What Jobs Are We Doing In The Garden Today 2020

I don't buy them but I do transplant them. The runner beans and Dahlias were the very badly hit by blackfly and I started off by squishing the eggs/grubs that were under the leaves and rubbing off the aphids from the stems. Then I patrolled the garden and collected ladybirds and put them on the beans. There were lots of ladybirds on the raspberries and as the distance between them and the beans was so much (raspberries in the front of the front garden and beans at the back of the back garden) I put them in a pot with a lid.

For about another week I did squishing patrol but then the ladybirds seemed to understand what their job was supposed to be. I now have a problem when picking the beans as I have to be careful not to step on the ladybirds that seem to enjoy wandering around the black membrane that covers the veg plot. There are still some blackfly on the beans but not enough to do damage.

I've started putting some ladybirds on the area where we have the French beans, which are a couple of weeks behind the runners. I also put them in the chillies and tomatoes in the greenhouse. No greenfly left in there now.

 

Seems a fair exchange.

Of course, you would need an up to date Shineyland Visa but we have no quarantine, so that's good. You can apply for the two year Visa for £10 and that gains you free entry to the annual Open Day (including free lunchtime sandwiches).

 

Similar to Nigel but I don't do anything with the compost heaps . I also trimmed the edges of some of the lawns and, in the evening mowed the front lawns.

My mower was returned to me at 5.30 after being in hospital for a transplant. I bought it new earlier in the year and it was delivered on April 1st . After using it for the second time I noticed a small amount of oil leaking onto the nice shiny new bed of the mower. Having phoned the supplier (a large farm machinery supplier, now in lockdown!) they diagnosed that a gasket was leaking and after a lot of questions said it was safe to use, until they collected it, as long as I kept the oil topped up. Just over three weeks ago they started up their workshop again but their delivery driver was off sick .

Last week they picked it up saying it should only take a couple of hours to replace the gasket and they should be able to drop it back to me within a couple of days. No such luck! They phoned and said there was a bit more wrong with it and it wasn't worth the hours of their time fixing it when a new engine would be much less labour (it's all under warranty so the new engine wouldn't cost them anything). The suppliers are only four miles down the road from me and the manufacturer is only two miles in the other direction.

I now have the mower, two handbooks (that I never look at ) and am keeping an eye out for any oil leaks. I asked the delivery man what had been wrong with it and his answer was "Don't know, I only work on combine harvesters and I'm dropping this off on my way home". The faulty engine kicked out a bit of smoke each time I started it, but only when I started it, and this one doesn't. I shall start mowing the back lawns when the neighbours are up.

 

I like peaches. Can you send me one through the transporter room, please?