Snowed in still

 

 

Well not snowed in as such, but not able to get in the garden so I thought I might let you know a bit more about the garden and Rosie.

Rosie in the rhubarb!

Somehow, Rosie always manages to find a great spot, summer is her favourite time in the garden with lots of hiding places. 

 

This was in 2011, the rhubarb was replaced in 2012 with raspberry red variety, the old rhubarb was quite tough and old so that was removed, but the three  new crowns I planted failed,  thankfully they were replaced by Pomona fruits.  To prevent a failure again I have on advice planted the crowns in pots and kept them in the  greenhouse, and will replant when the weather warms up.  Soil preparation, manure and mulch will be key to giving them a good start.  With the current snow and cold weather I think I have done the right thing.

2012 was such a difficult year for growing, low lightlevels, rain and cold in the main growing season made gardening hard work.  Early crops were great such as our broad beans, but I stuggled with all my greenhouse crops and things like sweetcorn were a disaster.  Later in the year courgettes did improve but didn't fruit as much as I hoped.

SLUGS - 2012 was the year of the slug, I went out most nights picking them off, beer traps worked, so did traps of water and yeast - this proved quite smelly. The problem of emptying traps is then what to do with the waste - I composted it!  I hate killing things in the garden, but the lack of bird life in our area impacts on the slug population.  The lack of garden birds is related to our position - we are quite high up, we have a lot of gulls and jackdaws in our area, unfortunatley there are a number of cats who roam and will predate .  Our area is quite devoid of trees and cover so all these factors must have reduced the amount of birds we get or birds that can survive.  

We do aim to try and alleviate this, we keep Rosie in at night - a key time for cats to hunt - well at dusk and dawn especially.  We have tried so many times with a collar - she loses them, quick release one never stays on - we have thought about other things such as a cat enclosure for the garden - but I think in 2013 I want to make the garden secure so Rosie can't wander onto the front - she has been on the road and I dread her going further afield, she has been in a few scrapes and one possible minor bump with a car. This will be challenging as the garden is surrounded by a hedge and has lots of holes  - which foxes, cats and hedgehogs use!  More of the cat wars later in this blog. 

 

Anyway we do try and ensure that our garden attracts all sorts of bugs and other wildlife, so hopefully we can then encourage more birds as a result - without Rosie stalking them as much as possible.