaso's land I might add




The back garden has been cleared, dug deep and planted so far with lettuces, onions and rocket


More lettuces in the front garden
These are in a planter made out of half an old plastic wine barrel.  I planted them this way thinking maybe I could halt the tide of weeds.  We shall see.  More lettuces are in the garden next to it and already the oxlalis is popping up all over the place although I weed almost every day.



Styling
The old wheelbarrow is still useable but rarely necessary in such a small area. I stuck a pot of oregano in there. It really needs a pot of flowers which tumble over the sides. Flowers are a bit of a rarity at this time of the year. 



My new compost bin
These old tyres were another idea to separate the plants from the clover. The clover took over.
I'll fill it with compost waste till spring and then turn it into a big pot for a couple of tomatoes or peppers


10 comments:

  1. You hardly have Winter!!!!! What with all that continuing growing, and planting things. :-)))

    Hmmmmm, what does a snail infestation "mean"? Does Vaso have some local lore, to explain?

    ✨😊👻🎃✨

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    1. Winter is not so cold usually and lettuces, cabbages, spinach and other green plants do well. The front garden is better in summer. In the winter the oxalis just chokes everything no matter how much you weed. Thank goodness it dries up completely in the summer.
      The snails are in every corner, under every leaf, in their dozens inside pots. Ive never seen so many. Last year we hardly had any. I must ask Vaso what she does. I can guess she spends hours in her garden collecting snails and crushing them

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  2. Let me assure you that there is only ONE way of killing Slugs and Snails; and that is with pellets. I buy 'Wildlife Friendly' pellets, and it does the job perfectly. I wish I could find a cure for Oxalis... I have the same problem!

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    1. I will look in our garden shop and see what they have for snails. Some years ago I had an excellent 'repellant', snall children who were paid 10 cents a snail. They collected bags of them but now they're a bit too old for that. 10 cents makes no sense!
      As for the oxalis... it is not oxalis because it doesn't have those pink bulbs you all talk about but it is something very similar. Looks like four leaf clover and I've seen it called sorrel somewhere and that you can eat it. I suggested to traditional person that we should use it in salads. He was not amused

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  3. In both hemispheres everyone is getting their planting done ready for winter/summer. How cold does it get there?

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    1. Our weather at the moment must be similar. It usually doesn't get much below 10c but two years ago we had snow, Sometimes it rains a lot sometimes it doesn't. Too cold for tomatoes but perfect for caggabes and spinach. The only flowers that do well are the geraniums and roses although the roses will be cut right back in Feburary

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  4. Between the weather raining all the time, doing things inside and animals having to go to vets. Oh and me having to rush into the ER in the middle of the night. My garden hasn’t been touched.
    I’m itching to get into it

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    1. Your ER visit would have got me panicking too! Thank goodness you get relief qucikly once you're there.
      The garden will be fine if you've had rain. Bet everything is growing like mad in your spring weather.
      We had a little rain yesterday, thankfully not heavy so it didnt up end the newly planted lettuces but we do need more

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  5. I planted a lemon tree today, hoping this little one will grow fast.

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    1. Ftoo ftoo ftoo...that should keep the evil eye off it lol. It should do really well in your climate.

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