Thursday 23 August 2012

Pests and painting...


Welcome to my new follower Poppy.

I am the only one of us who likes members of the cabbage family. One thing I like in particular, is purple sprouting broccoli. This spring, I sowed a mere 3 seeds and they all came up. I have nurtured them, fed and potted them on. A few weeks ago, one drooped alarmingly and decided to die. Cabbage root fly I thought. Treated the other two with organic pest control then inspected the dead one. Nothing to see, no maggots but a few holes in the leaves no doubt from leaf beetle.

The other two carried on growing well. I kept them in the fruit cage to keep the cabbage white butterflies off them (annoying to know the baby ones can get through!).

In the hot weather they too drooped, thought at first it was the weather so kept them in the shade and well watered. Now they are dying. Tipped one out of its pot to inspect for root fly maggots, again none, but very little root was to be seen. The other one is the same. So next spring, no broccoli for me. How annoying.

My beetroot are still tiny so I don't think anything will be available from them. Guess I will have to buy some in to make my lovely beetroot soup for winter. 

Has anyone any idea on what this plant could be? It arrived in the cracks of my patio, we initially thought is may be a courgette or pumpkin so potted it up. Could be a weed of course. Not willing to throw it away in case it is a flower of some kind. It has silver striations on its leaves.


Furniture in the lounge has been moved to one side in preparation for decorating – what a pain that is – just how much stuff does one accumulate in life. We have decided to get rid of more things, especially stuff in the china cabinet. The older we get the more we think - what is the point? One or two things hold sentimental value, the rest are things we have been given or have taken a fancy too. In all honesty though, we rarely look at them so time to go methinks.

Off for our walk this morning, just the 3 of us for the foreseeable future.

5 comments:

  1. Annoying about your broccoli and beetroot. Our courgettes have been a spectacular failure this year - mainly because of slugs- so there'll be no courgette soup for us over the winter. Your mystery plant does look like some kind of squash, but I've no idea what sort. Ah yes,'stuff'. We've been up in the attic and the amount of ' stuff' is scary. No thrifting for me for a very long time! Enjoy your walk.

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  2. Can't help with why your PSB died but can offer my sympathies :(. Also havent got a clue what the plant is, but it is pretty and a weed is only a plant in the wrong place!!!! Xxx

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  3. It is annoying isn't it when things die with no reason you can see. Maybe someone in your area Scarlet will have some to give away or sell cheaply.

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  4. I have no idea what your plant is but I would have to agree with Scarlet in that it looks like a courgette/squash type plant. I dont think it is a weed. I have had a few very tiny courgettes off our couple of plants but they are a bit disappointing. We're not big fans of cabbages etc but do like broccoli.No success there on that score last year they bolted! Havent bothered this year!

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  5. Such a pity with the broccoli plants. I have never grown broccoli, so I have no idea what could be wrong.

    The mystery plant certainly looks like courgette or pumpkin, but I couldn't be sure. You should keep it to see whether it will grow flowers eventually.

    Hope your walk today was good :)

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