GIP

Thanks to the_major, I now have an allotment icon.  Let's see if we can grow stuff that looks as good as the picture....

Rhubarb as a pesticide

I've heard that you can boil up shredded rhubarb leaves and use the resulting liquid as a pesticide.   Has anyone here tried it?  Are there any problems?  Is it dangerous to people?

I'll sleep well tonight...

Spread manure around the raspberries in the garden.  I have several books, all of which cheerfully disagree as to when raspberries should be manured, and even whether they should be manured at all.  However, even the one that is dubious as to whether they should be manured says that it is all right if the soil is in poor condition, and the soil close to the fence in the back garden is the poorest of the lot.

None of the books are in use at all in trying to work out how much manure to apply.  So, I guessed.  There's probably an inch depth over most of the raspberries, apart from close to the stems.  All the books agree that you should not have manure or compost close to the canes.

I also manured the blackcurrant, but not the gooseberry.  Apparently, if you feed a gooseberry too much, then it leads to soft stems and leaves which are even more attractive to aphids.  (Aphids are a real problem with gooseberries at this time of year)

Later on, we went down to the allotment and I manured the raspberries there (sorry specimens, that they are) while Richard dug in manure in the area where we expect to be planting sweetcorn beans and squashes.

We've now run out of manure; so it will be back down to the riding stables in a couple of days.

Shaun the sheep

 Shaun the sheep is back.  Sundays on BBC1.  It's absolutely brilliant, don't miss it.