Plastic forks please... put the stainless steel away!
Apparently Bob Flowedew, the seasoned presenter on BBC
Gardeners’ Question Time seems to think that it’s really difficult to grow
parsley from seed. Although I bow down to his years of horticultural experience
and wisdom, I must say in this particular case, I have to disagree. I grow parsley every year from seed and have
never had an issue with them germinating. I do think you need fresh seeds
annually but I have even grown ones that I found stuffed away in the corner of
a drawer with a “use by” date of 2009. Maybe it’s my unflinching self-confidence
when I scatter the seeds, the fact that I might unwittingly give them just the
right amount of light, heat, and soil for them to thrive. It’s nothing I do any differently to other
seeds, some of which I do find really difficult to propagate I might add before
you think that I am sitting here blowing my own trumpet so loudly I can be
heard in Dublin. Sweetcorn, how on earth do people grow sweetcorn from seed?
Now there’s a difficult one to germinate.
Pulling them up
I’ve been pulling up the broccoli and kale this week. These
plants have been in the ground for so long that I had to under plant them with
this year’s crops of peas and beans. (I’m trying to do a bit of crop rotation)
I might have to just chop off the plants at ground level so I don’t disturb the
roots of the new plants that are coming up. It’s the challenges of growing
vegetables in a garden with limited space, there always something needs pulling
out to make room for a new crop. The spinach has started to go to seed too so
it won’t be long before that’s pulled up. It’s seems a waste as there is so
much greenery but as the leaves start to get pointy and the stems elongate, the
plants starts go get a bitter taste and it’s not very palatable. It does rot down well in the compost bin so
all is not lost.
Cats
Someone asked a question this week about how to keep cats
off their garden. They are digging up
the flower beds and new veggie seedlings, which is bad enough, but it’s their
“deposits” that can be the worst thing, especially if you aren’t wearing
gloves.
We have come up with solutions before about keeping the
pests off the soil and a lot of the ideas were great. A blast from the hosepipe or a spray bottle
sometimes works or planting herbs like lavender, geranium, absinthe, and
lemon-thyme might help. There are loads
of ideas that we didn’t mention. Some of them sound a bit drastic, so if you
are a cat lover, please look away now.
Cats Be Gone
Pine cones scattered around the soil. The cats don’t like
the feel of them when they scratch
Netting. Put fine netting onto the plants to keep the cats
off the beds all together.
Citrus skins from oranges and lemons might make them think
twice.
Sprinkle cayenne pepper. This has very mixed feelings. As
the cats lick their paws they get a hot sensation. The pepper doesn’t harm the
plants but it might make your cat a bit crazy. Best avoided I think.
Plastic take away
forks. This idea is growing in
popularity. Put the forks in the ground point end up into the soil.
Lay boards down until the seedlings have grown in the soil,
this eliminates their toilet space.
Plant the cat his own garden. Cat mint, cat nip and cat
grass. It will go to that and leave everything else alone. (I think the cat
will just play in it and then go to another place to use the loo)
Tape strips around the borders, sticky side up. Anywhere you
don't want cats touching. They can't stand the feel of anything sticky and will
remember where they got tape stuck to their paws. They are able to remove the
tape by tugging at it a while so there is no harm to the cat other than the
temporary issue of having to work at getting the tape off their paws
Buy the plastic mats
that go under desks, they have small spikes underneath. Cut them any way you
want and put in the garden, cats won't step on the spikes.
Old coffee grounds sprinkled over beds should keep them off.
As you can see (If you are still reading and haven’t looked
away) that there are a lot of things you can do to keep cats from ruining your
garden. As the problem persists we come
up with more and more innovative solutions. I still like the story my friend
told of putting one on a train to Scotland (from Nottingham) so it “could have
a holiday”
