Saturday 31 May 2014

Aspirin and Blight and planting out!

Rumours are rife about a 'possible tonic/cure" for blight on tomatoes and potato plants. Recommended to be sprayed on 2 -3 times a month, especially in this current batch of heavy rain and humid temperatures we are experiencing.

Have a read here and see what you think. I have just bought some and will give it a try, a 47% reduction is better than none! Mind you, I will have to write that amount on the box of aspirin otherwise I'll forget. My sprayer only takes 1 litre of water, my aspirin is 300mg so I'll try 1/4 to 1/2 a tablet in it.

On a slightly different note, I needed to plant out my few bean plants (Runner and French) and hadn't got any plastic bottles to protect them from the slugs. I 'invested' in 2 x 2l bottles of cheap, value lemonade (18p each), disposed of it (can't stand the stuff), and rinsed the bottles well.

The top was cut off, plus the bottom, then what was left, cut in half. That gave me 4 plant protectors so hopefully they will help keep the slugs and snails from nipping my plants at base stem level. I also used safe for organic use slug pellets just inside the bottles, that way, the birds shouldn't be able to get to them (just in case!).

If you need a mini greenhouse per plant, just cut the bottom off and that gives you a tall cloche (minus the cap) that you can remove if the plant gets too leggy or outgrows it.

In the back garden, we have been busy moving the door of the fruit cage, from left side to the middle. This gives us more growing space and at the end of the year, 2 area's of Autumn Raspberries will be moved from between the Blueberries to this new area (obviously by then, all the rubbish will have gone:

So much better, I don't know why we didn't do it in the first place.

12 comments:

  1. We are always shifting things that we thought were right.

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    1. Happens all the time doesn't it? You would think we would all learn:)

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  2. I love your brick paths, we've just acquired some bricks so I may be building paths now x

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    1. Thank you. Bricks do make nice patterns when you use them as paths, ours however are paving slabs. We bought them years ago, originally as a mowing edge cum path. They have been moved around the garden many times. If we have a gap, then we use matching bricks.

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  3. Well popping an aspirin in your flower water is an old trick so I guess it has had horticultural uses for some time, and as the article mentions, willow water is an old old remedy. Worth a try I'd have thought - I shall mention it to the other half - though he probably has read this for himself as he picked up the paper on his way to Nottingham today. I, too, love your brick paths, gravel, and raised beds - no getting up to your wellies-ankles in mud whilst picking the runner beans, eh?

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    1. Hadn't thought about that. I don't have any willow hence the disprin! I must admit, it is nice to harvest without getting too wet.

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  4. I'm trying the blight prevention thingy too. We can compare notes later on in the season. I'm doing some with Aspirin and some with willow water.
    Gill

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    1. Sprayed all mine for the first time yesterday. I think I shall do them every 10 days or so.

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  5. Think I have missed the boat on the tomatoes this year. I have been looking for some tumbler ones to go in a hanging basket as I did last year but there are none to be had.

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    1. Car boot and craft fairs still seem to have tomatoes for sale.

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  6. We're always shifting/ changing things to make them work better for us. I think sometimes it's only when we've lived with something for a while that we can see a better way of doing it. I will mention the blight remedy to J.

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    1. That is so true. I have no idea if the Aspirin will work but they have had their first spray yesterday and I have written it on the calendar every 10 days to remind me!

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